INSTRUMENTATION by Ralph H. Muller
Skilled Instrument Technicians Are Needed /^VVER THE YEARS we have pointed out
" some serious consequences and difficulties in instrumentation and automation. These developments have revolutionized analytical chemistry. The difficulties—trouble-shooting, service, and repair of our complicated instruments and machines—have been met in a number of ways. With some reluctance, brief courses in instrumentation per se have been offered to advanced students. Our instrument manufacturers have continuously supplied detailed instruction manuals and servicing hints, and gone to greai lengths to train sales and service engineers not only as a courtesy to the customer, but in a simple effort to stay in a highly competitive business. Most of our larger institutions and industrial laboratories maintain elaborate facilities for instrument calibration, service, replacement, and repair. On the whole, the problems have been anticipated and, in a sense, were never too serious because these complex device» were used by highly trained scientists and technologists. A comparable problem, but of vastly greater importance has already assumed national proportions. This is concerned with the serious and rapidly increasing shortage of highly trained craftsmen and technicians. By the most conservative estimates, the need is growing at the rate of at least 100,000 a year and it has been stated that there are now 500,000 jobs available for qualified men. (Gilmore, K. Science and Mechanics, Oct. 1963, p. 72.) The same source indicates that our technical schools turned out slightly less than 16,000 graduates last year, a figure smal'.er than any since 1958. Gilmore states that one survey in the midwest showed that of 3000 high school students questioned, only seven were interested in considering a service technician's career. VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONDUMPING GROUND?
That attitude is sweet music to the ears of most of our educators who con-
tinue to deplore vocationalism, but it fails to explain the increasing number of drop-outs in all categories. If our social conscience enables us to recognize that there is no such thing as an illegitimate child, only illegitimate parents, perhaps we may admit with some justification that, aside from congenital idiots, there are no children who cannot be taught or whose enthusiasm cannot be raised in at least one subject. From time immemorial, there have been "incendiary" teachers who could coax a glowing ember of interest into an unquenchable flame of enthusiasm. For every one of these, there have been a hundred thousand presenting the codified Pablum before their students on a "take it or leave it" basis. Our own interest in chemistry and physics was aroused at the age of fourteen, but an inspiring teacher of the incendiary type very nearly converted us to a historian. He was a Princeton Ph.D. at, of all things, a manual training high school! Since then, as a concession to the humanities, we have had to settle for a brilliant son-in-law—a professor of medieval history. Time magazine for Sept. 6 (p. 42) has summarized the startling state of affairs in a compelling and trenchant manner. A complete transcription would be more useful than this column but we content ourselves with some quotations and interpretations. Under Vocational Education—How will they make a living?, the introductory statement is a terse commentary on the entire situation. "The saddest fact about U. S. education is that it repels those most in need of it." In August, President Kennedy launched a drive to urge the million youngsters who dropped out of school over the past twelve months to go back in September. School officials, teachers, and guidance counselors are cooperating in the campaign. But it will be doing well if it persuades even 1% of that million to return to classrooms,—and by Sept. 1964 another million will have dropped out, Time says.
In our experience, the offerings of vocational schools have declined in the past forty years, almost in inverse proportion to the advances in technology. Time declares, "city schools officials tend to use vocational schools as dumping grounds for the dull and delinquent. The teachers, equipment, and training methods are often so far behind the times that, in effect, the schools teach students to be unemployable." Two pictures in the article illustrate a fundamental defect in contemporary vocational education, although Time does not emphasize this significance. One, showing students in a Cleveland school repairing a truck chassis, and the other showing some eighteen students and an instructor swarming over a surplus Navy fighter plane, might give one the impression that this is an attempt to teach craftsmanship. A pupil of this age and low level of competence has no business monkeying around with such complex devices. If one adopted this sort of practice in the teaching of medicine, a first year student in medical school would perform a laparotomy, followed by a frontal lobotomy and then, time permitting, would learn some of the rudiments of biochemistry, bacteriology, histology, and pathology. The urge to start at the top and work one's way down has been the curse of so-called vocational training in recent years. I t can only serve to duplicate the bungling which is all too apparent in present day servicing and the common trades. Ask any top flight machinist or tool and die maker to appraise the ability of a mechanic. He will not lead him to a milling machine or jig borer or a precision grinder. He will hand the candidate a file, and in 5 seconds he can tell whether the applicant is a neophyte or a craftsman. Time is bold enough to state that vocational education has been and is continuing to follow a "lunatic pattern." "Under laws going back to 1917, almost half of the total federal outlay for vocational education are channeled into agriculture and home economics. Since
VOL 35, NO. 1 2, NOVEMBER 1 963
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INSTRUMENTATION
ROUTINE OR "ODD SAMPLE" SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS WITH THE FLIP OF A SWITCH
state and local officials conform to the rules so as to get as much federal money as possible, the result is a lunatic pat tern. Last year 26% of all such funds went into agriculture training, although full time farm workers comprise only (5% of the nation's labor force." The House of Representatives has al ready passed the Perkins bill providing additional federal grants of $237 million a year by 1970, plus state and local matching funds. The Wall Street Jour nal for Sept. 12 noted that the Senate Labor subcommittee passed on the rec ommendation and by this time the en tire proposal may have become law. It is entirely possible that the total per year of some half billion dollars may well go down the drain. It will, if there is no practical assessment of the prob lem and revision of archaic and out moded ideas. AMERICA NEEDS SKILLED CRAFTSMEN
Versatility
Wide Range
High Speed
Using the Jarrell-Ash 3.4 Meter Convertible Ebert Spectrograph, you can perform high speed routine analysis, directly by photo electric techniques, of as many elements as you need . . . then, with the mere flip of a switch, you can solve tough "odd sample" or research problems photographically. There are no special attachments to mount when switching over, and, no tedious realignment . . . you'll have the flexibility for analyzing a tremendous variety of materials, the analytical range to detect unsuspected trace elements, the speed to analyze more sam ples per hour, the convenience of centralized control groupings. This remarkable instrument is available with the new Jarrell-Ash Laser Microprobe for high speed micro-area analyses of any metallic or non-metallic sample. Full technical data available.
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Ash
For further information . . . clip the coupon, attach to your company letterhead and mail.
J A R R E L L - A S H C O M P A N Y 26 Farwell Street, Newtonville 60, Mass.
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NAME. Ε 3Λ M J Circle No. 127 on Readers' Service Card
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ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
In our humble opinion, it is only American industry that is fitted to de fine the problem and to indicate a practical solution. Who is better fitted to state qualifications for an employ able technician? The question is no longer debatable, nor is it an amusing academic thesis. The average American is so hopelessly committed to a way of life dependent upon labor saving gadgets that he de mands a solution. As Gilmore has pointed out "a modern automatic washer-drier almost runs itself, but the reason it can put itself through a com plicated routine without outside help is that its automatic control circuits are just slightly less complicated than those in a B-58 automatic pilot. The man who fixes this gadget has to know his business." We can, of course, throw up our hands in resignation. In that case, one should re-read Thoreau and start hik ing for Walden Pond and the simpler life. It is curious that respect for superb craftsmanship has declined and that it seems to have earned the disdain of our youth. We like to think that Stradivarius, Cellini, Duncan Phyfe, and many others contributed important and enduring things to Western Civil ization and its amenities equal to those of their purely intellectual contem poraries. The Biblical Tower of Babel pro duced a linguistic impasse. As we con tinue to produce more fantastic gadgets with no one smart enough to keep them in operation, we head for another stalemate. Most of our citizens, wisely or not, refuse to accept defeat.
