The Economy of Workshop Manipulation. John Richards
prevent the use of constants in machine construction?—(4.) Is mechanical engineering likely to become more exact and scientific?—(5.) Name some of the principal branches of mechanical engineering.—(6.) Which is the most extensive and important?
CHAPTER III.
ENGINEERING AS A CALLING.
It may in the abstract be claimed that the dignity of any pursuit is or should be as the amount of good it confers, and the influence it exerts for the improvement of mankind. The social rank of those engaged in the various avocations of life has, in different countries and in different ages, been defined by various standards. Physical strength and courage, hereditary privilege, and other things that once recommended men for preferment, have in most countries passed away or are regarded as matters of but little importance, and the whole civilised world have agreed upon one common standard, that knowledge and its proper use shall be the highest and most honourable attainment to which people may aspire.
It may be useless or even wrong to institute invidious comparisons between different callings which are all useful and necessary, and the matter is not introduced here with any view of exalting the engineering profession; it is for some reasons regretted that the subject is alluded to at all, but there is too much to be gained by an apprentice having a pride and love for his calling to pass over the matter of its dignity as a pursuit without calling attention to it. The gauntlet has been thrown down and comparison provoked by the unfair and unreasonable place that the politician, the metaphysician, and the moral philosopher have in the past assigned to the sciences and constructive arts. Poetry, metaphysics, mythology, war, and superstition have in their time engrossed the literature of the world, and formed the subject of what was alone considered education.
In a half century past all has changed; the application of the sciences, the utilisation of natural forces, manufacturing, the transportation of material, the preparation and diffusion of printed matter, and other great matters of human interest, have come to shape our laws, control commerce, establish new relations between people and countries—in short, has revolutionised the world. So rapid has been this change that it has outrun the powers of conception, and people waken as from a dream to find themselves governed by a new master.
Considering material progress as consisting primarily in the demonstration of scientific truths, and secondly, in their application to useful purposes, we can see the position of the engineer as an agent in this great work of reconstruction now going on around us. The position is a proud one, but not to be attained except at the expense of great effort, and a denial of everything that may interfere with the acquirement of knowledge during apprenticeship and the study which must follow.
The mechanical engineer deals mainly with the natural forces, and their application to the conversion of material and transport. His calling involves arduous duties; he is brought in contact with what is rough and repulsive, as well as what is scientific and refined. He must include grease, dirt, manual labour, undesirable associations, and danger with apprenticeship, or else be content to remain without thoroughly understanding his profession.
(1.) What should determine the social rank of industrial callings?—(2.) Why have the physical sciences and mechanic arts achieved so honourable a position?—(3.) How may the general object of the engineering arts be described?—(4.) What is the difference between science and art as the terms are generally employed in connection with practical industry?
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONDITIONS OF APPRENTICESHIP.
Were it not that moral influences in learning mechanics, as in all other kinds of education, lie at the bottom of the whole matter, the subject of this chapter would not have been introduced. But it is the purpose, so far as possible, to notice everything that concerns an apprentice and learner, and especially what he has to deal with at the outset; hence some remarks upon the nature of apprentice engagements will not be out of place. To acquire information or knowledge of any kind successfully and permanently, it must be a work of free volition, as well as from a sense of duty or expediency; and whatever tends to create love and respect for a pursuit or calling, becomes one of the strongest incentives for its acquirement, and the interest taken by an apprentice in his business is for this reason greatly influenced by the opinions that he may hold concerning the nature of his engagement.
The subject of apprentice engagements seems in the abstract to be only a commercial one, partaking of the nature of ordinary contracts, and, no doubt, can be so construed so far as being an exchange of "considerations," but no farther. Its intricacy is established by the fact that all countries where skilled labour exists have attempted legislation to regulate apprenticeship, and to define the terms and conditions between master and apprentice; but, aside from preventing the abuse of powers delegated to masters, and in some cases forcing a nominal fulfilment of conditions defined in contracts, such legislation, like that intended to control commerce and trade, or the opinions of men, has failed to attain the objects for which it was intended.
This failure of laws to regulate apprenticeship, which facts fully warrant us in assuming, is due in a large degree to the impossibility of applying general rules to special cases; it may be attributed to the same reasons which make it useless to fix values or the conditions of exchange by legislation. What is required is that the master, the apprentice, and the public should understand the true relations between them—the value of what is given and what is received on both sides. When this is understood, the whole matter will regulate itself without any interference on the part of the law.
The subject is an intricate one, and has been so much affected by the influence of machine improvement, and a corresponding decrease in what may be called special knowledge, that rules and propositions which would fifty years ago apply to the conditions of apprenticeship, will at the present day be wrong and unjust. Viewed in a commercial sense, as an exchange of considerations or values, apprenticeship can be regarded like other engagements; yet, what an apprentice gives as well as what he receives are alike too conditional and indefinite to be estimated by ordinary standards. An apprentice exchanges unskilled or inferior labour for technical knowledge, or for the privilege and means of acquiring such knowledge. The master is presumed to impart a kind of special knowledge, collected by him at great expense and pains, in return for the gain derived from the unskilled labour of the learner. This special knowledge given by the master may be imparted in a longer or shorter time; it may be thorough and valuable, or not thorough, and almost useless. The privileges of a shop may be such as to offset a large amount of valuable labour on the part of the apprentice, or these privileges may be of such a character as to be of but little value, and teach inferior plans of performing work.
On the other hand, the amount that an apprentice may earn by his labour is governed by his natural capacity, and by the interest he may feel in advancing; also from the view he may take of the equity of his engagement, and the estimate that he places upon the privileges and instruction that he receives. In many branches of business, where the nature of the operations carried on are measurably uniform, and have not for a long time been much affected by changes and improvements, the conditions of apprenticeship are more easy to define; but mechanical engineering is the reverse of this, it lacks uniformity both as to practice and what is produced. To estimate the actual value of apprentice labour in an engineering-work is not only a very difficult matter, but to some extent impracticable even by those of long experience and skilled in such investigations; and it is not to be expected that a beginner will under such circumstances be able to understand the value of such labour: he is generally led to the conclusion that he is unfairly treated, that his services are not sufficiently paid for, and that he is not advanced rapidly enough.
With these conclusions in his mind, but little progress will be made, and hence the reason for introducing the subject here.
The commercial value of professional or technical knowledge is