MECHANICS AND ASTRONOMY. Ivii 



as instructors, and with " tenders," each evening, the pupils in brick-laying are 

 at -work building brick walls. Window and door frames are built around, cor- 

 ners, arches and pilasters are laid, and all parts of the brick-laying trade are 

 taught, as well as the making and the proper tempering of the mortar. During 

 the three hours' lesson these walls are carried up about as high as one can reach 

 and the next day laborers take them down, clean the brick, re temper and mix 

 over the mortar, so that the same materials are ready to be used again for the 

 next lesson. 



The rooms for the lessons in plastering are provided with alcoves whose 

 sides and ceilings are lathed. Here the learners are practiced in wall and over- 

 head plastering. The next day laborers remove the plaster, renew it and make 

 it ready to be used again. Where two or three coats are applied, the first 

 must be allowed to dry and harden, in which case the plaster can not be used 

 a second time. 



The students are mostly clerks and porters who are anxious to learn trades ; 

 and after they have learned their trades here, there is little difficulty in their 

 getting profitable employment. 



The Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken, was next visited. 



The chief object of this institution is the preparation of young men for the 

 various branches of engineering. For this purpose a full and thorough course 

 in drafting, mathematics, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, and the modern lan- 

 guages is offered, as well as a finely equipped shop, large enough to accommo- 

 date fifty pupils. The object of the shop work is not so much to secure indi- 

 vidual skill with tools as it is to acquaint the pupil with proper methods of 

 work, and with the properties and uses of materials. The shop exercises are 

 so arranged that all pupils pass over exactly the same course, and in the same 

 order. So much time is given to each kind of hand work, and so much to each 

 machine. Under this plan, no attention is paid to the production of market- 

 able articles. 



The following table shows the number of hours devoted by each student to 

 the various kinds of work: 



Kinds of Work. Hours. 



Carpentry, pattern-making and wood turning 165 



Metal planing and milling 87 



Drill press work -. 34 



Vice work .-. 40 



Molding ... - 40 



Blacksmithing. 40 



Steam fitting ... 16 



Total 313 



The remainder of the shop work, about 80 hours, is rather of the nature of 

 scientific laboratory experimentation. 



The tuition fee in this institution is 1150 per annum for residents of New 

 Jersey, and 1335 per annum each for all others. 



The next visit was made to the Worcester Free Institute, located at Worces- 

 ter, Massachusetts. This was founded in 1865 by private benefaction, and is 

 one of the oldest industrial schools in the country. 



Its course of study is three years, but as the requirements for admission are 

 a full year higher than our own, graduation from the Worcester Institute im- 



H 



