6:10 



NATURE 



[October 28, 1897 



to be held by Englishmen. He believed it would be possible 

 to save a very large sum of money to the ratepayers if the 

 equipment of our technical schools were made far more efficient 

 than they had been. 



Sir Bosdin Leech supported the resolution. They had, he 

 said, just heard what was being done on the continent. He 

 had recently crossed the Atlantic and travelled in America and 

 Canada, and he found that there the course of education was 

 being greatly pushed forward. He saw what was being done 

 there in the way of the introduction of labour-saving appliances, 

 and in the efforts that were being made to oust us from the 

 markets of the world, and unless we went forward much more 

 quickly than we had done up to now, improving the minds of 

 our children and increasing our scientific teaching, we should 

 be distanced very materially. Already we were far behind the 

 United States and Canada in the matter of electricity. In 

 thirty or forty towns which he visited he did not see a single 

 horse emplo)ed in traction. Electricity was used, and people 

 were able to get about very rapidly. Electricity was also ap- 

 plied to the lighting of streets in a way that was most effective. 

 He felt that we should strain every nerve to help forward the 

 work of the Technical Instruction Committee. 



Mr. Alderman Higginbottom said he had had an opportunity 

 of seeing on the continent what Sir B. Leech had seen in 

 America The subject of electricity had occupied a great deal 

 of the attention of the Technical Instruction Committee, and j 

 he wanted to emphasise very strongly that it was the duty of ! 

 that committee to place every convenience before their students ' 

 who were studying electricity. He regretted that he and those 

 who accompanied him were forced to the conclusion that Eng- 

 land was very much behind continental nations in regard to 

 electrical work. Sir Bjsdin Leech had said that electric traction 

 was everywhere adopted in America. It was also almost uni- 

 versal on the continent. But besides electricity, we had something 

 else to learn. We had been under the belief that we were the 

 honii of engineering, but we were nothing of the kind. He 

 had travelled through the principal cities of France, Germany, 

 Austria and Italy, and had visited fifty of the finest electric sta- | 

 tions for traction and lighting purposes, and, with one exception, | 

 he found that all the machinery used in those stations was from I 

 the works of continental firms. The deputation had seen engines 

 of 1000 and 1500 horse-power, vertical and triple-expansion 

 engines — which we thought we could build in Lancashire better 

 than anybody else — and he was bound to say that he had never 

 seen finer. The whole secret of the success of the foreign engineer | 

 was that for many year? the foreigner had been giving his 

 students the best technical instruction possible. He said nothing I 

 about the capabilities of the German workman as compared with \ 

 those of the English workman. The English workmen were \ 

 superior to the German or Italian workmen in the matter of 

 ordinary work, but as regarded technical training and in matters 

 of detail they were far ahead of us. The workshops were kept in 

 the cleanest and most systematic way, and they were able to turn 

 out work cheaper than it could be done in England. 



Mr. Alderman Rawson said the matter under discussion was 

 not merely of local, but of national importance, and attention 

 to it was requisite if we were to maintain the position we had 

 hitherto held. Since the establishment of the textile depart- 

 ment of the Technical School in 1882, the Committee had been 

 dependent upon the foreigner in every case but one for the 

 teaching of dyeing, bleaching, and printing, and they had paid 

 higher salaries in that department than in any other, with one 

 exception. The foreigner had anticipated us not only in 

 technical matters, but in the preparation of men who were 

 competent to teach in those subjects. He hoped the report of 

 the Committee would be widely circulated and read. With 

 regard to our general system of education, he hoped the time 

 was not far distant when the clever child of the poor man would 

 be able to proceed from the elementary school to the Grammar 

 School, the Technical School, Owens College, and the 

 University. 



Mr. Trevor said he hoped the effect of the speeches that had 

 been made would be to induce public men to pay more attention 

 to the subject under discussion ; then they would perhaps not 

 feel called upon to subscribe so much in the way of amusement, 

 and give rather more to matters of real profit. At the Owens 

 College, he understood they had an important section for giving 

 instruction in steam-engine testing. The subject of steam-engine 

 testing and the taking of diagrams was a most important one ; 

 yet last week the number of students from this gre.it centre of 



NO. 1 46 1, VOL. 56] 



engineering, with its half-million of inhabitants, was only five, 

 and the teacher told the students that unless they could make 

 the number up to seven it would not be worth while to carry 

 on the class. The fees, he understood, were only two guineas 

 for a term of ten lessons. We possessed as much conceit as any 

 country on the globe — he meant the thing that stood in the 

 place of ability ; it was very common— but we could only pro- 

 duce five young men interested in their work to the degree that 

 they wished to perfect themselves in it. We were always talk- 

 ing about our being the best workmen in the world. Those 

 who worked were the best, but men should do a little more for 

 the honour of their work, and, apart from the question of wages, 

 try to perfect themselves in it. It was time the British work- 

 man should try to improve himself individually, and not depend 

 so much upon organisation. If he would take more advantage 

 of the expensive arrangements that were provided for him, and 

 study, we should get back our trade. ' 



Mr. J. Phythian* (Gorton) said that as a member of the 

 Amalgamated Society of Engineers he went upon the deputation 

 wilih a prejudiced mind. He believed the working men of 

 England were capable of building engines and dynamos superior 

 to any, but his opinion had been changed. He saw work done 

 by continental artisans — and he thought he was a fair judge of 

 good work — which would put to shame a great deal of the work 

 done in this country. He was perfectly certain he never saw 

 better engines built than those which he saw being constructed 

 on the continent. He attriliuted this to the care with which 

 the workmen were trained in details, which enabled them 10 

 excel in those niceties which were absolutely essential in the 

 making of engines and boilers. 



Mr. Mainwaring said as a member of the deputation he was 

 glad some plain unvarnished truths had been uttered in that 

 chamber. Twenty years ago he visited some of the towns 

 visited by the deputation, and he was amazed at ihe great ad- 

 vances which had since been made. It was quite time the veil 

 was torn from the eyes of the English workman, and that we 

 abandoned the short-sighted belief that no one could touch us in 

 our various industries. The deputation had not come in contact 

 with a single foreman of works in Germany who could not speak 

 to people in either French or English. He should like to know 

 where they would find a foreman in works at home who would 

 be able to speak to a visitor in German or French. They found 

 that these foreign foremen could speak to them as easily in 

 English or French as in their native language. 



Mr. Wilson said he had seen engine work in America and 

 Canada, and he had recently travelled on the continent, but he 

 had seen nothing which, to. his mind, was superior to English 

 workmanship. He had heard it stated repeatedly that German 

 workmen were not superior to English workmen when they 

 came to work with the vice, and he believed that was an under- 

 stood thing. He .should strongly oppose the introduction of 

 any foreign machinery into Manchester in connection with the 

 extension of the use of electricity. 



The resolution was adopted. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Sir W. L. Buller, F. R.S., has presented to 

 the University a valuable skeleton of the Elephant Seal for the 

 Museum of Zoology. 



Dr. Hobson, F.R.S., Dr. Bryan, F.R.S., Mr. A. N. White- 

 head, and Mr. A. Berry have been appointed examiners for 

 Part ii. of the Mathematical Tripos. < 



The examiners for the Natural Sciences Tripos 1898 are : 

 in Physics, Mr. Shaw, F.R.S., and Mr J. T. Bottomley, 

 F.R.S. ; in Chemistry, Mr. A. Scott and Dr. W. H. Perkin, 

 F.R S. ; in Mineralogy, Mr. A. Hutchinson and Mr. L. 

 Fletcher, F.R.S. ; in Geology, Mr. Teall, F.R.S., and Mr. 

 Marr, F.R.S.; in Botany, Dr. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., and 

 Prof. R. W. Phillips ; in Zoology, Mr. Shipley and Mr. Jeffrey 

 Bill, F.R.S. ; in Anatomy, Dr. Barclay Smith and Prof. A. M. 

 Paterson ; in Physiology, Dr. Shore and Dr. Waller, F.R.S. 



The examiners for the Mechanical Sciences Tripos 1898 are 

 Prof. Ewing, F R.S., Prof Perry, F.R.S., and Mr. Peace. 



Mr. Marr and Prof. Judd have been appointed examiners for 

 the Sedgwick Prize in Geology. 



The Rev. Prof. Wiltshire has given his extensive and valuable 

 collection of minerals to the Mineralogical Museum. It con- 

 tains a large number of beautiful and costly specimens. 



