How To Become A Laboratory Attendant

From Woman’s Weekly, January 26th 1918. 

HOW TO BECOME A LABORATORY ATTENDANT.

A New Opening for the Girl Worker of To-day.

MANY girls feel they would like to take up scientific work, but they cannot always spend the time or the money in the training.  

The war has opened up a fresh career that means working in a laboratory, and no previous experience is necessary, for women are now engaged as laboratory attendants.  

There is so much work to be done in the world of science that the trained workers require untrained ones to help them. 

Different kinds of work are all ranked under headings— often with very long names.  Where clays, earths, and such like are tested is called an assaying laboratory; or if it is for metal, a metallurgical laboratory.  Whatever is the nature of the scientific work, the laboratory attendant must help the workers and be responsible for the care of the laboratory.  

She will most probably have a boy to work under her.  She will be required to get to the laboratory about 8 a.m., and help to get the room, or rooms, ready for the day's work; have the windows opened, fires lighted, see that the room is swept, or sweep it, and dust it herself.  

If she has a lad helping, she must keep a sharp eye on him — see that he touches nothing on the working-benches.  A chemist may often have to leave important work on his bench when he leaves off for the night — it cannot always be put away.  So that makes a laboratory attendant's position a very responsible one. 

HER “ODD JOBS.” 

ONCE the rooms are clean and tidy, the “still” must be started, if the distilled water used is “home made.”  Then the big bottles containing acids—called “Winchesters” — must be looked over.  If any are empty, fresh ones must be brought in from the store cupboard.  By this time the staff will arrive, and work begins.  If there are several, every one will be sure to want something at once.  The attendant will be required to prepare the samples for analysis.  If an ore, she will crush it in a mortar and pass it through a sieve whatever size she is told.  If a 100 sieve, this job lasts some time.  If the sample be a metal, she will have to cut it into small pieces.  She may drill it, or, with some, hammer it very fine, and cut it up.  If the sample is already in small pieces, she must clean it, if soiled.  She may have to wash it in ether. This quite an exciting job, as the ether evaporates off quicker than she can clean the sample. 

All kinds of odd jobs will fall to her lot.  Stoppers will stick fast in bottles—especially alkalies —so that she frequently has to get her wash-bottle of boiling water and remove them.  The girl who is good at removing stoppers will win golden opinions for herself. 

Of course, the more she picks up about apparatus or electric batteries, the more use will she be to her chief.  To be a useful laboratory attendant a girl must be quick, sharp, take an interest in her work, anxious to learn all she can, and let the staff see she is a willing worker. 

Some of the men who have held positions for many years in the same laboratory are quite “characters.”  We know of one who always speaks of “my laboratory,” and who keeps a far sharper eye on the general expenses than does the chief himself. 

One golden rule of a laboratory is that the work must never be spoken about to anyone outside, as it is often confidential. 

Sometimes people will find an excuse to look over a laboratory just to find out something. 

HE KNEW TOO MUCH. 

A VISITOR one day got permission to look over a large laboratory where rubber was being analysed.  He said he knew nothing of science or commerce, and at the end of his visit he asked for a bit of rubber as a keepsake.  He opened his penknife, and, licking the blade, cut a bit.  Suddenly he found himself turned out with the remark, “None but one experienced with rubber would have known to wet the blade first if you want to cut rubber.”

HOURS AND THE PAY. 

THE working hours will be from about 8 a.m. to 6 or 6.30 p.m., With one hour off for dinner; and there is plenty of opportunity to make a cup of tea in the afternoon. 

The pay will depend on the size and style of the laboratory.  A girl who had never been in a laboratory before would get about 18s. a week to start with, and would eventually get 25s. to 30s. a week.  

In a large firm, where two or three were kept, the head one, who would require to be experienced, would receive a higher wage. 

HER STYLE OF DRESS. 

THE most suitable style of dress is an overall.  In some laboratories a cap to match is advisable, if the goods to be experimented upon give rise to much dust, such as ores.  

She may have to attend to the store of chemicals, and she will also be responsible for keeping the bottles that are in use filled up. Of course, this has to be most carefully done, as an error on the attendant's part would upset perhaps all the scientific work on hand.

[Woman's Weekly were running a series of articles at this time on good career occupations for women.  There's no suggestion here that the lab attendant posts were available because women were replacing men who were now in the armed forces, but it's quite likely.  

The suggestion that using ether would be 'quite exciting' amused me, given the effects of breathing in the vapour.]