4IO 



NATURE 



[August 26, 1897 



is placed beyond all manner of doubt it is not, and should 

 never be called, the theory. 



Within these walls, the gettius loci impels me to thoughts 

 which have not often entered into discussions of Section G ; 

 and, perhaps, if this address were to be discussed, I should 

 choose subjects and premises, the proof of which, to the 

 satisfaction of others than myself, it would probably be less 

 difficult to maintain. In this University of Toronto under 

 whose agis all that was best in the older schools of thought is 

 cultivated by the side of those practical applications of science 

 which in bygone days were distinguished as the unworthy uses 

 of philosophy, one's thoughts insensibly turn to the marvellous 

 change in the opportunities afforded for acquiring a knowledge 

 of applied science— for becoming, in short, an engineer. 



It is not proposed to discuss the progress and prosperity 

 which mechanical science has brought about in the Victorian 

 Era, much less that which the succeeding years will yield ; but 

 I venture to think that a proper subject for consideration from 

 this chair, if not for discussion in this Section, is to be found in 

 any unnecessary waste of energy which may occur in the process 

 of mental development of the men who are to succeed us in 

 the great work to which we devote our lives. Obviously it is to 

 the interests of our calling, and consequently of the nation at 

 large, that such waste should be reduced to a minimum, and 

 therefore I make no apology for mentioning certain points in 

 which its presence is particularly striking. There may be waste 

 of potential, as well as of actual energy, and if we fail to expend 

 energy on certain subjects because our time is occupied with 

 others which are less useful, it is waste of energy only differing 

 in degree from its expenditure on useless subjects. Tliere is 

 assuredly no lack of potential energy in the coming race. In 

 spite of any training, whether well or ill directed, a large 

 proportion will become actual and useful energy ; but guidance 

 and direction being given, the mode of that guidance and 

 direction should be the one best calculated to secure the highest 

 possible proportion of useful effect. 



If we look back at the greatest names among the engineers 

 and inventors of the latter part of the eighteenth century and 

 the first half of this, we find that the majority were brought up 

 in pursuits quite distinct from the work of their after lives, and 

 by which they have become so familiar to us. There were 

 scarcely any means whatever, beyond the original thought and 

 dogged perseverance of the worker, by which those men could 

 attain the knowledge they used with such effect. Men of no 

 less exceptional parts are among us now, iuit the whole environ- 

 ment of their early work has changed. We have given to the 

 exceptional man a starting-point of knowledge which, wisely 

 used, lifts him as high above our heads as of old, but we have 

 given to the average man a comparatively easy means of attain- 

 ing the same knowledge. We cannot ensure the wise use of 

 that knowledge, but we can at least endeavour to impart it in 

 such a manner that the sense of right proportion shall be ac- 

 quired and maintained. We have made it more difficult to 

 distinguish between the exceptional and the commonplace — 

 between the gold and the silver, if not between the silver and 

 the brass ; let us be careful, so far as early guidance can control 

 it, that the knowledge imparted to the average mind gives to 

 that mind a fair start concerning the relations, undivided and 

 indivisible, between true theory and sound practice. 



Having myself passed as an ordinary apprentice through 

 workshops of mechanical engineering in the old days when 

 working hours were longer than they now are — from six in the 

 morning till six in the evening, and that, too, on the banks of 

 the Clyde, where no special indulgence was given to what was 

 sometimes called the " gentleman apprentice," and feeling con- 

 vinced, as I still do, of the immense and permanent advantage 

 derived from that experience, I shall not be judged to underrate 

 its value in the case of others who have yet to choose the details 

 of the career by which they expect to gam a place in the profes- 

 sion or business of an engineer. 



On the other hand, as a student thirty-four years ago under 

 the late Prof. Macquurn Rankine and the present Lord Kelvin, 

 I shall not be prone to under-estimate the advantages of 

 academical training in its proper application to the profession 

 to which I am proud to belong. 



In the pursuit of that profession it has fallen to my lot to 

 observe the training as engineers of many younger men — men 

 of variously constituted minds, but one and all bent on learning 

 some portion of " the art of directing the great sources of power 

 in nature for the use and convenience of man," words wisely 



chosen, sixty-nine years ago, and set out as the object of the 

 profession in the Royal Charter of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers. It is a noble object, this direction of the great /ones 

 of nature for the use an i coiwenience of man ; it is an ambitious 

 object, and one wiiich I venture to think demands for its right 

 performance the best energies of well-balanced minds working 

 upon a store of knowledge which nothing but years of untiring 

 study and observation can give. Yet there is no hesitation 

 shown to enter the lists. The number of candidates is appal- 

 ling. In the old country, at least, there certainly is not work 

 for all, but when one points this out, anxious parents only reply 

 that the difficulty is as great in connection with any other pro- 

 fession. Whether this be so or not I cannot judge, but I am 

 persuaded that of those who do enter the business or profession 

 of the engineer, the enormous majority are not born engineers, 

 and cannot, in the nature of things, hope for success unless they 

 take advantage of the best facilities open to them — the best 

 facilities ; here is the difficulty : from the multitude of facilities 

 how are we to choose ? 



Do not suppose that I think the training of the born engineer 

 should not be controlled. He will stand head and shoulders 

 above the rest of us whatever we may do with him ; but in order 

 that his exceptional parts may not wreck him as an engineer, 

 and in order that his energies may be rightly directed at the 

 start, he, too, should have the advantages of that systematic 

 training which to his less gifted brethren is becoming more and 

 more absolutely essential to success. 



At the time I began practice the large majority of young 

 engineers were left entirely to their own devices so far as the 

 attainment of any scientific knowledge was concerned. xVs 

 pupils or apprentices, articled or not, they entered an engineer's 

 works or office ; for a certain number of years they had the run 

 of the place and some encouragement if they worked well, but 

 it could not, in the nature of things, amount to much more. 

 This was a very necessary, perhaps the most necessary, element 

 of their training ; but except to the few who were so constituted 

 that with little or no guidance they could supplement their 

 practical knowledge with the study of principles elsewhere, it 

 was entirely ineffectual in the production of that well-balanced 

 attitude of mind which any person who properly assumes the 

 name of an engineer must hold towards every engineering 

 problem, great or small, which he is called upon to solve. And 

 so strongly have I felt this, that in the earlier days, when there 

 were fewer schools of practical science, and when their utility 

 was little understood, I required, wherever the matter was under 

 my control, the insertion into the articles of apprenticeship of a 

 clause by which, at some inconvenience to the office, the pupil 

 was required to attend two sessions at the science classes of 

 Glasgow University, or at some other approved school of 

 practical science ; and without this condition I declined to take 

 the responsibility attaching to the introduction into the profes- 

 sion of me,n who, in their earlier careers, from no fault of their 

 own, had not even acquired a knowledge of what there was to 

 learn, much less of how to learn it. 



More recently this course has generally become unnecessary ; 

 for in Westminster, at least, the young engineer rarely enters an 

 office until he has acquired some knowledge of what he has to 

 learn. He enters, in short, at a much more advanced age than 

 formerly. When it is essential that he should be earning some- 

 thing soon after he comes of age, anything like a complete 

 training is an impossibility ; his work ceases to be general, and 

 his practice is more or less confined in a much narrower sphere 

 than need be the case if the pursuit of further knowledge 

 continues to be his chief duty. 



But whatever course his circumstances may permit him to 

 adopt, the difficulty of gaining the required knowledge in the 

 time available is a serious one. This is not the place to inquire 

 whether public school education in the mother country is, or is 

 not, the best for the general purposes of after life, or to discuss 

 what improvements may be made in it ; and of higher education 

 in Canada I unfortunately know little or nothing. Personally I 

 admit the possibility of improvement in the English system, and 

 slowly but surely improvement is creeping in, as such changes 

 rightly find their way into institutions which have done so much 

 for Englishmen. In this particular I lean to the conservative 

 side, and whatever our individual views may be concerning the 

 time spent on the study of Latin and Greek, we should all 

 probably agree that the school education of an engineer should 

 be as thorough and liberal as for any other profession. But for 

 the sake of a technical training to follow, this school education 



NO. 1452, VOL. 56] 



