ill never
become an artisan in the true sense of the word.

Go through the book, and see whether, here and there, you do not get
some glimpses of what it means to take a pleasure in doing each
particular thing, and you will find in every instance that it is a
satisfaction because you have learned to perform it with ease.

I do not know of anything which has done as much to advance the arts and
manufactures, during the last century, as the universal desire to
improve the form, shape and structure of tools; and the effort to invent
new ones. This finds its reflection everywhere in the production of new
and improved products.

In this particular I have been led to formulate a homely sentence which
expresses the idea: Invention consists in doing an old thing a new way;
or a new thing any way.

THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I

ON TOOLS GENERALLY

Judging from the favorable comments of educators, on the general
arrangement of the subject matter in the work on "Carpentry for Boys," I
am disposed to follow that plan in this book in so far as it pertains to
tools.

In this field, as in "Carpentry," I do not find any guide which is
adapted to teach the boy the fundamentals of mechanics. Writers usually
overlook the fact, that as the boy knows nothing whatever about the
subject, he could not be expected to know anything about tools.

To describe them gives a start in the education, but it is far short of
what is necessary for one in his condition. If he is told that the
chisel or bit for a lathe has a diamond point, or is round-nosed, and
must be ground at a certain angle, he naturally wants to know, as all
boys do, _why_ it should be at that angle.

So in the setting of the tools with relation to the work, the holding
and manipulation of the file, of the drill for accurate boring, together
with numerous little things, are all taken for granted, and the boy
blunders along with the ultimate object in sight, without having the
pathway cleared so he may readily reach the goal.

VARIED REQUIREMENTS.--The machinist's trade is one which requires the
most varied tools of all occupations, and they are by all odds the most
expensive to be found in the entire list of vocations.

[Illustration: _Fig. 1. Bench Vise._]

This arises from the fact that he must work with the most stubborn of
all materials. He finds resistance at every step in bringing forth a
product.

LIST OF TOOLS.--With a view of familiarizing the boy with th