The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-27

i Lithuanian and Italian parents who come | to this country as children, or are born Lere, and have had at least little train ing in the public schools, make excellent students when enrolled with us. as they are very ambitious The H. c. Prick Coke company for instance, have several Slav- ish mine foren.en who are very prof4ient and more of the same nationality are lit ting themselves for higher positions. | Should there be any further information which I can give you in this matter l shall be very glad to have you write me !" l Schools for the technical education of | err ployes are being started by a number
 of the big corporations of the United | States The H. c. Prick Coke company | having made success of their Lelsewr- ing school, based on L C. s. methods, is preparing to open several more this fall .. in the coke regions.
 The Ensley Tech That a school for employees of the Ten- nessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company has been in operation right here at Ems | ley for an entire year will be news to a great many people in Birmingham. While there are handioaps and many difficulties | in the way, the little "Ensley Tech has indeed It's points. Now, here is a school in it's first stages I-just one year old this coming October
 absolutely new thing in the Birmingham district It was started by the Tennessee | company in October of 1910. It comprises four distinct departments in chemistry. | engineering and mechanical drawing, In I charge of competent instructors. them | selves technical graduates and employees | of the Tennessee company. The school l as whole is under the supervision of c.
 J. Barr, general superintendent of the Ensley Steel works, who, by the way, is | a Cornell man.
 Being just in it's A, B, stages the school has ot yet any building of it's own A little old ex-Presbyteran church within gunshot distance of the | steel plant has been leased for the night sessions, and fitted up for the little Tech The company purchased all the necessary outfit and, offering good sal | any to the teachers, got hold of some l first rate instructors and started the ball | rolling. The school is free.
 Counting the students enrolled from l both the Tennessee company and the | Semet-Solvay plants, the total number ! last fall Was 213. That Is not bad figure l for a beginning, and it will probably be much larger this fall.
 All Sorts and Conditions The students range in age from 12 to nearly 50 years, and are of many na- tionalities-I Italian SIav, Bulgarian, Ger | man, Jew, Russian, Mexican-all sorts land kinds.
 | I0lS In 1tSel1 makes II necessary to have individual rather than class instruc- | tion. One of the 15 or Is features of the new plan, now under consideration. is for the instructors to prepare a series of 20-lesson papers on every trade in- volved at the Ensley works. and to so de- velop the subject treated that it can be ! studied at home. and only one or two hours week will be given to consulta- ton at the school
 Specific Details
 The working out of the whole general plan is maintained last year has a par ticuar interest to the Birmingham com panes. The various departments were under the instruction of the following men: F. c. Kelly instructor elementary chemistry; F. G. Cutler, instructor steam engineering; G. H. Lee. elementary me chanical drawing: l.. H. White, advanced mechanical drawing.
 In the class in chemistry instruction vas given in particularly the more com- mon metals and supplemented by instruc- tion in the compositions of gases. coals, ores, stone or brick. On the whole, in terest and progress in this class was good" states MT. Kelly. "and number of the students have expressed de- sire to take advanced course during the coming year" The main object of this class. which was to give a certain basic ground upon which the student could build by home study in whatever special branch he was interested. appears to have been accomplished Their in- structor recommends the further use of the technical books at the Ensley Public library. and suggests that more desk room be provided in the school that in- dividual experiments may be made. In the department of steanr engineering about 19 or 20 lectures were given by MT. Cutler. covering such subjects as had i'm | mo at nni at ba One text book only was used, and that not especially technical.
 Practical Application
 Simply the principals of the properties and actions of steam and gas in engines and turbines were presented in clear and simple way, and in the dis cussion of each chapter the principals in volved were illustrated by reference to the steel works. The discussion always in volved points and questions brought up by the class and, in its direct practical application took on perhaps more the as- pect of the vocational rather than the technical form of education. which is one of the points most emphasized by Presi- dent Crawford.
 Tn the course of elementary mechanical drawing, the Instructor MT. Lee, found
 1t necessary to start with the first prn- ciples of drawing. drawing room stand ards and connections. small details of machine parts. etc. Enough actual draw ing was combined to lift the course from the theoretical level
 Under the conditions MT. Lee says, '..the work of the students was very cred itabe. A number of the men placed on night shifts took their work at home and others prevented from attending class, through sickness in their families or other cause also did drawing at home from Instructions and blueprints furnished by the school"
 The largest number of applicants for any. one class--1O0 in all-applied. at the orga ganization of the school. to enter this class of mechanical drawing. For that reason 1t was divided into the eemen- tary and advanced courses.
 County School Work
 As for the public schools at the camp while it cannot be said that every coal and iron company in the Birmin gham district co-operates with their. interests as they should. there are a number of the compa nies here who do, in a quiet way. great deal towards encouraging and maintaining county schools. For in- stance. the Pratt Consolidated Coal com- pany has built. outright a total of 27 school houses at their mining camps. for both white and colored. The selection and salary of teachers devotes largely upon officials of this company. They supple n ent the county funds for educational purposes right down the line. "One thing about their schools" an old Jefferson county citizen marked ''they are not put up haphazard and stuck up with lot of old benches. They have desks and seats, are modernly equipped and compared to good many of the regular county schools they are better