Saginaw High School - Aurora Yearbook (Saginaw, MI)

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THE FORGE ROOM.

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THE MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL. In the last few years, the ideas, concerning education, have developed and broadened to a great extent. It is now considered necessary to combine with the academic work, something more as practicable, and much more interesting, namely, manual training. The idea of a Manual Training School, is not to teach trades, but to make education more natural, more thorough, and more practical. Here the creative powers are trained, for, besides the actual work with the hands, the doing leads to facts about the materials worked with, as, for example: the handling of cloth leads on to facts about the manufacture of textiles; cooking leads to questions about the chemical combinations of the foods; and the work in the iron and carpenter shops to the con- struction of tools and machinery. It has been made possible for the children of Saginaw to derive the benefit from this “necessary element in any well planned scheme of education, through the generosity of one of its citizens, Wellington R. Burt. This school, which for so long has been in the minds of all, has now become a reality, and work in it has commenced. At the right end of the first floor is the twelfth grade machine shop. The outfit for this room alone cost five thousand dollars. At one end is a recitation platform, where the seats are arranged in tiers for the pupils and on the floor in front is a large machine for the use of the instructor. There are also individual lathes for each member of the class. Besides lathes, shaper and milling machine, there are others for fitting up iron in any manner. The machines are run by a twenty horse power Westingbouse motor. A tool room opens off from the shop, and here all extra tools are kept. While a class is at work, one boy is stationed here to hand out any tool that may be wanted by the others. This avoids any confusion. 13 m

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A few feet down the corridor is the iron stock room, where the extra iron is kept for both the machine shop and the forge room. The forge room is at the back and right of the building. The work is all done with tools. There is a large automatic fan for the forges and also for carrying away the smoke. There are twenty forges and twenty anvils, also an individual tool stand for each boy. The boys learn to hammer and shape the iron while it is hot. They have preliminary exercises at first, but later, useful articles, such as sled runners, are made. The foundry is on the left, and is equipped to accommodate twenty pupils with individual molding troughs, and the other necessary machines. After making a pattern in the Mechanical Draw- ing class, the boys are taught to make sand molds, pour in the hot iron, and thus develop their pattern. In the wood turning room there are double benches, each supplied with a lathe. There is room for twenty boys, each doing individual work. There is also a band saw and pattern maker’s lathe. At the benches are three sets of tools, one to be used in common, and one to be cared for by each boy. He must keep them in order, and keep them sharp. Here, as in all of the other shops, is a motor, used exclusively for the machinery of that shop. Adjoining this is the carving room. The boys work at individual benches, and learn the handling of tools. They also learn joinery work, as for door, and relief work. Some of the specimens of the work done in wood were little trays, Indian clubs of differ- ent woods, dumbbells, cabinets, wooden saucers, napkin rings, etc. In the seventh and eighth grade carpenter shop, the boys have mostly bench work. They learn the use and handling of simple tools. Little racks and other useful articles of a similar nature are made by them. There is a wood stock room for the rough and extra lumber. Here there are two machines, a planer and a saw, so that wood can be made into whatever shape desired. Both Mechanical and Freehand drawing rooms are com plete. In the freehand, the aim is to train the eye, and teach the appreciation of beauty. In the mechanical drawing the aim is practical, and the pupil must be so exact. 15