2IO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 274 



Russia as well as in Germany, where traffic was blocked for many 

 days. Now it is often stopped on account of the melting of the 

 enormous amount of snow accumulated in winter. Destructive 

 floods have already begun, especially in Hungary and Galicia, and 

 will extend northward and eastward as the season advances. 



O. E. 



St. Petersburg, April 2. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS IN WASHINGTON. 

 Manual Training in the Washington Public Schools. — Dr. Sternberg's 

 Investigations in Regard to the Yellow-Fever Micro-Organisms. — 

 Production of Copper, Lead, and Zinc. 



Manual Training in Washington. 



A YEAR ago Congress appropriated five thousand dollars to be 

 used during the present fiscal year for the experimental introduc- 

 tion of manual training into the public schools of Washington, in 

 accordance with a plan outlined by Prof. W. B. Powell, superin- 

 tendent of schools of the District of Columbia. Industrial drawing 

 had been introduced into the schools six or eight years ago. Be- 

 ginning with moulding in clay and stick-laying and the study of the 

 forms represented, the pupil is advanced, during the eight years of 

 the course below the High School, to constructive drawing, free- 

 hand and instrumental ; to making working drawings of the hollow 

 cylinder, of the bolt-head, of the bell, of the pulley, of the try-square, 

 and of framing (the mortise and tenon); to the making of conven- 

 tional ornaments, drawing plant-forms from nature and adapting 

 them to ornament, etc. Professor Powell's plan was to supplement 

 this by making work in shops a part of the regular course for the 

 boys in the two higher grades of the grammar-schools and in the 

 High School, and in the same way to ingraft instruction for the 

 girls in cookery, upon the same grades. 



With the funds provided by Congress there were fitted up, at the 

 beginning of the present school-year, two schools of cookery, four 

 schools of carpentry, one school of turning, moulding, and forging, 

 and one school of sewing. The cost of furnishing and equipping 

 each school of cookery with chairs, table, washstand, cupboard, 

 dishes, range, boiler, and fittings, was $202.20 ; that of each school 

 of carpentry, for benches, tools, lumber, and nails, a little less than 

 $400 ; and that of the school of turning, moulding, and forging, in- 

 cluding moulding tools, forges, lathes, and tools for same, shafting, 

 belting, pulleys, and fittings, and steam-engine, $1,800.29. The 

 estimated cost of materials for all of these schools for the current 

 school-year, the estimate being based upon the actual expenditure to 

 Jan. I, is $631.53. Eight teachers are employed, — two of cookery 

 at $500 a year each ; four of carpentry and one of turning, etc., at 

 $650 ; and one of sewing at $700. The teachers of carpentry, turn- 

 ing, and forging are all graduates of the Worcester (Mass.) Poly- 

 technic Institute, specially trained to give this kind of instruction ; 

 and the teachers of cookery are graduates of the Washington Nor- 

 mal School, who have taken a special course in cookery under the 

 supervision of Superintendent Powell. 



The number of pupils now under instruction, drawn from the 

 seventh and eighth grades of the grammar-schools and from the 

 High School, is as follows : in the schools of cookery, 471 ; in the 

 schools of carpentry, 660 ; in the school of moulding, turning, and 

 forging, 112 ; in the school of sewing, 600. These schools, except 

 the sewing-school, the instruction in which is given in the regular 

 classrooms, are divided into classes of about twelve pupils each, 

 which succeed each other during each school-day at intervals of 

 one hour each. Every class, therefore, has one hour's instruction 

 in the shops each week. It is Superintendent Powell's desire to 

 increase this to two hours a week as soon as sufficient funds are 

 available, and shops have been provided for all the pupils in the grades 

 mentioned. In the cooking-schools, each lesson consists of instruc- 

 tion in the chemistry of foods and cooking, in the relative nutrient 

 qualities of different articles, in the selection of food at the markets 

 and the groceries, and in the practical preparation of one dish. 

 During the week intervening between the lessons, the pupils are re- 

 quested to make a trial of the dish last made, and to report success 

 or failure. 



The interest of the pupils in this work is very great. The teach- 

 ers have been surprised to and how many of the girls in the two 

 higher grades of the graniniar-schools and in the High School are 



entirely ignorant of even the plainest cooking. This is true not 

 only of the daughters of wealthy parents, but of those of families 

 of small income, like clerks in the government departments. In a 

 large majority of cases no instruction at home seems to have been 

 given the girls in the public schools. Again : the more wealthy 

 parents are, as a rule, the more anxious that their daughters shall 

 join the classes in cookery. Some of the pupils at first objected 

 to washing the dishes and making the kitchen ready for the next 

 class, but this false pride has already disappeared. A healthy emu- 

 lation has sprung up among the girls of each class to be able to 

 report the most successful experiments in cookery at home ; and in 

 many a family in Washington an improvement in the methods of 

 preparing food has already taken place, as a result of the few months' 

 instruction that has already been given. 



The schools of carpentry are also divided into classes of twelve 

 pupils each, and the course comprises two years' instruction. Dur- 

 ing the first year the boys in the seventh and eighth grades of the 

 grammar-schools are practically taught the correct methods of using 

 planes, handsaws, chisels, gouges, brace and bits, hammer, gauge, 

 and other tools in the working of wood ; the laying-out of work 

 with knife and pencil, using try-square, bevel, and dividers, and 

 working from drawings executed by the pupil himself; the making 

 of plain and more complex mortise-and-tenon joints ; dove-tailing 

 and plain cabinet-making; the making of articles of practical util- 

 ity for the schools and shops ; the putting-together of work with 

 brads, nails, screws, and glue ; the care and sharpening of edged 

 tools ; and the use of circular saws. 



A visit to the schools of this grade showed wonderful progress 

 during the few months since they were established, and this prog- 

 ress was especially striking when some of the earlier work was 

 compared with some of the later. In one of these schools, each 

 pupil was engaged in making a shoe-blacking box. The designs 

 were all original, and no two of them were alike. Some of them 

 showed considerable invention in the form and arrangement of the 

 boxes. Working-plans had first been made, and submitted to the 

 teacher for his approval, and every pupil was required to construct 

 his box in accordance with the plans submitted. The work was 

 well advanced when seen ; and some of it would have been highly 

 creditable to a skilled cabinet-maker, while the average of it all 

 was certainly as high as that which would be done by the average 

 Washington mechanic. Benches for use in the shops, shelves and 

 cupboards for the use of the schools, geometrical blocks for the 

 primary schools, and many other articles, had already been made by 

 the classes of this grade. 



In the turning, moulding, and forging shop the boys from the 

 eighth grade of the grammar-schools and from the High School 

 are taught the use of all the hand wood-turning tools, embracing 

 plain and fancy turning in hard and soft wood, inside and outside ; 

 the use of chucks and face plates ; pattern-turning ; bench-mould- 

 ing in sand ; casting soft metal, embracing the use of slickers, 

 trowels, riddle, etc., using patterns made by the pupil himself ; the 

 forging of small articles of soft iron and steel, and steel tools, with in- 

 struction in the simpler methods of manufacture of iron and steel ; 

 practice in welding iron and in hardening and tempering steel, and 

 by lectures on metallurgy. 



It is the intention to give each class two hours of practical in- 

 struction a week ; but, owing to the small number of shops and the 

 limited number of teachers, they are receiving but one hour a week 

 this year. But their progress has been very satisfactorj'. The 

 work in turning, moulding, and forging, while showing great dif- 

 ferences of adaptability on the part of the pupils, proves that every 

 boy is capable of learning to use common tools, and of making with 

 them a thousand and one articles which, before the few lessons he 

 has received, he would not dream of undertaking. Among the 

 useful articles already made in this shop are a set of filter-stands 

 for the physical laboratory of the High School, handles for tools, 

 etc. 



The interest of the boys in the work of the shops is as great as 

 that of the girls in cookery. They are all bright, wide awake, and 

 there is no listlessness, no idling the time away. As all the mem- 

 bers of each class are engaged upon similar work, there is a healthy 

 emulation among them to produce the best results. It is also 

 noticeable that the wealthier parents take more interest in these 



