September 6, 19 17] 



NATURE 



felt that elementary-school education is insufficient, 

 and that education and workshop practice should 

 go hand in hand ; they expressed a decided opinion 

 that to be effective any scheme of continued educa- 

 tion for the ordinary boy must be compulsory, so 

 as to protect the good employer. In this group 

 of trades the provision for technical education 

 hitherto made has been more complete than in 

 ;iiiy other, and it is in this group that the country 

 has best held its own against foreign competi- 

 ■i>n. 

 As regards the curriculum of the technical 

 hools, recommendations were made to widen the 

 ope of the training to include the colloquial 

 aching of foreign languages and some econ- 

 omics. The question of costs and estimates also 

 needed attention. 



It was stated that the ever-increasing demands 

 of the industry called for a larger supply of suit- 

 ably trained men, and that every chance should 

 be given for the best men to reach the highest 

 institutions, which should be well equipped and 

 II staffed. 



The representatives of chemical industries were 

 not so completely in accord with each other. The 

 practical man was inclined to think that works 

 experience, aided by technical classes, was suffi- 

 cient ; the university-trained man believed that 

 nothing short of a full university training was of 

 much use. The industry was said to need three 

 distinct classes of workers : the research assistant, 

 the foreman and technical chemist who super- 

 vises the manufacturing operations, and the semi- 

 skilled or unskilled labourer who does the routine 

 work. The first class has found less employment 

 in England than in Germany or America, and this 

 was said to be due to several causes. In Germany 

 research is subsidised and encouraged by the 

 State to an extent quite unknown in England, and 

 the chemical industry is in the hands of large 

 firms, who are willing and can afford to 

 Incur expenditure upon research. In England, 

 on one hand, teachers are said to be too little 

 in contact with industry, and, on the other, manu- 

 facturers expect too much from the young chemist, 

 and do not realise that until he has had some busi- 

 ness experience he cannot be reasonably expected 

 to produce startling improvements. 



The printing trade group of employers also are 

 believers in technical education, and they referred 

 to the value of the research work in connection 

 with the photo process industry which has been 

 carried out at the Photo-Engraving School at 

 Bolt Court. 



As a result of these conferences two important 

 proposals are made by the sub-committee — (i) to 

 create an Appointments Sub-Committee, which 

 shall do for the secondary and elementary schools 

 what the Apnointments Boards are now doing for 

 the universities ; and (2) to form consultative com- 

 mittees of experts chosen by the Council for 

 various branches of commerce and industry to 

 advise the Council upon the equipment of institu- 

 tions and upon the distribution, development, and 

 modification of courses of instruction relating to 

 NO. 2497, VOL. 100] 



the industry concerned. Such a committee is 

 already in existence for the printing trades, and 

 committees are to be formed for the engineering 

 and chemical trades. If only the right persons 

 are chosen, and if the Council pays proper atten- 

 tion to their recommendations, this step should 

 prove fruitful of good results. 



There is an uneasy feeling abroad that the pre- 

 sent Council is not really in earnest in regard to 

 , thFs matter of technical education, and that many 

 I of its influential members do not look upon educa- 

 tion as a profitable investment which will make 

 large returns, but rather as something which they 

 must perforce appear to attend to in order to keep 

 faddists from troubling. The old Technical 

 Education Board, which had a somewhat indepen- 

 dent existence and did a great work for technical 

 and scientific education in London, came to an 

 end when the Council became ' the Education 

 Authority in 1904. Since then the claims of 

 technical and scientific education have been much 

 in the background ; the able officer who advised 

 the Board in such matters was quietly shunted ; 

 and there has been a tendency to restrict unduly 

 expenditure on equipment and, under the plea of 

 concentration, to hinder the development of insti- 

 tutions doing good work. 



When the Technical Education Board went out 

 of existence plans had been prepared for an insti- 

 tute of technical optics, and these were left in a 

 forward state to be carried out by the new 

 authority, but under one plea or another their 

 execution was repeatedly postponed. What this 

 postponement has meant will only be known in 

 years to come, when the full story of the present 

 world-conflict can be told. Now, under the stress 

 of national need, steps have been taken, but it 

 will yet be some time before they can produce 

 their full effect. 



Similar remarks apply to provision that was 

 contemplated for the erection and maintenance of 

 technical institutes to serve North-East and South- 

 East London. Both these much-needed schemes, 

 providing for important industrial areas, have 

 been under discussion for more than ten years, and 

 we believe that plans have actually been prepared 

 for the necessary buildings and equipment, but 

 from one cause or another nothing has as yet 

 been done in either case to carry them out. It 

 is to be hoped that the new consultative com- 

 mittees will not be used as an excuse for further 

 delay. 



The root of the whole difficulty lies in the fact 

 that the average member of the Council has little 

 belief in education, and, if anything, less belief 

 in the value of science ; and until this attitude of 

 mind is altered no amount of new machinery is 

 likely to bring about improvements of any 

 value. 



There are indications that the necessity for en- 

 couraging research is likely to be more appreciated 

 in the future than it has been in the past. It is to 

 be hoped that in making important staff appoint- 

 ments, especially appointments to prlncipalships of 

 large technical schools, more attention will be 



