A Machine Shop?

[LUDWIK KOWALSKI <kowalskil@alpha.montclair.edu>]

On 21 Mar 1997  Ed Ensler <ensler@stars.sfsu.edu> wrote:
 
> I just wanted to respond to Martha's question about what to do with the 
> machine shop in her department. My feeling is that there are a lot of 
> people out there, typically those that I would call "second-handers", 
> that would like nothing better than to get rid of all the machine tools 
> in this country and give them away to some other country. ... We used to 
> have a country where people took a great deal of pride in what they could 
> create with their hands and some tools. These "second-handers" cannot, 
> don't want to and are unable to create things and don't want to see others 
> create anything either. A very sad state of affairs, don't you think?
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That is not the only change. Your grand-parents knew how to take care of 
horses, how to plough, how to preserve certain foods, etc. Today our 
agricultural products are extracted by less than 5% of people. And many of
them know more about chemical than about natural fertelizers. It has been
my impression that the degree of self-sufficiency has been decreasing
gradually, for better or worst, everywhere. Look at electronics, is it
the same as it used to be? It is often dominated by interchangeable boards, 
operational amplifiers and elements which are too small to see and too 
complex to think about, except in functional terms. How many of us can
explain or build computers? 

A pharmacist used to be able to prepare drugs from simple components, today 
s/he is often a clerk. Some students may be asking themselves "why should we 
learn chemistry to be pharmacists?". Or "why should we know physics to repare
computers?"

Yes machine shops are worth preserving but they are too expensive for small
schools; at least one full time person should be in charge. I would suggest 
that regional shops for students from many schools, or from many departments,
be created by those who claim to be in charge of good education.

                                           Ludwik Kowalski
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  Ed's advice was different:
> Martha, don't get rid of the machines in your department! They are an 
> invaluable resource, that could possibly never be replaced. I say, fight
> to keep them, if that is the issue. Even if only one student every ten 
> years uses them it's well worth it. Besides, how will anyone build racing 
> cars, or rocket powered motorcycles or a physics experiment if they are 
> gone.
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