vin TECHNICAL EDUCATION 213 



In spite of the facts of which I have given a very 

 brief account respecting the influence of technical 

 education upon the industries abroad, the Royal Com- 

 missioners on Technical Instruction came to the con- 

 clusion that, as a whole, " our people still maintain their 

 position at the head of the industrial world." We also 

 pointed out " that the machinery employed in manu- 

 factures had been either invented or perfected in this 

 country in the past, and it is not too much to say that 

 most of the prominent new industrial departures of 

 modern times are due to the inventive powers and 

 practical skill of our countrymen. Among these are 

 the great invention of Bessemer for the production of 

 steel in enormous quantities, by which alone, or with 

 its modification by Thomas and Gilchrist, enabling the 

 commonest description of iron to be used for the 

 purpose, steel is now obtainable at one-tenth of the 

 price of twenty years ago ; the Weldon, Hargreaves, 

 and Deacon processes, which have revolutionised the 

 alkali trade ; the manufacture of aniline colours by 

 Perkin ; the new processes in the production of silk 

 fabrics by Lister ; the numerous applications of water 

 pressure to industrial purposes by Armstrong ; the 

 Nasmyth steam-hammer ; the compound steam-engine, 

 as a source of great economy in fuel ; and the 

 practical application of electricity to land and sub- 

 marine telegraphy by Cooke, Wheatstone, Thomson, 

 and others." 



Again, we found that " in those textile manufactures 

 in which other nations have hitherto excelled, as in 

 soft all-wool goods, we are gaining ground. We saw 

 at Bradford merinos manufactured and finished in this 

 country, which would bear comparison in texture and 

 in colour with the best of those of the French looms 

 and dye-houses, and in the delicate fabrics of Notting- 



