the fixtures in connection with this wiring. Boys from the metal-working sections were to do the necessary piping for gas and water and some of the work of plumbing; but, since the laws regulating plumbing are strict and well enforced, as they should be, it was necessary to keep this most essential feature of the work under charge of licensed plumbers. But this requirement did not remove even the plumbing of the building from the field of public school work; for, fortunately, this city has a well-equipped plumbing school in the trades school department, under the direction of licensed plumbers of high standing, who were glad to have given them, as an exercise for their classes, a practical problem in house plumbing. The boys in the forging classes were not overlooked in the distribution of the work on the house. Many of the fixtures needed for use or ornament were designed to be made in the school forge shop. The girls designed and made rugs, curtains, portières, and cushions as a part of their school work in weaving and stencilling; and they contributed many decorative articles in clay, copper, leather, and other materials. Thus every technical department of the school was brought into service; for in the building of a house there is to be found something to enlist the interest of every boy and girl.

The Boys of the Forging Classes of the Technical High School Were Not Overlooked in the Distribution of the Work on the House

[Plate II]

Boy Foremen in Charge.—To bring about the right distribution of the work and to marshal the working forces effectually required the oversight and management of an experienced instructor. But much of the work of direction was delegated to competent boys. The preliminary tool work in the school shops had revealed those who were especially observant and capable as leaders, and those who worked best under specific directions. Thus the twenty boys of the vocational school who set the posts and framed the house worked sometimes in pairs—one being the chief foreman and the other the helper—sometimes in gangs of three or four under a foreman. The plan was varied according to the nature of the work in hand. When leaders of more technical knowledge and skill were needed, as was the case in setting the window frames and directing the shingling, capable boys from the technical high school were placed in charge of groups of younger boys from the vocational school. In this way the work was advanced in several directions at the same time; and the advantage was not all in the advancement of the house construction. It was a delightful and profitable experience for all the boys, not unlike that which some of them will doubtless repeat when school days are over and they take their place in the more serious affairs of life. In after years they may look back upon the first house that they helped to build and recall the part they took, their companions in the work, and the good time they had withal.

SOME DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION

Setting Batter Boards, Posts, and Sills.—The first step in actual construction was to mark off the lot and set the batter boards. These were made by driving three stakes to form a right angle about four feet from the point where each of the four main corners of the house was to be located. Two rough boards, one for each side of each angle, were nailed horizontally to each of the four sets of stakes, with their upper edges all brought to the same level. It is very important to set these batter boards with accuracy, since their function is to carry the lines which mark the dimensions and level of the ground floor. In the present instance their first use was to locate the concrete posts on which the sills of the house were to rest. Twenty-two of these posts, which were 4 feet long and 8 inches square, were put in position by first setting moulds or boxes, the interior dimensions of which were those of the posts, 3 feet deep in the light soil and filling them with a mixture of concrete and crushed rock. It was not thought necessary to remove the moulds after the hardening of the concrete. In fact, the sills were framed and placed in position resting on these boxes before sufficient time had been given for the concrete to harden. The sides of the boxes, however, were scored with a saw cut so that they could be easily broken off just below the ground, exposing the projecting ends of the concrete posts for about one foot. The sills were of 6 by 8-inch first quality spruce. They were set on the 6-inch face, the two long sills being spliced over posts, using a long halved joint. Mortise and tenon joints, draw-bored and pinned, were used at the corners. The floor timbers of 2 by 8-inch spruce were gained into the sills with the top faces flush with the top of the sill and crowning (i. e., bending) upward if at all. The spacing of the floor timbers was taken off at the sill on a strip of furring—spruce, ⁷⁄₈ of an inch thick by 2 inches wide—which was moved out to the centre near the line of bridging and lightly nailed, bringing crooked timbers into line. The bridging was then nailed in, the outside last to prevent springing the sills.