WELDING THEORY AND PRACTICE
Broom-making has been recently included among the industries for girls
at Tuskegee. Hundreds of brooms were being worn out every year in
sweeping the floors of more than seventy buildings; and I venture to
say that more brooms were used up for the same amount of floor space
than at almost any other institution of the kind. Wherever you may go
in the shops, or halls, you will find some one busy with a broom most
of the time. The litter in the carpenter shop or the mattress-making
room is not allowed to accumulate until the end of the day, but is
swept up so often that visitors sometimes ask me whether there is a
moment of the working day when some one is not wielding a busy broom
somewhere in the institution.
It was this reason that inspired the home manufacture of the needed
supply of brooms. It had been found possible to supply most of the
needs of the school by student labour, and after establishing a summer
canning factory, which Chaplain Penney directs while the Bible School
is not in session, making brooms seemed a natural evolution of supply
and demand. But investigation showed that none of the instructors knew
anything about making brooms, and that the Experimental Farm had not
yet taken up the task of raising broom-corn. These obstacles were not
serious in comparison with many others which had been attacked in the
industrial school.
A way was found to make the first sample broom, and gradually the
needed machinery was installed. Then the director of the Agricultural
Department discovered that broom-corn could be raised on the farm, and
now students can be equipped to take the industrial knowledge home with
them, and also to grow the crop on their own farms. This department
keeps the school supplied with good brooms at small cost, and out of
a minor need grew another useful industry. The lesson in this little
story is that finding a way to solve the problems closest at home helps
to build up the community at large. It was found, also, that the work
of the class room could be correlated even with broom-making, and made
to harmonise with the Tuskegee theory of education of head and hands
together. The girls were asked to write compositions descriptive of
their work in this industry, and some of these efforts have been very
creditable.
[Illustration: MATTRESS-MAKING
All the mattresses and pillows used at the Institute are made by the
students]
I insert one of these compositions as a sample:
"BROOM-MAKING"
"I am a nice large broom just made Tuesday by Harriet McCray. Before
I was made into a broom, I grew over in a large farm with a great
many others of my sisters. One day I was cut down and brought up to
the broom-making department, and was carefully picked to pieces to
get the best straw. I was put in a machine called the winder. Here I
was wound very tightly, and then put in another machine called the
press. I was pressed out flat and sewed tightly. Out of the press I was
carried to the clipper, and all of my seed and long ends were cut off.
From the cutter I was carried to the threshing machine and combed out
thoroughly, and put in the barrel for sale. I was sold to the school
for thirty-five cents. He will use me very roughly in doors, and when I
begin to get old, I shall be used in sweeping the yards. When I am worn
completely out, I shall be pulled to pieces to get my handle, which
will be used again to make a fresh, new broom."
Class-room work is also made a part of the training in this varied
catalogue of industries in successful operation at Tuskegee:
Agriculture, basketry, blacksmithing, bee-keeping, brick-masonry,
plastering, brick-making, carpentry, carriage trimming, cooking,
dairying, architectural, free-hand and mechanical drawing, plain
sewing, dress-making, electrical and steam engineering, founding,
harness-making, house-keeping, horticulture, canning, laundering,
machinery, mattress making, millinery, nurses' training, painting,
saw-milling, shoe-making, printing, stock-raising, tailoring, tinning,
and wheelwrighting.
It will be seen that the school is a community unto itself, in which
buildings can be erected, finished, and furnished, the table supplied
the year round, and economic independence achieved in a large measure.
But this work is for the benefit of the student, not to make the
school self-supporting. Therefore, no one side of his education must
be neglected in order that he may be for the time a more productive
labourer in his department of industry. It would be wronging both him
and the system to keep him at the work-bench all the working hours in
order that he might turn out the greatest possible number of shoes, or
window sashes, or fruit cans in a week.
[Illustration: BASKET-MAKING
Special effort is made to have the students use the natural products of
the region as material]
For example, if you should chance to visit the carpenter shop, you
would find a score of young men turning out the finished material for
some new building in process of erection, or at the lathes turning out
the interior finishings. But in a small room in one corner, having a
hard time to be heard above the din of the steam saws, is an instructor
with a class of students, who are learning to draw up contracts for
jobs in carpentry or building. They are not going out with the
expectation of always being carpenters at day wages. They should know
how to make contracts as "boss carpenters," to build houses, or repair
them, or how to hire other men to build houses for them. Therefore,
they learn to draw up specifications in both legal and practical form,
so that when the occasion arises they will know how to work with
intelligence.
Their class-room work in spelling, mathematics, grammar, and English
composition comes effectively into play. They find out that a
carpenter has small chance of getting ahead unless he can use his
head intelligently. He writes out a contract, for example, to put up
a four-room house, on a basis of three cash payments--when he takes
the job; when the roof is on; and when the house is turned over to the
owner. This contract is read aloud by the instructor, who asks the
other members of the class to criticise it. One of them points out a
flaw which would allow the owner to "crawl out" of his bargain on a
technicality. Another is pleased to discover that the arithmetic is
so faulty that the estimates of the cost of material would land the
contractor in the poor-house. Then the student begins to see that his
so-called academic teaching is as important in his calling as his skill
with the plane, the saw and the miter-box, and that he cannot hope to
become a good carpenter unless he is also a diligent scholar.
In the winter an instructor in the Agricultural Classes may teach his
students to familiarise themselves, through books, with insect pests
which infest the peach tree. They are asked to give their own ideas
of the "borer," or the "scale," but this information is not allowed
to be packed away in the attic of memory, to be forgotten like so
much useless lumber. The real examination comes in the spring, not in
written papers, but in the school orchard. The same instructor takes
the class among the peach trees, and, with branches in their hands,
they are required to identify the "borer," and apply to the trees the
remedies laid down in their books and lectures.
When a new building is to be erected, the school industries join their
activities in a common cause. The project sets in motion, first, the
wagons to be used in removing the excavated material. The young men
in the wheelwright, blacksmithing, and harness-making rooms see their
work tested, for they have made and equipped all the heavy farm wagons
needed for this hauling. Along with their daily work with the hands,
the patterns and instructions had been given them on blackboards and in
lectures. They have trained their minds, they have learned handicraft,
and the combined results are applied. Their wagons and harness are not
to be sent away or put on exhibition. They must stand the strain at
home, and if they are faulty it cannot be hidden.
[Illustration: IN THE SCHOOL'S SAWMILL]
Then come the brick-makers, turning out 20,000 bricks a day in the
school kilns. They know whether they have made good bricks when they
see them handled, and put into the walls by the student masons. In the
course for brick-masonry, there is practical demonstration the year
round. All the brick work on the buildings of the school is done by
students, under the supervision of the instructors. Plastering and
repair work, both inside and outside of the buildings, is in charge of
the Brickmasonry Division. The theory is taught in the class room, the
practical test is always close at hand. The brick-mason and plasterer
has one hundred and eighteen lessons in the fundamental principles of
the trade, he is taught how to make estimates on different kinds of
work, he has a course in architectural drawing, and he does research
work in trade journals. So much for theory, but his diploma of
efficient mastery of his trade is built into the walls of the Tuskegee
buildings. They show whether he has learned to be a brick-mason, or
whether he has merely learned things about brick-masonry.
The school sawmill turns out the lumber for the building in course of
erection. The instruction in saw-milling includes these branches of
information:
"Names of machines and their uses. Care of machines. Defects of timber
trees. Felling timber trees and loading logs on wagon. Measuring lumber
and wood. Industrial classes. Drawing. Scaling logs to find their
contents in board measure. Grading lumber. Running planer and other
machines. Care of belts. Saw filing and caring for saws. Designing and
making cutters for mouldings. Calculating speed of pulleys. Arrangement
of machines in a planing and saw mill, etc."
Theory and practice in this department are dovetailed in the finished
work in the interior of such a structure as the Carnegie Library, or
the new Collis P. Huntington Memorial Building, where the wood work,
handsomely finished in Southern pine, is the product of the school
saw-mill and planer, the carpenter shops and the paint-shop.
[Illustration: IN THE MACHINE-SHOP
Three years are required to complete this course]
The equipment of the machinery, engineering, and foundry department and
the courses of study offered are designed to give students a thorough
training in their various branches. The machine shop is equipped with
the latest machine tools, driven by power from an Atlas engine. All the
repair work on the mechanical equipment of the school, including steam
pumps, steam engines, woodworking machines, printing presses, metal
working machines, is done in this shop. About fifty different machines
outside of this department, including the complete steam laundry, the
agricultural and dairy machinery, are in daily operation, furnishing
the best possible demonstration of the theory taught in the classes.
In the course for steam engineers, the young men are able to study the
working of eleven different steam engines, seven steam pumps, twelve
steam boilers, and a complete water-works system, with miles of piping,
valves, gauges, recording apparatus, etc. The instructors lay out the
courses in theory and written work, and the mathematical studies are
applied in work on blue-print drawings and free-hand sketches.
A foundry is in daily operation, and here the castings used in repair
work for the school are made. When the Tuskegee cotton-raising party
went to Africa, the castings for the cotton press sent with them were
made in the school foundry. In the plumbing and steam-fitting division,
the tools and shop equipment are ample for training in lead and iron
work, for water and steam piping systems in buildings of various kinds.
The plumbing and steam fitting in nearly all the buildings of the
Institute were done by the classes of this division. This work includes
sinks, bath-tubs, steam radiators, lavatories and sanitary closets.
More than eight miles of piping of various sizes, for steam and water,
are in use on the school grounds, with all the necessary valves,
expansion joints, unions and fittings. The tinsmithing shop turns
out nearly every kind of tin work from covering a house to making a
pepper-box. The apprentice becomes a first-class tinsmith in two years'
training. More than two thousand one-gallon fruit cans were made by the
students last year in addition to many other useful articles.
The object of the course in electrical engineering is to give the
student a foundation upon which he may build along any special line
he may choose later. Arc and incandescent lighting is in use at the
school, and there is a complete telephone service connecting most of
the buildings and offices through a central station. The students learn
not only how to install these systems, but to maintain them in the
highest state of efficiency. The dynamos and other electrical machinery
of a complete powerhouse are in operation for lighting the school
buildings and grounds, so that the student finds practical work at
every turn in his course.
[Illustration: STUDENTS AT WORK IN THE SCHOOL'S FOUNDRY]
He has learned how to build and equip a building. He is taught also
how to design it in all its parts. All students in the day and
night schools who are in the Mechanical Department are required to
take instruction in mechanical drawing. The work of the first year
is largely preparatory. It begins with simple geometrical drawing,
to accustom the student to the use of instruments and to teach him
accuracy and neatness. This is followed by work in projection, which
finds application in scale-drawing of simple objects. As soon as a
fair knowledge of the instruments has been attained, with a thorough
drill in free-hand sketching, the study of design is carried far enough
to secure an understanding of the principles, and facility and accuracy
in the construction of drawing plans. Strictly speaking, mechanical
drawing begins with the second year of trade work, with the study of
materials and working drawings. During the last quarter of the third
year the student learns how to make blue, solar, and black prints.
During the fourth year several excursions are made by the class to
the shops, the buildings under construction, the brick-yard, etc. In
such excursions detailed notes must be taken and a satisfactory report
submitted upon the things seen and examined.
The course of architectural drawing covers three years, and aims
to give thorough instruction in drawing, building construction and
design. In all cases, the general mechanical and artistic training
is supplemented by the course of study in the Academic Department.
On entering the third year of the architectural course, the student,
in addition to his regular work, is given actual practice in office
training and general superintendence. The student visits also the
trade shops, and is required to attend classes in heating, electrical
lighting, and plumbing. Many of the most satisfactory and imposing
buildings of the school were designed in our architectural department.
It will be seen from the foregoing survey that the students are able to
build and equip a large building from top to bottom, inside and out,
and these object lessons of their own handiwork stand clustered over
many acres, a city in itself built by young coloured men, most of whom
were wholly ignorant of systematic mental or manual training when they
asked to be admitted to Tuskegee.
They maintain also what may be called the running machinery of the
institution. The carpenters learn wood-turning and cabinet-making.
They make the furniture used in the class rooms and dormitories. Their
regular division has been so crowded in recent years that it was found
necessary to organise an auxiliary division, called the "Repair Shop."
Here all the school's repairs in wood work are done, and the training
has proved so valuable that it has been made a separate course of study
extending over three years. In the blacksmith shop is performed the
ironing of carriages, buggies, and wagons, of which a hundred are used
by the school, in addition to making all kinds of implements and the
shoeing of horses. Hundreds of farm implements are repaired here. The
student blacksmith is not a mere labourer. He is taught how to run a
shop of his own. He learns how to make out bills for material, how to
keep shop supplies, and a part of his time is devoted to mechanical
drawing and class room work.
[Illustration: CLASS IN MECHANICAL DRAWING]
The division of wheelwrighting is fitted for work in all details of
the trade. The students have constantly on hand new work, such as
the building of wagons, drays, horse and hand carts, wheel-barrows,
buggies and road carts. A great deal of repair work must be done
to keep the farm equipment in first-class shape, and the shop is
constantly patronised for this kind of work by the farmers of the
town and neighbourhood. The school has a standing order for farm
wagons from merchants in Tuskegee and Montgomery. These are turned
out complete, and have proved serviceable and popular. All of the
harness used by the school, and a large quantity sold outside, is made
in the harness-making department. All the vehicles turned out by the
blacksmith and wheelwrighting divisions are finished by the students in
the carriage-trimming shop.
The visitor, therefore, who wishes to inspect the Tuskegee Institute,
is met at the station by a carriage built by the students, pulled
by horses raised on the school farms, whose harness was made in a
school shop. The driver wears a trim, blue uniform made in the school
tailor-shop, and shoes made by student class work. The visitor is
assigned to a guest room in a dormitory designed, built, and furnished
by the students. His bathroom plumbing, the steam heat in his room, and
the electric lighting were installed by students. The oak furniture of
his room came from the shops. The young woman who takes care of his
room is a student working her way through the Institute. After supper,
she will change her wearing apparel to a blue uniform dress and a neat
straw hat, all made in the school. The steam laundry sends over to know
if the visitor wishes some washing done, and girl students send it
back, proud of the snowy polish of shirts and collars. The visitor is
asked to be a guest in the teachers' dining-hall. The bill of fare may
read as follows:
BREAKFAST:
Breakfast food, ham, fried cakes, bread, syrup, coffee, tea, butter,
fruit.
DINNER:
Roast beef, tomatoes, rice, corn-bread, sweet potatoes, buttermilk,
snap beans, dessert.
SUPPER:
Cold ham, tea, bread, syrup, butter, milk, fried potatoes, coffee.
In looking over this program, the guest will discover that the ham,
roast beef, vegetables, cornbread, syrup, butter, milk, and potatoes
are products of the school farms, raised, cared for and produced by
student labour.
Throughout these varied fields of industrial and productive activity,
the following objects are kept constantly in view, and their relative
importance is in the order of their enumeration:
To teach the dignity of labour.
To teach the trades, thoroughly and effectively.
To supply the demand for trained industrial leaders.
To assist the students in paying all, or a part, of their expenses.
[Illustration: THE BLACKSMITH SHOP]