engineering work by doing carefully and conscientiously the work entrusted to them. By so doing, the students will go forth-not handicapped by the idea that they know it all, but with a willingness to work and a desire to learn which will give them the best possible start on the way to becoming "Engineers." (For discussion, see page 474.)

THE SPECIAL APPRENTICESHIP COURSE.

BY CHARLES E. DOWNTON,

Foreman of Apprentices, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company.

The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company has two distinct apprenticeship courses, one for non-technical and the other for technical graduates. The former has been called the trades course and provides for intelligent young men who desire to become journeymen machinists, tool-makers, pattern-makers, foremen and inspectors. The other course, called the engineering apprenticeship, provides for young men graduates of technical schools and universities.

TRADES COURSE.

Manufacturing methods of former years have changed through the introduction of automatic machinery, specialization, and concentration of larger bodies of workmen under one management. The latter method does not permit of as close relationship between the apprentice and his employer. Personal contact, so helpful to a boy learning a trade, has been removed and the boy is dependent upon himself almost entirely for opportunities and, as a consequence, is often sidetracked through his desire to receive greater pecuniary compensation and the foreman's desire to have him become a productive unit. To meet these changed conditions and to supply this all important guidance through personal contact,

the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company has organized a separate department aside from the other works-departments to look specifically to the welfare of each individual apprentice and direct him along lines which will make his apprenticeship service of greatest value. The department occupies the same position with relation to the boy that the employer did in the earlier days.

The work to which the apprentice is assigned is not intended to give him a general understanding but a specific training in the manufacture of a definite line of work, following a schedule which enables him to master the various machine tools; the work of the assembling floors for erection and fitting, and the bench for hand-work. This schedule is more or less flexible, changes being governed to a large extent by the boy's aptitude to grasp particular branches. Some are keen to do accurate work at the bench-others on the floor, while some show characteristics which will not permit of much advance beyond the operation of machine tools. There is need of each class, and the process of segregation is accomplished through the personal contact mentioned.

Many of the trades apprentices attend the Casino Technical Night Schools, where courses of instruction in mathematics, physics, mechanical drawing and shop-practice are taught by an efficient corps of instructors selected from the engineering departments of the Westinghouse Companies.

There is in contemplation a day school, to be operated in conjunction with the trades courses, where the apprentice will be taken from the shops two or

three days per week (two hours per day), to receive instruction in the branches named. This school will be in the works and will be in charge of an educational director.

Results achieved demonstrate that the old and eminently efficient form of apprenticeship can be maintained. Were such a system followed by all large industrial establishments there would be no danger of an undersupply of practical mechanics, quite as capable as those of the past.

ENGINEERING APPRENTICESHIP COURSE.

The average young man when leaving college has received the fundamental grounding in physics, mathematics, chemistry and the sciences which relate to some particular branch of engineering. He knows little of actual application and is deficient in that degree of working knowledge that qualifies him to be of immediate use. It is beyond the scope of any university to supply the practical experience which will mature men for efficient service immediately upon leaving college.

The college work should be supplemented by some sort of an apprenticeship service which will give the graduate systematic training in shop methods and a familiarity with the practical uses of materials as well as knowledge of the handling of men-to be gained only through direct contact and association with labor. In short, the scope of such a course should enable the graduate to obtain a knowledge of those essentials to a successful engineering career which in the nature of things are impossible to acquire at college.

The course must be planned to accomplish the gradual and systematic training of young men along lines which will give them a clear and definite insight into the products manufactured by the company, qualifying them to fill vacancies that occur in the working organization. The environments should be favorable for the development of powers of observation, alertness and decisiveness, executive ability, leadership, attention to details and commercial attributes, logical thinking and application of principles to a definite purpose.

In the course which the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company has organized, the apprentice is assigned to duty in the various manufacturing departments, where a comprehensive knowledge of the details of the apparatus can be gained through actual assistance and, in many cases, complete responsibility in its building; in the various testing departments to give a knowledge of the operation and capabilities of the apparatus; in the engineering departments to afford experience in the requirements and design of electrical machinery from a mechanical as well as an electrical standpoint. Some are assigned to duty in the correspondence, sales and other commercial departments, primarily as understudies and later, should they continue to show adaptability for the work, as regular employees. Care is taken to direct them along lines which appear to be suitable to their individual characteristics.

Proper facilities for further mental improvement are provided through The Electric Club, an institution which was organized in 1902 by the apprentices,