NATURE 



[May 5, 1887 



polytechnic schools, and accomplishing important work in train- 

 ing students in the diiTerent branches of science in their applica- 

 tions to manufactures and the arts. 



The wealthier of the City Companies, some of which had 

 long been identified with important educational establishments, 

 associated themselves with the Corporation of the City of 

 London nearly ten years ago to establish an organisation for the 

 advancement of technical education, which has already carried 

 out most important work. The Society of Arts, which initiated 

 the system of examinations, afterwards so successfully developed 

 by the Science and Art Department, set on foot and conducted 

 for several years examinations of artisans in a few branches of 

 technology. This useful work was relinquished in 1879 to the 

 City and Guilds Institute, and its gradual extension since that 

 period has been attended with most satisfactory results. The 

 beneficial influence exercised by the examinations upon the 

 development and extension of technical instruction in the manu- 

 facturing districts throughout the country being already very 

 marked. The adoption of the system, originated by the Science 

 and Art Department, of contributing to the payment of teachers 

 in proportion to the successes attained by their pupils, is operat- 

 ing most successfully in promoting the establishment and 

 extension of classes for instruction in technical subjects, in 

 connexion with Mechanics' Institutes and other educational 

 establishments in various centres of industry. 



The Technical College at Finsbury was the first great practical 

 outcome of the efforts made by the City and Guilds Institute to 

 supplement existing educational machinery, by the creation of 

 technological and trade schools in the metropolis, and the 

 results, in regard to number and success of students at the day 

 and evening schools of that important establishment, have 

 afforded conclusive demonstration of the benefits which it is 

 already conferring upon young workers who, with scanty means 

 at their command, are earnest in their desire to train themselves 

 thoroughly for the successful pursuit of industries and trades. 

 The evening courses of instruction are especially valuable to 

 such members of the artisan classes as desire, at the close of 

 their daily labour, to devote time to the acquisition of scientific 

 or arti.'-tic knowledge. 



Another department of the City and Guilds Institute, of a 

 somewhat different character, is the South London School of 

 Technical Art, which is also doing very useful work, while the 

 chief or Central Institution for Technical Education, which com- 

 menced its operations about three years ago, if it but continue to 

 be developed in accordance with the carefully matured scheme 

 which received the approval of the City and Guilds Council, 

 and with that judicious liberality which has been displayed in 

 the design and arrangement of the building, bids fair to become 

 the Industrial University of the Empire. 



As one of the first students of that College of Chemistry which 

 became part-parent of our present Normal School of Science, 

 and the creation of which (forty-two years ago) constituted not 

 the least important of the many services rendered towards the 

 advancement of scientific education in this country by His Royal 

 Highness the Prince Consort, most vividly I remember the 

 struggling years of early existence of that half-starved but 

 vigorous offspring of the great school of Liebig, born in a 

 strangely unsympathetic land in the days when the student of 

 science in this country still met on all sides that pride of old 

 England, the practical man, inquiring of him complacently : cut 

 bono ? quo bono ? That ardent lover of research and instruction, 

 the enthusiastic and dauntless disciple of Liebig — my old master 

 — Hofmann, loyally supported through all discouragement, and 

 in the severest straits, by a small band of believers in the power 

 of scientific research to make for itself an enduring home in this 

 country, succeeded in very few years in developing a prosperous 

 school of chemistry which soon made its influence felt upon 

 British industry ; and it is not credible that less important 

 achievements should be accomplished, and less speedily, in days 

 when the inseparable connexion of science with practice has 

 become thoroughly recognised, by an Institution created, and 

 launched under most auspicious circumstances, by those powerful 

 representatives of the commercial and industrial prosperity of the 

 Empire, who, before all others, must realise the vital necessity 

 for ceaseless exertions, even for much self-sacrifice in the 

 immediate present, to recover our lost ground in the dominions 

 of industry. 



One of the most important functions of the Central Technical 

 College should consist in the thorough training of teachers of 

 applied science. The statistics furnished by the technological 



examinations show that, while their successful organisation has 

 led to the establishment of classes of instruction, supplementary 

 to the general science teaching in every large manufacturing 

 centre, the increase in the number of candidates examined has 

 been accompanied by an increase in the percentage of failures to 

 pass the examinations, and that the supply of a serious deficiency 

 in competent teachers was essential to a radical improvement in 

 technical education. The work of the City and Guilds Institute 

 in this direction has already been well begun, and it is in the 

 furtherance of this, by the organisation of arrangements for 

 facilitating the attendance of science teachers for sufficient periods 

 at the Central Institute, or at more accessible provincial techni- 

 cal colleges, that the Imperial Institute may hope to do good 

 work. 



Without taking any direct part in the duty of education, it is 

 contemplated that the Imperial Institute will actively assist in 

 the thorough organisation of technical instruction, and its 

 maintenance on a footing, at least of equality, with that pro- 

 vided in other countries, by the system of intercommunication 

 which it will establish and maintain between technical and 

 science schools ; by the distribution of information relating to 

 the progress of technical education abroad, to the progressive 

 development of industries, and the requirements of those who 

 intend to pursue them ; by the provision of resources in the 

 way of material for experimental work, and illustrations of 

 new industrial achievements, and by a variety of other means. 

 The provision of facilities to teachers in elementary schools 

 to improve their knowledge of science and their power of im- 

 parting information of an elementary character to the young, 

 constitutes another direction in which important pro- 

 gress may be made towards establishing that continuity between 

 elementary and advanced education which is so well developed 

 on the Continent. The organisation of facilities, combined with 

 material aid, to be provided to young artisans who shall afford 

 some legitimate evidence of superior natural intelligence, and a 

 striving after self-improvement, to enable them to abandon for a 

 time the duty of bread-winning, and to work at one or other of 

 the technical schools in London or the provincial centres, will 

 be another object to which the resources of the Imperial Insti- 

 tute should be applied very beneficially. Not only will the 

 intelligent workman's knowledge of the fundamental principles 

 of his craft or trade be thereby promoted ; his association in 

 work and study with others who are pursuing the acquisition of 

 knowledge in different directions, which at first seem to him 

 alien to his personal pursuits and tastes, but come in time to 

 acquire interest or importance in his eyes, will bring home to 

 him the advantages of a wider and more comprehensive scope 

 of instruction, and the enlargement of his views regarding the 

 value and pleasure of knowledge will, in turn, exercise a favour- 

 able influence in the same direction upon those with whom he 

 afterwards comes into contact. The cramping influence which 

 the great subdivision of labour, resulting from the development 

 of mechanical, physical, and chemical science, is calculated to 

 favour, must thus become counteracted, and the workman will 

 realise that if he is to rise above the level of the ordinary skilled 

 labourer, mere dexterity in the particular branch of that trade 

 which he has made his calling must be supplemented by an 

 acquaintance with its cognate branches, by some knowledge of 

 the principles which underlie his work, and by some familiarity 

 with the trades allied to his calling. 



The importance of bringing technical instruction within the 

 reach of the needy scholars of the lower middle class need not 

 be dwelt upon, and there can be no question that one of the 

 most powerful means of promoting the extension of technical 

 education will be the well-organised administration of a really 

 comprehensive system of scholarships, to be judiciously utilised 

 in connexion with the well-established colleges and schools of 

 science and technics throughout the country, in such proportions 

 as to meet local requirements and changing conditions. That a 

 good foundation for such a system of scholarships is likely ere 

 long to emanate from the resources of the Royal Commission of 

 1851, has already been officially indicated in one of its reports ; 

 may we not also hope that many will be found in our Empire 

 ready to follow the example of the late Sir Joseph Whitworth, 

 and to act in emulation of the patriotism of those men who, by 

 munificent donations or endowments in aid of the work of 

 bringing industrial education within the reach of all classes in 

 the United States, have helped to place our cousins in the 

 position to hold their own and aspire to victory, in the war of 

 industry ? The thoroughly representative chai-acter which it is 



