February 4, 1892] 



NATURE 



327 



lent by Mr. Sennett, then one of the students ; and two arc 

 light dynamos for transmission of power experiments, lent by 

 the Anglo-American Brush Corporation, whose cordial interest 

 in the work of the City and Guilds Institute has been marked 

 throughout. And as these dynamos were used, not for electric 

 lighting, but as laboratory instruments for educational purposes, 

 England can claim to have been one of the first in the field of 

 teaching electrotechnics. 



Rapidly grew these electrotechnical classes ; soon the tem- 

 porary laboratories in Cowper Street were overcrowded, espe- 

 cially as applied mathematics and mechanics, under Prof. Perry, 

 were added to the subjects taught ; the ;^3000 which had been 

 set aside for the building of this " Local Trades School " grew 

 into ;^35,ooo, thanks to the combined donations of the Drapers' 

 Company and of the Institute, and in i88l was laid the founda- 

 tion-stone of the present Finsbury College. 



During the many years that Prof. Perry and I were linked 

 together, the work of either was the work of both ; but now I 

 wish to take this opportunity of acknowledging my personal 

 debt of gratitude for the fund of suggestion which he put forth 

 regarding the teaching of science through its practical applica- 

 tions — the keynote of true technical education. The value of 

 these suggestions you will fully appreciate, for they form the 

 basis of those characteristic and attractive lectures familiar to so 

 many of you who have been his pupils. 



As we have seen, then, the present Finsbury College grew 

 out of the "Local Trades School," and formed no part of 

 the original scheme of the Institute. And it was because Lon- 

 don was really in want of practical laboratory teaching about 

 dynamos, motors, electric lamps, and engines, and because that 

 want was supplied in a form suitable to the comprehension and 

 to the pockets of workmen in the basement and cellars of the 

 Cowper Street Schools, and last, but by no means least, because | 

 one of the Executive Committee of the Institute, Mr. Robins, 

 strenuously exerted himself to further technical education in 

 Finsbury, that the various electrical, physical, and mechanical 

 laboratories now in Leonard Street, Finsbury, came into 

 existence. 



But the establishment of a Central Technical Institution 

 "for training technical teachers, and providing instruction for 

 advanced students in applied art and science," had been recom- 

 mended in all the reports sent in to the Committee of the Livery 

 Companies by the six authorities to whom I have referred. So 

 that in the same year that the foundation stone of the Finsbury 

 College was laid by the late Duke of Albany, that of the 

 Central Technical Institution was laid by the Prince of Wales. 



And, if you will allow me to say so, the success of the latter 

 institution has been no less marked than that of the former, 

 for, in spile of the rather stiff entrance examination, the number 

 of students who attend all four of the departments at the 

 Central Institution is more than threefold what it was five years 

 ago. In fact, in the mechanical and electrical engineering de- 

 partments there are already about as many students under 

 instruction as class room and laboratory accommodation will 

 admit. Hence this year will see a considerable increase in the 

 amount of apparatus and machinery, as well as in the space 

 devoted to dynamos and motors, in Exhibition Road. 



While, on the one hand, the rapid growth of the work of the 

 Guilds Institute is no little due to the fact that the latter end of 

 this century has ushered in the electric age of the world ; the 

 electrical industry of our country, on the other hand, is no little 

 indebted to the aid so generouslygiven by our City Companies 

 to the teaching of electrotechnics. For the students who during 

 the last eleven years have, for an almost nominal fee, worked in 

 the electrical laboratories at Cowper Street, at the Finsbury 

 College, and at the Central Institution, number several thou- 

 sands, and nearly every electrical works, every place giving 

 electrotechnical instruction throughout this country, employs 

 some of them. 



The success which these students have thus achieved, through 

 their own ability and exertions, is, I think, in no small measure 

 due to the Institute having so wisely left the teaching it gave un- 

 trammelled by any outside examining body, so that it was 

 possible for this teaching to be directed solely to the professional 

 needs of the students, and to be modified from time to time as 

 it seemed necessary. 



My hearty thanks are indeed due to the Japanese Govern- 

 ment and the City and Guilds Institute, my masters during the 

 last nineteen years, for having left my colleagues and myself 

 unfettered liberty to carry on this experiment of finding out 



NO. II62, VOL. 45] 



better and better ways of teaching the applications of science to 

 industry. 



And there need be no fear that with this freedom the teaching 

 will become stereotyped, and gradually cease to deal with the 

 living science of the factory, for, being bound by no code, we 

 are able to vary our methods, our experiments, and our appa- 

 ratus, according to the continually changing conditions of the 

 profession. In order that the Guilds Institute should fulfil its 

 aim, it is absolutely necessary that its teaching should keep pace 

 with industrial progress. Now, even if it were possible for out- 

 side examiners, with fixed scholastic notions, to aid in securing 

 this result, would not their efforts be superfluous ? for are there 

 not yoti, the employers of labour, to ultimately decide whether 

 the human tool we fashion is, or is not, adapted to your require- 

 ments ? 



Leaving now the consideration of the direct work of the City 

 and Guilds Institute, including their extended system of techno- 

 logical examinations, at which last year 7322 candidates were 

 examined in 53 different subjects at 245 different places in Great 

 Britain and the colonies, the indirect results that have pro- 

 ceeded from the initiative of this Institute are even greater. For, 

 while twelve years ago, education in applied science in this 

 country was a tender little infant, requiring much watching and 

 support, combined with constant encouragement, to-day Tech- 

 nical Education — with a capital T and a capital E, bear in 

 mind — is a stalwart athlete, the strong man on the political 

 platform, exercising the minds of county councillors, and actually 

 regarded as of more importance than the vested interests of the 

 publican. 



Until quite recently it was the technical education of the 

 young engineer that had to be considered ; but now the problem 

 has become a far wider one, for the education of the British 

 workman is being vigorously pushed forward, and I think that 

 it has become incumbent on you — the representatives of the 

 electrical profession — to express your decided opinion as to what 

 this education of the electrical artisan ought to be. 



The technical education snowball set in motion twelve years 

 ago by the City Companies has been rolling — nay, bounding 

 forward — so swiftly during the last year or two that probably 

 some of you have hardly followed it in its rapid growth, both in 

 size and speed. ;^3o,ooo has been spent on the Polytechnic in 

 the Borough Road ; the Charity Commissioners have already 

 endowed this school with an income of £'2.yx> a year, and 

 it is hoped that before the building is opened, this income 

 will have been doubled. ;,^50,ooo has been already promised for 

 the Battersea Polytechnic, the Charity Commissioners having also 

 undertaken to provide this technical school with an income of 

 ;^2500 a year as soon as the subscription reaches ;^6o,ooo ; and 

 for the establishment of a polytechnic in the City, ;i^50,ooo has 

 been set aside out of the funds of the Charity Commissioners, 

 as well as a yearly grant of /5350. Finally, not to speak of 

 polytechnics in North, South, East, and West London, Mr. 

 Quintin Hogg has himself spent ;^ioo,ooo on the Regent Street 

 Polytechnic, while the Drapers' Company have alone given 

 ;^55,ooo to the technical department of the People's Palace at 

 Stepney, and endowed it with an income of £^000 a year. 

 And, most recently of all, the Goldsmiths' Company have put 

 on one side nearly a quarter of a million sterling for the land, 

 the buildings, and for an endowment of ;i^5000 a year in per- 

 petuity, for their Technical and Recreative Institute recently 

 opened at New Cross. 



The following table gives an idea of the sort of sums that are 

 being spent on polytechnic education in London, but it does not 

 profess to give the entire amounts that have been devoted to 

 capital expenditure and yearly maintenance, even for the six 

 polytechnics named in the table : — 



Capital Expenditure. Yearly Endowments. 



Polytechnic, Borough Road. 

 Already spent ... ;^30,ooo Charity Commissioners 



alone ;^2,500 



(Endowment expected to be 

 doubled before opening.) 

 Battersea Polytechnic. 

 Already subscribed ;^50,ooo I Charity Commissioners 



I alone ;i^2,50o 



City Polytechnic. 

 Charity Commissioners | Charity Commissioners 



alone to spend... ^f 50, 000 I alone £S.350 



