Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/111

 ii s. XIL AUG. 7, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

103

In Timothy Claxton's ' Hints to Mechanics, or Self -Education and Mutual Instruction,' London, Taylor & Walton, 28, Upper Gower Street, 1839, there is an illustration of the tinman's shop in Glasgow, and also of a centrifugal pump which was made there under Birkbeck' s directions. The same little volume contains ' A Selection of Exercises for Popular Institutions,' which gives a good idea of what was taught in them. It has also a ' List of all Mechanics' Institutions ' then existing, and a facsimile of a ticket inviting the operatives of the tinman's shop to attend lectures. John George Godard's ' Life of George Birkbeck,' 1884, is very much to the point of the question asked, and it gives a heap of valuable in- formation. On p. 80 there is a long para- graph dealing with ' Subjects taught in the Original Mechanics' Institutions.' In The Westminster Review, vol. xli. pp. 416-43, there is an able article on ' Mechanics' Institutions,' the first section of which is devoted to the origin and history of them.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

In reply to the query of MR. THOMAS W. HAND, the origin of Mechanics' Institutions is fully described by Dr. J. W. Hudson in his x History of Adult Education,' published in 1851. He says :

" The most remote link in the chain of societies established for the dissemination of a know- ledge of the arts and sciences among the labouring people was the ' Sunday Society,' formed by the teachers in the Sunday schools at Birmingham in the year 1789, having for its object the instruc- tion of young men in writing and arithmetic after they ceased to attend the Sunday schools. To tli<\se studies were subsequently added geography, book-keeping, and drawing, as well as moral instruction. A branch of this Society formed a class for mutual improvement in useful knowledge, assisting each other in the construction of appa- ratus for illustrating the principles of mechanics, hydrostatics, electricity, pneumatics, and astro- nomy."

The first Artisans' Library was established in 1795, at Birmingham. The year following the establishment of this Library, the Sunday Society was remodelled, and became known as the Birmingham Brotherly Society. Dr. Hudson says this Society is

" justly entitled to be ranked as the earliest Mechanics' Institution or Society in Great Britain, especially as it was established for and by persons engaged in mechanical employments."

The name of the person who first suggested

the use of the term "Mechanics' " for these

societies is not given by Dr. Hudson, but the

reason for the adoption of such a term is con-

-tained in the second quotation I have taken

from his book. I may add that the Glasgow, Liverpool, and London Mechanics' Institu- tions were all established between July and December, 1823.

Within the brief period of thirty years, the number of Literary and Mechanics' Institu- tions in the United Kingdom had increased to 702, with a membership of 120,081, and libraries containing 815,516 volumes.

ARTHUR TAIT.

Leeds Institute of Science, Art, and Literature.

These evidently originated in an " Institu. tion for Instruction of Mechanics," as appears from the title of an article on this subject in The Mechanic's Magazine, vol. i. (1823), p. 99.

In 1795 was founded, by will of Prof. Anderson of Glasgow, " The Andersonian Institution " in that city. With this state- ment in view, the following paragraph from the above-mentioned article, and taken from The Glasgow Free Press, will help to make clear the origin of the word "me- chanic," as applied to institutions founded early in the nineteenth century :

" No branch of ' The Andersonian Institution, : however, was exclusively destined for the in- struction of mechanics in those branches of knowledge which are of especial use to their professional pursuits till the year 1800, when a Dr. Birkbeck commenced delivering gratuitously a series of lectures on mechanical philosophy and chemistry. For several years these lectures were continued .... At length, however, there was a great falling off in attendance, owing to the managers not paying sufficient attention to the interest of the mechanics .... In 1821-2 the friends of the mechanics, and the mechanics themselves, made a successful effort to revive and improve these lectures, in connexion with the other parts of the institution. They formed a library solely for the mechanics, began to make a collection of models, and had a numerous class of students. A disagreement, however, has since occurred between them and the managers of the institution, and the consequence has been that the mechanics of Glasgow and their friends have seceded from the Andersonian Institution, and have formed a school for their own instruction called the ' Glasgow Mechanics' Institution.' On 26 July resolutions to this purport were adopted. It was then stated that 37-i individuals had already subscribed from half-a-guinea to a guinea each per annum ; that a place of meeting had been procured ; that certain gentlemen had volunteered their services as lecturers ; and that a good library had been selected .... and that such property as it might acquire should belong to the mechanics of Glasgow for over."

The publication of The Mechanic's Maga- zine, as well as the efforts of its editor (J. C. Robertson), did much towards pro- moting the establishment of these institutes throughout the kingdom. Twenty-five se- parate articles, reports, and letters appear on