Exterior painting

Front matter

Class Book.

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Introduction To The Red Series Manuals

It is a self-evident fact easily ascertained by any one who will take the trouble to do so, that if we are to produce our own mechanics here on American soil, it must be through another process than that which has been regarded as good enough in the past— apprenticeship.

Our young men will not stand to go through the one or two years of menial drudgery usually attached to the learning of most trades, but more especially to that of painting, decorating, and paper hanging. Besides, they know full well that the master painter himself has no time to spare that he can devote to teaching them the 17 trade; that the foreman has possibly still less, and that the journeyman will not, even when qualified to do so, which is not very often the case.

Therefore, the uncertain catch-it-as-youcan mode of learning the painting and allied trades in vogue at the present time, presents no attraction to the up-to-date young man.

He knows well and fully realizes that the little that he may learn of it in a three- or four-year term of apprenticeship could very easily be obtained inside of as many months of connected study, with the consequence that he keeps away and is unwilling to bind himself to years of useless drudgery and does not learn our trade, even when his natural inclinations and tastes strongly incline him to do so if it could be made more congenial to him.

The general public is beginning to be aware of these conditions, and already a cry is beginning to be heard over the whole country demanding that special schools of instruction be established by State and municipal aid, and already— in many of our larger cities at least— industrial and manual training schools have and are being established.

Besides these, numerous correspondence schools have also been established for the purpose of teaching trades.

While certain forms of knowledge can be obtained by the above system is no doubt true, it must be admitted that in the various trades connected with painting, decorating, or paper hanging, they have not proved of much value, as aside of the technical knowledge imparted by the textbooks used in connection with these schools, the rest must be developed at home by actual work— the distance and the very slow process of correction, and, as in painting, the impossibility of even presenting these home studies for examination and correction, renders correspondence schools of but little practical value in the trades mentioned, aside of the possibility of sending out for correction of a few drawings or samples of letter formation, etc., wbicli are not really actual work, as that is too bulky and the cost would be too great an undertaking for the average student— the time required to receive corrections and advice even if it were possible to send out bulky, actual work, would prove the process of learning to be so slow as to disgust the average student, and the cost attached to such methods must forever bar them from general use for trades where the students must be shown.

With a view or helping out all such young or even old who desire information regarding trades, this series of manuals has been gotten up.

Each one will treat upon same special or separate branch in the several trades. The student will find the subject-matter has been arranged in graded lessons as far as possible, taking up the matter concerned at the base or root of it, gradually developing the same onward to its completion. Each manual will have a number of questions at the end of each lesson which will make them of great value to instructors who teach these trades in industrial or manual training schools and they no doubt will gladly welcome their advent.

The author himself being an instructor in such schools (The Chicago School of Painting, Decorating and Paperhanging) , has almost had the publication of these manuals forced upon him, at least such as are directly in line with the branches taught in his school, as there is no literature in existence today, published in such a form as is needed and available for the purpose of teaching these trades in graded lessons with questions on same. .

For the student who cannot attend these schools, it will take in a measure the place of the "correspondence schools" and at so

22 EXTEEIOR PAINTING

much less expense in dollars and cents, that he will hardly feel it.

The low prices made for such manuals of special information are made possible only by the anticipation of large sales and the whole series when- completed, will not cost as much as many single books which treat the same subject matter from the standpoint of the trained mechanic and intended for such but for which the student would have little use.

The author has been careful to avoid all ambiguity in his presentation of methods and of the explanations given for doing work in these manuals; but he does not claim infallibility and no doubt some errors will find their way and escape detection in time to correct them before publication. He will take it kindly from anyone who may notice any, to have them write him of such as they may notice and if found right, the proper corrections will be made in an ' ' errata' ' page, which will be inserted in subsequent editions. His desire is that these manuals in so far as he is personally connected with them, shall contain only absolutely correct information concerning the subject-matter under consideration.