… In the
same year, 1868, Victor Della-Vos introduced
into the Imperial Technical (engineering)
School at
Moscow
the Russian method of class-instruction in
the use of tools. Here the students were
eighteen years old on admission, and all
were to become government engineers. The
great value of the work of Della-Vos lay in
the discovery of the true method of
tool-instruction, for without his discovery
the later steps would have been impossible.
In 1870,
under the direction of Prof. Robinson and
Prest. J. M. Gregory of the
University of
Illinois, a
wood-working shop was added to the
appliances for the course in architecture,
and an iron-working shop to the course in
mechanical engineering in that institution.
In 1871, the Stevens Institute of Hoboken,
N. J., munificently endowed by Edwin A.
Stevens, as a school of mechanical
engineering, fitted up a series of shops for
the use of its students.
The next
step forward was taken by
Washington
University in
St. Louis in
providing for all its engineering students
systematic instruction in both wood and
metals. In 1872, a large shop in the
Polytechnic
School
was equipped with work-benches, two lathes,
a forge, a gear-cutter and full sets of
carpenters', machinists', and forging tools.
The first work undertaken, was the
construction of models for the illustration
of mechanical principles. The inability of
the students to use the tools with any
facility soon led to the introduction of
exercises for the sole purpose of
tool-instruction. Thus unconsciously we
were following in the steps of Della-Vos.
This work was so far systematized as to be
reported as follows in the University
Catalogue of 1875 : —
During the past year the students of
each class [the four polytechnic classes
being required to attend without regard
to their course of study, while the
classical students were at liberty to
attend] have worked systematically in
the shop under the direction of the
professors, assisted by a skillful
carpenter and a pattern-maker. The
general method of conducting this work
is as follows : A sketch of the piece or
task to be constructed is given a class
with all needed dimensions. Each student
then makes a careful drawing of it to
some convenient scale, with details and
exact measurements.
The
class then goes to the shop, is
furnished with the requisite materials
and tools, and each member is shown by
an expert how to execute the work. Every
piece must be reasonably perfect or it
is rejected and a new one is required.
Although the students work in the shop
no more than four hours per week, the
experience is valuable. It is not
supposed of course that skilled work can
be produced by this method, but it is
certain that such training will make
better judges of workmanship.
Thus far
had we progressed when the Philadelphia
Exposition of 1876 was opened.
None of
us knew any thing of the
Moscow school, or of the one in
Bohemia in which the
Russian method had been adopted in 1874. The
Russian exhibit at
Philadelphia
was less of a surprise to me than to many.
It showed with remarkable fullness and
logical arrangement the true educational
method of tool-instruction. It presented,
clear-cut and definite, what before had been
ill defined or unthought of. Before
referring to the great work of Prof. Runkle
in presenting the Russian method to the
American people, I will give the story of
our first series of workshops in the old "
Philibert
Mansion " on the
ground where the University gymnasium now
stands.
In the
summer of 1877, having outgrown our single
shop, we transformed an old dwelling-house
into shops, using the chambers for a
carpenter-shop, the parlors for a
machine-shop, and the basement for a
forging-shop.
The
Freshmen had benchwork in wood, the
Sophomores wood-turning, the Juniors metal
turning and fitting, and the Seniors
forging. At that time, I wrote as follows in
reference to Mr. Gottlieb Conzelman who had
given the money for fitting up those shops :
—
I
feel so sure that from this small
beginning important consequences are to
follow, that I almost envy Mr. Conzelman
the satisfaction he will certainly feel
in having contributed to its foundation.
For
three years, with no essential change of
plan, the shops were used. The instruction
was very general, and our success with the
polytechnic students and a class of thirty
boys from Smith
Academy
of preparatory
grade pointed out the way for the
MANUAL
TRAINING SCHOOL,
whose building was erected in 1879, and
which was opened in September, 1880.
