Читать книгу A Manual of Mending and Repairing; With Diagrams онлайн

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As I have observed, there is in every household continual breakage of many kinds—“or of the rending which cries for mending”—it is a matter of some importance that some one in the family should pay special attention to such matters. How often have I seen very valuable objects stuck together—anyhow and clumsily—with putty, wafers, sealing-wax, glue, flour-paste, or anything which will “hold” for a time, when a perfect cure might have just as well been effected had the proper recipe been taken to the first chemist. This is equally true as regards taking ink or stains out of garments, or repairing the latter perfectly, or mending shoes or indiarubber cloth, or felting worn hats and many other articles, all of which are treated of in this work.

It is true that everybody is not naturally ingenious, or clever, or gifted, but all may become skilful menders if they will duly consider the subject (which requires no hard study) and experiment on it a little. And here I would seriously address a few words to all who are interested in education. There is a certain faculty which may be called constructiveness, which is nearly allied to invention, and which is a marvellous developer in all children of quickness of perception, thought, or intellect. It is the art of using the fingers to make or manipulate, in any way; it exists in every human being, and it may be brought out to an extraordinary degree in the young, as has been fully tested and proved. Now, if we take two children of the same age, sex, and capacity, both going to the same school and pursuing the same studies, and if one of the two devotes from two to four hours a week to an industrial art class (i.e., studying simple original design, easy wood-carving, repoussé, embroidery, &c.), it will be found—as it has been by very extensive experiment—that the latter child will at the end of the year excel the former in all branches of learning; that is to say, in arithmetic or geography, so greatly does ingenuity proceed from the fingers to the brain. Now, mending is so nearly allied to all the minor or mechanical arts, it enters into them so closely, that it in a manner belongs to and is an introduction to them all. Like them, it stimulates invention or ingenuity, and is perhaps of far greater practical utility or direct use. Boys and girls learn very willingly how to mend, and, from a long experience in teaching them, I should say that a class with experiments and practical instruction in what is given in this book should take precedence of all carpentry, metal-work, joining, leather-work, or any other branches whatever. For it is easier than any of them, and it is of far more general utility, as the following pages clearly show. Such teaching would cost next to nothing for outfit, and would be the best introduction to technical education of all kinds.