The Economy of Workshop Manipulation. John Richards
the amount of time, effort, and unpaid labour that has been devoted to its acquirement. This value is sometimes modified by the exclusiveness of some branch that has been made the object of special study. Exclusiveness is, however, becoming exceptional, as the secrets of manufacture and special knowledge are supplanted by the application of general principles; it is a kind of artificial protection thrown around certain branches of industry, and must soon disappear, as unjust to the public and unnecessary to success.
In business arrangements, technical knowledge and professional experience become capital, and offset money or property, not under any general rule, nor even as a consideration of which the law can define the value or prescribe conditions for. The estimate placed upon technical knowledge when rated as capital in the organisation of business firms, and wherever it becomes necessary to give such knowledge a commercial value, furnishes the best and almost the only source from which an apprentice can form an opinion of the money value of what he is to acquire during his apprenticeship.
An apprentice at first generally forms an exaggerated estimate of what he has to learn; it presents to his mind not only a great undertaking, but a kind of mystery, which he fears that he may not be able to master. The next stage is when he has made some progress, and begins to underrate the task before him, and imagine that the main difficulties are past, that he has already mastered all the leading principles of mechanics, which is, after all, but a "small matter." In a third stage an apprentice experiences a return of his first impressions as to the difficulties of his undertaking; he begins to see his calling as one that must involve endless detail, comprehending things which can only be studied in connection with personal experience; he sees "the horizon widen as it recedes," that he has hardly begun the task, instead of having completed it—even despairs of its final accomplishment.
In the workshop, mechanical knowledge of some kind is continually and often insensibly acquired by a learner, who observes the operations that are going on around him; he is continually availing himself of the experience of those more advanced, and learns by association the rules and customs of the shop, of the business, and of discipline and management. He gathers the technical terms of the fitting-shop, the forge and foundry; notes the operations of planing, turning, drilling, and boring, with the names and application of the machines directed to these operations. He sees the various plans of lifting and moving material, the arrangement and relation of the several departments to facilitate the course of the work in process; he also learns where the product of the works is sold, discusses the merits and adaptation of what is constructed, which leads to considering the wants that create a demand for this product, and the extent and nature of the market in which it is sold.
All these things constitute technical knowledge, and the privilege of their acquirement is an element of value. The common view taken of the matter, however, is that it costs nothing for a master to afford these privileges—the work must at any rate be carried on, and is not retarded by being watched and learned by apprentices. Viewed from any point, the privileges of engineering establishments have to be considered as an element of value, to be bought at a price, just as a ton of iron or a certain amount of labour is; and in a commercial sense, as an exchangeable equivalent for labour, material, or money. In return a master receives the unskilled labour or service of the learner; this service is presumed to be given at a reduced rate, or sometimes without compensation, for the privileges of the works and the instruction received.
In forming an estimate of the value of his services, an apprentice sees what his hands have performed, compares it with what a skilled man will do, and estimates accordingly, assuming that his earnings are in proportion to what has been done; but this is a mistake, and a very different standard must be assumed to arrive at the true value of such unskilled labour.
Apprentice labour, as distinguished from skilled labour, has to be charged with the extra attention in management, the loss that is always occasioned by a forced classification of the work, the influence in lowering both the quality and the amount of work performed by skilled men, the risk of detention by failure or accident, and loss of material; besides, apprentices must be charged with the same, if not a greater expense than skilled workmen, for light, room, oil, tools, and office service. Attempts have been made in some of the best-regulated engineering establishments to fix some constant estimate upon apprentice labour, but, so far as known, without definite results in any case. If not combined with skilled labour, it would be comparatively easy to determine the value of apprentice labour; but when it comes up as an item in the aggregate of labour charged to a machine or some special work constructed, it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate skilled from unskilled service.
Another condition of apprenticeship that is equally as difficult to define as the commercial value of mechanical knowledge, or that of apprentice labour, is the extent and nature of the facilities that different establishments afford for learners.
In speaking of the mechanical knowledge to be gained, and of the privileges afforded for learners in engineering-works in a general way, it must, of course, be assumed that such works afford full facilities for learning some branch of work by the best practice and in the most thorough manner. Such establishments are, however, graded from the highest class, on the best branches of work, where a premium would be equitable, down to the lowest class, performing only inferior branches of work, where there can be little if any advantage gained by serving an apprenticeship.
Besides this want or difference of facilities which establishments may afford, there is the farther distinction to be made between an engineering establishment and one that is directed to the manufacture of staple articles. This distinction between engineering-works and manufacturing is quite plain to engineers themselves, but in many cases is not so to those who are to enter as apprentices, nor to their friends who advise them. In every case where engagements are made there should be the fullest possible investigation as to the character of the works, not only to protect the learner, but to guard regular engineering establishments in the advantages to be gained by apprentice labour. A machinist or a manufacturer who employs only the muscular strength and the ordinary faculties of workmen in his operations, can afford to pay an apprentice from the beginning a fair share of his earnings; but an engineering-work that projects original plans, generates designs, and assumes risks based upon skill and special knowledge, is very different from a manufactory. To manufacture is to carry on regular processes for converting material; such processes being constantly the same, or approximately so, and such as do not demand much mechanical knowledge on the part of workmen.
The name of having been an apprentice to a famous firm may sometimes have an influence in enabling an engineer to form advantageous commercial connections, but generally an apprenticeship is of value only as it has furnished substantial knowledge and skill; for every one must sooner or later come down to the solid basis of their actual abilities and acquirements. The engineering interest is by far too practical to recognise a shadow instead of true substance, and there is but little chance of deception in a calling which deals mainly with facts, figures, and positive demonstration.
It is best, when an apprentice thinks of entering an engineering establishment, to inquire of its character from disinterested persons who are qualified to judge of the facilities it affords. As a rule, every machine-shop proprietor imagines his own establishment to combine all the elements of an engineering business—and the fewer the facilities for learners, usually the more extravagant this estimate; so that opinions in the matter, to be relied upon, should come from disinterested sources.
In regard to premiums, it is a matter to be determined by the facilities that a work may afford for teaching apprentices. To include experience in all the departments of an engineering establishment, within a reasonable term, none but those of unusual ability can make their services of sufficient value to offset what they receive; and there is no doubt but that premium engagements, when the amount of the premium is based upon the facilities afforded for learning, are fair and equitable.
There is, however, this to be remembered, that the considerations which more especially balance premiums—such as a term at draughting, designing, and office service—may be mainly acquired by self-effort, while the practical knowledge of moulding, forging, and fitting cannot; and an apprentice who has good natural capacity, may, if industrious, by the aid of books and such opportunities as usually exist, qualify himself very well without including