page 46

Technical Training of Apprentices
Progress of the Lads at the Hutt Valley Shops

(By G. S. J. Read, Mechanical Engineering Cadet.)

To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enliv'ning spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.

—Thomson.

When the Apprentice Classes were first organised at our Workshops, it was found that, although many of the lads were undoubtedly turning out to be first-class tradesmen, their standard of education left much to be desired. Many of the boys, although having a sixth standard certificate on entering the service, had not further improved their education.

The task, therefore, of equipping the lads with a first-class technical knowledge of their respective trades, was commenced in a thorough going manner, and most gratifying progress has been made by the majority of the boys. Along with their training in arithmetic, the boys were taught drawing and the correct reading of blue prints. The method adopted was to instruct them to draw a pictorial projection from the blue print, of a standard object with which they were individually familiar. They were also instructed in the art of making working drawings. These drawings were afterwards compared with the drawings made by the draughtsman, that the apprentices might see where an improvement in their own drawing could be made. After a while every apprentice became proficient in this work, and could read blue prints with ease.

When the boys had mastered arithmetic, they were taught the rudiments of algebra, to about the matriculation standard. From algebra the boys proceeded to a study of the Calculus—a small class having been started for this purpose. The class lasts for one hour, and, during that time, the various parts of the differential Calculus are explained—rigid mathematical proofs being avoided. It is intended to provide the apprentices with a working knowledge of differential and integral Calculus that they may be in a position to read the more advanced books on steam and engineering.

To give instruction to boys possessing little knowledge of algebraical symbols, in the meaning, use, and way of finding a differential co-efficient, was a difficult task, but this was successfully accomplished in the first lecture—on which the boys took copious notes in the manner of students in a large university. In this lecture, entitled “The Scope and Usefulness of the Calculus,” it was pointed out how, firstly, the Calculus could be applied to work the boys had already done, and, secondly, how problems, impossible of solution by ordinary methods, were comparatively easy with a knowledge of the Calculus. To make work easier by always dealing with something familiar to the apprentices, rather than with abstract propositions, instances that have occurred in the shops are used as examples.

page 47

A departure from any text book available had to be made, for it was found that they were so loaded with rigid mathematical demonstrations as to be useful only as a rough guide.

The use (in the course of lectures now being given to the boys) of familiar examples treated in a new way has the advantage that much of the progress made will be made by the apprentices themselves—without conscious effort—in the process of solving problems.

When the boys have mastered the Calculus, it is intended to direct their future studies upon sound lines. The ideal aimed at is to make them first-class tradesmen.