Scientific American Supplement, No. 623 | Page 8

by mechanical intuition, requires very considerable
practical experience, which you will readily learn if you do not keep
yourself above it. If you have used your leisure hours to study why a
certain piece of mechanism was made in a certain way rather than in
another; if you have wondered why one part is thick in one place rather
than in another, apparently in defiance of all rules of the strength of
material; if you have endeavored to ascertain why a particular device is
used rather than another more evident one; if you have thought and
studied why a boss is thrown in here and there in designs to receive
bolts or to lengthen a journal, and if you have in your mind, by repeated
observation, a fair idea of how work is designed by other people, the
so-called mechanical intuition will be learned and found to be the
combination of common sense and good practice.
You will observe that some details have been copied for years and
years, although thoughtful men would say they are not the best, simply
because they are adapted to a large amount of work already done. This
is particularly true of the rolling stock on railroads. The cost of a
change in starting in a new country might be warranted, but it
practically cannot be done when the parts must interchange with so
much work done in other parts of the country. You will find in other
cases that the direct strain to which a piece of mechanism is subjected
is only one of the strains which occur in practice. A piece of metal may
have been thickened where it customarily broke, and you may possibly
surmise that certain jars took place that caused such breakages, or that
particular point was where the abuse of the attendant was customarily
applied.
Wherever you go you will find matters of this kind affecting designs
staring you in the face, and you will soon see why a man who has
learned his trade in the shop, and from there worked into the drawing
room with much less technical information than you have, can get
along as well as he does. Reserve your strength, however. Your time
will come. Whenever there is a new departure to be taken, and matters
to be worked out from the solid which require close computation of
strains or the application of any principles, your education will put you
far ahead, and if you have, during the period of what may be called

your post-graduate course, which occurs during your early introduction
into practical life, been careful to keep your eyes and ears open so as to
learn all that a man in practical life has done, you will soon stand far
ahead.
Reference was made to the use of leisure hours. Leisure hours can be
spent in various ways. For instance, in studying the composition and
resolution of forces and the laws of elasticity in a billiard room, the
poetry of motion, etc., in a ball room, and the chemical properties of
various malt and vinous extracts in another room; but the philosophical
reason why certain engineering work is done in the way it is, and the
proper way in which new work shall be done of a similar character and
original work of any kind carried on, can only be learned by cultivating
your powers of observation and ruminating on the facts collected in the
privacy of one's own room, away from the allurements provided for
those who have nothing to do. No one would recommend you to so
separate yourself from the world as to sacrifice health and strength, or
to become a recluse, even if you did learn all about a certain thing.
Remember, however, that the men who have accomplished most in this
world worked the longest hours, and any one with a regular occupation
must utilize his leisure hours to obtain prestige. The difference between
one man and another of the same natural ability lies entirely in the
amount of his information and the facility with which he can use it.
Life is short, and you must realize that now is your opportunity. If any
diversion in the way of pleasure or even certain kinds of congenial
work is offered, consider it in connection with the question, "Will this
be conducive to my higher aim?" This implies that you have a higher
aim; and if you have it, and weigh everything in this way, you will find
that every moment of exertion adds something to your storehouse of
information and brings you nearer to the accomplishment of that higher
aim.
In closing, we thank the ladies and gentlemen present for their close
attention to details of special interest only to those engaged in technical
study or practice.
We