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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
In the days of the gilds, when a master craftsman hired half a dozen journeymen to work for him and became the capitalist of his time, one of his chief assets was skill at his trade. The industrial revolution left this petty capitalist as helpless as a museum piece so far as ownership of the tools of production was concerned, but it could not relegate to the showcase his outstanding characteristic, innate manual skill. The later age translated skill into mechanical ingenuity. Machines might turn out the finished product with an unskilled machine operator at their side, but back of the machines were mechanics with machine-wise fingers, and finally mechanical engineers with a creative sense. By means of the same ability which turned the old-time craftsmen into proprietors of production, the skilled mechanics of yesterday have evolved into industrial capitalists.
1 Bibliographical Note: In writing about Worcester Polytechnic Institute, extensive use has been made of Seventy Years of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, by Taylor, Herbert Foster (Worcester, 1937Google Scholar). The following publications have also been referred to: Mrs.Higgins, Katherine Chapin, Richard Higgins … and his Descendants (Worcester, 1918)Google Scholar; Washburn, Charles G., Industrial Worcester (Worcester, 1917)Google Scholar; Nutt, Charles, History of Worcester and Its People (N. Y., 1919), vol. iiiGoogle Scholar; Rockwood, George I., The Founder of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, 1943Google Scholar) Tullock, Donald, Worcester, City of Prosperity (Worcester, 1914)Google Scholar; Browne, George Waldo, compiler, The Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. … (Manchester, 1915)Google Scholar: Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (N. Y., 1900), vol. xxiGoogle Scholar; Worcester City Document no. 65. Report of Trustees of Independent Industrial Schools for the Year Ending November 30, 1910; Mass. Dept. of Education, The Douglas Commission and the Commission on Industrial Education, pub. 1935; The Worcester Magazine, 1901–1912; and publications of the Norton Company.
In the preparation of this article, assistance has been given by Mrs. Olive Higgins Prouty, Mr. Aldus C. Higgins, and especially Mr. John W. Higgins. To them, many thanks.
2 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Transactions, vol. xxi, p. 677Google Scholar.