November i6, 191 i] 



NATURE 



95 



prepare the way for it. I noticed the statement in the 

 address of the Chancellor of St. Andrews, on the occasion 

 of the quincentenary of the University, that the test now 

 imposed for entrance would in some respects compare not 

 unfavourably with that for graduation about half a century 

 .ago. In the best engineering schools a similar change 

 has occurred, and should, indeed, make further progress. 

 The possibility of effective technical teaching depends on 

 suitable previous preparation ; and on this point the com- 

 mittee of the institution in 1906 came to very decided and 

 definite conclusions, and laid down explicitly a scheme of 

 school education for engineering students. 



Technical Education. 



It is only in modern times that universities came to be 

 regarded as solely concerned with a general liberal and, 

 except as regards medicine, an entirely non-technical 

 (lucation. " The colleges were in their inception," says 

 Mark Pattison, the rector of Lincoln, " endowments not 

 k)r the elements of a general liberal education, but for the 

 prolonged study of special and professional faculties by 

 'lien of riper age " ; and he lamented that they no longer 

 iiomoted the researches of science or directed professional 

 -■ludy. That state of things is happily changing, especially 

 in the modern provincial universities. 



The new vocation or profession of engineering grew up 

 in this country with very little academic encouragement. 

 It is true that after 1840 engineering schools were attached 

 to a few universities. But they were generally un- 

 endowed, unequipped, or uninfiuential. The most dis- 

 tinguished of them was that at Glasgow, where the Regius 

 professorship was held by Gordon and Rankine. 



Meanwhile, in France and Germany there had long 

 •existed remarkable engineering schools with distinguished 

 teachers. The Paris Ecole Polytechnique was instituted in 

 1794, the Ecole des Fonts et Chauss^es in 1795, the Ecole 

 •des Mines in 1778, the mining school at Freiburg, where 

 many foreigners obtained education in 1765. In the first 

 quarter of the nineteenth century were established the 

 technical high schools of Karlsruhe, Hanover, Berlin, 

 Dresden, Vienna, and the Ecole Centrale at Paris. The 

 :great Zurich Polytechnicum dates from 1854. 



With one exception, I do not think there were any 

 engineering schools in this country with what could be 

 regarded as a reasonably complete and satisfactory curri- 

 ■■culum or equipment before 1870. In giving this date I 

 am passing over the system of education adopted by the 

 Admiralty for naval engineers and architects in 1843. Sir 

 Alexander Kennedy established the first college engineer- 

 ing laboratory in 1878, and from that may be dated the 

 beginning in this country of a necessary equipment of 

 •engineering schools. There is now a number of uni- 

 versity engineering schools, or schools of university rank, 

 ■directed by teachers of eminence not only in science, but 

 in practical engineering, with systematic courses of 

 instruction covering broadly ail branches of engineering up 

 to the graduate stage, and of a thoroughly practical 

 character. Quite recently a beginning has been made of 

 •post-graduate instruction of a specialised character. It is 

 only in a post-graduate course that engineering students 

 can be usefully or ctTiciently employed in research. 



Advanced Education and Practical Training. 

 I cannot help thinking that there is a tendency amongst 

 some practical engineers to suspect those of us who are 

 interested in formal technical instruction of indifference 

 to_ the value of practical experience. But surely that is a 

 mistake. Most engineering professors are themselves 

 engineers of considerable practical experience. What, in 

 fact, they do somewhat doubt is the value of so much 

 practical experience as an ordinary apprentice gets who 

 goes straight into works without technical training, and 

 ■who has to pick up his knowledge as he can. At the 

 best, his experience is a narrow one. Some of the jealousv 

 ■•ccasionally shown as to college training seems to arise 

 from the feeling that it interferes with the traditional 

 English system of articled pupilage, which, so far as I 

 know, hardly exists in any other country. It does seem to 

 me that the old apprenticeship system for profo^'^iona! 

 Mgincers, takr-n hy lads direct from school, was uii- 



NO. 2194, VOL. 88] 



economical, wasteful of time, involving unnecessary 

 drudgery, and in some respects unfair. 



There is another consideration as to the pupilage system 

 as it existed forty years ago. It was suitable only for the 

 wealthy. But many of the most hard-working, capable, 

 and even brilliant students are not of the wealthy class. 

 In these days there are ladders from the elementary school 

 to the university and the technical college. It would be 

 a loss to the country and the profession if really able, but 

 comparatively poor, students could find no way to employ- 

 ment. In this competitive time we can least of all afford 

 to neglect or waste intellectual ability. 



The institution has by its system of examinations ex- 

 pressed its view of the importance of such theoretical and 

 practical technical education as it is the object of technical 

 schools to give, while at the same time it has done what 

 is possible by its by-laws to encourage or require a term 

 of pupilage or apprenticeship as a means of acquiring 

 experience. Further, in the report of the committee of 

 1906, while insisting on the value of pupilage or 

 apprenticeship, it has most definitely expressed the opinion 

 that a three years' course in a technical college is equally 

 necessary, and should form an integral part of the training 

 of an engineer ; and this conclusion was endorsed by a 

 large majority of the engineers who were consulted by the 

 committee. 



The question arises, and I think it is a serious one, 

 how far engineers now are taking any steps to carry out 

 the recommendations of the institution committee as to 

 the requirement of preliminary training antecedent to 

 pupilage. It is clear that young men will not incur the 

 expense, the labour, and the delay of a college course if it 

 gives them no advantage in entering the profession. 



Some inquiries were lately made by the institution of 

 more than a hundred engineers in various branches of 

 engineering as to the conditions on which they accepted 

 pupils or apprentices. In a few cases it appears that 

 pupils or apprentices are required to have passed an 

 examination equivalent to the Studentship examination 

 of the institution. In a very few cases the possession of a 

 degree is accepted as a reason for shortening the period 

 of apprenticeship. But what is desirable is that a lad 

 should reach the standard of the Associate Membership 

 examination or the examination for a first degree before 

 entering on pupilage. If he does not he will only be able 

 to reach it by cramming, which, though not quite useless, 

 is much inferior to a systematic course of study. As a 

 matter of fact, however, within my own knowledge the 

 colleges have more influence than these returns seem to 

 show ; and, especially in the case of the provincial uni- 

 versities, local patriotism ensures preference to men 

 trained in the local university. 



The Transition from College to Practice. 



It seems to me that the great efforts mat!.' during the 

 last forty years, and the expenditure incuind, largely from 

 private sources, in establishing fiigiiicci iiii; schools lack 

 in one respect full recognition by the |)mli >sion. .Many 

 engineers have given generously in money and in time ; 

 but engineers in general might do more in facilitating the 

 transition from school to works. With an experience of 

 twenty years, I believe that more organised and recog- 

 nised relations between the schools and offices and works 

 are desirable and possible. The most difficult part of a 

 young engineer's career is the step between college and 

 full capability in some special branch. No engineering 

 school can prepare students completely for any special 

 position in the engineering field without very undesirable 

 narrowing of the scope of the instruction. Two years of 

 pupilage or employment is desirable as a transition period ; 

 and the difficulty is that generally engineers expect that 

 someone else should have the task of rounding off the 

 college training. Even in the United States it is per- 

 ceived that, to make technical education effective, the 

 emplover must shoulder a part of the load imposed by the 

 old apprenticeship system, which in the llnited Slates has 

 been to a great extent thrown on the schools. 



I am therefore much in sympathx wiih ilir proposal 

 that there should be an endeavour lo proilmi •mme co- 

 ordiiialioii hruveen the colleges" and emplo\.is l.v making 

 an iiujniiy a- to the conditions under whirli \\ . Il-qualified 



