From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "David Billington"  wrote in message news:104r6mp$1fv64$1@dont-email.me...   
      
      
        Now that I'm back in the UK I've seen much the same happen, when I   
   came back I signed up for machining evening classes to use the  machines   
   not to learn how to, that was much the same for all the other   
   attendees.  Over a few years funding was reduced and those classes   
   eventually stopped prompting me to start buying my own machinery. With   
   the demise of local industry like Stothert & Pitt and others the machine   
   shops at the local tech college I attended closed and were auctioned off   
   being converted into a library and media centre. I went to the auction   
   which was a bit sad but have a few mementos of the place in my workshop now.   
      
        The junior high was in Manchester Ct and I attended the high school   
   as well for part of the year but ended up moving due to dads job in   
   aerospace. The high school had quite a few well equipped workshops for   
   metalsmithing, machining, sheet metal and others which could be chosen   
   as elective subject. I did the machining as well as the metalsmithing   
   and the test piece in machining at the end of the year was an impact   
   driver including heat treatment and testing but I moved so didn't   
   complete the year. I presume the facilities were due to the industry in   
   the area past such as Cheney Manufacturing and present like P&W. I don't   
   know what they have now, I looked for metalsmithing about 15-20 years   
   ago and it was still listed but last year I couldn't even find a listing   
   for the 3Rs online at the high school.   
   -------------------------------------   
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Connecticut_industry   
   Early US Industrial growth ran up the Connecticut River through Springfield   
   MA as far north as Windsor VT, the Robbins & Lawrence factory that is now   
   the American Precision Museum. The Merrimack in NH and MA was also the site   
   of considerable early industrial development that made use of its water   
   power, and the remaining mill buildings have become a center of high tech.   
      
   Under British rule American industry had been stifled, the colonies were to   
   provide raw materials and buy finished good, but the Crown's control didn't   
   extend much beyond the major coastal cities. As soon as possible we tried to   
   catch up, helped by skilled immigrants disgusted with Europe's continual   
   wars and labor problems. The lure of land on the frontier drew away many of   
   the ambitious and capable and pushed us to find ways to speed and automate   
   production that were unacceptable to workmen in Europe, enough that by the   
   1850's we were Europe's technical equal.   
      
   The USA had an advantage in being too far away for Watt's dislike of high   
   pressure steam's accident potential to hinder engine development here.   
   https://siaoliverevans.org/oliver-evans/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)