Transcriber's Note
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
A Manual for Amateurs
BY
CHARLES G. WHEELER, B.S.
"Know what thou canst work at and work at it like a Hercules."
Carlyle.
WITH OVER 700 ILLUSTRATIONS
G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1900
Copyright, 1899
by
CHARLES G. WHEELER
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO THE
YOUTHFUL FOUNDERS
OF
"TOTLET TOWN"
WITHOUT WHOSE INSPIRATION THIS BOOK WOULD NOTHAVE BEEN UNDERTAKEN
The aim of this book is to suggest to amateurs of all agesmany things which they can profitably make of wood,and to start them in the way to work successfully. It ishoped that, in the case of boys, it may show them pleasantand useful ways to work off some of their surplus energy,and at the same time contribute toward their harmoniousall-round development.
It is not an attempt to teach the arts of architecture,carpentry, cabinet-making, or boat-building. Although notintended primarily to impart skill in the use of tools (somethingwhich can only be acquired from experience and observationand cannot be taught by any book), still no onecan go through the processes indicated without gaining atleast some slight degree of manual skill as well as a fund ofpractical information and experience.
Many books which give directions for mechanical work(particularly those addressed to boys) have several seriousfaults, and can be grouped in three classes. Some seem tobe written by practical workmen, who, however well fittedto do the work themselves, lack the pedagogical training orthe psychological insight necessary to lay out such workwith due regard to the mental and physical capacity, experience,and development of youth, or to the amateur'slack of experience in the rudiments of the subject. Othersare written by teachers or amateurs who lack the trainedmechanic's practical and varied knowledge and experiencein serious work. Others (and this last class is, perhaps, theworst of the three) seem to be made by compilers who haveapparently been satisfied to sweep together, without requisite[vi]knowledge or sufficient moral purpose, whatever they mayhave found that would be interesting or attractive, withoutdue regard to its real value. All these writers are constantlyfalling into errors and making omissions harmful alike to themoral and the manual progress of the readers.[1]
Effort has been made in the preparation of this book toavoid these evils, to keep in line with the advanced educationalideas of the time, and to look at the subject from thestandpoints of the teacher, the mechanic, the boy, and theamateur workman. The treatment is neither general norsuperficial, but elementary, and no claim is made that it willcarry anyone very far in the various subjects; but it aimsto be thorough and specific as far as it goes and to teachnothing which will have to be unlearned.
Great care (based upon an extended experience with boysand amateurs) has been taken to incl