Mechanics' Institute
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Mechanics' Institutes (dt. Department of technical mechanics ) is an educational institution that was originally founded in the 19th century. The United Kingdom, the adult education for workers in technical to allow subjects and promote.
Many Mechanics' Institutes around the world are still operated as libraries, university and adult education institutions, theaters, cinemas, museums, leisure facilities or community halls.
history
Mechanics' Institutes sprang up in Scotland and England from 1821 and were often funded by local entrepreneurs on the grounds that they would ultimately benefit from the more skilled workers. Mechanics' institutes were established in over 700 locations in the United Kingdom and its overseas territories as early as the middle of the 19th century , which later often served as the nucleus for technical colleges or universities (e.g. Heriot-Watt University , Liverpool John Moores University , Birkbeck College ) . The facilities, which often had libraries with reading rooms, were also an alternative for the working class to pastime with games and drinks in pubs.
G. Jefferson explains:
“The first phase, the Mechanics Institute movement, grew in an atmosphere of interest by a greater proportion of the population in scientific matters revealed in the public lectures of famous scientists such as Faraday. More precisely, as a consequence of the introduction of machinery a class workmen emerged to build, maintain and repair, the machines on which the blessing of progress depended, at a time when population shifts and the dissolving influences of industrialization in the new urban areas, where these were concentrated, destroyed the inadequate old apprentice system and threw into relief the connection between material advancement and the necessity of education to take part in its advantages. "
“In the first phase, the Mechanics Institutes movement grew in an atmosphere of larger population interest in scientific subjects such as those presented in public lectures by famous scientists like Faraday . More specifically, as a result of the introduction of machines, a labor group emerged who could build, maintain, and repair these machines, on which the blessings of progress hung; At a time when population shifts and the disintegrating influences of industrialization in the new urban areas where it was concentrated were destroying the inadequate old apprenticeship training and the link between material progress and the education necessary to benefit from it became clear . "
literature
Individual evidence
- ^ School of Arts Edinburgh
- ^ Jefferson, G .: Libraries and Society ; James Clark & CO. LTD., Cambridge & London 1969, p. 21