Industrial Research 



21 



which is said to ho the oldest technical "High College" 

 in the world. It had a faculty of eminent men and was 

 a center of activity in geology, mineralogy, crystallog- 

 raphy, metallurgy, and chemical technology.'' The 

 Royal Polytechnic Institute at Dresden was started 

 in 1828, and by 1845— 



there were in all Germany, including Austria, thirty poly- 

 technic schools, usually one and sometimes two in each large 

 city; . . . forty-six schools of agriculture, seven schools of 

 mines, and eighteen schools of forestry. . .' 



The German states came early to realize that their 

 material prosperity was dependent largely upon the 

 thoroughness of their systems of scientific education. 



In supplying instruction in chemistry, France, how- 

 ever, was far ahead of other countries. "Vauquelin 

 was the first to organize a course of instruction in his 

 small laboratory for students anxious to learn, while 

 Gay-Lussac and Thenard also taught in their labora- 

 tories, which however were exceedingly cramped." ° 

 French schools such as the Polytechnic School, the 

 School of Engmeering, the School of Mines, and the 

 great Central School of Arts and Manufactures were 

 training students in the nineteenth century to apply 

 the new scientific knowledge. 



The movement was not so far advanced in England, 

 and in 1868, after a survey of the schools and universi- 

 ties on the continent, Matthew Arnold wrote: 



In nothing do England and the Continent at the present 

 moment more strikingly differ than in the prominence which is 

 now given to the idea of science there, and the neglect in which 

 this idea still lies here. . .' 



In the United States an interest in science, particu- 

 larly chemistry, was developing during the first half 

 of the nineteenth century. In 1802 Benjamin Silliman 

 was appointed professor of chemistry at Yale and 

 immediately granted a leave of absence "in order that 

 he might acquire the necessary knowledge and experi- 

 ence." At that time Philadelphia was the center of 

 scientific activity and without question the best place 

 in the country at which to gain a knowledge of chemistry. 

 Benjamin Rush had been teaching chemistry in the 

 Philadelphia Medical School since 1769.' James Wood- 

 house and later Robert Hare also taught chemistry at 

 the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 and it was from a close friendship with the latter that 

 Benjamin Silliman gained much of the knowledge and 

 experience which made it possible for him to develop 



< Chitteoden, Russell H. History otSheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 

 1846-1922. New Haven, Yale University Prvss, 1928, vol. 1, pp. 14 and 20. 



• See footnote 4. 



* Meyer, Ernst von. A history of chemistry. New York, Macmillan and Co., 

 1891, p. 524. 



' Arnold, Matthew. Higher schools and universities in Germany. London, 

 Macmillan and Co., 1874. p. 213. 



8 Newell, Lyman C. Chemical education in America from the earliest days to 

 1820. Journal of Chemical Education, 9, 680 (April 1932). 



the subject of chemistry at Yale. Olhcrs wore strug- 

 gling to get chemistry recognized as a worthy subject 

 in the college curriculums: Aaron Dexter and John 

 Gorham at Harvard; Nathan Smith, Lyman Spaulding, 

 and James Freeman Dana at Dartmouth. 



In 1845, however, even the most advanced colleges 

 and universities still placed most of their emphasis 

 upon the classical studies, and what little instruction 

 they offered their students in the physical and natural 

 sciences was elementary in character and confined to 

 undergraduates, for the graduate student was, as yet, 

 practically unknown. Instruction was limited to a 

 textbook and lectures during which the professor per- 

 formed a few demonstrations. Laboratories, as we 

 know them today, did not exist, and anything approach- 

 ing laboratory work by students had scarcely been 

 thought of. In fact few of the professors holding chairs 

 in the sciences possessed the necessary equipment or 

 had the necessary rooms for such experimental work. 

 A brief description of Robert Hare's laboratory, one 

 of the best of that day, will give some idea of what 

 a chemist in the 1830's had to work with: 



The hearth behind the table, is thirty-six feet wide, and twenty 

 feet deep. On the left — is a scullery supplied with river water 

 by a communication with the pipes proceeding from the public 

 water works, and furnished with a sink and a boiler — . In front 

 of the scullery are glass cases for apparatus. On the right of 

 the hearth are two other similar cases. . . . Behind the lower 

 one of these is the forge room, about twelve feet square; and north 

 of the forge room are two fireproof rooms communicating with 

 each other, eleven feet square each; the one for a lathe, the other 

 for a carpenter's bench, and a vice bench. Over the forge room 

 is a store room, and over the lathe and bench rooms is one room 

 of about twenty by tw'elve feet. In this room there is a fine 

 lathe, and tools. The space — to the right is divided by a floor 

 into two apartments — . The lower one is employed to hold 

 galvanic apparatus, the upper one for shelves, and tables, for 

 apparatus, and agents, not in daily use. In front of the floor 

 just alluded to is a gallery for visitors. 



The canopy over the hearth is nearly covered with shelves 

 for apparatus, which will bear exposure to air and dust, especially 

 glass. In the center of the hearth there is a stack of brick work 

 for a blast furnace, the blast being produced by means of very 

 large bellows situated under one of the arches supporting the 

 hearth. The bellows are wrought by means of a lever and a 

 rod descending from it through a circular opening in the masonry. 



There are two other stacks of brick work on the hearth against 

 the wall. In one there is a coal grate which heats a flat sand 

 bath, in the other there is a similar grate for heating two circular 

 sand baths, or an alembic. In this stack there is likewise a power- 

 ful air furnace. In both stacks mentioned, there are evaporating 

 ovens — .' 



The idea of a special school of science or of a technical 

 school in which the applications of scientific discovery 

 might be stressed grew slowly at first, and naturally so, 

 for its successful development demanded the evolution 

 of methods of instruction which often violated accepted 



» The American Journal of Science and Arls, 19, 20 27 (January 1831). 



