December 29, 1892 J 



NA TURE 



20^ 



eyes what was doing and had been done elsewhere. 

 They visited the English schools, such as they are, and, 

 more important, they went abroad and inspected the well- 

 known technical schools on the continent, and on their 

 return they issued an interesting report containing not 

 only an account of what they saw and learnt, but the con- 

 clusions they drew as to how far their Manchester school 

 should be modelled on foreign lines. This journey of 

 inspection gave the members of the committee a new and 

 enlarged view of their duties, and they returned home 

 with the determination that if they could not approach 

 the size of such buildings as the Zurich Polytechnicum or 

 the Technical High School of Charlottenburg, at any rate 

 they would put up a school which should be as complete 

 in its parts as any similar institution abroad and capable 

 of doing for their centre work equally useful and of ex- 

 erting an equally beneficial influence on their population 

 as any of the foreign schools. Some captious critics were 

 loud in their condemnation of such a way of spending 

 public money as that of sending a number of Manchester 

 men on an educational tour abroad. In fact, no money 

 could be or has been more judiciously or more economic- 

 ally spent. Without a knowledge from personal obser- 

 vation of what is doing elsewhere, these gentlemen could 

 not possibly have carried out their business to a success- 

 ful issue ; with such a knowledge they can and will do it. 

 Fortunately for Manchester, the necessity for technical 

 training of the people was long ago preached by one of 

 her most distinguished sons, the late Sir Joseph Whit- 

 worth, and his legatees, knowing his views, presented a 

 site for the school of 5000 square yards, situated in the 

 centre of the city, and well placed as regards light and 

 air. On this site the Corporation have decided to build 

 a spacious, not to say magnificent, school, a perspective 

 view of which is found on the opposite page. The whole 

 of the site, including 770 yards in addition given by the 

 Corporation, is to be covered by buildings, and in it 

 ample accommodation will be found for the work carried 

 on in the present temporary premises. This will include 

 engineering, mechanical, electrical, civil and sanitary, the 

 chemical industries, the cotton manufacture, spinning and 

 weaving, the building trades, dyeing and calico printing, 

 metallurgy, letterpress and lithographic printmg, and 

 other mmur industries ; industrial art and design, and the 

 subjects classed under the heads of commerci il and eco- 

 nomical instruction. And in addition to these proper 

 accommodation for the teaching of the pure sciences, 

 mathematics, foreign languages, to say nothing of manual 

 instruction and gymnastics. All these matters require I 

 means of giving practical instruction, not only lecture ' 

 rooms, but laboratories, workshops, and museums, so the I 

 problem of satisfying all their needs is a complicated one, I 

 but one which the committee are determined to do their 

 best to carry out. The size of the proposed building 

 called forth a large number of competing designs from 

 some of the first architects of the day, and the first | 

 premium was awarded by the Committee, assisted by Mr. 

 Waterhouse, R.A., to Messrs. Spalding and Cross, of Lon- 

 don. Their design is in Renaissance style of the early 

 French period, and the internal arrangements are made 

 with the view of giving as much light as possible. The 

 material is red brick with terra cotta facings ; it is roofed 

 with green Whitland Abbey slates. The building will be 

 fireproof throughout, and the flooring covered with wood 

 blocks, except in the case of the dyehouse and laboratories, 

 where impervious paving is needed. One great desi- 

 deratum in such a building is proper ventilation ; this 

 will be arranged on the plenum or plus pressure system, 

 the air being pumped throughout the building by fans 

 worked by electricity, and the lighting will also be elec- 

 trical. The building is six stories high, none of the rooms 

 will be lower than 15 feet clear, and averaging from 25 to 

 30 feet in depth. The class rooms, lecture theatres, 

 drawing and designing offices, laboratories, library, work- 



NO. 1209, VOL. 47I 



shops and administrative department, as well as the stu- 

 dents' and lecturers' rooms, are all lighted from the face 

 of the building with wide continuous corridors all round 

 each floor, lit from internal areas, and each department 

 will be as far as possible separate and self-contained. 

 The total available floor-space exceeds 150,000 square feet 

 exclusive of the corridors. The main entrance hall is 85 

 by 50 feet, and it is to be utilized as an industrial 

 museum ; on the first floor is a public lecture hall 30 feet 

 high, and of the above dimensions. On the third 

 floor is the chemical laboratory arranged for 80 work- 

 ing benches. Two independent staircases, as well as 

 a spacious passenger lift give access to the different 

 floors, and extra exits are provided in case of fire. The 

 basement, which is only seven feet below the ground 

 line, is to be fitted with heavy machinery and other 

 apparatus used in industrial operations on a considerable 

 scale. Here we find the electrical and mechanical 

 workshops and testing machinery ; rooms for purposes 

 in which stability is necessary; experimental steam engine, 

 dynamo, and secondary battery rooms ; spinning and 

 weaving machinery for cotton and silk ; rooms for 

 bleaching, dyeing, and finishing ; plumbers', bricksetters', 

 and masons' workshops ; shops for repairs, and construc- 

 tion of new apparatus, &c. The upper stories contain 

 the laboratories, general and special, lecture rooms, draw- 

 ing offices, gymnasium, library, and students' reading 

 and common rooms. 



The following is the space allotted on the various floors 

 for the several departments : — 



Sq. feet. 



1. Administration, Museum, Lecture Hall, 



Library, Reading Room, Gymnasium, 



and other offices 26,837 



2. Mechanical Engineering 18,266 



3. Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering 13,666 



4. Textile Trades 19,211 



5. Applied Chemistry,Dyeing,&c., Metallurgy 29,232 



6. Building Trades 10,922 



7. Let I erpress and Lithographic Printing ... 2,798 



8. liidusirial Design 13-453 



9. Commercial Subjects 11.844 



10. Domestic Economy Subjects 6,461 



Total 



.. 152,690 



As if to indicate the determination to make the utnaost 

 of their building, the Committee have asked Sir Howard 

 Grubb to design a small astronomical and meteorological 

 observatory on the roof ! This in the centre of smoky 

 Manchester ; but experts say that even here much useful 

 work can be done. 



The estimated cost of the building, including fittings, 

 apparatus,and machinery is about ^125.000 ; towards this 

 sum the Committee have available ^14,000 balance of 

 profit from the Jubilee Exhibition ; ^^5000 promised by 

 the Whitworth trustees ; and the property belonging to 

 the old schools estimated at /3i,ooo. The remainder of 

 the sum, about ^75,000, the Corporation will borrow for 

 a period of thirty years on the security of the id. rate. 

 This great school will be governed by a Committee of 

 thirty-six persons, twenty-four of whom are members of 

 the City Council, twelve being chosen from the public in- 

 terested in the progress of Industrial and Commercial 

 Education. 



Enough has been said to give the reader an idea of the 

 scale and completeness of the proposed Municipal School. 

 To work this properly will cost nearly ^10,000 per annum. 

 The fees will be low, but nevertheless will bring in a 

 goodly sum, and the funds available from the Local 

 Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act of 1 890— commonly 

 termed the beer money — will provide the remainder. 

 Such a school, holding as it will do an intermediate 

 position, between the board Schools on the one hand, 

 and highest University Education as given in the Owens 



