The series of lessons in wood-working here presented is intended, principally, for use in schools in which hand-work is pursued as a part of general training. The order of sequence is designed to lead the pupil from one tool to another of larger capabilities, and from one operation to another requiring a higher degree of skill.

In writing the descriptions of operations the aim has been to make them so full as to enable an intelligent pupil to perform the operations tolerably well, even without the help of an instructor, and at the same time to direct the attention of the instructor to the principal points that he ought to insist on, and the principal errors that are found to occur. The work being designed for young pupils, say between the ages of eleven and fourteen, it is not intended to go over much ground, nor to impart great skill, but only to open the way, reserving for another volume a more extended course. For the same reason, a thorough analysis of the mode of action of each tool is not attempted: this belongs rather to the teaching in a technical school, and should have its place in a more advanced work for higher classes. Nevertheless, it is intended, not merely to teach the pupil how to handle the tool, but also to form in him the habit of considering how the tool operates, and what modifications it requires to adapt it to different uses, affording thus training not only for the hand and the eye, but for the attention and judgment as well, - an end to which hand-work, properly conducted, is at least as well adapted as many of the other studies that have heretofore monopolized the attention of our schools.

With the exercises in the use of tools have been interwoven observations on the properties of the materials used, and elementary principles of mechanical drawing, with the idea that the three studies, thus blended together, would lend help and stimulus to each other, and thus be pursued with more zest than if taught separately.

The division into lessons is necessarily, to some extent, arbitrary. The lessons may be found too long or too short, according to the time which the school may be able to allow. An intelligent instructor will easily combine them or subdivide them as occasion may require.

I am indebted to Messrs. Fairbanks & Co. for the design for a small testing-machine, Fig. 8, and to my colleague, Professor William Stratford, for the micro-photograph of a section of the wood of Pinus Sylvestris, Fig. 6.

Tools and Materials required for the Course of Lessons in Wood-Working.