.s/A' WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 281 



The system of pupilage or apprenticeship will still be necessary, 

 hut instead of involving the sacrifice of seven of the most im- 

 portant years of a young man's life, half that time, or say three 

 years, will be found amply sufficient to give to the lad imbued 

 with first principles the practical knowledge necessary for his 

 trade. The employer would be amply compensated for the shorter 

 time of gratuitous service by a corresponding improvement in its 

 quality. He should be expected to see to it that during the term 

 of his authority the pupil attended Saturday and evening classes 

 where, in addition to general subjects, the principles underlying 

 the operations of his business of spinning, dyeing, paper-making, 

 or metal-working are taught by competent persons. 



It is important that the teacher himself should not be a mere 

 specialist, but a man capable of generalising and of calling to his 

 aid other branches of science and general knowledge, that he 

 should be, in short, a well-educated person. It is difficult, I 

 believe, as yet to find a sufficient number of teachers equal to such 

 a standard, and in order to supply this deficiency normal schools 

 will have to be established upon a much larger scale than has 

 hitherto been the case. It is satisfactory to learn that South 

 Kensington is coining to the rescue in converting its Science 

 School into a Normal School for the education of science teachers, 

 only it is to be hoped that literary subjects will be added to their 

 curriculum. 



The importance of a higher education of the working classes 

 will be appreciated by all who have watched the rapid strides with 

 which one branch of industry after another undergoes fundamental 

 change, by which the mere craft-skill acquired yesterday becomes 

 obsolete to-day, when a new process, involving entirely new modes 

 of operation, takes the place of a previous one. Nor is there any 

 promise of stability in the process of to-day, which may be again 

 superseded to-morrow by something more nearly approaching 

 ultimate perfection. 



To those who still have some confidence in the stability of 

 things as they exist in arts and manufactures, I would strongly 

 recommend a trip to Paris, where they will still be in time to 

 visit the International Exhibition of Electricity. That fonm of 

 energy known as the electric current was nothing more than the 

 philosopher's delight forty years ago ; its first practical applica- 



