320 



NATURE 



[January 4, 1912 



technical knowUdgc. Writing as a cJiemical manu- 

 factiircr. Dr. Lrvinstein warn* us against " thinking 

 that we can replace efficient captains l)V a Vww 

 niinil)or of fairly pood corporals." 



Interaction between Instruction and Industry. 



It will have been observed that engineering hoids 

 the best position in the Hoard oi Kducation review, 

 from which wc have quoted, dealing with the techni- 

 cal instruction of the Inited Kingdom. It is 

 not by accident that British engineers are found 

 all over the world. Any advance in an industry leads 

 to wider and more intense study, to greater dem.ind 

 for instruction, and a consequent improvement in its 

 quality. The loss of the chemical dye industry is 

 frequently attributed to lack of knowledge on the pjirt 

 of English manufacturers. It appears more probable 

 to the writer that the high duty on spirit stifled the 

 industry in its cradle; the loss of the manufacture 

 removed the incentives (moral as well as pecuniary) 

 to study and research from this country, and trans- 

 ferred them to Germany. How the rise of this new 

 German industry promoted study and research into 

 coal-tar derivatives, how this research developed the 

 industry yet farther, and how this reciprocity of indus- 

 trial and instructional progress has helped the indus- 

 trial advance of Germany is a story that needs no 

 repetition. But it is still necessary to drive home the 

 importance of close connection between our technical 

 instruction and our industries, and to remove the lost 

 traces of antagonism between the "practical man" 

 and the "theoretical person." 



When college training was a new thing, it was 

 to be expected that some of the young men should 

 imagine that their up-to-date theoretical knowledge 

 made them better engineers than their experienced 

 seniors; but such youthful conceit soon finds its 

 Nemesis. By this time many of the managers in 

 engineering works have themselves been through a 

 college course, and the recruit with the ink scarcely 

 dry on his diploma finds his proper level at once. 

 With the realisation of what a college course can, and 

 what it cannot, do towards making a real expert, we 

 may expect an absence of friction and misunderstand- 

 ing, and the establishment of a right appreciation 

 of college training. There can be no doubt that the 

 United States has profited greatly by not undervaluing 

 courses of study pursued in university institutions. 

 It should not be overlooked that an increase in the 

 number of such trained men raises the status of the 

 nation as a whole. In 1897 there were found to be 

 7000 chemists trained in Germany holding responsible 

 positions, of whom one thousand were employed in 

 other countries. Deducting another thousand em- 

 ployed in the manufacture of organic compounds — i.e. 

 assuming that we do not wish to challenge Germany's 

 supremacy in this department — is it likely that we 

 have 5000 chemists of first-grade qualifications who 

 have been trained in England? It appears probable 

 that we are more nearlv forty than fourteen years 

 behind in this respect. TTie potentialities of our tech- 

 nical institutions are not properly appreciated bv 

 chemical manufacturers, and the interaction between 

 industry and instruction is not so free and constant 

 as is requisite for full industrial health. 



Some Suggestions towards a Constructive Policy. 



A preliminary step would be the limitation of the 

 application of the epithet "technical." The Board of 

 Education should confine the designation " technical 

 institution " to establishments of really advanced staff- 

 ing and equipment. Elementary classes doing^ the 

 work of repairing defects in school education should 

 be classed as continuation classes; "technical class" 



NO. 2201, VOL. 88] 



should imply a seriou- -"-Tipt to imp ; • !: ' ' 

 and skill 01 a technol< racter. > 



should be made to inij>. .>.• u.<j quality oi v,,- 

 both in subject-matter and method, in • 

 schools. No boy or girl should leave the c^ ... 

 school (unless to enter a secondary or trade s< 

 before the age of fourteen. Continuation «i 

 should be available in every locality, as soon as 

 able teachers can be obtained, and the recomnv 

 tions of the Consultative Committee of the Board of 

 Education should be put into practice. In particul.ir 

 employers should liberate young people for a c 

 number of hours per week in order that they 

 attend day classes. The leaving age from seoondar> 

 schools should be raised, and the universities and 

 university colleges should not admit students belovv 

 eighteen years of age. 



Based upon a proper school education in the elemen- 

 tary and continuation schools, trade schools, or 

 secondary schools, evening instruction of great, valu. 

 could be given to the better workmen, foremen, an^; 

 skilled craftsmen. Such instruction is already givrn 

 in the polytechnics, in evening classes of univtrsitv 

 colleges, and in the smaller towns in the technic.t! 

 classes which are frequently styled "institutes." Th- 

 higher grade of technical instruction should be c!^rr\,< 

 out in the day classes of well-equipped institi 

 ranking as university colleges. The diploma of i: 

 institutes and colleges should deserve recognition a- 

 the hall-mark of a trained scientific man. Two year> 

 after obtaining his diploma, the holder should be 

 permitted to present a research or thesis to the univer- 

 sity, which should grant a degree for work of genuiiv 

 merit. The approach to such a university degre. 

 should not be stopped by protective or revenue-raising 

 barriers of the matriculation type. This demand i- 

 made with the idea of preserving the connection which 

 at present exists between departments for hi^h<r 

 applied science and the older and modern universities. 

 The alternative w-ould be the adoption of the German 

 system of technical universities. It is by no means 

 certain that these rapidly growing and in som- 

 respects very successful universities are models to h- 

 followed. There is at least a danger of over-specialisa- 

 tion in the German system — a tendency to product- 

 machine-made men possessing a narrowly speci.ili^-^i 

 knowledpfe and capacity, but without sufficient width 

 and individuality. Our captains of industry have to 

 control men, as well as to perfect processes. 



In the plan roughly outlined above an attempt ha^ 

 been made to provide (a) technical education needed b\ 

 the foreman, skilled artisan, &c., (b) technical educa- 

 tion needed by the scientific leaders of industry. Thr 

 former requires a large number of classes of a Ioc.t! 

 character; the country should be peppered with such, 

 and the financing and control should be to a con- 

 siderable extent the duty of the local education author- 

 ity. The latter should be large institutions, staffed 

 by specialists, assisted largely by national funds, with 

 centralisation as the dominant idea in their organisa- 

 tion. For both we need advisory boards, including 

 employers and employees, also representatives of the 

 teachers in the schools from which pupils are derived. 

 Provision should be made for the passage of students 

 of exceptional merit from the lower to the higher 

 grade. 



Further, it is highly important that greatly increased 

 provision should be made for post-graduate research. 

 Space and opportunity for this work and for carr>-ing 

 on monotechnical courses of an advanced type will be 

 found by freeing the university colleges from the 

 obligation to hold matriculation classes and by reliev- 

 ing our higher technfcal institutions from the necessity 

 of teaching decimals. 



