THE INDUSTRIES OF LEICESTER 71 
are attested by the large amount of experimental and investigation work 
which the staff of the department undertakes for industry. The splendidly 
equipped testing laboratory and the staff are thus available for all testing 
and investigation work received from local firms. The major portion of 
the equipment has been generously provided by the Engineering and 
Allied Employers’ Leicester and District Association, the Leicestershire 
and District Munitions Committee’s Engineering Education Fund, and 
the Leicester Association of Engineers. 
THE PRINTING INDUSTRY. 
Leicester is accepted throughout the country as being a prominent 
centre for the production of printing of the higher class, especially colour 
printing. Within a small radius of the city there has grown up a body 
of manufacturers educated in the art of national distribution of their 
products, skilled in the application of branding to salesmanship, and 
fully appreciative of the value of modern printing. Their requirements 
are more fully met by the local members of the printing industry than 
elsewhere, and the standard of excellence established has attracted the 
attention of students and buyers of printing in all parts of the country. 
Despite the unhelpful conditions prevailing generally, considerable 
progress is being made in the development of printing and printing 
processes. Fundamentally, there is more adequate provision of facilities 
for the technical training of printing apprentices. Steadily working over 
a number of years, executive and district committees have evolved systems 
of apprentice selection which are resulting in the introduction of a more 
intelligent and more highly educated type of apprentice. They have 
been helped in their work by the very favourable rates of remuneration 
in all branches of the industry. 
In Leicester this problem is being solved by the Gateway Secondary 
School, which is unique in the kind of pre-apprenticeship training it 
offers to printers. In addition to a secondary education, specially selected 
boys are given practical instruction in the various branches of printing. 
In Leicester, as in the other more important centres, day as well as 
evening training is provided for apprentices. Here the training is 
carried out in the College of Arts and Crafts—a fact that accounts in a 
large measure for the high artistic standard of local printing. 
CONCLUSION. 
The extremely varied character of the many subsidiary industries of 
the town and county renders a connected account quite impossible within 
the limits of space at disposal. More than seventy classifiable trades, 
many of which thrive with no apparent links to connect them, provide 
employment for thousands of workpeople. 
It is interesting to observe that the two staple industries tend more 
and more to be independent of other areas, save in the provision of raw 
materials. The extremely large number of manufacturing processes 
involved and the derived demand for commodities, to be used again in 
further manufacture, have led to the growth of numerous subsidiary 
industries which, while remaining ancillary to the main industry, serve 
