THE STEEL SQUARE AND ITS USES There is nothing of more importance to a young man who is learning the business of house joinery and carpentry, than that he should make himself thoroughly conversant with the capabili ties of the tools he employs. In many instances the tools employed by the carpenter will be found to open up a far wider field of usefulness and to be adaptable to a far greater variety of purposes than the average workman is aware of. It may be that in some cases under the rules shown in this work the result can be obtained much more readily with other aids than the square; but the progressive mechanic will not rest satisfied with one method of performing operations when oth ers which are readily available are within his reach.
In the hand of the intelligent mechanic the square becomes a simple calculating machine of the most wonderful capacity, and by it he is readily able to solve many problems of the kinds that are continually arising in mechanical work, which by the ordinary methods are more difficult to perform.
What Is Needed to Excel.—The great im provement which the arts and manufactures have attained within the last fifty years, renders it essential that every person engaged therein should use his utmost exertions to obtain perfect knowl edge of the trade he professes to follow. It is not enough, nowadays, for a person to have attained the character of a good workman; that phrase implies that quantum of excellence, which con sists in working correctly and neatly, under the directions of others. The workman of to-day, to excel, must understand the principles of his trade, and be able to apply them correctly in practice. Such a one has a decided advantage over his fellow-workman; and if besides his superior knowl edge he possesses a steady manner, and indus trious habits, his efforts cannot fail of being re warded.
It is no sin not to know much, though it is a great one not to know all we can, and put it all to good use. Yet, how few mechanics there are who will know all they can. Men apply for em ployment daily who claim to be finished mechanics and profess to be conversant with all the ins and outs of their craft, and who are noways backward in demanding the highest wages going, who, when tested, are found wanting in knowledge of the simplest formulas of their trade. They may,
perhaps, be able to perform a good job of work after it is laid out for them by a more competent hand, they may have a partial knowledge of the uses and application of their tools; but, generally, their knowledge ends here. Yet some of these men have worked at this trade or that for a third of a century, and are to all appearances, satisfied with the little they learned when they were ap prentices. True, mechanical knowledge was not always so easily obtained as at present, for nearly all works on the constructive arts were written by professional architects, engineers, and design ers, and however unexceptionable in other re spects, they were generally couched in such lan guage, technical and mathematical, as to be wholly unintelligible to the majority of workmen; and instead of acting as aids to the ordinary inquirer, they enveloped in mystery the simplest solutions of everyday problems, discouraging nine-tenths of the workmen on the very threshold of inquiry, and causing them to abandon further efforts to master the intricacies of their respective trades.
Open Ways to Knowledge.—Of late years a number of books have been published, in which the authors and compilers have made commend able efforts to simplify matters pertaining to the arts of carpentry and joinery, and the mechanic of today has not the difficulties of his predecessors to contend with. The workman of old could excuse his ignorance of the higher branches of his trade, by saying that he had no means of acquir ing a knowledge of them. Books were beyond his reach, and trade secrets were guarded so jealously, that only a limited few were allowed to know them, and unless he was made of better stuff than his fellow-workmen, he was forced to plod on in the same groove all his' days.