August 4, 192 1] 



NATURE 



727 



whom his professional work will be carried on. By 

 this he will be able to display most clearly how much 

 of his work he has really grasped and how far he 

 sees into its consequences, while he will,. at the same 

 time, be acquiring a^ gift of great service to him in 

 his career. 



Touch with Industry. 



It is a vital question at what stage contact with 

 industry should be initiated. Until a student knows 

 some of the features of the industry in which he will 

 be engaged, he finds it difficult to realise the signi- 

 ficance of many parts of his training. On the other 

 hand, if he goes into the shops, the works, or the 

 mine too soon, he is not possessed of enough know- 

 ledge to profit fully by his experience. The advan- 

 tage of early touch outweighs its disadvantages, 

 and contact should begin early, and be renewed at 

 several stages of the course. The student may at 

 first gain little actual knowledge in the mine or 

 workshop, but in working there for a period by the 

 side of the men whom he will afterwards direct he 

 will gain a most valuable knowledge of their customs 

 and limitations, their predilections and weaknesses ; 

 and he will be laying down a foundation of experi- 

 ence which will usefully guide him when he comes 

 to the difficult task of handling men himself. At the 

 same time, while watching the technical skill of the 

 expert workman, he will acquire respect for accuracy 

 and delicacy of workmanship and for that astonish- 

 ing proficiency which prolonged practice alone can give. 

 What is of scarcely less importance is that at this 

 stage he will hear a whole gamut of technical nomen- 

 clature which has before been mere jargon to him, 

 if he has met with it at all. No one is more in- 

 tolerant of the phraseology of the expert than the 

 ■"practical man," but no one is more tenacious of his 

 own terminology. It is well that the student should 

 learn the latter while he is still in the position, of the 

 under-dog, so that it may not trip him up later. As 

 his course proceeds it is natural that workshop and 

 field experience will become of greater educative value. 

 He will be entrusted with higher work and so gain 

 new experience. 



Directors and Teachers. 



One of the greatest difficulties in the future, as it 

 has been in the past, will be the staffing of techno- 

 logical departments. Such departments must be 

 directed by the right kind of men — men not only of 

 good intention, but also of wide industrial knowledge, 

 capable of dealing with students and of organising 

 their staffs ; men of ideas and energy, devoted to their 

 own research and that of others ; and, above all, 

 men of achieved success. There seem to be but three 

 ways of securing such men : (i) To pick the right 

 man whenever and wherever found, pay him his 

 price, and leave him to teach^as and what he thinks 

 best and to select his personnel and material, as well 

 as his methods and lines of research ; (2) to take 

 from the industrial side men who have made their 

 mark and a competence, but, from interest in their 

 subject and love of the work, are willing to continue 

 in harness in what is one of the pleasantest, if not 

 the least exacting, of professions ; or (3) to select 

 competent and trustworthy men who have found touch 

 with industry from the academic side, and to allow 

 them to supplement their pay by private professional 

 work conducted under proper restrictions. Under 

 present conditions the universities will have to fill 

 their posts from the last two classes. 



Subordinate staffs have also to be considered. 

 Here again the pay is generally inadequate to secure 

 the services for long periods of the most desirable 

 men, and it is arguable that it is well this should be 



NO. 2701, VOL. 107] 



so. There are many inducements to attract men to 

 the staffs of applied science departments : the con- 

 tinuation of their technological education and the 

 possibility of obtaining higher degrees, the developing 

 of their teaching ability, the opportunity of increasing 

 their proficiency in research and improving their status 

 and reputation thereby, the earning of additional pay 

 by carrying out industrial work of research character 

 or otherwise, and the introduction to, and contact 

 with, industrial men who will eventually have research 

 work to dispose of or employment to offer. It is 

 essential, however, that means should be provided to 

 retain some, and those not the least promising, for 

 longer periods in order to give stability to the depart- 

 ment and to the head of it the responsible support • 

 which he is entitled to look for. 



It will also be to the advantage of every depart- 

 ment that it should be sufficiently strong to allow one 

 or other of its members to take an occasional period 

 of time for the purpose of study, research, or even 

 business work. This would react not only on the 

 value of the teaching, but also in spreading the reputa- 

 tion and increasing the efficiency of the department by 

 maintaining closer touch between it and the business 

 world. If well managed, it need not involve heavy 

 additional cost. It is chiefly a question of organisa- 

 tion and of a liberal outlook. 



Research. 



It is essential that research should form part of 

 the curriculum of every technological student. What- 

 ever his future career, in addition to routine work, it 

 is certain that he will come across new conditions and 

 new difficulties, something for which he may have 

 met no precedent — problems, in other words, w'hich 

 need to be investigated on scientific lines before they 

 can be solved. It is not essential that the research 

 should be other than of a purely scientific nature. 

 What is essential is that he should get to realise that 

 the easiest and quickest way may often be to obtain 

 facts and inferences at first hand, that he should 

 learn how to question Nature, and acquire confidence 

 that, if he can put his questions skilfully, he will 

 usually obtain, after Nature's way, an answer which 

 will contain, though it may conceal, the solution to 

 his problem. 



It is still more necessary that the teachers should 

 engage in research, and naturally this in most cases 

 would have some more or less direct bearing on indus- 

 trial problems. Apart from the fact that only a man 

 engaged in the production of new knowledge can be 

 a really first-class teacher, in no other way can he 

 establish contact with the highest development of the 

 industry in which he is interested and thus secure 

 the confidence and respect of those engaged in it. 

 An active research school is the best symptom 

 of a live and active technological, as it is of a 

 scientific, department ; it tends to attract the right 

 kind of student, trains the best kind of staff, and is 

 a legitimate way of keeping the department before 

 the eyes of business men. 



If it is possible to pass the best students on to the 

 staff for a short period before they take up outside 

 appointments, and to afford them reasonable leisure 

 to embark upon research, the school will be much 

 strengthened and the worth of the students con- 

 siderably enhanced. A certain amount of teaching 

 work is by no means a drawback, for it will enable 

 them to consolidate their knowledge and render it 

 more accessible when wanted. A larger staff than 

 otherwise may be thus maintained, and the depart- 

 ment will be more stabilised in the event of having 

 to face the possible loss of one or more of its senior 

 members. 



