126 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



iron trade of this and other countries, and in calling the attention 

 of our legislators to questions of tariffs, and to other measures, 

 likely to affect the interests of the British iron trade. 



EDUCATIONAL. Intimately connected with the interests of this 

 Institution, and with the prosperity of the iron trade, is the 

 subject of technical education. It is not many years since 

 practical knowledge was regarded as the one thing requisite in an 

 iron smelter, whilst theoretical knowledge of the chemical and 

 mechanical principles involved in the operations was viewed with 

 considerable suspicion. The aversion to scientific reasoning upon 

 metallurgical processes extended even to the authors who professed 

 to enlighten us upon these subjects ; and we find, in technological 

 works of the early part of .the present century, little more than 

 eye-witness accounts of the processes pursued by the operating 

 smelter, and no attempt to reconcile those operations with scientific 

 facts. A great step in advance was made in this country by Dr. 

 Percy, when, in 1864, he published his remarkable "Metallurgy 

 of Iron and Steel." Here we find the gradual processes of iron 

 smelting passed in review, and supported by chemical analyses of 

 the fuel, ores, and fluxing materials employed, and of the metal, 

 slags, and cinder produced in the operation. On the continent of 

 Europe, the researches of Ebelmann, and the technological writings 

 of Karsten, Tanner, Griiner, Karl, Akermann, Wedding, and others, 

 have also contributed largely towards a more rational conception of 

 the processes employed in iron smelting. 



It must be conceded to the nations of the Continent of Europe 

 that they were the first to recognize the necessity of technical 

 education, and it has been chiefly in consequence of their increasing 

 competition with the producers of this country, that the attention 

 of the latter had been forcibly drawn to this subject. The only 

 special educational establishment for the metallurgist of Great 

 Britain is the School of Mines. This institution has unquestionably 

 already produced most excellent results in furnishing us with 

 young metallurgists, qualified to make good careers for themselves, 

 and to advance the practical processes of iron making ; but it is 

 equally evident that that institution is still susceptible of great 

 improvement, by adding to the branches of knowledge now taught 

 at Jermyn Street, and I cannot help thinking that a step in 

 the wrong direction has recently been made in separating 



