McKinley High School - President Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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ln his first year, the Horticulture Freshman acquires a general idea of the trade by devoting most of his time to the identification of an- nuals, perennials, shrubs, trees and many other elementary phases of the trade. Sophomores and Juniors are divided into two groups, one half specializing in greenhouse, the other half in landscaping. These div- isions are rotated every ten weeks. This experience determines the branch of the trade for which the student is best suited. At the be- ginning of the Senior year the stu- dent has a choice of the division in which he wants to specialize. Greenhouse students perform such tasks as sowing seeds, taking cuttings, caring for bulbs, protecting plants from disease and seeing that they are fed at proper intervals. Landscape students prune shrubsand trees, construct and maintain lawns, do surveying and landscape design- ing. There are many special projects directed towards the improvement of the school grounds. All students spend a period of two weeks in summer school during which they tend the greenhouses and gardens. Many students obtain outside relat- ed work after school or during the remainder of the summer. MACHINE SHOP The Machine Shop Department has one of the largest enrollments in the school. The students aim to become proficient on a variety of machines such as lathes, shapers, milling machines, drill presses, grinders and planers. The shop al- so provides them with the opport- unity to do benchwork and learn the use of measuring and hand tools. Freshman classes are under the supervision of Mr. Raymond, Mr. Fissler and Mr. Guderian. Among iobs turned out by these students were parallel clamps, C clamps, tap wrenches, scribers, combination wrenches, tool bit grinding gages, vises and gear studs. They also worked on tap wrenches, gear pul- leys, V -pulleys, center punches

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items for use in the other shops. Mr. Pfuelb's Sophomores divid- edthemselves into work groups of four. A full scale Western frame house was then erected and sub- sequently disassembled for use by a subsequent class. After drawing up plans for his own ranch style home, each individual built a model based on them. Mr. Pfuelb's Freshmen busied themselves learning the fundament- alsand necessary precautions against safety hazards in the trade. The Freshman course is short being only one of the six-week courses in their rotation plan. HORTICULTU RE The Horticulture Course at Mc- Kinley is the only one of its kind of- fered to young men in Western New York. lt is divided into two main branches, greenhouse main- tenance and landscaping. Mr. Mar- tino is in charge of the former divi- sion and Mr. Losel of the latter. The greenhouse division raises all the plants to be used in the gar- dens, while the landscape division has the responsibility of maintain- ing those gardens. ln addition, the landscapers care for the lawn areas and trees.

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and V -block vises. They also were given experience in heat treating. Mr. Napier's Juniors made tap wrenches, C -clamps, plug gages, T -bolts, wood-turning centers, pump wrenches and drill gages. Their training included experience with the new DO-ALL machine. The Senior supervised by Mr. Speck made V-Block vises, Thread pieces, spur gear, locking screws, lathe centers and ground drills. In addition they accomplished such iobs as magnetic parallels, molding cutters and the resurfacing of bench plates. They also painted or repaint- ed several of the machines and re- paried some furnace boiler pads. PATTERNMAKING Patternmaking as a trade makes a high demand for skill on the part of its workers. Whereas, other trades may fluctuate in importance with changed production methods, Patternmaking seems not to vary in the importance assigned it. If any- thing, modern mass production has seemed to make the Patternmaker more essential. At McKinley, the course is aimed at making the individual completely proficient. The student learns to make small machine parts as well as large structural castings with equal precision. Although he learns the use of many modern machines, in- struction in the use of necessary handtools is not ignored. The Pat- ternmaker also receives the neces- sary background in mathematics and mechnical drawing, helping to provide him with a well rounded experience. The Pattermaking instructor is Mr. Elmer Clabeau, a man with consid- erable work history in industry. The record of Mr, Clabeau's previous students indicates the soundness of their school training. This results seems inevitable toone watching the steady progress of Freshmen learn- ing the fundamental use of sharp tools to the Seniors working skillful- ly on their larger iobs such as the grinder casing, bearing housing and gear block.