208 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and one artifices of the skilled smith ; repousse work, so admirable 

 for its combination of demands on knowledge of the behaviour 

 of materials and for artistic treatment ; tinplate work, with the 

 knowledge of geometry required, solder, fluxes, etc. ; machine 

 work of all kinds, shearing, drilling, shaping, planing, turning, 

 with their interlinked mechanical principles, their invention and 

 development ; brass and iron founding, with extensions into 

 the domain of physics and chemistry, which, with pattern- 

 making to serve as a connecting link between wood and metal 

 work, necessitates the power of " seeing in the solid " : all these 

 are available and one and all are capable of development on the 

 lines recommended in the case of cardboard modelling and 

 woodwork. They are practical and practicable in every sense 

 and are not only desirable because they are " practical" but — one 

 may insist even at the risk of wearisome repetition — because in 

 the atmosphere of the workshops, where these varied activities 

 are proceeding, there is generated and fostered the frame of 

 mind which demands a clear, vivid and definite apprehension of 

 an underlying theory. Add to these possibilities the additional 

 interests involved in bookbinding, wood-carving, pottery work, 

 building, plumbing, etc., and it will be seen how wide is the 

 field exploited. What other subject can offer such a varied 

 range of interesting and useful occupations ? It is, of course, 

 not expected that every boy should become well acquainted with 

 all the branches of work mentioned ; nor even, necessarily, that 

 he should dabble in all. Every one, however, should go through 

 the preliminary stages of carton work, clay modelling and ele- 

 mentary woodwork, and an amount of metal work which can 

 be estimated by a glance at the following list of objects made : 



Glass plates, escutcheon plates of various designs, 

 picture-hangers, pipe-racks, hinges, bill-files, etc., in- 

 volving vice-work in brass ; ash-trays, plaques and 

 finger-plates in repousse; straight-edges, latches, pokers, 

 tongs, shovels, bicycle-carriers, punches and chisels, 

 involving work at vice and forge in iron and steel ; such 

 articles in tinplate as matchbox-holders, tins, geo- 

 metrical models, which require soldering; and various 

 designs in wrought iron and copper. 



These preliminary stages occupy, roughly, two and a half 

 years; next, about one year should be spent at some other 

 forms of hand work ; after this the boy should be allowed to 



