476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



standing of the designer's purposes. Taking this view of the situa- 

 tion, it is certainly necessary that talent should he technically tem- 

 pered. 



It is not to he expected that every one learning a trade will become 

 an expert or an innovator ; ability to comprehend the requirements of 

 trades are developed in either the shop or the school, hut the regrets 

 so often expressed by those who have grown up from apprentices for 

 their lack of education evinces the limited possibilities of practical 

 knowledge simply, and demonstrates, in a measure, the necessity for 

 an early instruction in the theories, if one thinks to introduce improve- 

 ments and progressions in his profession. 



The want of education, with which most apprentices must contend, 

 interferes in other ways with their progress. The master is apt, in 

 many instances, to exaggerate the difficulties to be overcome, and en- 

 large upon the mysteries surrounding his work-bench. The doubt 

 this would arouse in an unschooled mind might be fatal to success, and 

 the superstition that there was something impossible for the appren- 

 tice to comprehend, is liable to remain with him as a drag-net to his 

 future usefulness, trammel his ambition, and perhaps turn his abili- 

 ties into a channel less profitable to himself and to the world. 



Technical schools, adopting as they do a different course, impress 

 the students with the comparative simplicity of business, and give 

 them the feeling of ability to grasp and utilize the intricacies and 

 peculiarities of the trades. That which is formidable to the unin- 

 structed becomes a bagatelle to those familiar with the details and 

 with those who have an intelligent theoretical acquaintance with the 

 governing principles. It is true, this theoretical knowledge can not 

 provide for all emergencies that are likely to occur in the workshops, 

 but it lays a foundation which will aid the student, when those emer- 

 gencies present themselves, in comprehending and overcoming the dif- 

 ficulty ; and it is a question we would be loath to decide in the nega- 

 tive, whether or not a mechanic, who, after being educated in a techni- 

 cal school, had had a reasonable experience in a shop, would not find 

 a readier and more effective remedy for an accident than one who 

 had been brought up in a shop and lacked school training. 



Another consideration worth noting is the comparatively short 

 time during which a man improves his skill in the trade or art he may 

 have adopted. The Technical Commission of Great Britain sets the 

 period at from ten to fifteen years as a maximum, and this may be 

 regarded as a reasonable estimate for the time at the end of which 

 progress in the individual ceases; and, such being the case, it is proper 

 to give at the outset all the helps toward developing talent that are 

 attainable. Technical education may be one of these helps. 



If it were possible to acquire theory and practice at one and the 

 same time, its desirability would be indisputable, but, we imagine, this 

 in its true sense is impracticable. The practice obtained in technical 



