Show CHOO SliNa A CA A TINSMITH DISCUSSES THE opportunities OF HIS TRADE A practical talk that should Int interest erett thoughtful Thought fal patent what a boy may maj expect in ID work and wages details ol of the apprenticeship matthew barr is the walking dele gate gata of tho tin and sheet iron workers 1 union onion and worked for many years as x tinsmith in a shop and in business fol foi himself the tinsmith trade said mr barr to a reporter 13 is split into several branches and to be able to do all kinds of work in tin and sheet iron requires considerable time spent in each department sheet iron work as it is fi understood tood in this city is carried on in what are known as furnace shops chops 1 while the manufacture of tin goods ii restricted to what are called assortment shops apart from these there aro are th cornice makers and slate elate and metat meta roofers which are included among branches that tinsmiths must know tc t round out their knowledge the best ago for a boy to begin ehg tinsmith trade is about sixteen ht ought ou ht to have picked up sufficient edu adur cation callon from the common schools at thu ap to give him a fair ecart in life nc boy is ia bound out as an apprentice to i tinsmith in this country but beginner begin nen 6 are not looked upon as full fledged fl journeymen until they reach the ego age ol oi manhood no matter how proficient the them may be in some shops a boy has very verj little show because there is a system of 0 employment which practically exclude i hini him this is the result of a surplus of laboi ro in other countries tinsmiths land her from other lands with but little knowl edge of what the trade requires here but with a general knowledge of th 11 business and the use of tools they apply for work in shops and are taker on in preference to the native bom boyi boy who desire to learn leam the trade these thes foreign mechanics can learn than a boy generally and while they are hired for low wages they in a short timo time aro are able to do almost as much work as an expert tinsmith this system if against ilg the american boy but so BO lon iona as there is money in it for the bosses 1 H I will bo be kept up this trade is not such a laborious labor labori ioui out one that it requires au an unusual amount of strength A tinsmith need not be as strong as a carpenter blacksmith 01 bricklayer but he must have plenty ol oi endurance he ought to be versatile intellectually because ho he is not a met mei machine but is ia often required to make entirely now new things r which can only be done with a fair degree of inventive skill besides an expert knowledge 0 of the use of tr As A boy will never become a good tinsmith if ho he is ia not obedient and patient patie he will have to do some simple thing over so many times that life will become very weary in tho the shop before hg he is set to work upon something that appears to be important to him in the tha assortment shops a boy will first be b taught how to use iise the shears he will be given a lot of old scraps to cut up and before his muscles get used to tha th a movement he will think that his arm will drop off ho he will receive about three dollars a week on the start the foreman watches tha boy carefully and if he does not take hold of the shears and other tools toola handily in a few days he will probably remind him that he has made a mistake in his hia calling some boys are put at this and other trades by their parents who would make good clerks and salesmen but never will be good mechanics to 0 accustom c v the boy to the use of the mallet and hammer he be is kept straightening old pipe pipa when he ha knows a little about tools and shows the proper spirit in doing his work he is sent bent to the jour heymans ney mans bench to hold things 0 for him and in this way gets an idea of the use of tools he may be kept at this for a long time and this is ia th period that will test his patience it is always a red letter day for the beginner when the foreman gives him a piece of metal and tells him to make a drinking cup he has seen it done many times but when he be comes to cutting out ont the tin and getting it into shape his fingers seem to be all thumbs he wants want s to make a good cup but his anxiety will knock it out of shape when it is all brightly polished it la is taken to tho the foreman for inspection nine times out of ten the beginner is told to take it home as a memento he feels very hap happy but he would not think so much of his work if he know knew that the real reason that it was not taken by the fors foreman nial was that it could not be sold the boy will soon find this out when the foreman keeps him making cups until ho he geis a perfect one from a ell cup P he goes to other things of minor importance winch which he is kept at until he be gradually acquires skill it depends upon the boy himself how much time he will WEI waste before he be becomes an elpe expert rt if he is ia civil and obliging the journeymen will teach him pattern drawing and in III i this way the boy will learn how to block out the models of every kind of work and cut out patterns for himself during the last thirty years there have been many changes in the tinsmiths trade machinery has taken the place of hand labor in the manufacture of nearly au all utensils nten sils but this has made no change in the tinsmiths condition organized labor has protected the workman the principal machines in the assortment sort ment shops are presses giving the general outlines of manufactured goods and lathes which are used to perfect the lines of spinning an important fact in the tha trade is the wheeling machine which gives the bright polish and puts on tho the finishing touches the pol ishiah used to be done by hammers on an anvil but the wheeling machine can do better and more work during the five years that a boy ought to spend in learning this trade he e ought to become expert in tle us usa se of all the machinery if he has had the proper instruction A boy ww will learn the trade better in a shop than in a trade babool ro cordar cord |