Waterbury, Conn.
The training room of the Scovill Manufacturing Company started April
1, 1918.
We train beginners on hand screw machines and engine lathes on plain
turning. The training for experienced workers is to teach toolsetters
with some experience to be experts along special lines and otherwise
developed in their work. Also workmen with some general experience
in machine room work are taught to run engine lathes. Further
developments in general machine room work is to be taken up later.
Our best instructors are picked from those engaged in actual
production or from promising pupils in the training school.
Skill, patience and teaching ability are the requirements of the
teachers.
The best trainees are those recruited from other lines of work in the
factory, especially at this time, and those impelled with the real
sense of duty. Requirements: Average strength, intelligence and a
desire to learn.
The steady type is preferable to the more brilliant operator who
lacks staying qualities. The operators are trained in the class
of work they are expected to follow, and this training is valued
in proportion as it increases production from the first in the
production rooms, and enables the operator to face actual working
conditions without hesitancy and without fear of handling the
machines.
The total cost of installation for our school to date has been
approximately $2,000. With us, the cost of training (being the amount
paid operatives above their earnings while in the training room) is
approximately as follows:
Engine lathe workers $34 average.
Toolsetters $25 average.
Female screw machine operators $10 average.
The average number of female operators in the school is nine and
their average length of time for training is eight days.
The male operators, both engine lathe workers and toolsetters,
require from three to six weeks’ training before they are sent out to
the production rooms.
For tool room purposes we have not taken up the training of women
and have only taken up the training of men along the lines of simple
punch turning and straight work. We find that the men we instruct in
this line of work are very interested and stick closer to the job
than the average apprentice in the tool room.
(Signed) WM. COLINA.