Mechanics' Institutes

Mechanics' Institutes are voluntary unchartered associations of mechanics or workingmen for the purpose of providing themselves, at small individual cost, with instruction in elementary and technical branches of knowledge, by means of a library, reading-rooms, classes, and lectures. The management is wholly or in great part in the hands of a committee or committees elected by the members of the association. The earliest germ of the Mechanics' Institute was a class for journeyman mechanics formed by Dr Birkbeck (q.v.) at Glasgow in 1800; but the first Mechanics' Institute, properly so called, was organised by the same philanthropist in London in 1824. The original aim of the first institutes was to teach mechanics the correct knowledge of the principles of their respective trades. Subsequently the basis was enlarged, and the teaching of the elements and principles of a general education aimed at. Out of these organisations have grown, through the introduction of means of recreation and temperate enjoyment, the Working-men's Social Clubs and Educational Institutes.