UPDATE: It now appears that a plumber in Kansas has provided a major design improvement to the BP oil well cap. He designed a cap using a flange arrangement similar to that used in high pressure hotel sewage lines. Once again, American ingenuity to the rescue as the tool user saves all the PhDs from their mishap.
I have previously posted my concern about the low status of manual arts in the educational and vocational fields in this country. This also applies to science but to a lesser degree. That previous post was obviously prior to the encounter between Barack Obama and Joe the Plumber.
One major point is the fact that Joe is making $250,000 a year at that point. How many law school graduates made that much in 2008?
Even in the field of innovation, it does not require a PhD to innovate in design or manufacturing. The basic problem, to me, seems to be the lack of manual skills with tools. People who make things, or can fix things, are the bedrock of a society that needs to design and manufacture quality objects. There is even a connection to the ability to do science. I wonder how many engineers cannot take apart and reassemble the things they design or work on. The same applies to surgery. Manual dexterity should be a basic requirement for the surgeon.
Today, there are a lot of unemployed people with useless degrees who would be better off learning plumbing or auto repair. In World War II, we benefited from the technical skills of the American soldiers who had learned to work with tools and many of whom could fix cars. The solution to the hedgerows of Normandy was an American army sergeant who devised a hedgerow cutter for the front of the Sherman tank. His name was Curtis G Culin and he was one of the heroes of World War II.
Dwight D. Eisenhower as President of the United States, in a January 10, 1961, speech to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers:
“ There was a little sergeant. His name was Culin, and he had an idea. And his idea was that we could fasten knives, great big steel knives in front of these tanks, and as they came along they would cut off these banks right at ground level – they would go through on the level keel – would carry with themselves a little bit of camouflage for a while. And this idea was brought to the captain, to the major, to the colonel, and it got high enough that somebody did something about it — and that was General Bradley — and he did it very quickly. Because this seemed like a crazy idea, they did not even go to the engineers very fast, because they were afraid of the technical advice, and then someone did have a big questions, “Where are you going to find the steel for all this thing?” Well now, happily the Germans tried to keep us from going on the beaches with great steel “chevaux de fries” – big crosses, there were all big bars of steel down on the beach where the Germans left it. And he got it – got these things sharpened up – and it worked fine. The biggest and happiest group I suppose in all the Allied Armies that night were those that knew that this thing worked. And it worked beautifully.
One of the reasons I like Neville Shute’s novels is because he has that theme in several of them. One, titled “Round the Bend” has as its theme the development of a new religion among men who work on airplanes. It is set in Asia and concerns the religions of Asia such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The chief character is an airplane mechanic who teaches other mechanics that to do a careful, flawless job in working on an airplane is the same as praying. His interpretation of Islam (The novel was written in 1951) becomes extremely popular in the Persian Gulf region as the imams see this as a new view of religion that attracts the young men who have become interested in mechanics and science and have drifted away from traditional life. His new creed is equally popular with Buddhists and Hundus, all of them aircraft mechanics and pilots. The resulting increase in quality of the work is appreciated by the airlines and he becomes a cult figure.
Like many of Shute’s novels, the engineer, even without a degree, is the hero. I wish we had more of this. Shute knew what he was writing about as he was a successful aeronautical engineer who had owned his own company. I titled my other post, The Manual LIfe. I wish it was more appreciated.
I married a man who can fix cars, frame walls, run new wiring, fix plumbing, rework gas lines, do heavy duty sewing..he’s putting in a gas fireplace as I write. Everyone is in awe, but when he goes to teach you something he gets impatient and yells. That kind of grumpy old man demeanor may be why many kids back away from learning this sort of thing. We’re wimpy and can’t take it.
The WWII gen were the grumpiest IMO.
My father was like that, impatient with me. Even so, I learned and enjoyed being with him when he was not grumpy. He could do a lot of things very well. I once saw him shoot two pheasants that got up together with a .410 double barreled shotgun. One with each barrel. He had a number of inventions in the juke box business in the late 30s and early 40s. Unfortunately, he had little business sense and didn’t patent things that made other people a lot of money.
He taught me (inadvertently) how important education is. He did not want me to go to college. I was accepted to Cal Tech but he refused to fill out the parent financial form so I didn’t get my scholarship I was expecting. I ended up going to a college I hadn’t heard of because they found me and offered me a scholarship. Still, I learned a lot from him and respected him.
Carol, my husband is also a man who can (and does) fix cars, build fireplaces, run wiring and yes, sew. Fortunately for me, he does not get grumpy, though I worry he takes on too much. He is an ambitious do-er, and I hope my children learn well from his ambition. I certainly have.