[Top]CHAPTERXXII.THE CHAMPLAIN MECHANICS IN THE SHOP.The boys had listened with interest to the discussion at the dinner-table; and, when they gathered in front of the shop, they were talking about the subject themselves. But they were hardly ready to settle their opinions in the matter. The principal’s views sounded very much like heresy to some of them, who had been taught that it was the most praiseworthy thing in the world to attend the high-school. They were in doubt; and, in this respect, they were like thousands of full-grown women and men.When Mr. Jepson unlocked the doors of the shop, there was a general rush for the inside of it. High-school education was forgotten, and everybody’s curiosity was excited to know what the mechanical school was to be.The master-carpenter and the engineer, assisted by Bates and other men who worked on the estate, had placed all the boxes of carpenter’stools in the shop; but not one of them had yet been opened. The benches were all that looked like furniture. Of these there were half a dozen for wood-work, and a dozen for iron. Overhead were the shafts, drums, and pulleys by which various machines were to be operated.“Here we are again, my lads,” said Captain Gildrock, standing upon one of the boxes. “The first thing to be done is to put the shop in order. Your instructors are here; and you must heed what they say, and obey their orders. Like the session of the forenoon, the afternoon will last three hours. At four o’clock you will be dismissed for the rest of the day. The time will be your own then, but you must learn the lessons which have been assigned. Now, Mr. Brookbine and Mr. Jepson, I turn the pupils over to you. They have already been divided into classes. Mr. Jepson will take the first, and Mr. Brookbine the second.”Captain Gildrock stepped down from the box, and seated himself on one of the benches to witness the proceedings. He was quite as much interested as any of the pupils.“I am to teach you the use of carpenter’s tools,”said Mr. Brookbine. “It will be an easy and pleasant job if you give attention and try to do the best you can. The tools we have here are of the latest fashion, and some of them are quite different from those with which I learned my trade.“Let me say, that every one of them must be handled with the utmost care, and be kept in good order. You will be shown how to grind upon the grindstone, and sharpen on the oil-stone, the chisels and plane-irons. None but a bad workman ever uses dull tools. It is easier to avoid running your tools against a nail than it is to grind out the gaps the nail will make.”“But where are the tools? I don’t see any,” asked Tom Ridley.“They are in these boxes, and we will now open them. I will put two of you to each box, for there are just six of these large boxes. Dory and Thad Glovering may begin with the first one: the others will look on, and see how it is done. You may learn how to do it, or how not to do it.”The carpenter handed Dory and Thad a wooden mallet, a chisel, and a hatchet. Thad was full of enthusiasm. He thought he knew justhow to do it. He had the hatchet and chisel in his hands. Inserting the latter under the lid of the box at one end, he struck the handle of the chisel with the hatchet.“Stop there, if you please,” interposed Mr. Brookbine.Thad looked at the carpenter with astonishment, for he had no suspicion that there was any thing wrong in what he had done.“What I say to Thad I say to the whole class,” continued the carpenter. “He has done just what most of you would if you had been in his place. What is that mallet for, Thad?”“To hit with, just as your fist is,” replied the amateur workman, laughing.“To strike with, and that is just what your fist is not for. You are never to strike a wooden tool, or the wooden handle of a tool, with a hammer or a hatchet. Can you all remember that, my lads?”“Yes, sir!” shouted all the boys.“Don’t do it, then. A mallet is used in striking a chisel.”Thad took the mallet, and hit the chisel a tremendous crack with it. The tool happened to be in a rather loose place in the opening, and it wentin to the handle. Thad tried to draw it out. He pulled and tugged and wrenched at the chisel, but it was in firm enough to resist all his efforts. He was so much in earnest, that his attempts amused the rest of the boys; and they were soon laughing with all their might. The machinists at the other end of the shop were interested, and some of them went over to see what the excitement was. But they were called back by Mr. Jepson before they could see inside of the ring that surrounded Thad.“Pull away, my lad,” laughed the master-carpenter. “But when you get tired of the work, let me know, if you please.”“I can’t get it out,” replied Thad, when he discovered that he was the laughing-stock of the class.“Perhaps you can, if you keep on wrenching for a day or two longer.”“I have done my best, and it won’t come out.”“I don’t think it will under any such treatment,” added Mr. Brookbine. “You laugh, boys, because it is funny; but I doubt if the majority of you would have done any better. Here is a lesson to learn. Skill is better than strength, but skill and strength win the battle.”“Good!” shouted Steve Baxter. “I will remember that as long as I live: skill and strength win the battle.”“I hope you will all remember it, for it is just the motto for a carpenter. The ‘improvement,’ as the minister would say, upon the text, is this: When things don’t work right, and won’t do as you want and expect them to do, don’t yank, twist, jerk, and wrench at them. Something is the matter, and you must see what it is. That chisel would not come out. Why not?”“It is in too tight,” replied Dick Short.“Right, Dick: what is to be done?”“Loosen it, if you can.”“Dory, you may try your hand at it, taking the chisel as you find it.”Dory had been studying the situation, and had made up his mind what to do. Taking the hatchet, he inserted the edge of it in the crack, near the chisel, and drove it in with the mallet. The chisel dropped out of itself. But the hatchet stuck as hard as the chisel had.“Good, so far, Dory; but your chisel is in chancery,” said the carpenter.“What is sauce for goose is sauce for gander,”replied Dory as he picked up the chisel, and inserted it in the opening made by the hatchet. Twisting the hatchet a little, he started the nails with which the cover of the box was secured.In the manner described, Dory alternately used the tools till he had gone half-way round the box, when he and Thad took hold of the board with their hands, and pulled it off.“That was very well done,” said the carpenter. “But the board could have been taken off without pulling it off with the hands.”“I know it, Mr. Brookbine; but that was the quicker way to do it,” replied Dory.“So it was. It is quicker to pick up a rock, if you can, than to hoist it with a machine,” added Mr. Brookbine. “Now, Corny Minkfield, you and Nat Long may open the next one.”These operators had closely observed the method of Dory, and they opened the box without any difficulty. The others were disposed of in the same manner. The boys turned to the instructor for the next step in the interesting proceedings.“These boxes contain six sets of carpenter’s tools,” said Mr. Brookbine. “I shall describe them to you as they are taken from the cases.The tools are all packed in the same order. Dory will pass me the first package, and those who have opened the boxes will take the same bundle from each of them.”Dory took a thin package from the top of the box. Removing the paper from it, he handed the tool to the carpenter.“I needn’t tell you what this is, for you all know,” continued Mr. Brookbine.“It looks very much like a saw,” said Thad. “I know what it is, and what it is for.”“I am glad you do, Thad, though I have my doubts. Will you look at it, and tell me what kind of a saw it is?”Thad took the implement; and, putting on a very wise expression, he examined it carefully.“I should say that this was a hand-saw,” said he at last.“Quite right: it is a hand-saw. Why is that name given to it—to distinguish it from what?”“From the saw in a saw-mill, or a circular-saw, which is not a hand-saw,” answered Thad.“You have answered as well as could be expected. There is no particular meaning to the name, and the term is seldom used. There arenot a few words that lose their original meaning. I suppose if I should ask you to go for a wood-saw, you would know what I meant.”“I should say you meant the one used to saw fire-wood,” replied Thad.“Precisely so; but all the saws in these boxes are wood-saws. Mr. Jepson has saws for sawing brass and iron; but the term ‘wood-saw,’ or ‘buck-saw,’ was not given to distinguish it from them. If I asked you to saw off the end of the board you have taken off the box, do you think you could do it with this saw, Thad?”“I think I could: in fact, I have no doubt of it,” replied Thad confidently.“Suppose you try it; but don’t saw through any of the nails.”Dory assisted him to place the board in a proper position on the box. The amateur commenced operations, but the saw did not work as well as he expected. In spite of all his efforts, it would jump out of its place; and it would not cut at all well.“I don’t think this saw has ever been filed,” said Thad, disgusted with the ill success of his efforts.“The saw is sharp, well set, and in good order,” replied Mr. Brookbine. “Can any one of you tell me what kind of a saw this is?”“It is a slitting-saw,” answered Dory and two or three others, who had been examining the saws taken from the other boxes.“That’s what’s the matter,” laughed the carpenter. “It was not made to cut across the grain, and it will not do it very well. With this saw you workwiththe grain of the wood, and it is never used for any other purpose. You will all have a chance to try it in a day or two.—The next package, Dory.—Another saw,” added the instructor, as he took the tool in his hand. “Can any of you tell me what kind of a saw this is?”“It is a cutting-off saw,” said Nat Long.“Right. It is also called a panel-saw, when it has fine teeth. If you compare the filing and setting of the two saws, you will see that the teeth of the last are of a different angle from the other, and that it has more set than the slitting-saw; that is, the teeth are thrown out more.—What next, Dory?”Just then there was a roar of laughter from the machine-shop.
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The boys had listened with interest to the discussion at the dinner-table; and, when they gathered in front of the shop, they were talking about the subject themselves. But they were hardly ready to settle their opinions in the matter. The principal’s views sounded very much like heresy to some of them, who had been taught that it was the most praiseworthy thing in the world to attend the high-school. They were in doubt; and, in this respect, they were like thousands of full-grown women and men.
When Mr. Jepson unlocked the doors of the shop, there was a general rush for the inside of it. High-school education was forgotten, and everybody’s curiosity was excited to know what the mechanical school was to be.
The master-carpenter and the engineer, assisted by Bates and other men who worked on the estate, had placed all the boxes of carpenter’stools in the shop; but not one of them had yet been opened. The benches were all that looked like furniture. Of these there were half a dozen for wood-work, and a dozen for iron. Overhead were the shafts, drums, and pulleys by which various machines were to be operated.
“Here we are again, my lads,” said Captain Gildrock, standing upon one of the boxes. “The first thing to be done is to put the shop in order. Your instructors are here; and you must heed what they say, and obey their orders. Like the session of the forenoon, the afternoon will last three hours. At four o’clock you will be dismissed for the rest of the day. The time will be your own then, but you must learn the lessons which have been assigned. Now, Mr. Brookbine and Mr. Jepson, I turn the pupils over to you. They have already been divided into classes. Mr. Jepson will take the first, and Mr. Brookbine the second.”
Captain Gildrock stepped down from the box, and seated himself on one of the benches to witness the proceedings. He was quite as much interested as any of the pupils.
“I am to teach you the use of carpenter’s tools,”said Mr. Brookbine. “It will be an easy and pleasant job if you give attention and try to do the best you can. The tools we have here are of the latest fashion, and some of them are quite different from those with which I learned my trade.
“Let me say, that every one of them must be handled with the utmost care, and be kept in good order. You will be shown how to grind upon the grindstone, and sharpen on the oil-stone, the chisels and plane-irons. None but a bad workman ever uses dull tools. It is easier to avoid running your tools against a nail than it is to grind out the gaps the nail will make.”
“But where are the tools? I don’t see any,” asked Tom Ridley.
“They are in these boxes, and we will now open them. I will put two of you to each box, for there are just six of these large boxes. Dory and Thad Glovering may begin with the first one: the others will look on, and see how it is done. You may learn how to do it, or how not to do it.”
The carpenter handed Dory and Thad a wooden mallet, a chisel, and a hatchet. Thad was full of enthusiasm. He thought he knew justhow to do it. He had the hatchet and chisel in his hands. Inserting the latter under the lid of the box at one end, he struck the handle of the chisel with the hatchet.
“Stop there, if you please,” interposed Mr. Brookbine.
Thad looked at the carpenter with astonishment, for he had no suspicion that there was any thing wrong in what he had done.
“What I say to Thad I say to the whole class,” continued the carpenter. “He has done just what most of you would if you had been in his place. What is that mallet for, Thad?”
“To hit with, just as your fist is,” replied the amateur workman, laughing.
“To strike with, and that is just what your fist is not for. You are never to strike a wooden tool, or the wooden handle of a tool, with a hammer or a hatchet. Can you all remember that, my lads?”
“Yes, sir!” shouted all the boys.
“Don’t do it, then. A mallet is used in striking a chisel.”
Thad took the mallet, and hit the chisel a tremendous crack with it. The tool happened to be in a rather loose place in the opening, and it wentin to the handle. Thad tried to draw it out. He pulled and tugged and wrenched at the chisel, but it was in firm enough to resist all his efforts. He was so much in earnest, that his attempts amused the rest of the boys; and they were soon laughing with all their might. The machinists at the other end of the shop were interested, and some of them went over to see what the excitement was. But they were called back by Mr. Jepson before they could see inside of the ring that surrounded Thad.
“Pull away, my lad,” laughed the master-carpenter. “But when you get tired of the work, let me know, if you please.”
“I can’t get it out,” replied Thad, when he discovered that he was the laughing-stock of the class.
“Perhaps you can, if you keep on wrenching for a day or two longer.”
“I have done my best, and it won’t come out.”
“I don’t think it will under any such treatment,” added Mr. Brookbine. “You laugh, boys, because it is funny; but I doubt if the majority of you would have done any better. Here is a lesson to learn. Skill is better than strength, but skill and strength win the battle.”
“Good!” shouted Steve Baxter. “I will remember that as long as I live: skill and strength win the battle.”
“I hope you will all remember it, for it is just the motto for a carpenter. The ‘improvement,’ as the minister would say, upon the text, is this: When things don’t work right, and won’t do as you want and expect them to do, don’t yank, twist, jerk, and wrench at them. Something is the matter, and you must see what it is. That chisel would not come out. Why not?”
“It is in too tight,” replied Dick Short.
“Right, Dick: what is to be done?”
“Loosen it, if you can.”
“Dory, you may try your hand at it, taking the chisel as you find it.”
Dory had been studying the situation, and had made up his mind what to do. Taking the hatchet, he inserted the edge of it in the crack, near the chisel, and drove it in with the mallet. The chisel dropped out of itself. But the hatchet stuck as hard as the chisel had.
“Good, so far, Dory; but your chisel is in chancery,” said the carpenter.
“What is sauce for goose is sauce for gander,”replied Dory as he picked up the chisel, and inserted it in the opening made by the hatchet. Twisting the hatchet a little, he started the nails with which the cover of the box was secured.
In the manner described, Dory alternately used the tools till he had gone half-way round the box, when he and Thad took hold of the board with their hands, and pulled it off.
“That was very well done,” said the carpenter. “But the board could have been taken off without pulling it off with the hands.”
“I know it, Mr. Brookbine; but that was the quicker way to do it,” replied Dory.
“So it was. It is quicker to pick up a rock, if you can, than to hoist it with a machine,” added Mr. Brookbine. “Now, Corny Minkfield, you and Nat Long may open the next one.”
These operators had closely observed the method of Dory, and they opened the box without any difficulty. The others were disposed of in the same manner. The boys turned to the instructor for the next step in the interesting proceedings.
“These boxes contain six sets of carpenter’s tools,” said Mr. Brookbine. “I shall describe them to you as they are taken from the cases.The tools are all packed in the same order. Dory will pass me the first package, and those who have opened the boxes will take the same bundle from each of them.”
Dory took a thin package from the top of the box. Removing the paper from it, he handed the tool to the carpenter.
“I needn’t tell you what this is, for you all know,” continued Mr. Brookbine.
“It looks very much like a saw,” said Thad. “I know what it is, and what it is for.”
“I am glad you do, Thad, though I have my doubts. Will you look at it, and tell me what kind of a saw it is?”
Thad took the implement; and, putting on a very wise expression, he examined it carefully.
“I should say that this was a hand-saw,” said he at last.
“Quite right: it is a hand-saw. Why is that name given to it—to distinguish it from what?”
“From the saw in a saw-mill, or a circular-saw, which is not a hand-saw,” answered Thad.
“You have answered as well as could be expected. There is no particular meaning to the name, and the term is seldom used. There arenot a few words that lose their original meaning. I suppose if I should ask you to go for a wood-saw, you would know what I meant.”
“I should say you meant the one used to saw fire-wood,” replied Thad.
“Precisely so; but all the saws in these boxes are wood-saws. Mr. Jepson has saws for sawing brass and iron; but the term ‘wood-saw,’ or ‘buck-saw,’ was not given to distinguish it from them. If I asked you to saw off the end of the board you have taken off the box, do you think you could do it with this saw, Thad?”
“I think I could: in fact, I have no doubt of it,” replied Thad confidently.
“Suppose you try it; but don’t saw through any of the nails.”
Dory assisted him to place the board in a proper position on the box. The amateur commenced operations, but the saw did not work as well as he expected. In spite of all his efforts, it would jump out of its place; and it would not cut at all well.
“I don’t think this saw has ever been filed,” said Thad, disgusted with the ill success of his efforts.
“The saw is sharp, well set, and in good order,” replied Mr. Brookbine. “Can any one of you tell me what kind of a saw this is?”
“It is a slitting-saw,” answered Dory and two or three others, who had been examining the saws taken from the other boxes.
“That’s what’s the matter,” laughed the carpenter. “It was not made to cut across the grain, and it will not do it very well. With this saw you workwiththe grain of the wood, and it is never used for any other purpose. You will all have a chance to try it in a day or two.—The next package, Dory.—Another saw,” added the instructor, as he took the tool in his hand. “Can any of you tell me what kind of a saw this is?”
“It is a cutting-off saw,” said Nat Long.
“Right. It is also called a panel-saw, when it has fine teeth. If you compare the filing and setting of the two saws, you will see that the teeth of the last are of a different angle from the other, and that it has more set than the slitting-saw; that is, the teeth are thrown out more.—What next, Dory?”
Just then there was a roar of laughter from the machine-shop.