February 21, 1901] 



NATURE 



407 



The main building at Cambridge is of wood, more than fifty 

 years old, and the whole, including the invaluable astronomical 

 library, is in constant danger of destruction by fire. The 

 estimated cost of new modern buildings is about 20,000/. A 

 large telescope for work at present entirely neglected in the 

 southern hemisphere could also be obtained for a further 

 20,000/. 



A long list of the principal unpublished investigations is 

 given, most of which are ready for completion if means be 

 forthcoming. These will occupy about twenty-eight volumes of 

 the Annals, i.e. almost two-thirds as many as have already 

 been published during the half-century of the existence of the 

 Observatory. 



SCIENCE IN TECHNICAL AND PREPARA- 

 TOR V SCHOOLS.^ 



T^ DUCATION is probably more discussed at the present tkne 

 than ever it was before. It has become a subject for the 

 newspapers, and to some extent for the political platform. It 

 would seem there is now really a hope that the ordinary man of 

 affairs will soon appreciate its importance. The advocates of 

 education in science and technology have for years appreciated 

 the reality and understood the reason of successful foreign com- 

 petition, and now the lesson is being impressively driven home 

 to every manufacturer by the tale of diminishing exports. Facts 

 such as these give the recent report, made for the Department 

 of Special Inquiries of the Board of Education by Mr. James 

 Baker, on technical and commercial education in East Prussia, 

 Poland, Galicia, Silesia and Bohemia, a very high value. 

 Written as it is from the point of view of a skilled observer 

 generally interested in the development of British industry and 

 commerce, the report will receive more careful attention from 

 the practical men engaged in manufacture than would the opinion 

 of a mere student of pedagogics. 



With the exception, perhaps, of the part of Russia he visited, 

 though even there some progress is being made, Mr. Baker tells 

 of the rapid advances he found have taken place everywhere in 

 the development of technical and commercial education. And, 

 what is of particular importance to us in this country, he demon- 

 strates that the efficiency of any nation's supply of technical 

 instruction in its various grades depends directly upon the 

 satisfactoriness or otherwise of the national supply of primary 

 and secondary education. It is that student alone who has 

 received a thorough and suitable grounding in preliminary sub- 

 jects who benefits by the specialised instruction of the trade 

 school and technical college. 



But this cause by itself is not sufficient to explain the high 

 standard of foreign systems of technical education. In Prussian 

 Poland and in parts of Austria the want of continuity between 

 the work of the day schools and the higher technical studies of 

 the trade schools has been abolished by legislation. In this 

 country attendance at school during the years of apprentice- 

 ship is optional, with the result that even if the young workmen 

 ever reach the classes specially designed to instruct in particular 

 industries they have forgotten completely, by that time, their 

 elementary knowledge ; in the countries named, however, 

 attendance at evening continuation or other schools is as com- 

 pulsory as that at the ordinary day school. For instance, in 

 describing the provisions for technical instruction at Posen, a 

 town of 100,000 inhabitants in Prussian Poland, Mr. Baker 

 writes of the Fortbildungsschules (continuation school, and 

 the Gewerbschule or trade school : " This is for learners in all 

 handicrafts. There is no payment, but the apprentices in all 

 trades are compelled to attend this school under penalty of fine 

 or even imprisonment. Lads commence here at fourteen and 

 continue until eighteen, attending two afternoons a week and in 

 the evenings. The employers are compelled to give their 

 apprentices two afternoons a week, unless they are engaged 

 upon work outside the town, when the lads are excused from 

 attendance." Similarly, in connection with Trautenau, the 

 Bohemian flax centre, with 16,000 inhabitants, we find : " Here 

 all the apprentices must attend the trade continuation classes, 

 which are held from six to eight in the evening and from 



1 Report on Technical and Commercial Education in East Prussia, 

 Poland, Galicia, Silesia and Bohemia. By James Baker, 122 pp. 



Board of Education Special Reports on Educational Subjects. Volume vi. 

 Preparatory Schools for Boys : their Place in English Secondary Educa- 

 tion. 531 pp. 



NO. 1634, VOL. 63] 



eight to twelve a.m. on the Sunday. ... In the Commercial 

 Continuation School the same applies to business apprentices." 

 And similar examples could be multiplied. 



But it is impossible to manufacture, by any system of com- 

 pulsion, enthusiastic students anxious to master everything 

 known about the science of their trade and filled with a desire 

 to improve upon the methods generally adopted. Continental 

 authorities recognise this. It may be possible to raise the 

 average ability of the workmen by enforced attendance at even- 

 ing schools, but to discover the specially endowed craftsman 

 who will repay all the trouble taken to place opportunities in 

 his way, other plans are adopted. Here is one, expressed in Mr. 

 Baker's words: "There is one great leverage the German 

 schoolmaster possesses wherewith to lift his pupils into good 

 work that an English teacher does not possess, and that is the 

 fact, if a certain grade of work is passed, the student is freed 

 from one or two years of military life, becomes a ' volunteer,' 

 and only serves one year." But it is only in exceptional cases 

 that this rule applies in Austrian towns, at all events in the 

 lesser towns. Another means of attaining the same object is 

 very common. In those schools which have not the right to 

 exempt their pupils from one year of military service, an Ausweis, 

 or leaving document, is employed, and on this is set forth the 

 progress made, the behaviour and the diligence of the pupil, 

 with a record of the attendance and a list of the subjects studied 

 by the young man. This record has to be produced when the 

 youth is called up for his time with the colours, and if the report 

 is bad he may have to serve three years instead of two. 



This subject of compulsory military service brings into high 

 relief one great advantage the British workman has over his 

 Continental contemporary in point of time. Mr. Baker writes 

 eloquently in this connection : " In going through these technical 

 schools I saw young men working at the most delicate handi- 

 crafts ; they had just arrived at excellency ; their skilled hands, 

 guided by a highly cultured brain, were turning out work most 

 delicately artistic ; but they must lay down their tools and take 

 up ■vword and rifle for two years, or three if in the cavalry or 

 artillery ; their hands must forego the exercise of their cunning, 

 if they do not lose it altogether ; . . . Herein is the English- 

 man's opportunity when he obtains the same advantages of 

 education as the Austrian or German ; he can at once leap 

 ahead of his Continental competitor, for he gains these two 

 years given up by the Continental to military service." 



But perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of Austrian 

 technical education is the extent to which decentralisation has 

 been carried throughout the country. While making due pro- 

 vision for advanced work in a few large centres, the object of 

 the authorities seems to be to bring suitable instruction in the 

 technology of the particular industry of a district to the very 

 doors of the workers. A notable instance of this, and it is 

 typical, is the case of Turnau, or Turnov, the jewellers' town. 

 It is a little place of 6500 inhabitants, whose chief industry is 

 goldsmiths' work and the polishing and setting of jewels. Here 

 has been established a Royal Imperial trade school for jewel 

 cutting, polishing, engraving and setting in gold, but in addition 

 to this technical institute there are four Volksschulen (primary 

 schools), a Biirger school, and a continuation school in winter 

 for handicraftsmen. The students of the Royal Imperial trade 

 school come direct from the Volk.sschulen, beginning this special 

 work at fourteen and remaining for four years. The tuition is 

 free, but the lads receive no pay. The total number of pupils 

 in the school is seventy-eight, and they are all being converted 

 into cultured artisans. When they pass out of the school they 

 are given a leaving certificate, which confers the full status of a 

 workman and ensures treatment as an educated man for the 

 holder. 



I The question naturally presents itself, What manner of men 

 are in charge of institutions the object of which is to produce 

 accomplished artisans who are also at the same time educated 

 in a higher and more general sense ? On this subject, too, the 

 report under consideration supplies abundant information. In 

 the description of the technical college at Prague a short life- 

 sketch of Director Edward Cerny is given. He bears the title, 

 by the way, of Royal and Imperial Councillor — a proof of the 

 esteem in which men of science and educational leaders are 

 held in Austria, where, as in Germany, such authorities are 

 commonly nominated Privy Councillors, and receive titles and 

 decorations. It is impossible in a short article to refer to all 

 Director Cerny's qualifications ; it must suffice to say that his 

 case is quite general and that the common rule is to appoint 



