b ABC OF THE STEEL SQUARE 



at this trade or that for a third of a century, 

 and are to all appearances, satisfied with the 

 little they learned when they were apprentices. 

 True, mechanical knowledge was not always so 

 easily obtained as at present, for nearly all 

 ^vorks on the constructive arts were written by 

 professional architects, engineers, and designers, 

 <md however unexceptionable in other respects, 

 they were generally couched in such language, 

 technical and mathematical, as to be perfectly 

 unintelligible to the majority of workmen; and 

 instead of acting as aids to the ordinary in- 

 quirer, they enveloped in mystery the simplest 

 solutions of every-day problems, discouraging 

 nine-tenths of workmen on the very threshold of 

 inquiry, and causing them to abandon further 

 efforts to master the intricacies of their respect- 

 ive trades. 



Of late years, a number of books have been 

 published, in which the authors and compilers 

 have made commendable efforts to simplify mat- 

 ters pertaining to the arts of carpentry and 

 joinery, and the mechanic of to-day has not the 

 difficulties of his predecessors to contend with. 

 The workman of old could excuse his ignorance 

 of the higher branches of his trade, by saying 

 that he had no means of acquiring a knowledge 

 of them. Books were beyond his reach, and 



