The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1909-06-17
Rose Traction Engineering School

From June Farm journal
Rose Traction Engineering School
A school where men wear overail
, and get grease on their pants-ant
. learn to do things? That is thu
school of traction engin .ering now OF
at the agricultural college.
, The old education received hare
jolt when it was suggested, a hal
century ago, that men ought to b.
taught the practical, rather than the
ornamental. The head master of Do
theboys Hall, whose advice "Spel
'winder-wi er; go and wash the
winder," is now succeeded by me1
who see in his method the real solu
ton of the question of how to reach
the largest number to their greatest
possible benefit.
But we were talking about school
where traction engineers are being
trained. Out on tho agricultural col
lege campus a couple hundred men
are at work, leaning over the throt-
ties of real live engines, feeling be-
meath them the foot-board of a ma
chine that has the power of thirty
horses, working in groups of two,
Ifiremen and engineer-short shift,
keen work, get all you can out of it
now because hundred other men are
on the field.
Piles of coal stand at the sides of
the field, water tanks are ready with
water; you must get the coal, pump
the water into the boiler, and all the
time keep out of the other fellows
way. Yonder little post set in the
ground represents the separator.
Back up to it as carefully as tho you
were attaching the couplir), pin to a
real machine, some day your practice
now may save a hand or limb, or
possibly life. The air is full of
smoke, dust, and the throbbing of the
engines. Your hands are grimy, and
sweat gathers on your face, but that
is part Of the game-is modern edu-
cation.
Over in the College gym, where a
week ago the athletes gathered and
discussed the field meet or the last
ball game thirty or forty more men
at work are studying out the mechan-
ism of the piston, the setting Of
valves, the solution of the every day
of the chemistry building, and in the
troubles of the engineer. @."+
Come with me down the walk back
open you will find forge, built in the
open; just as you may have some day
to build one would you do the work
these men are doing. Another group
of men are busy taking out and put
ting in fues, other. are babbiting
boxes, and still others are learning
how to handle the three, four, six,
ten horse power mystery we call a
gasoline engine. "-n#"s
I almost forgot! In the morning
there are lectures-such lectures as
you have paid ten dollars minute
, to hear when the expert came out and
did something with a turn Of the
wrist that you ought to have known.
. A rough staging is the lecture plat
form, and the front seats are in de-
mand by men whose hands have grip
ped levers for years. There are no
frills to the speaker. He is there to
, tell what to do and how to do it. and
he makes good. 1 dropped in this
morning to see how things were NOV
ing along, and Guinness was speaking.
+, I walked almost to the front of the
room, sat down, and after a few
minutes walked out again. Two
hundred men were present, and !
doubt if one of them knew that a
stranger entered. You will hear it
said that man gets out Of the habit
of study, and that he cannot fix his
mind on what the speaker is saying
If the thing he is studying has value
to him, and if he can see that value
he can fix his mind on it-these mer
lido!
The greatest traction engineering
school in the world is at your door
Come out and see it. Back of thai
school and the industry it represents
are uncounted millions of money
eight to ten thousand threshing ma
chimes in the state of North Dakots
alone, costing into the millions o
dollars, assure the farmers that tn,
crop he sows in faith shall be safel!
housed in the elevator before the win
ter. The school stands for persona
effort-hard work-achievement. It Il
with something Of pride that Nortl
Dakota can point to P. s. Rose, it