Quality Archives - understand-culture

A Nation of Tinkerers

On June 18, 2014, President Obama hosted the first White House Maker Faire. The White House announcement said: “America has always been a nation of tinkerers, inventors, and entrepreneurs.” It called the Maker Movement “a huge opportunity for the United States” and hoped it would “fuel the renaissance in American manufacturing.”

The first Maker Faire had taken place in San Mateo, California, in 2006. In June 2019 Maker Media, the company behind the fairs, laid off all 22 employees and went out of business. Founder Dale Dougherty said: “I started this 15 years ago and it’s always been a struggle as a business to make this work.” Dougherty then continued the work under the name Make Community.

The Village Blacksmith

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Village Blacksmith” first appeared in The Knickerbocker in November 1840. It begins “Under a spreading chestnut-tree.” The smith works “Week in, week out, from morn till night,” and “His brow is wet with honest sweat.” At the end of each day: “Something attempted, something done, / Has earned a night’s repose.”

On his daily walk down Brattle Street in Cambridge, Longfellow passed the shop of the village blacksmith, Dexter Pratt. The chestnut tree was later cut down. On Longfellow’s seventy-second birthday, February 27, 1879, the children of Cambridge gave him an armchair made from its wood.

Never Mention Winning

In 1934 John Wooden was teaching high school English in South Bend, Indiana. That year he wrote his definition of success: “Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable.” In a 2001 TED talk he said: “my opponents will tell you — you never heard me mention winning.”

At UCLA, the first practice of each season began with a lesson on how to put on socks and shoes. Wooden explained that wrinkles in the socks could cause blisters, and that blisters could lead to losing.

His UCLA teams won 10 national championships.

Workmanlike

Two old words from the trades describe work that is solid but not outstanding.

workmanlike — Done with the skill expected of a good worker or performer, but usually not in an exciting or impressive way. Learner’s Dictionary gives the example “a workmanlike performance.”

journeyman — A worker, performer or athlete who is experienced and good but not excellent. In the trades, a journeyman is a worker who has finished an apprenticeship. In 2012 the Columbia Journalism Review warned that calling someone a journeyman “could be taken as an insult.”

The Craftsman Warranty

Sears registered the Craftsman trademark for its tools on May 20, 1927. Arthur Barrows, head of the hardware department, reportedly bought the name from the Marion-Craftsman Tool Company for $500. Sears did not make the tools itself. Outside manufacturers such as New Britain and Easco made them.

From 1927 Sears backed the line with a lifetime warranty. In 2017 Sears sold the brand to Stanley Black & Decker in a deal worth $900 million. Most Craftsman hand tools are advertised as having an unlimited lifetime warranty. It requires no receipt or dated proof of purchase.

Handmade in Spirit

In October 2013 Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods, changed its rules. Sellers could now hire staff and apply to work with outside manufacturers. Chief executive Chad Dickerson wrote: “When Etsy started, we relied on one word to carry all our values out into the world: handmade.”

Dickerson told NPR that 3D-printed jewelry parts were “handmade I think in spirit, even though they’re designed on a computer and printed.” He said Etsy’s most successful sellers had told it of their frustration with the old rules. A potter who sold on the site told NPR that Etsy “started out to be a place where you could get something special.”

Small and Independent

The Brewers Association, the trade group of America’s small and independent brewers, defines the word craft. “An American craft brewer is a small and independent brewer.” The rule for small reads: “Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales).” Independent means that a non-craft alcohol company owns or controls less than 25 percent of the brewery.

By January 2011 the size limit had been raised from 2 million to 6 million barrels. Until December 2018 the definition also had a “traditional” test, based mainly on all-malt beers. It was replaced by a simpler rule. The brewer “Has a TTB Brewer’s Notice and makes beer.”

To the Best of My Ability

In October 1901 Gustav Stickley published the first issue of The Craftsman magazine. His trademark showed a joiner’s compass with the Flemish words Als ik kan, generally translated as “to the best of my ability.” His furniture became popular as “Mission style,” a name Stickley disliked.

His factory in Eastwood, New York, combined hand techniques with “modern woodworking machinery.” Changing tastes and the cost of his new Craftsman Building in Manhattan strained his business. On March 24, 1915, Stickley was declared bankrupt. The magazine ended in December 1916.

By 1927 the successor firm in Eastwood was making Colonial reproductions.

Hands to Work, Hearts to God

The Shaker saying “Hands to work, hearts to God” is credited to Mother Ann Lee. In 1774 she and eight followers sailed from England to New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art writes that the Shakers “labored for the good of the community as a form of worship.”

The Shakers also made chairs and boxes for sale to outsiders. Their catalogues showed hundreds of chairs, and the Shakers “trumpeted their attention to detail and quality.” In the mid-1870s the Shakers of Mount Lebanon, New York, began to mark their chairs with gold trademark decals. They wanted buyers to tell their chairs apart from imitations.

Ann Lee could not read or write. An 1875 book gives the saying as “Put your hands to work and give your hearts to God.”

Shop Class as Soulcraft

In 2009 Matthew B. Crawford published Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. His publisher calls him “a philosopher and mechanic.” Crawford had been executive director of a think tank in Washington. He quit after five months. He later opened Shockoe Moto, an independent motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, Virginia. The book became a bestseller.

The book questions “the educational imperative of turning everyone into a ‘knowledge worker.'” A Library Journal review of the book noted that shop class began to disappear from American schools in the 1990s, as educators prepared students for the “knowledge revolution.”