October 28, 1897 J 



iV^ TURh 



627 



MANCHESTER'S REPORT ON TECHNICAL 

 EDUCATION IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA. 

 TN pursuance of a resolution of the Technical Instruction 

 -^ Committee of Manchester, confirmed by the City Council, 

 a deputation, comprising Alderman James Hoy, Alderman J. II. 

 Crosfitld, Councillor Nathaniel Bradley, Mr. Ivan Levinstein, 

 Mr. John Craven, Mr. Charles Rowley, with Mr. J. H. 

 Reynolds (Director), recently visited certain institutions and 

 schools on the continent devoted mainly to scientific and 

 artistic instruction as applied to industrial and commercial 

 pursuits. The Report of the Committee has just been pub- 

 lished, and the following extracts from it will do much to show 

 the British public the extent to which provision is made in 

 (iermany and Austria for the supply of instruction of a scientific 

 and technical character in aid of the commerce and of the 

 industries of these CLuntries. 



Since 1891, when a deputation from the Technical Instruction 

 Committee visited some of the continental countries, the Council 

 has undertaken the task of maintaining the Technical and Art 

 Schools of the city ; and with the purpose of giving full effect 

 to this responsibility, has already not only greatly developed 

 these institutions, but has embarked upon the erection of the 

 largest technical school in the country, the proper equipment 

 of which is a matter of the most serious concern and importance. 

 The erection of the new school was begun in August 1895, 

 and its completion, ready for occupation, is confidently expected 

 at an early date. The Committee, therefore, felt that it was 

 high time the question of the equipment of the school was con- 

 sidered, especially in respect of the important departments 

 concerned with the textile industries, with the industrial 

 applications of chemistry, and of physics in relation to electrical 

 engineering. 



The extraordinary development which has taken place wiihin 

 quite recent years in electrical science as applied to electrical 

 engineering industries, and the certainty of great extension in 

 the near future, make the equipment of a large technical school 

 a responsible matter. 



Hardly less important than electricity is the great textile in- 

 dustry in its various departments of spinning, weaving, design- 

 ing, dyeing, and finishing, in some of which we find ourselves 

 at a serious disadvantage (especially those in which chemistry 

 plays a part) as compared with our foreign competitors. 



It has been found necessary in the dyeing and finishing schools 

 abroad to discard mere laboratory methods, and to equip them 

 on a scale approaching that of the works themselves, and 

 analogous to the practice obtaining in the spinning and weaving 

 schools, so as to give the students who are trained in them a 

 real, practical, and effective knowledge of the processes em- 

 ployed. 



The Crefeld Dyeing School. 



Hence at Crefeld, where the Textile School already enjoys a 

 world-wide repute for the splendour of its equipment, and the 

 effectiveness of its influence in promoting the special industry 

 for which Crefeld is famous, and which finds in this country its 

 best market, the Prussian Government have built and equipped 

 a large three-story building in the near neighbourhood of the 

 present Textile School and Museum as a Dyeing and Finishing 

 School. This School contains extensive chemical laboratories 

 for instruction in qualitative and quantitative analysis, physical 

 laboratories, drawing-rooms, lecture and testing rooms, chemical 

 museum, reading-room and library. In the library are to be 

 found technical books of all nations bearing upon textiles, all 

 of which are introductory to the special work of the school, 

 namely, the dyeing an<l finishing of textile goods, particularly 

 those of importance to the special indusiiies of Crefeld and the 

 district. 



Much attention is given to the examination of colouring 

 matters, and to mordanting on all kinds of fibres and cloth ; 

 and constant experimenting, with a view to new materials and 

 processes, is a special feature of the instruction. Experiments 

 are undertaken in testing the colours employed, and in dyeing 

 the yarns for exposure to light, adverse atmospheric influences, 

 resistance to acids, alkalis and soaps ; and investigations are 

 made with a view to the production of colouring matters formerly 

 employed in the dyeing of old tapestries. Every effort is made 

 to assist the manufacturers and merchants ; and on their behalf 

 the school will undertake investigations as to the dyeing and 

 finishing of materials submitted, which, when completed, are 



NO. 1 46 1, VOL. 56] 



reported to the manufacturer or merchant, with information as 

 to the methods used, and the chemicals employed on the fabric, 

 together with the cost of production. These investigations are 

 carried on by the students under the direction of the teachers, 

 and are of inestimable value to them as a training in solving 

 real industrial problems. 



The Crefeld School as an Example to be followed. 

 Your deputation is convinced, as a result of the inspection of 



the Crefeld School, that the Manchester district would gain 



materially by the development of the Textile School in the new 



building on the same lines. 



(i) By the increase in the number and variety of the looms 



and of the goods woven upon them. 



(2) By the establishment of a school of tinctorial chemistry, 

 and of practical dyeing and finishing, upon an adequate scale, 

 alike in respect of the completeness and the real efficiency of the 

 machinery employed. 



(3) By the establishment, in actual touch with the other 

 departments of the school, of a well-organised museum, replete 

 with examples of ancient, mediajval, and modern productions of 

 the best type of workmanship, colour, and design. 



It is to variety and excellence in these respects that Lancashire 

 must look to maintain and increase its supremacy and reputation 

 as a manufacturing centre. 



How Prussia Disseminates Technical Information. 



As showing the thoroughness and the zeal with which the 

 Government supplies the means of technical training in the 

 various industries of the country, it was stated to the deputation 

 that if any paper — dealing, for example, with some department 

 or detail of the textile industry — is read before any foreign 

 society, and is published, or appears in any journal, the com- 

 munication is immediately translated and circulated throughout 

 the textile schools of Prussia, with directions to have it dealt 

 with as a lecture to the students ; and if models, illustrations, or 

 lantern slides are required by way of illustration, they are pre- 

 pared and sent with the paper. Moreover, in Berlin there exists 

 a department of the Bureau of Education not accessible to 

 visitors or inquirers, where models, diagrams, and other means 

 of illustration are prepared and circulated to the technical 

 schools of the country. 



The Efficiency and High Standard of Technical 

 Instruction in Germany. 



Your deputation are convinced that the textile schools of 

 Germany, so far as they have observed them, are of singular 

 value in training up a supply of exceedingly well-instructed men, 

 capable, by reason of the methods employed, the examples 

 studied, the variety of the appliances used, and the investigations 

 and experiments made, to take the lead as foremen, managers 

 and manufacturers in the industries concerned. 



The present and potential importance of the electrical 

 engineering industry led your deputation to visit Darmstadt, 

 where, in 1895, the T^echnical High School was entirely rebuilt 

 on a greatly enlarged site at a cost of 130,000/. The school 

 includes, in addition to the main building, and opposite to it, 

 two fine buildings— one for physics and technical electricity, and 

 the other tor pure chemistry, electro-chemistry, chemical 

 technology, and pharmacy. 



It is important to remember that these figures referring to the 

 cost of building represent a much larger corresponding cost in 

 England — for example, the cost of the Darmstadt building, 

 which is of stone, was only 5^/. per cubic foot, which is about 

 half the cost of similar buildings in England. This remark 

 applies also to statements of cost of administration and of 

 teaching— salaries being on a lower scale than with us. It is, 

 however, important to observe that the principal professors enjoy 

 the status and the advantages of civil servants. 



It is to be noted that Darmstadt has only 57,000 inhabitants, 

 and that the entire State, of which it is the chief city, has a 

 population of not more than one million. This Technical High 

 School is an institution of university rank, and is built on a scale 

 of great liberality. Considerable as it is, it was felt by the 

 authorities that the growing demands and development connected 

 with electrical science and its adaptation to industrial needs and 

 the general service of the community necessitated the establish- 

 ment of special provision in suitably equipped buildings of means 

 of instruction in electro-chemistry and electrical engineering. 

 This has been done, as already stated, in two new and separate 

 buildings (which are even now being enlarged), on an excep- 



