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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



curricula of the great universities of Europe; and afterwards special 

 schools were founded for teaching the applications of science to the 

 arts. In France, the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, originally started 

 in 174:7 as a drawing school, was organized in 1760 for the training 

 of engineers. In the States of Germany, a number of similar schools 

 were organized early in the present century. In America, the Bens- 

 selaer Polytechnic Institute, the pioneer in technical education, was 

 founded in 1821, and was the only school devoted to applied science 

 until the forties, when Joseph Sheffield and Abbot Lawrence established 

 the schools which bear their names, in connection, respectively, with 

 Yale and Harvard. With the development of railroads, which dates 

 from the thirties, and of manufacturing, which began in this country 



The Rogers Buildinc 



Massachusetts Institute of Techno] 

 Walker Building at the left. 



IS AT THE RIGHT, THI 



but a few years earlier, urgent need was felt for schools which should 

 fit younger men to grapple with the problems which the new industries 

 offered. These schools, however, maintained for many years but a 

 precarious existence and were quite elementary in character. The 

 Civil War interrupted their growth and absorbed for a time all the 

 resources of the nation; but its termination set free an abundant 

 store of energy, henceforward to seek its chief application in the 

 development of trade, commerce, manufacturing and industrial pur- 

 suits of every kind. From this time he success of schools of tech- 

 nology was assured. They were needed to supply young men for the 

 development of the arts; but, on the other hand, as in all things not 

 purely material, they were to create a demand for such men by first 



