474 



NATURE 



{Sept. 15, 1887 



of a deeper and broader knowledge of scientific methods and the 

 principles involved, seems to be the very best proof of advance 

 in that other side of mechanical science in which this Section 

 takes interest, or, more correctly, for which it exists — the increase 

 and spread of mechanical knowledge. 



It is as impossible as it is unnecessary for me to comment on 

 ihe furore to which the movement first for popular scientific and 

 now for technical instruction has reached — bringing into exist- 

 ence, by means of South Kensington, a complete system of 

 sensibly free elementary scientific education over the country ; 

 then the City and Guilds Technical Schools, with a general 

 system of examination ; and culminating in a Parliamentacy 

 Commission on Technical Education, with the prospect of seeing 

 its labours result in an Act of Parliament providing for abso- 

 lutely free technical instruction. 



Elementary education, whatever may be its subjects, must of 

 necessity depend for its permanent existence on some source of 

 higher knowledge in those subjects. Without raising such 

 questions as whether there exist at present means of training 

 efficient teachers in all the branches for which technical educa- 

 tion is promised, or whether such means will be forthcoming as 

 a result of the demand for teachers, I would recall to your atten- 

 tion the recent progress made towards a higher training in that 

 branch of science which most directly relates to mechanical 

 progress, and which, according to no less an authority than the 

 late Prof. Rankine, received its first impulse from the institution 

 of Section G. 



So long ago as 1855, Rankine, in his characteristically concise 

 address, dwelt upon the good work which this Section was doing 

 in making it known that the application of the laws and prin- 

 ciples of abstract mechanics to the purposes of practical mechanics 

 constitutes a science of itself ; a science the knowledge of which 

 is essential before a knowledge of mathematics and abstract 

 science can be of use to the practical engineer or mechanic ; and 

 for this science he then and there claimed the name of Applied 

 Mechanics. As a proof of the influence of Section G in making 

 known the usefulness of this science he instanced the apparent 

 increase in the desire to profit by the lectures of the late Prof. 

 Lewis Gordon which had taken place since the Section was 

 instituted. 



Prof. Gordon, who held the Chair of Mechanics in Glasgow 

 University, was the first in this country to collect and embody 

 in his lectures, and subsequently in a text-book, the important 

 though scattered results of individual efforts to found the laws of 

 practical mechanics on exact science. And at the time Rankine 

 was speaking, this chair, to which Rankine himself was called 

 the same year, was the only chair in this country from which 

 such lectures were given. 



Since that time the appreciation of that science has steadily 

 increased ; other colleges took up the subject mostly as forming 

 part of courses entitled engineering or naval science. Amongst 

 these was Owens College, in which, not till after the last meet- 

 ing in Manchester of this Association, the leading engineers 

 founded and endowed, which is more important, the chair which 

 it has been my fortune to occupy for nineteen years. 



During the earlier part of this time both teachers and students 

 were labouring under the disadvantage arising from the novelty 

 of the subject — the former having to make an almost arbitrary 

 selection of what they would teach, and the latter not knowing 

 exactly what it was they were going to learn. Gradually, how- 

 ever, by the help of experience from the fomewhat earlier 

 French schools and with the admirable works of Rankine as a 

 foundation, the lectures or theoretical courses have become clear 

 and distinct, while the advantage to be gained has become so 

 generally recognized that of late years there has been almost a 

 scramble to found new colleges to teach engineering or to intro- 

 duce ^uch teaching into existing colleges ; and most satisfactory 

 to those engaged in the introduction of this subject is the fact 

 that it is from the engineers themselves that the interest and 

 funds necessary for this work have come. Since 1867 the Owens 

 College has received gifts and bequests from engineers, including 

 those of highest standing in the neighbourhood, of upwards of 

 ;^i 50,000. In the same way at Sheffield and at Leeds, where, 

 as is well known, an engineering school has just been founded 

 by Sir John Hawkshaw and the engineers of the town, and 

 again at Liverpool. 



It cannot for one moment be doubted that this movement has 

 been brought about by the conviction of the necessity of an 

 education which, in its subjects and methods of teaching, is much 

 more, closely related than was tha older system of the Universi- 



ties to the actual work which the students may eventually be 

 called upon to undertake. That it is in fact evidence of the 

 appreciation, by those having the greatest experience, of the 

 necessity of higher scientific training for engineers. This is what 

 engineering schools during their struggle for existence have en- 

 deavoured to supply. And in spite of the danger which seems 

 to beset all schools as they become older, to fall into the academic 

 or pure — not because it is the most desirable to be learnt, but 

 because it is by far the easiest to teach — in spite of this danger, 

 such in this case is the pressure from without, that it may be 

 hoped the schools of engineering and applied science may be 

 kept up to the mark, both in extending our knowledge of the 

 laws and principles which more immediately underlie the results 

 of practical experience in art, and in teaching the methods of 

 most useful application ; and that while encouraged to offer every 

 inducement to the attainment of a sound knowledge of the 

 principles, they will not be allowed to fall into the fatally easy 

 errors of carrying the abstractions of this science outside all 

 possible application, or blocking the way by the insistence on 

 impossible preliminary attainments in mathematics and pure 

 science. 



To be hailed as one of the greatest inducements to keeping 

 alive in engineering schools a real scientific interest in the 

 practical work which is going on around them is the introduction 

 of what are now called engineering laboratories, in which 

 students may familiarize themselves with the actual subjects for 

 which the theoretical work is undertaken, and have placed before 

 them in their most naked forms the data and mechanical actions 

 on which practical achievements depend, as well as being taught 

 the use of all those instruments and methods of measurement 

 which it is one of the first objects of these laboratories to extend 

 and to perfect, and which measurements are now, as the result 

 of a better knowledge of principles, rapidly displacing the older 

 methods of arriving at conclusions in engineering. 



It is to our Continental neighbours that we principally owe the 

 origination of these laboratories as a means of research, but, as 

 a system of instruction distinct from a workshop it owes much 

 to Prof. Kennedy, who was, I believe, the first to introduce the 

 testing machine and regular engine trials as part of the regular 

 course of instruction for students in engineering, under the title 

 of a laboratory course. The want of such a course must, how- 

 ever, it would seem, have been severely felt, to judge by the 

 rapidity with which Prof. Kennedy's example has been followed 

 in almost all the engineering schools in the country. 



It is true that as adjuncts to academic institutions these laT~ora- 

 tories can hardly be said to have passed the experimental stage, 

 and it evidently remains to be seen whether when the present 

 arrears of outstanding questions in engineering science are 

 wo'ked up, and the courses of instruction become stereotyped, 

 sufficient variety of work will be found to justify the expense 

 which, both as regards qualified instructors and maintenance of 

 apparatus, must, as compared with the number of students re- 

 ceiving instruction, be greater than is general with academic 

 instruction. At present, however, thanks to the liberality of 

 engineers and their friends, there seems no ground for fear, each 

 new laboratory being furnished with more complete and expen- 

 sive apparatus than the last. During the erection and fitting of 

 the Whitworth Laboratory in Owens College, which is only now 

 on the verge of completion, it has been very impressing to see 

 the goodwill shown toward the work by everybody who has had 

 to do with it ; the ready help of engineers of the greatest experi- 

 ence, like Mr. Rambottom and Mr. Robinson, \yho have spared 

 neither time nor trouble in giving it the benefit of their experi- 

 ence ; also by those who have undertaken the construction of 

 the appliances, particularly Mr. William Mather, of Salford 

 Iron Works, m here neither trouble nor money has been con- 

 sidered in the efforts made to render the engines for the labora- 

 tory as perfectly adapted as possible to the very novel and 

 numerous requirements. Taking this particular instance aji 

 evidence not only of the general feeling in favour of this movej^ 

 ment, but also of the solid support it is to receive, _ one cannot 

 help concluding that there is a great future before it ; and that 

 at last a method has been found of extending and spreading ^^'^■1 

 higher knowledge of mechanical science which commends ^^s^^HI 

 alike to the practical and theoretical. . .^*' 



Everyone who has paid attention to the history of mechanical 

 progress must have been impressed by the smallness in number 

 of recorded attempts to decide the broader questions in engineerf 

 ing by systematic experiments, as well as by the great result| 

 which in the long run have apparently followed as the effect " 



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