ONE of the many revelations of the war has been that of our complete dependence upon Central Europe for the glass apparatus needed in the laboratory. As soon as the situation was realised our manufacturers set to work, and with patriotic determination took great risks in laying down expensive plant, erecting machinery to meet the demand of the moment, and to make a serious endeavour to retain in our own country this exceedingly important Key Industry. One phase of the War has passed now, and the second-the conflict of industry-has begun, and it is becoming increasingly evident that it needs more than the money and enterprise of the manufacturers to win through. The glass industry called for chemists and obtained them, and in many glasshouses the old traditional mixtures and working methods have given place to standard formulæ and scientific treatment.

One very serious thing, however, is lacking, and that is skilled workmen. The old hands are insufficient to do the extra work, and unfortunately the trend of events during the last five-and-twenty years or so has been such that young labour has gone off into directions needing less application.

The new educational conditions call for a new method of training, and the fact that the boy of to-day is better educated both in mind and body than was the working boy of twenty years ago should make it possible, by a sound method of intensive teaching, to produce the necessary skilled labour in a very short time.

Much good work is being done for the glass industry by the Society of Glass Technology, the Glass Research Association, and other similar bodies, but we think that the first individual effort to gain skilled workmen is being made by one of the oldest of our London glassworks, of which we give an account below.

A NEW DEPARTURE IN THE GLASS

INDUSTRY.

On Monday last, Mr. J. H. GARDINER, F.Inst. P., F.C.S., representing Messrs. James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars), Ltd., in company with Mr. P. Annett, Divisional Organising Officer for the Middlesex Educational Council, made a visit to Greenhill Drill Hall, and Harrow Weald Council Schools, and addressed the boys who, having reached the age of 14, were upon the point of leaving school. The object was to interest the boys in the glass. industry, and to suggest to them the fine possibilities of good employment in the glass works that are now being erected at Wealdstone.

The Directors of the works, realising the serious lack of workmen to carry on the glass industry, have attacked the problem in a new and bold manner. The work carried on by the firm demands the highest possible skill, for they deal exclusively with high-class hand-made glassware. The present educational system keeps the boys at school until they are of such an age that it is hard to persuade them to go through the years of training that has hitherto been demanded to produce a skilled worker. The firm has, therefore, decided, with the assistance of the educational authorities, to attempt a system of intensive training. The scheme, which is due to Mr. J. H. Gardiner who was for many years associated with the late Sir. W. Crookes-and whose skill in glass manufacture and manipulation is considerable, is in brief as follows.

The boys having been told the character of the work and the prospects that it holds out to them to learn one of the most important trades in the country, are invited to attend a series of evening continuation classes during the coming winter, a syllabus having been arranged to give a thorough grounding in English, arithmetic, the metric system, physical manipulation (woodwork, &c.), freehand drawing, and elementary chemistry and