“I don’t believe half the machinists know any thing about these branches,” said Bob Swanton.
“I don’t believe a quarter part of them learned any thing about these sciences, or even drawing, in school; but they have had to learn them in working at their trade,” replied Mr. Jepson. “In forging iron, in casting any metal, in brazing, soldering, and many other operations, one must learn the effect of heat upon metals, and the effect of various substances upon them.
“Do you think an old-fashioned blacksmith don’t know some of the uses of borax? Why does the tinman use resin, or some chemical preparation, in preparing and soldering his wares? Why does the blacksmith cool one piece of iron
by putting it in water, and let another piece cool off on the floor, if he don’t know any thing about the science of chemistry?”
“I meant book science,” added Bob Swanton.
“All science is the same, whether it be in a book or in a man’s head,” added the instructor. “You must get it into the head to have it of any use to you, and it matters not where it come from. All I mean to say is, that a theoretical knowledge of science, such as you get in school, will be of very great advantage to you in the mechanic arts.”
“We are willing to admit that,” said Lew Shoreham rather impatiently; for he was in a hurry to get hold of the tools, as the second class were.
“Here is a bar of brass, half an inch square,” said the machinist, taking the piece of metal from his bench. “We can do almost any thing with it that we can with wood.”
“You can’t saw it, and plane it as you can a piece of wood,” said Will Orwell, who had probably never been in a machine-shop in his life.
“Certainly we can: why not?” demanded the teacher.