A useful training

for the budding Automobile Engineer.

One of the chief differences between this generation and the last is, that whereas then the common desire of youth was to be an engine driver, now it is to be a motor engineer. Also whereas the engine driver complex usually passed away at an early age, the desire to investigate the mysteries of the internal combustion vehicle is apt to stick, and become a career. As such it is good, but like many others it does not offer much opportunity for the enthusiastic amateur without specialised knowledge.

He may be able to ” talk cars ” and sometimes to render assistance to a fair driver who is stranded by the roadside, by unneccessarily cleaning a plug, only to find that more petrol is required. This, however, contrary to what some people fondly imagine is no qualification for the motor trade as a profession, and the successful man must know how, and this means training. One of the best mediums for acquiring a really practical knowledge is an establishment like the Automobile Training College of Sydney Street, Chelsea. Here a complete course of theoretical and workshop training takes two years, which is a considerable advantage over the usual period of apprenticeship in a works where the training is not supervised, and is largely a matter of chance. Another point of this college which will probably be of more interest to those of our readers who already have considerable experience is that special short courses in a particular branch may be taken by anyone wishing to specialise, where it is inconvenient or unnecessary to take a full course.