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TRADE-SCHOOLS

1931

TRADE-WINDS

merit, although as early as the beginning of the 18th century France was a formidable rival of England in America and the Indies.

The trade-routes of the United ^ States may be mentioned in connection with the chief cities. Portland (Maine) in New England has a shipping-trade with Canada during the winter, when the St. Lawrence is frozen. From Boston, Mass., vessels trade mainly with Europe; but also to all parts of the world, even to Australia for wool. Boston also is a terminus of an overland trade-route by rail with the west, whence come grain, meat and raw materials for manufacture. In the Middle Atlantic States New York is a center of trade-routes to all parts of the world. Produce from the western states is conveyed here by rail for exportation. Philadelphia is a great shipping-port for coal to the southern states and New England; and also has a large canal and railroad trade. The shipping-routes from Norfolk to New England and England are due largely to the cotton-trade. In the south New Orleans is the terminus of trade-routss to the Mediterranean, England and France, The rich produce of the Mississippi Valley and the cotton of the extreme south form the staple of its trade. The chief trade-routes between the United States and Canada are across the great lakes, via Chicago and via Buffalo to Montreal. The leading trade-routes from the Pacific Coast are to Japan, to China, to the Philippines, to Australia and to the eastern coast of South America, The Panama Canal, when completed, will open a new route not only from America but from Europe to the Pacific.

Britain is the principal center of the trade-routes of the world, especially through the ports of London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast. The Atlantic route from British ports runs directly to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston and New Orleans. These ports are reached without the need of an intermediate coaling-station. The Cape route is to South Africa and Australia the Cape of Good Hope. The Suez route passes through Suez Canal; and commands the trade of southern Asia, the East Indies and, partly, Australia. The ports along this route, most of which are fortresses, include Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Perim, Singapore and Hongkong. The Plata route, which takes its name from Plata River, leads to Brazil and Buenos Ayres. A few vessels still go round Cape Horn to Australia by this route. The West Indian route leads to the West Indies and Mexico; and with the completion of the Panama Canal will no doubt be extended to the Pacific Coast and Polynesia.

Trade=Schools. Under modern conditions of industry the old-time period of apprenticeship to a trade or handicraft is being supplanted by a course in a trade-school.

The object in trade-schools is to give the pupil in the shortest possible time such a knowledge of the underlying principles of a particular trade and such practice in the use of its tools, that he will be able immediately after graduation to do competent work and earn good wages.

New York Trade-School was the first institution of its kind in the United States, having been founded in 1881. Its courses include bricklaying, plumbing, plastering, house-painting, steam-fitting, electrical work, blacksmithing, sign-painting, fresco-painting, steel and other metal work and drawing. Both day and night classes are conducted, and the tuition fees are merely nominal.

Several trade-schools have been endowed by piivate persons, sometimes with the object of enabling poor boys to learn a trade, sometimes to furnish skilled tradesmen from our own nation instead of being under the necessity of importing them from abroad, Few trade-schools have yet received state aid.

A number of large manufacturing establishments, as Hoe arid Co., printing-press manufacturers of New York City, have devised a scheme of apprenticeship whereby their young men are enabled to become all-round mechanics rather than masters of only one small process. Evening classes are utilized to this end, in which instruction is given in mathematics, mechanics and drawing.

Some of the principal trade-schools in the United States are New York Trade School; School of the Philadelphia Builders' Exchange; Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, Philadelphia; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Waltham Horological School, Waltham, Mass.; Elgin Horological School, Elgin, 111.; Ohio Mechanics' Institute, Cincinnati, O.; and Lowell Institute of Practical Design, Boston.

Trade-Winds are winds of the intertropical zone and of a region on each side of it for a short distance which blow from the same quarter all the year through, unless they are affected by local causes. North of the equator their general direction is from northeast to southwest, but south of it they blow from southeast to northwest. In some places they blow in one direction for half the year, but in the opposite direction for the other half. They are caused by the earth's rotation and the air's movement from the poles to the equator. The hot air rises, the cold air comes in its place, and the earth's rotation changes the direction of this from due south to southeast or from due north to northeast. It is only over the open ocean that they are continuous. The larger the ocean, the steadier the trade-winds. Hence, those of the Pacific blow more regularly and strongly than those of the Atlantic. They are