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	Mechanics Institutes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The first institute was established in Glasgow in 1821, some 20 years after George Birkbeck had first instituted free lectures on arts, science and technical subjects.
		In Australia, for example, the first Mechanics' Institute appeared in Hobart in 1827, followed by the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute established in 1839 (renamed The Melbourne Athenaeum in 1873).
		From the 1850s, Mechanics' Institutes quickly spread thoughout Victoria wherever a hall, library or school was needed.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Mechanics_Institutes (237 words)

	Mechanics' Institutes (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Mechanics' Institutes Established first in England during the 1820s, Mechanics' Institutes began as voluntary associations of working men seeking self-improvement through education.
		Rather, the institutes were controlled by shopkeepers, doctors, ministers and small manufacturers who sought activities for themselves, and more importantly, the growing number of urban wage-earners.
		The Mechanics' Institutes thus reflected important features of 19th-century Canada: the constant anxiety of local leaders about social order and stability; the widespread hope of self-improvement through education; and the increasing popular thirst for reading material.
	thecanadianencyclopedia.com /index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005192 (291 words)

	Funding communal culture: opportunism and standardisation of funding for mechanics' institutes in colonial Victoria
		The increasing numbers of mechanics' institutes in Victoria was a consequence of the expansion of settlement rather than from meeting any specific cultural, educational or recreational need that their nominal purpose might imply.
		A brief summary of the origins of the mechanics' institute movement in Britain provides an overview of the motivation which inspired the British conception of the institutes, and thus the expectations and attitudes of the inheritors of the ideal, in this case the immigrants in Victoria.
		The absurd resolution to this condition on the part of smaller mechanics' institutes was the provision of one room for the subscribers to the institute and a separate room for members of the public.
	www.alia.org.au /publishing/alj/51.3/full.text/communal.culture.html (5062 words)

	Briagolong Mechanics' Institute
		Mechanics' Institutes were places of learning for the "working man" or "mechanic", someone who worked with his hands.
		The collection is also important as a source for local historians and those who are interested in the history of mechanics' institutes and their libraries.
		It is fortunate that this decision was not acted on, because the Mechanics' Institute might have lost one of the more interesting parts of its library.
	kapana.customer.netspace.net.au /Briag2.html (964 words)

	Chapter3 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		It was modelled on the British Mechanics’ Institutes and supported the belief that ‘instruction of the working classes by means of schools of various descriptions’ would ensure that mechanics learnt more than a fundamental knowledge of their trade.
		Although the Institute was unable to fulfil the ideals behind the establishment of the Mechanics’ Institutes, it was partially successful in its objectives to promote useful and entertaining knowledge amongst its members and the wider community.
		But instead of educating mechanics the Institute had become a place where men showed off their agility to their sweethearts and readers were being distracted by the continual sounds of dancing music from the lecture hall.
	www.ak.planet.gen.nz /~gregu/Thesis/chapter3.htm (6479 words)

	Chapter1 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Although this was scarcely the atmosphere in which to foster the establishment of institutions of culture, or to ensure the adequate safe keeping of even the most hardy of books, it was in these primitive conditions that a group of settlers endeavoured to establish the first library in the province in 1841.
		Institutes set up to be run by the working class, such as those advocated by Lovett and the newly founded Mechanics’ Institutes, had limited success.
		Peter Biskup suggests that the problem was that ‘the aims turned out to have little appeal for the mechanics, most of whom lacked the elementary education without which even basic scientific and technological studies were impossible.’ John Allred also criticizes the Mechanics’ Institutes, suggesting that they were not liberal in their spread of knowledge.
	www.ak.planet.gen.nz /~gregu/Thesis/chapter1.htm (5684 words)

	§20. Mechanics’ institutes. XIV. Education. Vol. 14. The Victorian Age, Part Two. The Cambridge History of ...
		The rapid increase in number, throughout Great Britain, of Mechanics’ institutions confirms the statement of contemporary observers that there was a widespread desire among urban populations for instruction.
		Birkbeck, who was professor of natural philosophy at the Andersonian institution, Glasgow, from 1799 to 1804, opened, in 1800, a free course of Saturday evening lectures to artisans, intended to familiarise them with some of the scientific principles underlying the employment of tools and machinery.
		Under his successor, it experienced a variety of fortunes, till, in 1823, a number of seceding members established the Glasgow Mechanics’ institution and made Birkbeck its president.
	www.bartleby.com /224/1420.html (310 words)

	Libraries in Australia - Stories from Australia's Culture and Recreation Portal
		These schools or institutes were places where those mainly working class men could go and hear lectures of use to them in their practical work, access a library of books, and so improve themselves.
		Mechanics' Institutes were very often supported by the colonial governments - usually by land grants and cash assistance.
		Mechanics' Institutes were particularly popular in country areas where their role often went far beyond their "library" function to a general focus for the community's cultural activities.
	www.acn.net.au /articles/libraries (1214 words)

	Strategies for survival: Membership libraries in the modern era
		Surviving membership libraries tend to be very old institutions, as they were formed and funded by community residents to provide what was often the first library service available in their areas.
		The San Francisco Mechanics' Institute resides on several floors in their own large building, and the remaining floors are leased as office space.
		The Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria (MIV) is a state body which was formed in 1998, which has taken on a public awareness and lobbying role on behalf of mechanics' institutes and athenaeums.
	www.alia.org.au /publishing/incite/2004/05/strategies.html (1167 words)

	mechanics on Encyclopedia.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The science of mechanics may also be broken down, according to the state of matter being studied, into solid mechanics and fluid mechanics.
		Volume adjustment of mechanics and diffusion in interstitial lung disease: lack of clinical relevance.
		Mechanic Jesse James, known for his custom motorcycles, hosts "Monster Garage" on the Discovery Channel where a group of mechanics turns an ordinary vehicle into a unique vehicle.
	www.encyclopedia.com /html/m1/mechanics.asp (698 words)

	mechanics' institute -- Encyclopædia Britannica
		Ideally such an institute was to have a library, a museum, a laboratory, public lectures about applied science, and courses in various skills, but few had all of these.
		Mechanics of different trades were to learn from each other—a denial of guild...
		One of the first mechanics' institutes was the Birmingham Artisans' Library in England (1795).
	www.britannica.com /eb/article-9051704?tocId=9051704 (876 words)

	Technical Museums and International Exhibitions (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The idea of a technical museum has firm roots in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century cabinets of mechanical models; the idea was enlarged in the nineteenth century fairs and exhibitions of mechanics' institutes; but with few exceptions today's technical museums owe their existence to the international exhibitions of the nineteenth century.
		Although mechanics' institutes were formed during the 1820's on both sides of the Atlantic, the British and American movements toward providing workingmen with elementary technical schooling were essentially different.
		From the start, the Institute had a Committee on inventions, which was active throughout the nineteenth century; in the 1830's a committee was formed to investigate the causes of steam-boiler explosions.
	xroads.virginia.edu /~DRBR/f_erguson.html (5025 words)

	London Public Library History
		These societies were for the middle-classes and their logical extension to the working-classes in to be found in the mechanics’ institute movement.
		The influence of the donors in the end ensured that Institutions became instruments not of radicalism but of the supporters of the established order; the mechanics went away and their places were filled by middle-class clerks and professional men.
		The mechanics’ institutes formed specifically for them became almost indistinguishable from the cultural middle-class societies both in their membership and in their activities.
	www.derekjones.org /LPLHhtml.htm (6960 words)

	The Victorian Sage
		Mechanical logic was only the beginning of a process that required the more elastic and subtle logic of intuitive thought.
		For Carlyle, mechanical thought and science was a useful way to deal with many things, like curing sickness, but in the end a futile way to approach the true meaning of life in relation to the universe.
		He saw no conflict between religious beliefs and scientific discovery, but felt that science was just scratching at the surface of the laws of a spiritual force that the human mind could never intellectually understand (Holloway 26).
	www.gober.net /victorian/reports/sages.html (2210 words)

	Plymouth, Mechanics' Institutes
		As a result, Mr Edmund Lockyer, as President of the Institute, was invited to lay the foundation stone of the new building in Princess Square on Monday February 5th 1827.
		The Devonport Mechanics’ Institute is said to have had its origins in a Literary and Philosophical Institution that had been formed at what was then Plymouth Dock in 1808.
		However, on Saturday June 4th 1881 the Devonport Mechanics' Institute closed and its building and the collection of books were purchased by Devonport Corporation to form the basis of the new Devonport Free Library.
	www.plymouthdata.info /MechanicsInstitutes.htm (1204 words)

	Parry Sound Public Library: Library History (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		In October 1892, the Parry Sound Mechanics' Institute added over 200 volumes increasing their collection to over 500 volumes, and by Apr. 30, 1895 there was a total of 763 volumes in the collection.
		The Mechanics' Institute no longer reported owning newspapers and periodicals during the years ending April 30, 1895 and 1896, and there were no pupils in evening classes in the year ending April 30, 1895.
		These amendments allowed the majority of the directors of the Mechanics' Institute to petition the municipal council to appoint a board of management as provided by Section 3 of the Act, and this board became a corporation within the meaning of the Act.
	www.pspl.on.ca /lib_hist.htm (2324 words)

	Prahran Mechanics' Institute: What are Mechanics Institutes? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Mechanics’ Institutes are the forerunners of public libraries and adult education in Australia.
		Institute libraries were regularly patronised up until the 1950s even though conducted on a subscription basis.
		Institute committee members were dedicated to the improvement of the cultural, educational and social life of the inhabitants of their local communities.
	www.pmi.net.au /articles/mechanicsinstitutes.htm (351 words)

	Exhibitions: A Golden Heritage On-line
		Mechanics' Institutes were established throughout Victoria as centres of 'moral and mental improvement' for working people.
		Mechanics' Institutes were generally built by the community from locally raised funds and small government grants.
		These cultural institutions were symbols of success and banished forever the image of a frontier society.
	www.heritage.vic.gov.au /page.asp?ID=285 (421 words)

	Early adult education
		Although named a Mechanics Institute membership would be open not only to those who worked directly with machinery but "all workmen who derive their support from the exertion of their own skill and labour..."
		The institute's library in particular suffered and with the opening of (Sir) William Gilstrap's Free Public Library in July 1883 the institute saw an immediate decline in income from subscriptions as members defected to take advantage of a wider selection of more up-to-date books at no cost to themselves.
		The institute appeared to have taken on a new lease of life as during the years up to the first world war new societies such as a literary association games club and camera club began to flourish within its walls.
	www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk /warner/warner27.htm (693 words)

	George Birkbeck and the London Mechanics Institute
		As a result of a number of mechanics asked questions about some of the equipment being built for him he decided to put on an open, free, course of lectures on the ‘mechanical arts’.
		The London Mechanics Institute was eventually formed at a public meeting held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand attended by some 2000 people on November 11, 1823 (see Kelly 1957).
		Female relations and friends of members began to be admitted to lectures and to the circulating library on the same terms as sons and apprentices in 1830.
	www.infed.org /walking/wa-birb.htm (592 words)

	Miners and Mechanics Institutes, north east England.
		About five years ago several members determined to raise the institution out of it's apathy and attract to it the support of the mechanics.
		In his speach W.S.Lindsay said he hoped it would be an institution "wherein the rising generation may learn instruction and have their minds improved." The building of the new institute will be erected at the south west corner of the intersection of Howard street and Saville street.
		On the ground floor it is designed to have a news room and conversation room placed one on each side of the principle enterance and a large room with an enterance on Saville street.
	freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com /~tynesidehistory/institutes.html (624 words)

	Common-place: Review (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Through chapters on mechanics’ institutes, manual labor schools, popular health reforms, and the drive to prevent steam boiler explosions, Rice demonstrates how linguistic choices helped create a ripe environment for the conceptual side of middle-class formation.
		Likewise, many of the mechanics’ institutes and manual labor schools detailed in the work seemed to be located in the Northeast and industrializing Midwest.
		The Mechanics’ Institute of the City of New-York and similar institutions helped at best to repair or attempted at worst to obfuscate the divisions between "hands" and "heads" by offering popular educational programs that provided mental content for manual workers.
	www.common-place.org /vol-05/no-04/reviews/greenberg.shtml (1129 words)

	Encyclopedia: Mechanics Institutes (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Glasgows location in Scotland Glasgow (or Glaschu in Gaelic) is Scotlands largest city, situated on the River Clyde in the countrys west central lowlands.
		George Birkbeck (1776-1841) was a doctor, academic, philanthropist and early pioneer in adult education.
		UMIST Main Bulding on Whitworth Street The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Mechanics-Institutes (578 words)

	GENUKI: The Mechanics Institute, Eyam, Derbyshire (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		According to White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby, 1857, the Mechanics' Institute was established in Eyam 1824, together with a Subscription Library, which then contained 766 volumes.
		Note: in case any of you are wondering (as I did, initially - and, apparently so did William Elliott!) what Mechanics were doing with books, the archaic definition of mechanic was "A craftsman, an artisan".
		Mechanics Institutes were set up throughout the country, and (I think) would have been providing for the 'extra curricula' needs of the parish's skilled workers or tradesmen.
	www.wishful-thinking.org.uk /genuki/DBY/Eyam/MechanicsInstitute.html (196 words)

	The Australian Library Journal: Funding communal culture: opportunism and standardisation of funding for mechanics' ... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Mechanics' institutes were an imported cultural institution of British origins and their expansion in Victoria during the 19th century was phenomenal.
		As institutions which relied on membership subscriptions, the survival of many of them was problematic.
		This article uses a number of case studies to demonstrate the early financial difficulty faced by mechanics' institutes and also discusses...
	www.highbeam.com /library/doc0.asp?DOCID=1G1:93449106&refid=holomed_1 (190 words)

	[No title]
		The desire for self-improvement which was so strong a component of the Victorian mindset led to the establishment of Mechanics' Institutes throughout the country.
		The Berkhamsted Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1845 in the face of much opposition from the clergy: the rector considered it entirely unnecessary for working men, and another local clergyman declared mechanics' institutes to be 'nothing better than hotbeds of infidelity'.
		Alas, the institute is no more, though of course the premises survive thanks to the heroic efforts of those who saved the town hall from the vandals who sought to destroy it.
	www.firshman.co.uk /st-peters-church/review/2004/02/mechanics.htm (681 words)

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