Nov. lo, 1887] 



NA TURE 



43 



graphic expression of geologic phenomena — we find that they 

 all belong to the means of intercommunication of geologists. 

 They affect only the verbal and graphic technical language of 

 the science. Of the same nature is the arbitrary time scale 

 whose preparation I favour — a conventional terminology for the 

 facts of correlation. So we may say, in general, that the proper 

 function of the Congress is the establishment of common means 

 of expressing the facts of geology. It should not meddle with 

 the facts themselves. It may regulate the art of the geologist, 

 but it must not attempt to regulate his science. Its proper field 

 of work lies in the determination of questions of technology ; it 

 is a trespasser if it undertakes the determination of questions of 

 science. It may decree terms, but it must not decree opinions. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION} 



'T'HE present century has witnessed a vast and almost in- 

 credible change in the great industries of the world, and 

 in the progress of the arts and manufactures. The causes of 

 this great Change are various, though mutually dependent upon 

 each other, such as the cessation of the great wars that had for 

 so long ravaged the continent of Europe, which enabled many 

 of the most vigorous minds to be turned to the arts of peace ; 

 the rapid growth of population, which rendered the wants of 

 mankind more pressingly felt ; and the more general spread of 

 education, which caused the great discoveries that have enriched 

 this period to be eagerly taken advantage of and adopted. 



Among the many results which have ensued, is one which 

 must be carefully studied, affecting as it does in a peculiar degree 

 our own country at this time. 



Since the latter half of the last century, when by the dis- 

 appearance of forests in the iron-producing districts, resulting 

 from the use of timber as fuel, maternal Necessity had brought 

 forth an invention in the shape of the process of smelting iron 

 ore with coal, progress in machinery and manufactures had 

 steadily been made. The great natural advantages arising from 

 the conjunction, not only of coal and iron in the same locality, 

 but also their immediate proximity to the limestone required in 

 iron-smelting operations, had greatly contributed to this advance, 

 until this country, instead of importing four-fifths of the whole 

 iron used from Sweden, as was the case in 1750, had become 

 the greatest iron-producing country of the world. The inven- 

 tion of the steam-engine in conjunction with the pDwer-loom 

 and other important machines, greatly contributed to the growth 

 of the factory system, the establishment of the cotton, linen, 

 and woollen industries, and the rapid increase of manufactories 

 in general. Owing to the insular po ition of Great Britain, and 

 the prohibitive laws in force, until fifty years ago the nature of 

 the machinery used in all these manufactures, as well as the 

 technical knowledge and skill of the workman, was prevented 

 from being carried abroad. Thus, as stated in the recent Report 

 of the Commissioners on Technical Education : — 



" When, less than half a ceitury ago, Continental countries 

 began to construct railways, and to erect mxlern mills and 

 mechanical workshops, they found themselves face to face with 

 a full-grown industrial organization in this country, which was 

 almost a sealed book to those who could not obtain access to 

 our factories. " 



This artificial state of things was not destined to last, for, on 

 the one hand, these countries were keenly alive to the import- 

 ance of possessing such manufactures, and were determined to 

 obtain them at all costs ; and, on the other, it was greatly to the 

 immediate advantage of our manufacturers to sell freely in such 

 a market a; began to be opened to them. At the same time 

 skilled artisans were easily found who were willing to accom- 

 pany abroad machinery which had been constructed in this 

 country, and thus to become the means of disseminating techni- 

 cal education of the most practical type amongst those who were 

 quite as industrious and frequently better educated than the 

 workmen at home. 



The efforts of foreign nations to establish mills and workshops 

 of their own did not cease here ; for, recognizing the necessity of 

 specially spreading technical knowledge by all possible means, 

 technical schools, instituted and supported liy the State, at 

 which instruction could be obtained free, or at almost nominal 

 cost, were established in numerous places all over the Continent. 



' Part of Inaugural Address of session of University College delivered at 

 St. Giorge's Hall, Liverpool, on October i, 1887, by Prof. Hele Shaw, 

 M.Inst.C.E., of the University College, Liverpool. 



The larger number of these schools have been institutions at 

 which the scientific principles underlying industrial and manu- 

 facturing operations, rather than the actual operations themselves, 

 were taught, although there are also in lessernumber special tech- 

 nical schools, such as the weaving schools of Chemnitz in Saxony, 

 of Crefeld m Rhenish Pru.ssia, of Basle in Switzerland. From 

 these various schools, numbers of highly educated men have 

 been sent out year by year, prepared, when becoming foremen, 

 managers, or employers of labour, to take advantage of the 

 latest discoveries and improvements in various branches of 

 industry, and keenly alive to the fact that "knowledge is 

 power." 



Notwithstanding all this, an enormous increase of trade and 

 prosperity was enjoyed by this country for many years, and 

 notably was this the case after the first International Exhibition 

 in Hyde Park, in 185 1, which Exhibition revealed to visitors 

 from all parts of the world much (some persons of the old 

 school are to be found, who assert too much), concerning the 

 perfection of our machinery and processes of manufacture which 

 had been scarcely realized before, even by ourselves. This 

 prosperity apparently reached a climax from ten to fifteen years 

 ago, and, since then, trade has assumed a very different aspect. 

 At first the change was felt in relation to countries whose 

 resources were in some respects comparable with our own, and 

 afterwards with others less favourably situated, and in place of 

 supplying them with manufactured articles and machinery, they 

 began to enter into competition, and in many cases successful 

 competition, with this country, even in markets hitherto con- 

 sidered all our own. Indeed, a positive reflex action has actu- 

 ally occurred in some important branches of industry and foreign 

 iron, machines, hardware, and textile goods are imported for 

 home use. The result of this competition has been keenly felt, 

 and the consequent struggle which has taken place in these times 

 of peace has been, and now is, almost as determined and often 

 as bitter as in an open war. That rather doubtful compliment 

 once paid by a great general to the British soldier, that he never 

 knew when he was beaten, could scarcely be applied to the 

 British manufacturer, since there is a very speedy way of settling 

 this point in a commercial transaction ; but the question upon which 

 knowledge has often been wanting and information sometimes 

 too tardily sought, is rather as to the cause and its remedy. In 

 some cases the cause is obviously due to the lower wages and 

 longer hours for which foreign workmen will toil, and it may be 

 mentioned, as pointing to what may be sometimes possible in 

 this case, that in the neighbouring industry of wire-drawing at 

 Warrington, which was threatened with extinction, the German 

 competition was entirely met and overcome by the wire-workers 

 voluntarily accepting a reduction in wages of 10 per cent., after 

 four of their delegates had visited the Black Forest and ascer- 

 tained for themselves full particulars as to the wire industry of 

 that district. 



But, on the other hand, there are branches of manufacture in 

 which the state of foreign workmen and workwomen is so 

 pitiable that no right-thinkifig person would desire to have in- 

 creased trade in this country at such a price to our own people, 

 though happily there is not much fear of this, since the move- 

 ment is rather in the other direction. But the question of 

 wages is only one of many causes, for it has been asserted by 

 excellent authorities that it is not in those branches of industry 

 in which foreign wages are lowest and hours longest that com- 

 petition presses most heavily upon us. Thus, according to the 

 recently published Consular Reports, we have still something to 

 learn in several directions in the matter of finding out fresh 

 markets and accommodating our productions to native wants, 

 instead of trying to force goods of our own pattern and design 

 where they are either not in accordance with native views and 

 prejudices, or are unsuitable to the locality. Again, it is not 

 only the Germans who stamp the words "best Sheffield steel" 

 upon cast-iron axes and knife-blades : neither in the matter of 

 shoddy-manufacturers can this country afford to throw stones at 

 our foreign rivals. 



It is not, however, the object of this address to enter into a 

 discussion of the various causes of trade depression, and still less 

 to presume to say how such an undesirable state of things may 

 be met and overcome, but to consider a subject which has recently 

 been very vigorously brought forward in connexion with this 

 matter under the title of " Technical Education." No branch of 

 education has of late attracted so much attention as this. It has 

 formed not only the text of the Presidential Address of the 

 British Association in 1885, and part of that at the recent 



