What we plan to do:
Historic Skills Preservation Methodology
Knight Foundry
What we plan to do
The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
Well, only some of this has actually happened by late 2006. The Chapter focus has moved
on to more traditional pursuits, and activities at the Knight Foundry by the
Knight Foundry Corporation (spun off in 1998 and reformed in 2001)
have been basically halted until ownership of the Foundry can be established.
Still, there are some good ideas here, that might inspire folks to pursue them, so we've left these
as sort of archeological markers.
In addition to typical SIA activities such as organizing seminars and tours of significant industrial history sites, the Chapter intends to work to create, through both its own research and development and by a process of international consensus building, a standard methodology for the preservation of historic skills. This web site will be the principal forum for achieving that consensus. We will use contemporary, emerging and future technology to aid in the preservation and dissemination of industrial archaeological materials, with an emphasis on the knowledge base of the living skilled worker. This will include the development of techniques, practices and standards for the collection and management of documentary materials in all media.
Also planned is World Wide Web based access to these materials in addition to traditional forms of publishing. Advances in computer hardware and software allow the possibility now and in the immediate future of extremely sophisticated presentations including video and audio clips, 3D "virtual worlds" along with static text and image. The complexity of the proposed archive and resource site is a challenging "test bed" application of the new technologies: we will be pushing the envelope. At the same time our goal is to establish practices and techniques which can be easily replicated by other organizations and individuals around the world.
In order to test and standardize our historic skills preservation methodology, we are conducting or are planning a number of demonstration projects to test the theoretical basis of the methodology and to advance the work of preservation. As part of this series, the Consortium, with the SPCRR, launched an apprenticeship program in historic skills last year. The goal of the project is to give the apprentices sufficient training to enable them to build a precise replica of a narrow gauge flat car of the 1880s in just two days, the amount of time it took the original builders. The entire program will be portrayed in a television documentary in progress entitled "This Old Flat Car."
We also hope that, as we begin to disseminate the methodology, we will be able to provide a support structure and guidance for other workers in the field through the publishing (by both traditional channels and on-line) of methodologies and curriculum materials. At the same time, we know that many pieces of the methodological puzzle have already been given shape. Surveying existing practices and providing a forum for building consensus on standards must be the first order of business. Again, this web site will soon be structured to serve that function.
