158 



NATURE 



[June 17, 1897 



of central Scotland is of singular interest and importance, 

 for it definitely fixes the geological age of the volcanic 

 series of western Argyllshire and its accompanying 

 sedimentary deposits. Arch. Geikie. 



INTERNA rjONAL CONGRESS ON 

 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



THE International Congress on Technical Education, 

 referred to in last week's Nature, was opened on 

 Tuesday, at the rooms of the Society of Arts, under the 

 presidency of the Duke of Devonshire. The meeting of the 

 Congress in London is due to this Society, and to the City 

 Companies, which guaranteed the necessary expenditure. 



The subject of higher technical education claims the 

 attention of all who are concerned with the progress of 

 science and the development of arts and industries. 

 The pressing importance of the question is indicated 

 by the article which appears in another part of this 

 number. We take it that the scheme of Prof Klein, to 

 establish an educational system which will bring theory 

 and practice more closely together, is the ideal organisa- 

 tion. The man of science and the engineer should be one ; 

 for both need to understand the practical aspects of 

 nature, and both are constantly inventing methods of 

 investigation. Prof. Klein wishes to give life to fossilised 

 Universities, and lead them "so to develop science that 

 the results will be practically useful, and repay the debt 

 to engineers which science now owes them." This aim, 

 coming from one who has enriched mathematics with 

 so many remarkable contributions, should do much to 

 break down the supposed barrier between the investigator 

 working in his laboratory and the engineer working 

 towards the mastery of nature on a larger scale. For 

 the details of the scheme, we refer our readers to the 

 article in another place. To our mind, the plan proposed 

 will do much to advance higher technical education ; 

 and it will perhaps lead to the development of teachers 

 who are good mathematicians as well as practical men. 

 In all countries there are signs of increasing interest in 

 methods of education, so that Prof. Klein's views will 

 doubtless receive consideration outside Germany. 



In opening the International Congress, the Duke of 

 Devonshire pointed out that each country could learn 

 much from the experience and organisation of others. 

 It is for this reason that such Congresses have a beneficial 

 eflfect. In the course of his address, the Duke of Devon- 

 shire is also reported by the Times to have made the 

 following remarks : — 



It is in a double capacity that I have the honour of offering a 

 welcome to the International Congress on Technical Education. 

 We have in this country a Department of Education, but its 

 functions are almost entirely limited to elementary education, 

 and we have not in our Administration any Minister who 

 properly corresponds to the Minister of Education of other 

 Governments. Nevertheless, the l^resident of the Council is 

 the Minister on whom the nearest approach to responsibility for 

 education rests, and the Vice-President, Sir John- Gorst — who, 

 I trust, will take part in the future proceedings of the congress 

 — is the Minister who, representing the Government on edu- 

 cational matters in the House of Commons, shares with the 

 President a large part of his responsibility. It is, therefore, partly 

 in our official capacity that Sir John Gorst and I take part in these 

 proceedings. The comparatively unorganised condition of 

 education as a whole has led to the formation of unofficial and 

 irresponsible associations to promote and help to organise special 

 branches of education to meet the growing needs ot the country. 

 Turning to the business of the congress, its previous assemblies 

 have done much to increase public interest in the very important 

 question of technical instruction ; and the well-arranged and 

 representative programme of the present assembly justifies the 

 hope that its deliberations on the present occasion will be no 

 less fruitful than in the past. The present time is well chosen 

 for an international congress on technical instruction. In all 

 countries there are signs of increasing interest in foreign methods 

 of education. Systems of education, indeed, cannot be trans- 



NO. 1442, VOL. 56] 



ferred ready-made from one country to another. Education is a 

 thing too closely interwoven with national life and habits to 

 permit any such easy transference. But when every allowance 

 has been made for this it remains true that each country can 

 learn very much from the experience and the educational organ- 

 isation of other countries. Educational ideas and ideals may 

 be communicated, although systems of administration cannot 

 be transferred without great modification and adjustment to 

 special circumstances; we find therefore that in point of fact 

 English education has been materially affected during the last 

 sixty years by waves of foreign influence coming in succes- 

 sion from France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, America, 

 and Scandinavia. And in some respects there is no depart- 

 ment of education in which methods of teaching and plans of 

 organisation can be more readily transferred from one country to 

 another than is the case in technical instruction, which is the 

 subject of the present congress. In many respects this country 

 has been the debtor in this long process of foreign educational 

 exchange. But there is one point at least in which continental 

 critics are now paying Great Britain the compliment of careful 

 study and even of admiration. The need for individual initiative, 

 and for freedom of local experiment has always been fully 

 recognised in English education, and in no grade of it has this 

 been more the case than in technical instruction. While the 

 central Government, through its administrative departments, 

 has not failed to give a certain measure of guidance to the new 

 movement, it has thrown the greater part of the responsibility 

 on the local authorities, believing that (in technical education 

 especially) there must be great elasticity in administration and 

 incessant adaptation of the means and form of instruction to 

 meet the great variety of the industrial and commercial needs 

 which exist in the different localities, but can only be ascer- 

 tained and fully tested by local experiment. The local authorities 

 have, with few exceptions, risen to their new responsibilities 

 with an alacrity and enterprise which deserve high commendation. 

 All of those who are labouring for the extension and improve- 

 ment of technical instruction in Great Britain, as well as in 

 Ireland, where a remarkable movement is now in progress for 

 the furtherance of technical education, will learn much from the 

 reports brought by the foreign delegates. They will also take 

 special interest in the accounts to be given by distinguished 

 visitors of technical education in Canada, in India, and in Aus- 

 tralia. To British hearers probably no part of the discussions 

 will be more instructive than that which is to be devoted to the 

 subject of commercial education. In the field of higher com- 

 mercial education. Great Britain is believed by many competent 

 observers to be seriously behind several of the continental 

 nations. Attention would also be usefully directed to the in- 

 fluence of Germany, and especially the Realschulen of Berlin, 

 in producing, by means of a carefully planned modern secondary 

 education, given by trained teachers of the highest attainments, 

 an increasing number of youths eminently fitted to profit by the 

 highest kinds of technical education, and to promote the com- 

 mercial interests of their country. 



Papers chiefly relating to different aspects of the teach- 

 ing of chemistry were then read and discussed. 



ALVAN G. CLARK. 

 A NOTE of extreme sadness is mingled with the 

 -^~^ congratulations that have followed the completion 

 of the Yerkes telescope. Hardly is the object-glass in 

 its cell, and before the final adjustments can possibly be 

 complete, the intelligence comes that the artist, who has 

 laboured so earnestly and so successfully in the work of 

 figuring object-glasses of the largest size, is struck down 

 suddenly by apoplexy. Ten years ago, Alvan Clark, the 

 founder of the firm, died, after completing the lens of 

 the Lick telescope, but before he could witness its 

 complete installation and be assured of its final success. 

 The son, Alvan G. Clark, was probably aware of the 

 excellence of the Yerkes telescope, both from his own 

 experience and the certificate of Prof. Keeler ; but he, 

 too, is denied the pleasure of seeing it used under the 

 most favourable conditions, and of hearing expressed the 

 full satisfaction of those astronomers in whose hands 

 the telescope is placed. 



It is impossible to disconnect the life of Alvan G. 



