Bloomington High School, The Gothic, 1926, Page 82

Description:	^—The Auto Mechanics ClubThe growth of this department has been little less than phenomenal during the school year 1925-1926. At the beginning of the first semester we hadlittle if any equipment. What few tools there were had been misused and wereof little value. This is only a faint idea of the department as it stood on September 8, 1925.With a very concrete idea of what a successful shop should be, Mr. R. E.Hayden, Instructor, set about bringing his ideas squarely behind the departmentand purchased the much needed tools and equipment.The Auto Mechanics students carried on the splendid work started byprevious classes in enlarging the shop. Benches, motor stands, and numerousother articles of equipment were also made by the boys taking the course.This department owes much to the Manual Training and MechanicalDrawing Departments. It was through their splendid co-operation that manyof the good things were accomplished.Perhaps it would be easier for the average person to visualize the needs ofthis department to a better advantage if a short explanation covering the courseand its difficulties were given.In this particular subject, accurate knowledge of data, formulae, tables,rules, etc., is very essential. At the same time we must develop quite a bit ofskill at the actual repairing of cars. Our work is divided into three mainadvancements, namely: Auto Mechanics I-II-III. It is the aim of the department to make each course a continuation of the previous work, at the same timemaking each succeeding division of the course more advanced than its predecessor.Some of the greatest difficulties are brought about through the very greatnumber of boys who wish to take this course. As the shop space is very limited,so must the capacity be limited.This department owns enough motors and other equipment to keep quitea group of boys busy. However, very little work is done on dead material.Most of the active repair work is on cars belonging to students and townspeople.If the facilities permitted it, the shop would be swamped all the time.All things considered, we feel that the Auto Mechanics Department hasacquitted itself in keeping with the fine old spirit of our school.Early in the year the boys taking the Auto Mechanics courses organizedthemselves into a club. This is the youngest club in the school. Regardless ofthe fact that its meetings are very limited in time, this club is a live wire organization and soon will be clamoring for more recognition.k
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloom/id/3057
Collection:	Bloomington High School

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