International Congress on Technical Education - 1897
Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:52 am
Two papers read at the International Congress on Technical Education, with following questions - 16th June 1897
John Walter Sugg, Master of the Clothworkers' Company, in the chair.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE GOLD AND SILVER TRADES
By W. Augustus Steward (Chief Instructor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts)
During Her Majesty's long reign considerable changes have taken place in the Gold and Silver Industry and the allied trades. Changes in fashion have been responsible for the growth and decay of several branches of the decorator's art, but changes in the methods of production have worked greater revolutions. Machine processes have been introduced which have materially affected both the makers of gold and silverware and the decorators thereof. Stamping and spinning tend to transform the smiths into fitters, while the press has been largely responsible for the partial decay of the art of repousse and ornamental engraving. As a consequence entirely new systems of organisation and manufacture have taken the place of those obtaining sixty years ago. No longer is every part of a brooch, chain, casket, cup or vase made and decorated by hand, or does the average gold- or silver-smith feel himself capable of designing and making any article of jewellery or silverware. The introduction of machinery has almost changed the handworker into a mechanic, and by the sub-division and specialisation of labour is gradually transforming him into a unit in a large sectionalised factory, while apprenticeship for this and other reasons is practically dead. Hence the necessity for technical education. But the provision of technical education for these trades has been so slow and small that it is difficult to speak of it other than from the elementary standpoint. The first attempt to provide artistic and technical education on a large scale for the various workers in precious metals was made at the Vittoria-street branch of the Birmingham Municipal School of Art in September, 1890, the art department being controlled entirely by the Museum and School of Art Committee of the Birmingham City Council, and the technical room by the Birmingham Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Association, who were responsible for the fitting up and equipment. In the metropolis the attempts have been both meagre and badly organised. At the Regent-street Polytechnic a class for silversmiths was started in 1884, but was discontinued a couple of years later owing to the falling off of students, and the teacher's inability to give the necessary time. At the same school a class for goldsmiths was established, the first year that the City and Guilds of London Institute made goldsmiths' work an item in their syllabus. This was in 1891, Mr. Harry Stapleton starting and conducting the class with marked success, while for several years previous to this classes in repousse had been running at the same school, at Alie-street, and Essex-house. The only attempt to provide specially applied artistic training for those employed in the gold and silver industry was made by the Goldsmiths' Company at a little school in Charles-street, Goswell-road, conducted by a German master named Meyer; but this has been dead for some years. This sums up the definite attempts made to give assistance to the young workers in precious metals before the advent of the Central School of Arts and Crafts. So that with the revolution in the methods of production, and a lack of artistic and technical training, it is not surprising that the crafts of the gold and silversmiths have not made the same progress as other artistic crafts, but now, through the establishment of the Central School of Arts and Crafts, at Morley-hall, Regent-street, by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council, and the Northampton Institute in Clerkenwell, the void is being filled, and opportunities offered the young workmen to improve themselves as craftsmen. Still it is essential to look back and find, if possible, why those engaged in the industries under consideration have not taken advantage of the small classes started for their benefit or of the ordinary art schools. This can be largely explained by the inherent dislike of technical education exhibited by the older workmen, whose influence, acting on the lads, restrained them from entering the classes, but the theoretical character of the teaching, the fear of examinations, and the want of practical teachers in touch with the trade had much to do with the paucity of attendance. These and other causes will also explain why art classes have not been patronised. The system in vogue under the South Kensington authorities induced the teachers to urge the lads to undergo examinations, which always led along a beaten track, in order that the teacher could obtain grants by the pupil's success, little or no account being taken of the fact that the student desired his education to be of such a character as would make him a better gold or silver worker. The ordinary art schools taught a lad how to use his pencil, but the feeling was always uppermost in the minds of those who were anxious to improve themselves, and continued their studies notwithstanding the drawbacks, that they should have such a training as would fit them for the special trade they were following. This fortunately is now the feeling of some educational experts, who viewing the question from the artistic and technical standpoints, believe that the best results will accrue by allowing students to study art and design in relation to their own particular craft. But it is still difficult to induce the young craftsmen to attend the drawing and design classes. The antagonism of the older workmen has been broken down by the perseverance of some of those in actual touch with the men and their unions, while the youths are now more willing to attend trade classes, but the methods of the modern workshop have driven all idea from the minds of the average youth of the utility of even freehand drawing, their argument being that the draughtsman makes all the necessary designs and working drawings, and the craftsman's business is to work to the drawings supplied him. They fail to realise that a training in freehand will give them a better idea of line, and so enable them the more readily to realise the contour of the article they are called upon to make.
How then shall we induce the younger workers to undergo an artistic training? The only means I am convinced (by a long workshop training, and by intercourse with members of the trade when a student and now as a master), whereby drawing even in its elementary stages can be made palatable and interesting to those whom we wish to teach, is by giving them studies to copy which at once appeal to them by the fact that they, the sketches and models, exhibit some connection with the particular handicraft the lad is following. For instance, simple vases, boxes and the like for the silversmith, animal and floral forms, natural and conventional for the goldsmith, chaser, engraver, or carver. Once having interested the lads it will not be so difficult to induce them to study in a wider field. But the main question and the more debateable one, is the giving of practical instruction in the crafts. Various views are held as to which lines the classes should be organised upon. The workpeople and employers hold the view that the classes should be strictly restricted to those actually engaged in the trades, while others seem to think that it is the proper thing to turn out jacks of all trades and masters of none, on the off chance of finding a Cellini, or that unattached art students should be allowed access to the classes, so that having served an apprenticeship to art, they might apply it by acquiring a knowledge of gold or silver working, but, so far as London is concerned, the regulation of the Technical Education Board, which governs not only its own schools but all institutions which it assists by grants of money, declares that such classes must be strictly confined to persons employed in the trades taught. This, I venture to say, is a carefully thought out regulation which will, if adhered to, ensure the right kind of pupils and give them a greater interest in the schools.
Classes should not be established to supersede the workshop, but to supplement the training received therein. Viewed from the commercial standpoint it is largely a waste of time to teach the smith or spoon-maker to chase or engrave, or the chaser or engraver to do smiths' work; constant employment only can ensure such ability as will enable a workman to gain a livelihood, and it will rarely happen that an employer would, in these days of competition, employ men to move from one distinct division of a trade to another, and back again. From the artistic standpoint, or looked at as an acquirement of knowledge, it would not be labour in vain, but, as instruction calculated to enable a workman to gain a living by partly following a craft he can only learn by attending a school five or six hours a week, it would be misapplied. It will be argued that, given the opportunity, students will be found with such natural ability as would enable them to excel in several or all the branches of the gold or silversmiths' trade; this can readily be granted, but we must recognise the fact that there will always be a large number of persons engaged in the craft who will have to earn their living by working as units under the factory system, that is, if the mass of the people are to have jewellery and plate. It is forgotten that the art-craftsman can only appeal for his work and consequently his living to the select and monied classes, so that, while realising the possibility of raising some from the ordinary routine of the factory or workshop, we must not forget that the bulk of those attending our schools will have to continue under the factory system and turn out such work as will hold its own against all competitors. It is necessary, therefore, that the students should be enabled to make themselves more proficient in that section of the industry to which they are attached. From this it will be gathered that I am opposed, when viewing the question from the commercial standpoint, to the system prevailing at the Vittoria-street School in Birmingham, under which every effort appears to be made to induce the students to enter a branch totally different from that to which they are apprenticed or working at, instead of mainly encouraging them to improve their knowledge of the special branch in which they are hoping to gain a livelihood. For instance, a lad at Vittoria-street will be induced if he is a smith to learn chasing or engraving or vice versa. To those who understand how the trade is sectionalised this system is not a good one. The gold and silver trades are split up into various sections; roughly speaking the silversmiths are divided into seven sections— designers and modellers, large workers, small workers, spoon and fork makers, engravers, carvers, chasers and piercers, plate polishers and spoon and fork polishers; and between each group there is a more or less rigid line of demarcation existing. On the surface, engraving seems a small item to be so distinctly marked off as one branch but this is gradually being split into sections, and so we find monogram and heraldic hands or those who engrave inscriptions and cyphers only, here therefore much can be done to improve the knowledge of students in all the kinds of work to be done in this branch.
It would be difficult to enumerate all the articles coming within the province of the small workers, but with the modern methods of workshop organisation learners have little chance of acquiring the practice which would enable them to take a position with the feeling that they could carry out any job brought to them. Cases have come under my notice in both the gold and silver trades where lads have been so kept to the working of one article only that they have been practically useless when put to another job of a somewhat different character in the same branch. Amongst goldsmiths there are designers and modellers, mounters, setters, chain-makers, locket makers, makers of bracelets, ring makers and carvers, polishers, &c. Engravers, general carvers, chasers and enamellers, and besides the foregoing, there is a body of men who though working in gold and silver are classed apart from both divisions as watch-case makers and polishers. However, from the foregoing classification it will be recognised that both the gold and silver trades fall naturally under four main groups; the designers and modellers ; the makers or smiths, who make up in metal the prepared designs; the engravers, chasers, carvers, enamellers, &c, who apply to the articles ornamentation of various kinds, according to designs prepared either by themselves or the designers; and finally the finishers and polishers who finish the work. These divisions at once suggest what, in the main, should be the work of technical education in the trade. The first and most important thing is teaching drawing and design, but, as I have previously pointed out, considerable difficulty has been, and still is, experienced in getting students to recognise this prime essential in an artistic craft, but I think if my suggestions are carried out, the difficulty would be considerably minimised. All members of the gold and silver trade should have access to the drawing classes, and if they would reap the full benefit arising from the establishment of technical schools, should study freehand and geometry, special attention being paid to plan and elevation, modelling, and subsequently design.
In the workshops students should be induced to make themselves thoroughly proficient craftsmen, and assisted to take up such work, in their own division, that they have few opportunities of practising in the workshop during the day. For instance, a gold- or silver-smith who has got into a shop where but a small selection of special articles is made would find it greatly to his advantage to study under a skilful teacher the methods employed in the production of other pieces. The engraver specialised as a "monogram" or "inscription " hand needs the opportunity to learn thj other branches of the engravers' art, or that of enamelling, while the chaser, probably on "repair" work all day, would find it a considerable advantage to study chasing as an art, or to leam repoussi. There are a number of other ways in which help could be offered the craftsmen willing to improve their workmanship. The introduction of machinery, and the increasing uses to which stamping and spinning are applied, renders it essential that every effort should be made to ensure that the crafts shall not be depleted of those capable of actually "smithing" or hammering up a piece of work. To the smiths, therefore, and especially to apprentices and learners in this division, any opportunities to improve themselves in the art of getting out and producing their work by hand should find every favour.
I think it will be admitted that, with such a wide field in which to labour, the first aim of the technical schools should be to make a student thoroughly proficient in his own particular branch, and to use every endeavour to get him to understand the paramount importance of drawing and modelling, but this will not be found difficult if the right kind of men are selected as organisers and teachers, for the success of the classes will depend very largely on the teachers. These, in every case, should be practical men, with a thorough knowledge of their particular branch of the trade, and over these should be a master, with artistic and practical knowledge of the various branches of the industry. It is essential to the success of a school or class that the master and teachers should inspire the students with confidence and this I am convinced in technical schools can only be ensured by the appointment of the kind of teachers I have suggested. I have endeavoured to place before you, as shortly as possible, what has been done and what I think is now required to ensure the success of technical classes in the trades connected with the working of gold and silver, and to those interested in the improvement and uplifting of one of the most ancient of crafts. I offer these few suggestions in the hope that the craft in which I have spent the best part of my life, and in which I am keenly interested, may benefit by the practical discussion and suggestions which I trust will follow my paper.
WATCH AND CLOCK MAKING
By T. D. Wright.
Technical knowledge is, perhaps, more necessary to the watchmaker than to any other craftsman. The work is so minute that the uneducated eye does not see clearly enough, and, unless the workman engaged in one branch has some knowledge of the principles involved in the construction of the whole machine, and an intelligent appreciation of the duties of the parts made by others, he may waste days in the production of a beautiful specimen of manipulative skill which is wholly unfitted for the work it has to do.
In olden times, if a clever master had an intelligent, willing apprentice, the youth obtained a technical education of the best kind, and we are, no doubt, indebted to the apprenticeship system for most of the old masters whose productive skill obtained for us our reputation in horology.
The men, however, who, combined with practical skill, had the required scientific knowledge and the willingness to devote the necessary time to the instruction of their apprentices, were at all times few. Many young men finished their apprenticeship with but little more technical knowledge than they had when they commenced, and with practical skill in only the one narrow channel in which their employer had found their assistance the most profitable. The tendency was to train the apprentice in the way most likely to be directly remunerative to the employer, and, although this had the advantage of producing specialists who executed their own particular pieces of work admirably and quickly, and thus promoted an economical subdivision of labour which aided cheap production, it did not add to the ranks of the capable workmen who are always ready for unexpected emergencies, and who have the ability to adapt themselves to new designs and improved methods of construction. I think the failure of the apprenticeship system may be traced to the most flourishing days of the industry, for it was then that subdivision was carried to its greatest excess. It was no uncommon thing to find young men who had been engaged for seven long years in a subbranch which could have been efficiently taught in as many months. As these branches were easily, and the most frequently overstocked, the young man had to direct his energies into some other channel, and practically to learn his business after he was out of his time. If, in his training, he had been taught to file and turn properly, and had that lightness of touch which can only be acquired in youth, and which is so necessary to the watchmaker, he would, after a time as an improver, possibly become a good workman; but many of the subdivisions did not give him this opportunity, and we need not be surprised that when the man had sons of his own to send out he was unwilling to submit them to the same unsatisfactory experience.
Even in the branches which give greater opportunities of obtaining knowledge, parents are not inclined, in these days of free education, to pay a money premium for the instruction of their sons, and when the premium is paid in service, the master has to repay himself for the time spent in instruction and experimental work, by directing the training of his apprentice, during at least part of the time, into some channel that shall be profitable, consequently the system of manufacture tends to run in grooves and ruts which limit the opportunities of the young man to acquire knowledge, and confirm the older workman in a machine-like course which resists change of any kind.
Free education and the necessity of carrying on business profitably are facts which we must adapt ourselves to. If the old forms of apprenticeship are not suited to the times we must remodel them. In a business like watchmaking some form of apprenticeship is absolutely necessary. The requisite skill and delicate manipulation can only be gained by practice and training. If we give up apprenticeship altogether we probably give up the trade. In some branches the term might with advantage be much less than seven years, and in all branches I am in favour of shorter terms, with an intermediate stage as an "improver," where the earnings of a young man will be proportioned to his skill and industry. If, during these probationary periods, he is able, after workshop hours, to improve himself in drawing, in mechanical knowledge, and in those branches of practical work which are directly associated with the one he is actually engaged in, he will be qualifying himself to become a master of his art.
The promoters of modern technical education recognising the wants of many industries, and attributing the shortcomings, at least in part, to imperfections in the apprenticeship system, sought by creating and encouraging sources of instruction outside the workshop to remedy the evils we suffered under. By studying what other nations had done they obtained valuable suggestions, and much good has been done. Time and experience are teaching us where the course adopted should be continued, and where it should be modified to produce the most beneficial results. In horology, as I dare say would be the case in other mechanical trades, although there was no active resistance to the new ideas, there was a passive obstruction, or an apathetic neglect which impeded rapid progress. The general feeling was that the movement was a good one, but too many of the trade stopped at that point and gave no real aid. Some employers encouraged their workmen and their own sons to attend the classes, and as the advantages gained manifested themselves, their example was followed by others. A few—very few—practical men had no faith in technical education, except that gained at the bench, while others were at first inclined to attach a value to theoretical knowledge which it did not possess. For instance, an employer in want of a good workman, finds among the applicants a young man who brings evidence of an intelligent understanding of his business, who has, perhaps, distinguished himself in a theory examination, and scarcely questioning him as to his practical ability engages him to fill the vacant post. If he has been fortunate in his selection, and the man is as clever at the bench as he was at his studies, and happily that often is the case, all goes well; but if on the contrary he is unfortunate in his selection, and obtains an indifferent workman who can neither work as well or as quickly as the workman who never studied at all, he decides that technical education is a mistake, overlooking that it was he who made the mistake in assuming that one quality necessarily implied the possession of another. These were the errors of the early days, but time is removing misunderstandings, and we all know now that although theoretical knowledge cannot take the place of practical skill, an intelligent assistant who has it can make better and more profitable use of his intelligence than one who has not been trained.
The young watchmaker cannot too soon learn that his very first qualification is the ability to execute his work well. If he studies he soon finds out for himself how much his progress is helped by a knowledge of the whys and wherefores, how much clearer he sees the path to take when a difficulty arises, and how much more interesting his calling is than he thought it was. To me one of the most pleasing results of technical instruction has been to witness the interest of the student when he begins to understand the nature of his business, and the keen appreciation with which he realises, as he progresses in his studies, that his occupation is not a mere drudgery but really an intellectual pursuit. I do not think this feeling would ever be quite lost under the most adverse circumstances. It is not surprising that a clever lad should take pride in an occupation which has been so useful to navigation, and which requires for its proper understanding some knowledge of astronomy, of mechanics, of the effects of heat and electricity, and other natural phenomena. We frequently find that in addition to knowledge directly acquired, a desire is kindled for further study, leading sometimes to independent research and invention of importance, but always to an increased interest in the daily occupation. If the originators of technical education had done no more than to promote this affection for, and interest in, one's everyday work, we should have much to thank them for, but more material benefits have been gained. During the years that the classes have been conducted at the British Horological Institute, some hundreds of young men have attended, and I could point out many to-day who attribute their advancement in no small degree to the instruction they received there. In the other schools of horology conducted at the Polytechnic Institute, Coventry, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and other places, I have no doubt similar experience could be shown. The consequence is that we have had, for some years past, a new generation growing around us. The relative values of the different branches of knowledge are better estimated because many of those interested in the matter have taken an active part in it. The good influence spreads beyond the pupils themselves, for it often happens that the son or apprentice may be able to make some suggestion, which proves to be an improvement, and which was prompted by his observation of what was being done outside his own workshop.
One important result of technical education I should like to mention, and that is the invention by Mr. Bonniksen of his rotary escapement, which has proved so successful at the recent Kew and Greenwich Observatory trials. Mr. Bonniksen was a student of the Horological Institute for some years, and during that time his natural ability and perseverance gained him considerable distinction; Breguet's tourbillon interested and attracted him, and in the course of his experience in timing and adjusting he saw how useful such a contrivance could be. But the cost and delicacy of Breguet's invention prohibited its general use, so Bonniksen set himself the task of inventing something on similar lines which should be strong enough to be carried in the pocket with no more risk of injury than an ordinary watch, and which should add little, if anything, to the cost. His " karrusel " watch is the successful result. About three years ago his perfected design was submitted to the trade, and many manufacturers consented to make up one or two as an experiment. If doubts of its success did possibly exist those doubts are rapidly disappearing. During the year 1894, a few were finished and sent to Kew for the usual trials. Seven obtained the "especially good" certificate. The Kew report for 1894 states: "The watches entered for the highest test, class A, have been decidedly above the average in quality, the number of these (46) obtaining the highest form of certificate (class A, especially good), being considerably in excess of any previous year." In 1895, 27 out of 56 were " karrusels," and in the report for 1896 we find that 96 watches obtained " especially good" certificates, 60 of which were "karrusel" levers. In the recent deck watch trial at the Greenwich Observatory a "karrusel" lever heads the list, and a number of them, manufactured by various firms, obtained high positions. No horological invention in this country has had so rapid and pronounced a success.
I should not presume to claim this invention as a direct result of our efforts to promote technical education, if I had not received the inventor's own testimony. During its conception he assured me how much his technical training assisted him. His mechanical knowledge helped him in determining the proper proportion of the various parts, the relation between the motive power and the balance in the new conditions, and the possible effect of friction in the rather bold departure from conventional lines in the arrangement of his rotary carriage. His ability in drawing enabled him to complete his design on paper, so that he had no blunders to correct when he started the manufacture of the rough movement for the general use of the trade.
We watchmakers had almost reconciled ourselves to the belief that our art had attained the perfection of mechanism, that there was nothing to improve. Bonniksen has taught us that improvement is possible, and so long as 100 marks at Kew, or an O trial number at Greenwich is not obtained—and probably they never can be reached—or so long as a watch does not wind itself up and show itself independent of the eccentricities of its wearer, there will be room for the clever man to invent improvements.
I cannot pretend that the system of producing watches in England by machinery is an outcome of the technical education scheme, because machine construction preceded it, but that the promoters and conductors of successful machine factories possessed technical knowledge in a high degree there is no gainsaying, and that their success has been helped by the growth of technical knowledge I am sure. I believe that the highest grades of watch-work will always be produced by skilled hand labour, assisted more or less by machinery as it always has been, partly because the hand system lends itself more readily to changes and improvements in design, and partly because the machine cannot detect faults in material and construction as the good workman can. But there is no doubt that the general watch of the future is a machine-made one. Successful factories are now established in London, Coventry, Birmingham, and Prescot, and I am proud of the certainty that some at least of their productions, modelled on the best types of English hand-made watches, are the very best machine-made watches in the world.
The success of the machine factories need not alarm the young watchmaker, or cause him to fear that his occupation is gone. In the most perfect machine system a considerable amount of skilled labour is required, and the increased output of home productions will probably absorb more skilled labour than was ever required in the whole trade under the old systems. In springing and adjusting watches there is a want in the machine factories of competent workmen, and young men will be wise to perfect themselves in this branch. I am hopeful that the new Northampton Institute in Clerkenwell will shortly be able to offer assistance to watchmakers who wish for opportunities of improving themselves in this direction.
Clockmaking as carried on in London has some advantages over watchmaking for the apprentice. In the first place it is not nearly so subdivided, and the youth has a much better opportunity of making the whole machine, although it is not usual to quite do that. Then the work is so much larger that he sees and understands much better, and I think it wise to let the lad who is to become a watchmaker spend his first year in the clock shop. The general principles are the same, the methods of working differ in some respects, but the differences are instructive and help the training. I am speaking now of the ordinary house clock. The manufacture of turret clocks is on altogether different lines and would probably not be a suitable training for either the watchmaker or the maker of small clocks. But the broad principles of design and construction are on the same lines, and one of the purposes of technical education is to help the members of these different branches of horology to get more in touch with one another, and by studying each other's methods, to possibly obtain useful hints.
The manufacture of house-clocks is capable of great development in this country. In the near future, electrical clock-work must play an important part. Both of these facts should receive due consideration from the trade, and from the technical institutions concerned, and some preparation should be made to supply the wants of our own country.
Technical education has of late years, and I think, rightly, tended more and more to include practical instruction in its syllabus. Technical councils, are, I think, fully alive to the fact that purely scientific education is likely to go over the heads of the majority of the workers, and fail in its usefulness. They welcome the assistance of the various trades concerned, in arranging their classes, so that they may be technical in the fullest and most perfect sense.
Mr. Steward asked if Mr. Wright did not think that the tendency of machinery as applied to watchmaking was to stereotype the class of watches produced thereby, owing to the expense of altering or laying down new machinery. Mr. Bonniksen was deploring the fact that several of the large factories, did not take up with his epoch-making inventions on that account.
Mr. D. Buckney thought there was not much in the paper which anyone could take exception to. Mr. Wright said there was no doubt that the general watch of the future would be a machine-made one. That implied that the hand-made watch must go to the wall altogether. He (the speaker) hoped that would never be the case, because the machine-made watch could not be looked upon as so scientific a time-keeper as a hand-made one. Mr. Wright had also referred to the apprenticeship system, but they might take it for granted that so far as watch and clock makers were concerned, apprenticeship was dead. It had never been satisfactory. One reason for the decline of the apprenticeship system was the fact that employers received a premium varying in amount, and as soon as they had received it the apprentices were turned over to the workmen, who received no consideration whatever for what they were teaching. Another reason was that the work that the apprentice turned out during the early years of his apprenticeship was practically useless to an employer. The theory work that was being taught now-a-days was of very little use unless it was followed up by practical instruction. It was sometimes found in examinations that the paper work was done like a book, but when they came to test a man's practical capabilities they were found to be not worth a rap—he would not be able to earn his salt. They had to look and see how the present state of things could remedied. Shortly, practical classes would be started of an evening in the Northampton Institute. That was all very well, and would no doubt be productive of a great deal of good to workmen who wished to avail themselves of the opportunies offered there to improve themselves. But something was wanted beyond that. How were they going to provide the best workmen of the future? He did not think it could be done by evening work alone. He thought it would be necessary to establish a system of day work, which could be done by scholarships and paying students. At all events, lads ought to have an opportunity of working a certain number of hours during the day at the practical part of the work, and the theoretical work must go hand-in-hand with it. It might be taken alternately in the evening, as a sort of recreation, with drawing and the study of physics, metallurgy, and several other kindred branches of science which were likely to prove useful. By that means, he thought, they would provide the trade with a certain number of actual workers. Mr. Wright had also referred to what had been done in the classes of the British Horological Institute, and he (the speaker) joined with him in the feelings of pride with which he viewed the success of the many students who had been trained there. They unfortunately had one difficulty, and that was that they had not been able to Teach the actual worker. They wanted to produce men who were prepared and intended to earn their living at the particular branch to which they had devoted their attention, and he should have liked to hear a little more from Mr. Wright of what he suggested in that direction. It was, of course, difficult to take men trained under the old system and educate them to new ideas, and it was far easier and better to take the lad and work him up to do what was required of him.
Mr. Wright, in answer to Mr. Steward, said machine systems did decidedly tend to do away with the artist; but the machine system was not one to be followed by what he called a workman. That Mr. Bonniksen's invention was not taken up by the big factories he did not think need frighten either Mr. Bonniksen or anyone else, and for this reason, that the great difficulties machine factories had to contend with would always leave some opening for the handworker. The factories could not easily adapt themselves to a change, whether that change was an improvement or not. It was so difficult and costly to alter the plant in order to introduce anything new and decidedly good that the hand-worker for the time being would have that good thing all to himself, and that should be looked upon rather as an advantage to the worker, while watch making by hand was really a trade. There was no doubt that inventions like Mr. Bonniksen's would from time to time crop up, and it they were as good as his so much the better for the hand-worker that it was a difficult matter for the factories to adopt it. Mr. Buckney seemed to think that he (the speaker) suggested that the hand-trade would go altogether. He did not intend to suggest that; but he thought that probably 99 watches out of every hundred that were used by the ordinary public would be made by machinery, and he did not see why 90 out of that 99 should not be made in this country instead of being imported from abroad. He was pleased to see the success of some of the English watch factories. Those who were not in the trade and had nothing to do with watches had no idea how good they were, although they were a long way short of the watch Mr. Buckney referred to. He did not agree with Mr. Buckney in thinking that the system of apprenticeship was dead. He (the speaker) thought apprenticeship in some shape or form was really necessary in a business like watch making. His own idea was that a lad who was going to be brought up to the trade should be put for a year in a clock shop to make the tools and the smaller parts, and at the end of the year the boy or his guardians ought to make up their minds whether he is suitable for watch making; or if he is too heavy-handed for watch work, whether he is to go to clock work. He should then be apprenticed for three years. At the end of that time he would not be a finished workman, but he would be competent to take a situation as an improver, where his earnings would depend upon his ability. During all this probationary period he should be encouraged to attend technical classes which give instruction in drawing and in the mechanical principles concerned in his trade. The Northampton Institute was new, and the evening classes had to be tried, they had to find out the wants of the district; but if it proved eminently successful, there was no reason why it should not be turned into a day school, and become a school of horology, where young men could be taught in a proper manner the beginnings of their career, and encouraged to go on in the special lines which were best fitted for them.
Mr. Parker Rhodes said we were much too conservative in this country. Watches and clocks were most essential, and yet we were only using the timepieces and time indicators of former ages. There was absolutely no improvement: he admitted there was improvement in the mechanism, but there was no improvement in the construction of the dial of a watch or a clock. If they made the Government feel the necessity of giving support by small subsidies, there would be encouragement for those who were now exerting themselve almost fruitlessly over the tasks they had set themselves. Although so much had been done to improve the character of watch and clock making, there still remained a very large amount to be done to accomplish what we all desired, viz., a correct time indicator.
Mr. Alderman T. Snape (Liverpool) said the Technical Education Committee of Lancashire, at an early stage of their history as a committee, had sought to establish technical instruction with reference to an industry that at one time flourished in the county, but had since fallen into decay—the horological industry. A few years ago Prescot and Coventry were the two chief seats of the watch manufacture of this country, but at the time they came into possession of the funds the industry had fallen away, and they thought if by establishing a horological school they could revive that industry, and give back to Prescot the fame it once possessed of being the seat of the manufacture of the best watch movements in the world, they would be doing a good service to the county, as well as to that particular industry. The reason for the decay was owing to the fact that Americans had begun to manufacture watches by the aid of machinery, while the English continued to manufacture theirs by hand. In order to carry out the idea members of the committee visited the schools of horology in France, Switzerland, and Germany. They found a great difference between their system of technical instruction and our own. The system was a kind of school apprenticeship, and the scholars went from the elementary schools to these training schools. There they remained for four or five years, and were taught, practically and theoretically, everything connected with the manufacture of a watch, from the simplest process to the most difficult. In this way they succeeded in acquiring perfect skill in the construction of a watch, and before their four or five years term of tuition was over they were able to construct a watch from beginning to end. The result was that when they left their schools they were received as full journeymen into the employment of the various watchmakers in the country. One difficulty they experienced with their school at Lancashire was that they could not get their students to remain long enough, and another difficulty would have been that after they had completed their training in the schools the trade would not allow them to become journeymen watchmakers without serving an apprenticeship. In the Black Forest they found that the schools had extended their tuition to other matters besides watchmaking; they had begun to train their students in the manufacture of delicate electrical instruments. And in this country, if we were to keep ahead in the matter of electrical engineering, we should require very skilled handicraftsmen, who could construct the requisite delicate apparatus to develop the electrical discoveries that are being made. He had visited the Polytechnic School of Horology—the only one he could find in London—and he found it in a very feeble condition; he did not know whether it was still in existence. He believed there was also a class that was supported by the Watchmakers and Clockmakers' Association, but he had not come across it. In conclusion, he wished to point out that, if we were to prevent the loss that we were now sustaining through the decay of the watch-making trade which formerly flourished in our country, we must in some form or other endeavour to supply that technical instruction which these competing countries were giving to their students, and which was absolutely indispensable to enable us to regain the position we had lost. They had at Prescot a very large watch factory established on the American principle. That factory was growing aud employing, he believed, as many as a thousand hands, and was very successful notwithstanding the competition from abroad. But how much better it would be if all the people employed in that factory had had the benefit of a thorough technical education.
Dr. Walmsley (principal, Northampton Institute) said that apprenticeship schools, as carried on on the Continent, were quite familiar to educationalists in London; but some of them considered that an apprenticeship school was not quite the solution of the difficulty, and that for many reasons. There were commercial reasons. Apprenticeship schools would tnrn out finished watches and so enter into competition with the trade, because a school which was endowed and equipped with skilled instructors, where waste of material was not of very great consequence, could produce watches under conditions which were not trade conditions. Though there is to be a Horological Department, it is not intended to set up an apprenticeship school in the new Northampton Institute for this particular industry, for they considered as a general rule that the manipulative skill in any industry could only be acquired by long practice in the factory, and the time that would be spent in acquiring that skill in a school could be far better spent in other ways—in teaching the art and principles of the craft rather than acquiring mere deftness of hand. He might add that the question of the connection of the electrical instrument making with watch-making had been perceived by them, and there was on foot a scheme for combining the two. They were opening their first year classes in clock-making to electrical instrument makers, philosophical instrument makers, cycle gearing makers, and all trades in which small gearing played a part; and they hoped that they would thus meet a very definite want.
Dr. Garnett said he should like to ask Mr. Snape whether the organisation of the great and successful industry in Prescot was of such a character as to give opportunity for technical schools to be useful in the training of the workmen there employed, or whether the work was so much subdivided that only the springers and timers required technical instruction in the laboratory or in the watch-makers' technical school. Those were questions which lay at the root of technical instruction for the watch-making trade. The governing bodies of Polytechnics and other technical schools wanted to know whether they could hope to benefit the watch-making trade as carried on in the factory, or whether they could only hope to benefit the man who made his watch from beginning to end with his own hands. There was a serious difficulty in this country in the way of the establishment of apprenticeship schools on account of the question of what to do with the output of those schools, for unfortunately a school which was organised in the fashion of a workshop could not be canned on without making up something, and the material in some trades became a very important item in the cost of running the institutions. When the plumbers' classes were started in the North of England, a meeting was held at which there were present representatives of the employers, of the foremen, and of the operative plumbers, and ways and means were part of the subject discussed at that meeting. It was arranged to open classes, and to establish a plumbers' workshop, and promises were made, chiefly by employers in the room, of the whole cost of the equipment of the workshop. When the question of the material came up, it was stated that there were present persons who would purchase for their ordinary trade the work done in the workshop, and that the work so purchased would cover the cost of the depreciation in the metal spoiled. That looked very pretty, and no complaint was made; but within a few days it was announced that no articles made in the shops would be allowed to be used in the trade at all, but that everything that was made was to be kept for museum purposes, or hammered up, on the ground that no wages were paid for the work. Such action was, perhaps, quite justifiable. In the matter of lead work, it involved a comparatively small cost, but in other trades, the cabinet making trade, for example, this question was one of much greater importance, and it was necessary now in London to face the question, whether in the cabinet making trade they should compel the .students in the technical schools to make chairs and tables and wardrobes and bookcases of one-half or one-third their usual size, and so make pretty models which were too big for dolls' houses, but too small for use, or whether, as he suggested, they should try some system of adopting a bonded store, as in the case of excisable articles, and undertake not to put to practical use the finished work until a sum had been paid upon it, equivalent to the ordinary wages as determined by a trade committee, and that sum so paid should be handed over to some friendly society in connection with the trade, in order that it might be used for the benefit of the trade which had produced the articles. It seemed to him that in dealing with the precious metals such difficulties, unless solved, would be fatal in the way of establishing apprenticeship schools in this country.
Mr. Snape said at Prescot the workers were kept to their own particular branch of the industry. The same thing applied in the cotton weaving, and cotton spinning classes in Lancashire. The factories kept one man at the mill, or they had another at the carding-machines, but that did not prevent them recognising the great importance of establishing cotton-weaving and cotton-spinning classes, and trying to get as highly trained a population to carry on this industry as possible. Those classes were found to be extremely useful. They could not expect that they would be attended by everybody employed in the industry, but the best part of the workmen attended the classes, and they were the part from which they got their foremen and managers.
Mr. Steward said that last week he had visited several large factories in Coventry, and there, side byside with workpeople making watches by machinery, he found men making the different parts by hand, and, in other cases, saw men making every possible piece of the watch by hand. The machine barely touched it.
Source: Journal of the Society of Arts - 23rd July 1897
Trev.
John Walter Sugg, Master of the Clothworkers' Company, in the chair.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE GOLD AND SILVER TRADES
By W. Augustus Steward (Chief Instructor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts)
During Her Majesty's long reign considerable changes have taken place in the Gold and Silver Industry and the allied trades. Changes in fashion have been responsible for the growth and decay of several branches of the decorator's art, but changes in the methods of production have worked greater revolutions. Machine processes have been introduced which have materially affected both the makers of gold and silverware and the decorators thereof. Stamping and spinning tend to transform the smiths into fitters, while the press has been largely responsible for the partial decay of the art of repousse and ornamental engraving. As a consequence entirely new systems of organisation and manufacture have taken the place of those obtaining sixty years ago. No longer is every part of a brooch, chain, casket, cup or vase made and decorated by hand, or does the average gold- or silver-smith feel himself capable of designing and making any article of jewellery or silverware. The introduction of machinery has almost changed the handworker into a mechanic, and by the sub-division and specialisation of labour is gradually transforming him into a unit in a large sectionalised factory, while apprenticeship for this and other reasons is practically dead. Hence the necessity for technical education. But the provision of technical education for these trades has been so slow and small that it is difficult to speak of it other than from the elementary standpoint. The first attempt to provide artistic and technical education on a large scale for the various workers in precious metals was made at the Vittoria-street branch of the Birmingham Municipal School of Art in September, 1890, the art department being controlled entirely by the Museum and School of Art Committee of the Birmingham City Council, and the technical room by the Birmingham Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Association, who were responsible for the fitting up and equipment. In the metropolis the attempts have been both meagre and badly organised. At the Regent-street Polytechnic a class for silversmiths was started in 1884, but was discontinued a couple of years later owing to the falling off of students, and the teacher's inability to give the necessary time. At the same school a class for goldsmiths was established, the first year that the City and Guilds of London Institute made goldsmiths' work an item in their syllabus. This was in 1891, Mr. Harry Stapleton starting and conducting the class with marked success, while for several years previous to this classes in repousse had been running at the same school, at Alie-street, and Essex-house. The only attempt to provide specially applied artistic training for those employed in the gold and silver industry was made by the Goldsmiths' Company at a little school in Charles-street, Goswell-road, conducted by a German master named Meyer; but this has been dead for some years. This sums up the definite attempts made to give assistance to the young workers in precious metals before the advent of the Central School of Arts and Crafts. So that with the revolution in the methods of production, and a lack of artistic and technical training, it is not surprising that the crafts of the gold and silversmiths have not made the same progress as other artistic crafts, but now, through the establishment of the Central School of Arts and Crafts, at Morley-hall, Regent-street, by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council, and the Northampton Institute in Clerkenwell, the void is being filled, and opportunities offered the young workmen to improve themselves as craftsmen. Still it is essential to look back and find, if possible, why those engaged in the industries under consideration have not taken advantage of the small classes started for their benefit or of the ordinary art schools. This can be largely explained by the inherent dislike of technical education exhibited by the older workmen, whose influence, acting on the lads, restrained them from entering the classes, but the theoretical character of the teaching, the fear of examinations, and the want of practical teachers in touch with the trade had much to do with the paucity of attendance. These and other causes will also explain why art classes have not been patronised. The system in vogue under the South Kensington authorities induced the teachers to urge the lads to undergo examinations, which always led along a beaten track, in order that the teacher could obtain grants by the pupil's success, little or no account being taken of the fact that the student desired his education to be of such a character as would make him a better gold or silver worker. The ordinary art schools taught a lad how to use his pencil, but the feeling was always uppermost in the minds of those who were anxious to improve themselves, and continued their studies notwithstanding the drawbacks, that they should have such a training as would fit them for the special trade they were following. This fortunately is now the feeling of some educational experts, who viewing the question from the artistic and technical standpoints, believe that the best results will accrue by allowing students to study art and design in relation to their own particular craft. But it is still difficult to induce the young craftsmen to attend the drawing and design classes. The antagonism of the older workmen has been broken down by the perseverance of some of those in actual touch with the men and their unions, while the youths are now more willing to attend trade classes, but the methods of the modern workshop have driven all idea from the minds of the average youth of the utility of even freehand drawing, their argument being that the draughtsman makes all the necessary designs and working drawings, and the craftsman's business is to work to the drawings supplied him. They fail to realise that a training in freehand will give them a better idea of line, and so enable them the more readily to realise the contour of the article they are called upon to make.
How then shall we induce the younger workers to undergo an artistic training? The only means I am convinced (by a long workshop training, and by intercourse with members of the trade when a student and now as a master), whereby drawing even in its elementary stages can be made palatable and interesting to those whom we wish to teach, is by giving them studies to copy which at once appeal to them by the fact that they, the sketches and models, exhibit some connection with the particular handicraft the lad is following. For instance, simple vases, boxes and the like for the silversmith, animal and floral forms, natural and conventional for the goldsmith, chaser, engraver, or carver. Once having interested the lads it will not be so difficult to induce them to study in a wider field. But the main question and the more debateable one, is the giving of practical instruction in the crafts. Various views are held as to which lines the classes should be organised upon. The workpeople and employers hold the view that the classes should be strictly restricted to those actually engaged in the trades, while others seem to think that it is the proper thing to turn out jacks of all trades and masters of none, on the off chance of finding a Cellini, or that unattached art students should be allowed access to the classes, so that having served an apprenticeship to art, they might apply it by acquiring a knowledge of gold or silver working, but, so far as London is concerned, the regulation of the Technical Education Board, which governs not only its own schools but all institutions which it assists by grants of money, declares that such classes must be strictly confined to persons employed in the trades taught. This, I venture to say, is a carefully thought out regulation which will, if adhered to, ensure the right kind of pupils and give them a greater interest in the schools.
Classes should not be established to supersede the workshop, but to supplement the training received therein. Viewed from the commercial standpoint it is largely a waste of time to teach the smith or spoon-maker to chase or engrave, or the chaser or engraver to do smiths' work; constant employment only can ensure such ability as will enable a workman to gain a livelihood, and it will rarely happen that an employer would, in these days of competition, employ men to move from one distinct division of a trade to another, and back again. From the artistic standpoint, or looked at as an acquirement of knowledge, it would not be labour in vain, but, as instruction calculated to enable a workman to gain a living by partly following a craft he can only learn by attending a school five or six hours a week, it would be misapplied. It will be argued that, given the opportunity, students will be found with such natural ability as would enable them to excel in several or all the branches of the gold or silversmiths' trade; this can readily be granted, but we must recognise the fact that there will always be a large number of persons engaged in the craft who will have to earn their living by working as units under the factory system, that is, if the mass of the people are to have jewellery and plate. It is forgotten that the art-craftsman can only appeal for his work and consequently his living to the select and monied classes, so that, while realising the possibility of raising some from the ordinary routine of the factory or workshop, we must not forget that the bulk of those attending our schools will have to continue under the factory system and turn out such work as will hold its own against all competitors. It is necessary, therefore, that the students should be enabled to make themselves more proficient in that section of the industry to which they are attached. From this it will be gathered that I am opposed, when viewing the question from the commercial standpoint, to the system prevailing at the Vittoria-street School in Birmingham, under which every effort appears to be made to induce the students to enter a branch totally different from that to which they are apprenticed or working at, instead of mainly encouraging them to improve their knowledge of the special branch in which they are hoping to gain a livelihood. For instance, a lad at Vittoria-street will be induced if he is a smith to learn chasing or engraving or vice versa. To those who understand how the trade is sectionalised this system is not a good one. The gold and silver trades are split up into various sections; roughly speaking the silversmiths are divided into seven sections— designers and modellers, large workers, small workers, spoon and fork makers, engravers, carvers, chasers and piercers, plate polishers and spoon and fork polishers; and between each group there is a more or less rigid line of demarcation existing. On the surface, engraving seems a small item to be so distinctly marked off as one branch but this is gradually being split into sections, and so we find monogram and heraldic hands or those who engrave inscriptions and cyphers only, here therefore much can be done to improve the knowledge of students in all the kinds of work to be done in this branch.
It would be difficult to enumerate all the articles coming within the province of the small workers, but with the modern methods of workshop organisation learners have little chance of acquiring the practice which would enable them to take a position with the feeling that they could carry out any job brought to them. Cases have come under my notice in both the gold and silver trades where lads have been so kept to the working of one article only that they have been practically useless when put to another job of a somewhat different character in the same branch. Amongst goldsmiths there are designers and modellers, mounters, setters, chain-makers, locket makers, makers of bracelets, ring makers and carvers, polishers, &c. Engravers, general carvers, chasers and enamellers, and besides the foregoing, there is a body of men who though working in gold and silver are classed apart from both divisions as watch-case makers and polishers. However, from the foregoing classification it will be recognised that both the gold and silver trades fall naturally under four main groups; the designers and modellers ; the makers or smiths, who make up in metal the prepared designs; the engravers, chasers, carvers, enamellers, &c, who apply to the articles ornamentation of various kinds, according to designs prepared either by themselves or the designers; and finally the finishers and polishers who finish the work. These divisions at once suggest what, in the main, should be the work of technical education in the trade. The first and most important thing is teaching drawing and design, but, as I have previously pointed out, considerable difficulty has been, and still is, experienced in getting students to recognise this prime essential in an artistic craft, but I think if my suggestions are carried out, the difficulty would be considerably minimised. All members of the gold and silver trade should have access to the drawing classes, and if they would reap the full benefit arising from the establishment of technical schools, should study freehand and geometry, special attention being paid to plan and elevation, modelling, and subsequently design.
In the workshops students should be induced to make themselves thoroughly proficient craftsmen, and assisted to take up such work, in their own division, that they have few opportunities of practising in the workshop during the day. For instance, a gold- or silver-smith who has got into a shop where but a small selection of special articles is made would find it greatly to his advantage to study under a skilful teacher the methods employed in the production of other pieces. The engraver specialised as a "monogram" or "inscription " hand needs the opportunity to learn thj other branches of the engravers' art, or that of enamelling, while the chaser, probably on "repair" work all day, would find it a considerable advantage to study chasing as an art, or to leam repoussi. There are a number of other ways in which help could be offered the craftsmen willing to improve their workmanship. The introduction of machinery, and the increasing uses to which stamping and spinning are applied, renders it essential that every effort should be made to ensure that the crafts shall not be depleted of those capable of actually "smithing" or hammering up a piece of work. To the smiths, therefore, and especially to apprentices and learners in this division, any opportunities to improve themselves in the art of getting out and producing their work by hand should find every favour.
I think it will be admitted that, with such a wide field in which to labour, the first aim of the technical schools should be to make a student thoroughly proficient in his own particular branch, and to use every endeavour to get him to understand the paramount importance of drawing and modelling, but this will not be found difficult if the right kind of men are selected as organisers and teachers, for the success of the classes will depend very largely on the teachers. These, in every case, should be practical men, with a thorough knowledge of their particular branch of the trade, and over these should be a master, with artistic and practical knowledge of the various branches of the industry. It is essential to the success of a school or class that the master and teachers should inspire the students with confidence and this I am convinced in technical schools can only be ensured by the appointment of the kind of teachers I have suggested. I have endeavoured to place before you, as shortly as possible, what has been done and what I think is now required to ensure the success of technical classes in the trades connected with the working of gold and silver, and to those interested in the improvement and uplifting of one of the most ancient of crafts. I offer these few suggestions in the hope that the craft in which I have spent the best part of my life, and in which I am keenly interested, may benefit by the practical discussion and suggestions which I trust will follow my paper.
WATCH AND CLOCK MAKING
By T. D. Wright.
Technical knowledge is, perhaps, more necessary to the watchmaker than to any other craftsman. The work is so minute that the uneducated eye does not see clearly enough, and, unless the workman engaged in one branch has some knowledge of the principles involved in the construction of the whole machine, and an intelligent appreciation of the duties of the parts made by others, he may waste days in the production of a beautiful specimen of manipulative skill which is wholly unfitted for the work it has to do.
In olden times, if a clever master had an intelligent, willing apprentice, the youth obtained a technical education of the best kind, and we are, no doubt, indebted to the apprenticeship system for most of the old masters whose productive skill obtained for us our reputation in horology.
The men, however, who, combined with practical skill, had the required scientific knowledge and the willingness to devote the necessary time to the instruction of their apprentices, were at all times few. Many young men finished their apprenticeship with but little more technical knowledge than they had when they commenced, and with practical skill in only the one narrow channel in which their employer had found their assistance the most profitable. The tendency was to train the apprentice in the way most likely to be directly remunerative to the employer, and, although this had the advantage of producing specialists who executed their own particular pieces of work admirably and quickly, and thus promoted an economical subdivision of labour which aided cheap production, it did not add to the ranks of the capable workmen who are always ready for unexpected emergencies, and who have the ability to adapt themselves to new designs and improved methods of construction. I think the failure of the apprenticeship system may be traced to the most flourishing days of the industry, for it was then that subdivision was carried to its greatest excess. It was no uncommon thing to find young men who had been engaged for seven long years in a subbranch which could have been efficiently taught in as many months. As these branches were easily, and the most frequently overstocked, the young man had to direct his energies into some other channel, and practically to learn his business after he was out of his time. If, in his training, he had been taught to file and turn properly, and had that lightness of touch which can only be acquired in youth, and which is so necessary to the watchmaker, he would, after a time as an improver, possibly become a good workman; but many of the subdivisions did not give him this opportunity, and we need not be surprised that when the man had sons of his own to send out he was unwilling to submit them to the same unsatisfactory experience.
Even in the branches which give greater opportunities of obtaining knowledge, parents are not inclined, in these days of free education, to pay a money premium for the instruction of their sons, and when the premium is paid in service, the master has to repay himself for the time spent in instruction and experimental work, by directing the training of his apprentice, during at least part of the time, into some channel that shall be profitable, consequently the system of manufacture tends to run in grooves and ruts which limit the opportunities of the young man to acquire knowledge, and confirm the older workman in a machine-like course which resists change of any kind.
Free education and the necessity of carrying on business profitably are facts which we must adapt ourselves to. If the old forms of apprenticeship are not suited to the times we must remodel them. In a business like watchmaking some form of apprenticeship is absolutely necessary. The requisite skill and delicate manipulation can only be gained by practice and training. If we give up apprenticeship altogether we probably give up the trade. In some branches the term might with advantage be much less than seven years, and in all branches I am in favour of shorter terms, with an intermediate stage as an "improver," where the earnings of a young man will be proportioned to his skill and industry. If, during these probationary periods, he is able, after workshop hours, to improve himself in drawing, in mechanical knowledge, and in those branches of practical work which are directly associated with the one he is actually engaged in, he will be qualifying himself to become a master of his art.
The promoters of modern technical education recognising the wants of many industries, and attributing the shortcomings, at least in part, to imperfections in the apprenticeship system, sought by creating and encouraging sources of instruction outside the workshop to remedy the evils we suffered under. By studying what other nations had done they obtained valuable suggestions, and much good has been done. Time and experience are teaching us where the course adopted should be continued, and where it should be modified to produce the most beneficial results. In horology, as I dare say would be the case in other mechanical trades, although there was no active resistance to the new ideas, there was a passive obstruction, or an apathetic neglect which impeded rapid progress. The general feeling was that the movement was a good one, but too many of the trade stopped at that point and gave no real aid. Some employers encouraged their workmen and their own sons to attend the classes, and as the advantages gained manifested themselves, their example was followed by others. A few—very few—practical men had no faith in technical education, except that gained at the bench, while others were at first inclined to attach a value to theoretical knowledge which it did not possess. For instance, an employer in want of a good workman, finds among the applicants a young man who brings evidence of an intelligent understanding of his business, who has, perhaps, distinguished himself in a theory examination, and scarcely questioning him as to his practical ability engages him to fill the vacant post. If he has been fortunate in his selection, and the man is as clever at the bench as he was at his studies, and happily that often is the case, all goes well; but if on the contrary he is unfortunate in his selection, and obtains an indifferent workman who can neither work as well or as quickly as the workman who never studied at all, he decides that technical education is a mistake, overlooking that it was he who made the mistake in assuming that one quality necessarily implied the possession of another. These were the errors of the early days, but time is removing misunderstandings, and we all know now that although theoretical knowledge cannot take the place of practical skill, an intelligent assistant who has it can make better and more profitable use of his intelligence than one who has not been trained.
The young watchmaker cannot too soon learn that his very first qualification is the ability to execute his work well. If he studies he soon finds out for himself how much his progress is helped by a knowledge of the whys and wherefores, how much clearer he sees the path to take when a difficulty arises, and how much more interesting his calling is than he thought it was. To me one of the most pleasing results of technical instruction has been to witness the interest of the student when he begins to understand the nature of his business, and the keen appreciation with which he realises, as he progresses in his studies, that his occupation is not a mere drudgery but really an intellectual pursuit. I do not think this feeling would ever be quite lost under the most adverse circumstances. It is not surprising that a clever lad should take pride in an occupation which has been so useful to navigation, and which requires for its proper understanding some knowledge of astronomy, of mechanics, of the effects of heat and electricity, and other natural phenomena. We frequently find that in addition to knowledge directly acquired, a desire is kindled for further study, leading sometimes to independent research and invention of importance, but always to an increased interest in the daily occupation. If the originators of technical education had done no more than to promote this affection for, and interest in, one's everyday work, we should have much to thank them for, but more material benefits have been gained. During the years that the classes have been conducted at the British Horological Institute, some hundreds of young men have attended, and I could point out many to-day who attribute their advancement in no small degree to the instruction they received there. In the other schools of horology conducted at the Polytechnic Institute, Coventry, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and other places, I have no doubt similar experience could be shown. The consequence is that we have had, for some years past, a new generation growing around us. The relative values of the different branches of knowledge are better estimated because many of those interested in the matter have taken an active part in it. The good influence spreads beyond the pupils themselves, for it often happens that the son or apprentice may be able to make some suggestion, which proves to be an improvement, and which was prompted by his observation of what was being done outside his own workshop.
One important result of technical education I should like to mention, and that is the invention by Mr. Bonniksen of his rotary escapement, which has proved so successful at the recent Kew and Greenwich Observatory trials. Mr. Bonniksen was a student of the Horological Institute for some years, and during that time his natural ability and perseverance gained him considerable distinction; Breguet's tourbillon interested and attracted him, and in the course of his experience in timing and adjusting he saw how useful such a contrivance could be. But the cost and delicacy of Breguet's invention prohibited its general use, so Bonniksen set himself the task of inventing something on similar lines which should be strong enough to be carried in the pocket with no more risk of injury than an ordinary watch, and which should add little, if anything, to the cost. His " karrusel " watch is the successful result. About three years ago his perfected design was submitted to the trade, and many manufacturers consented to make up one or two as an experiment. If doubts of its success did possibly exist those doubts are rapidly disappearing. During the year 1894, a few were finished and sent to Kew for the usual trials. Seven obtained the "especially good" certificate. The Kew report for 1894 states: "The watches entered for the highest test, class A, have been decidedly above the average in quality, the number of these (46) obtaining the highest form of certificate (class A, especially good), being considerably in excess of any previous year." In 1895, 27 out of 56 were " karrusels," and in the report for 1896 we find that 96 watches obtained " especially good" certificates, 60 of which were "karrusel" levers. In the recent deck watch trial at the Greenwich Observatory a "karrusel" lever heads the list, and a number of them, manufactured by various firms, obtained high positions. No horological invention in this country has had so rapid and pronounced a success.
I should not presume to claim this invention as a direct result of our efforts to promote technical education, if I had not received the inventor's own testimony. During its conception he assured me how much his technical training assisted him. His mechanical knowledge helped him in determining the proper proportion of the various parts, the relation between the motive power and the balance in the new conditions, and the possible effect of friction in the rather bold departure from conventional lines in the arrangement of his rotary carriage. His ability in drawing enabled him to complete his design on paper, so that he had no blunders to correct when he started the manufacture of the rough movement for the general use of the trade.
We watchmakers had almost reconciled ourselves to the belief that our art had attained the perfection of mechanism, that there was nothing to improve. Bonniksen has taught us that improvement is possible, and so long as 100 marks at Kew, or an O trial number at Greenwich is not obtained—and probably they never can be reached—or so long as a watch does not wind itself up and show itself independent of the eccentricities of its wearer, there will be room for the clever man to invent improvements.
I cannot pretend that the system of producing watches in England by machinery is an outcome of the technical education scheme, because machine construction preceded it, but that the promoters and conductors of successful machine factories possessed technical knowledge in a high degree there is no gainsaying, and that their success has been helped by the growth of technical knowledge I am sure. I believe that the highest grades of watch-work will always be produced by skilled hand labour, assisted more or less by machinery as it always has been, partly because the hand system lends itself more readily to changes and improvements in design, and partly because the machine cannot detect faults in material and construction as the good workman can. But there is no doubt that the general watch of the future is a machine-made one. Successful factories are now established in London, Coventry, Birmingham, and Prescot, and I am proud of the certainty that some at least of their productions, modelled on the best types of English hand-made watches, are the very best machine-made watches in the world.
The success of the machine factories need not alarm the young watchmaker, or cause him to fear that his occupation is gone. In the most perfect machine system a considerable amount of skilled labour is required, and the increased output of home productions will probably absorb more skilled labour than was ever required in the whole trade under the old systems. In springing and adjusting watches there is a want in the machine factories of competent workmen, and young men will be wise to perfect themselves in this branch. I am hopeful that the new Northampton Institute in Clerkenwell will shortly be able to offer assistance to watchmakers who wish for opportunities of improving themselves in this direction.
Clockmaking as carried on in London has some advantages over watchmaking for the apprentice. In the first place it is not nearly so subdivided, and the youth has a much better opportunity of making the whole machine, although it is not usual to quite do that. Then the work is so much larger that he sees and understands much better, and I think it wise to let the lad who is to become a watchmaker spend his first year in the clock shop. The general principles are the same, the methods of working differ in some respects, but the differences are instructive and help the training. I am speaking now of the ordinary house clock. The manufacture of turret clocks is on altogether different lines and would probably not be a suitable training for either the watchmaker or the maker of small clocks. But the broad principles of design and construction are on the same lines, and one of the purposes of technical education is to help the members of these different branches of horology to get more in touch with one another, and by studying each other's methods, to possibly obtain useful hints.
The manufacture of house-clocks is capable of great development in this country. In the near future, electrical clock-work must play an important part. Both of these facts should receive due consideration from the trade, and from the technical institutions concerned, and some preparation should be made to supply the wants of our own country.
Technical education has of late years, and I think, rightly, tended more and more to include practical instruction in its syllabus. Technical councils, are, I think, fully alive to the fact that purely scientific education is likely to go over the heads of the majority of the workers, and fail in its usefulness. They welcome the assistance of the various trades concerned, in arranging their classes, so that they may be technical in the fullest and most perfect sense.
Mr. Steward asked if Mr. Wright did not think that the tendency of machinery as applied to watchmaking was to stereotype the class of watches produced thereby, owing to the expense of altering or laying down new machinery. Mr. Bonniksen was deploring the fact that several of the large factories, did not take up with his epoch-making inventions on that account.
Mr. D. Buckney thought there was not much in the paper which anyone could take exception to. Mr. Wright said there was no doubt that the general watch of the future would be a machine-made one. That implied that the hand-made watch must go to the wall altogether. He (the speaker) hoped that would never be the case, because the machine-made watch could not be looked upon as so scientific a time-keeper as a hand-made one. Mr. Wright had also referred to the apprenticeship system, but they might take it for granted that so far as watch and clock makers were concerned, apprenticeship was dead. It had never been satisfactory. One reason for the decline of the apprenticeship system was the fact that employers received a premium varying in amount, and as soon as they had received it the apprentices were turned over to the workmen, who received no consideration whatever for what they were teaching. Another reason was that the work that the apprentice turned out during the early years of his apprenticeship was practically useless to an employer. The theory work that was being taught now-a-days was of very little use unless it was followed up by practical instruction. It was sometimes found in examinations that the paper work was done like a book, but when they came to test a man's practical capabilities they were found to be not worth a rap—he would not be able to earn his salt. They had to look and see how the present state of things could remedied. Shortly, practical classes would be started of an evening in the Northampton Institute. That was all very well, and would no doubt be productive of a great deal of good to workmen who wished to avail themselves of the opportunies offered there to improve themselves. But something was wanted beyond that. How were they going to provide the best workmen of the future? He did not think it could be done by evening work alone. He thought it would be necessary to establish a system of day work, which could be done by scholarships and paying students. At all events, lads ought to have an opportunity of working a certain number of hours during the day at the practical part of the work, and the theoretical work must go hand-in-hand with it. It might be taken alternately in the evening, as a sort of recreation, with drawing and the study of physics, metallurgy, and several other kindred branches of science which were likely to prove useful. By that means, he thought, they would provide the trade with a certain number of actual workers. Mr. Wright had also referred to what had been done in the classes of the British Horological Institute, and he (the speaker) joined with him in the feelings of pride with which he viewed the success of the many students who had been trained there. They unfortunately had one difficulty, and that was that they had not been able to Teach the actual worker. They wanted to produce men who were prepared and intended to earn their living at the particular branch to which they had devoted their attention, and he should have liked to hear a little more from Mr. Wright of what he suggested in that direction. It was, of course, difficult to take men trained under the old system and educate them to new ideas, and it was far easier and better to take the lad and work him up to do what was required of him.
Mr. Wright, in answer to Mr. Steward, said machine systems did decidedly tend to do away with the artist; but the machine system was not one to be followed by what he called a workman. That Mr. Bonniksen's invention was not taken up by the big factories he did not think need frighten either Mr. Bonniksen or anyone else, and for this reason, that the great difficulties machine factories had to contend with would always leave some opening for the handworker. The factories could not easily adapt themselves to a change, whether that change was an improvement or not. It was so difficult and costly to alter the plant in order to introduce anything new and decidedly good that the hand-worker for the time being would have that good thing all to himself, and that should be looked upon rather as an advantage to the worker, while watch making by hand was really a trade. There was no doubt that inventions like Mr. Bonniksen's would from time to time crop up, and it they were as good as his so much the better for the hand-worker that it was a difficult matter for the factories to adopt it. Mr. Buckney seemed to think that he (the speaker) suggested that the hand-trade would go altogether. He did not intend to suggest that; but he thought that probably 99 watches out of every hundred that were used by the ordinary public would be made by machinery, and he did not see why 90 out of that 99 should not be made in this country instead of being imported from abroad. He was pleased to see the success of some of the English watch factories. Those who were not in the trade and had nothing to do with watches had no idea how good they were, although they were a long way short of the watch Mr. Buckney referred to. He did not agree with Mr. Buckney in thinking that the system of apprenticeship was dead. He (the speaker) thought apprenticeship in some shape or form was really necessary in a business like watch making. His own idea was that a lad who was going to be brought up to the trade should be put for a year in a clock shop to make the tools and the smaller parts, and at the end of the year the boy or his guardians ought to make up their minds whether he is suitable for watch making; or if he is too heavy-handed for watch work, whether he is to go to clock work. He should then be apprenticed for three years. At the end of that time he would not be a finished workman, but he would be competent to take a situation as an improver, where his earnings would depend upon his ability. During all this probationary period he should be encouraged to attend technical classes which give instruction in drawing and in the mechanical principles concerned in his trade. The Northampton Institute was new, and the evening classes had to be tried, they had to find out the wants of the district; but if it proved eminently successful, there was no reason why it should not be turned into a day school, and become a school of horology, where young men could be taught in a proper manner the beginnings of their career, and encouraged to go on in the special lines which were best fitted for them.
Mr. Parker Rhodes said we were much too conservative in this country. Watches and clocks were most essential, and yet we were only using the timepieces and time indicators of former ages. There was absolutely no improvement: he admitted there was improvement in the mechanism, but there was no improvement in the construction of the dial of a watch or a clock. If they made the Government feel the necessity of giving support by small subsidies, there would be encouragement for those who were now exerting themselve almost fruitlessly over the tasks they had set themselves. Although so much had been done to improve the character of watch and clock making, there still remained a very large amount to be done to accomplish what we all desired, viz., a correct time indicator.
Mr. Alderman T. Snape (Liverpool) said the Technical Education Committee of Lancashire, at an early stage of their history as a committee, had sought to establish technical instruction with reference to an industry that at one time flourished in the county, but had since fallen into decay—the horological industry. A few years ago Prescot and Coventry were the two chief seats of the watch manufacture of this country, but at the time they came into possession of the funds the industry had fallen away, and they thought if by establishing a horological school they could revive that industry, and give back to Prescot the fame it once possessed of being the seat of the manufacture of the best watch movements in the world, they would be doing a good service to the county, as well as to that particular industry. The reason for the decay was owing to the fact that Americans had begun to manufacture watches by the aid of machinery, while the English continued to manufacture theirs by hand. In order to carry out the idea members of the committee visited the schools of horology in France, Switzerland, and Germany. They found a great difference between their system of technical instruction and our own. The system was a kind of school apprenticeship, and the scholars went from the elementary schools to these training schools. There they remained for four or five years, and were taught, practically and theoretically, everything connected with the manufacture of a watch, from the simplest process to the most difficult. In this way they succeeded in acquiring perfect skill in the construction of a watch, and before their four or five years term of tuition was over they were able to construct a watch from beginning to end. The result was that when they left their schools they were received as full journeymen into the employment of the various watchmakers in the country. One difficulty they experienced with their school at Lancashire was that they could not get their students to remain long enough, and another difficulty would have been that after they had completed their training in the schools the trade would not allow them to become journeymen watchmakers without serving an apprenticeship. In the Black Forest they found that the schools had extended their tuition to other matters besides watchmaking; they had begun to train their students in the manufacture of delicate electrical instruments. And in this country, if we were to keep ahead in the matter of electrical engineering, we should require very skilled handicraftsmen, who could construct the requisite delicate apparatus to develop the electrical discoveries that are being made. He had visited the Polytechnic School of Horology—the only one he could find in London—and he found it in a very feeble condition; he did not know whether it was still in existence. He believed there was also a class that was supported by the Watchmakers and Clockmakers' Association, but he had not come across it. In conclusion, he wished to point out that, if we were to prevent the loss that we were now sustaining through the decay of the watch-making trade which formerly flourished in our country, we must in some form or other endeavour to supply that technical instruction which these competing countries were giving to their students, and which was absolutely indispensable to enable us to regain the position we had lost. They had at Prescot a very large watch factory established on the American principle. That factory was growing aud employing, he believed, as many as a thousand hands, and was very successful notwithstanding the competition from abroad. But how much better it would be if all the people employed in that factory had had the benefit of a thorough technical education.
Dr. Walmsley (principal, Northampton Institute) said that apprenticeship schools, as carried on on the Continent, were quite familiar to educationalists in London; but some of them considered that an apprenticeship school was not quite the solution of the difficulty, and that for many reasons. There were commercial reasons. Apprenticeship schools would tnrn out finished watches and so enter into competition with the trade, because a school which was endowed and equipped with skilled instructors, where waste of material was not of very great consequence, could produce watches under conditions which were not trade conditions. Though there is to be a Horological Department, it is not intended to set up an apprenticeship school in the new Northampton Institute for this particular industry, for they considered as a general rule that the manipulative skill in any industry could only be acquired by long practice in the factory, and the time that would be spent in acquiring that skill in a school could be far better spent in other ways—in teaching the art and principles of the craft rather than acquiring mere deftness of hand. He might add that the question of the connection of the electrical instrument making with watch-making had been perceived by them, and there was on foot a scheme for combining the two. They were opening their first year classes in clock-making to electrical instrument makers, philosophical instrument makers, cycle gearing makers, and all trades in which small gearing played a part; and they hoped that they would thus meet a very definite want.
Dr. Garnett said he should like to ask Mr. Snape whether the organisation of the great and successful industry in Prescot was of such a character as to give opportunity for technical schools to be useful in the training of the workmen there employed, or whether the work was so much subdivided that only the springers and timers required technical instruction in the laboratory or in the watch-makers' technical school. Those were questions which lay at the root of technical instruction for the watch-making trade. The governing bodies of Polytechnics and other technical schools wanted to know whether they could hope to benefit the watch-making trade as carried on in the factory, or whether they could only hope to benefit the man who made his watch from beginning to end with his own hands. There was a serious difficulty in this country in the way of the establishment of apprenticeship schools on account of the question of what to do with the output of those schools, for unfortunately a school which was organised in the fashion of a workshop could not be canned on without making up something, and the material in some trades became a very important item in the cost of running the institutions. When the plumbers' classes were started in the North of England, a meeting was held at which there were present representatives of the employers, of the foremen, and of the operative plumbers, and ways and means were part of the subject discussed at that meeting. It was arranged to open classes, and to establish a plumbers' workshop, and promises were made, chiefly by employers in the room, of the whole cost of the equipment of the workshop. When the question of the material came up, it was stated that there were present persons who would purchase for their ordinary trade the work done in the workshop, and that the work so purchased would cover the cost of the depreciation in the metal spoiled. That looked very pretty, and no complaint was made; but within a few days it was announced that no articles made in the shops would be allowed to be used in the trade at all, but that everything that was made was to be kept for museum purposes, or hammered up, on the ground that no wages were paid for the work. Such action was, perhaps, quite justifiable. In the matter of lead work, it involved a comparatively small cost, but in other trades, the cabinet making trade, for example, this question was one of much greater importance, and it was necessary now in London to face the question, whether in the cabinet making trade they should compel the .students in the technical schools to make chairs and tables and wardrobes and bookcases of one-half or one-third their usual size, and so make pretty models which were too big for dolls' houses, but too small for use, or whether, as he suggested, they should try some system of adopting a bonded store, as in the case of excisable articles, and undertake not to put to practical use the finished work until a sum had been paid upon it, equivalent to the ordinary wages as determined by a trade committee, and that sum so paid should be handed over to some friendly society in connection with the trade, in order that it might be used for the benefit of the trade which had produced the articles. It seemed to him that in dealing with the precious metals such difficulties, unless solved, would be fatal in the way of establishing apprenticeship schools in this country.
Mr. Snape said at Prescot the workers were kept to their own particular branch of the industry. The same thing applied in the cotton weaving, and cotton spinning classes in Lancashire. The factories kept one man at the mill, or they had another at the carding-machines, but that did not prevent them recognising the great importance of establishing cotton-weaving and cotton-spinning classes, and trying to get as highly trained a population to carry on this industry as possible. Those classes were found to be extremely useful. They could not expect that they would be attended by everybody employed in the industry, but the best part of the workmen attended the classes, and they were the part from which they got their foremen and managers.
Mr. Steward said that last week he had visited several large factories in Coventry, and there, side byside with workpeople making watches by machinery, he found men making the different parts by hand, and, in other cases, saw men making every possible piece of the watch by hand. The machine barely touched it.
Source: Journal of the Society of Arts - 23rd July 1897
Trev.