February 4, 1892] 



NATURE 



earnestly hope will be the end and aim of every movement made 

 by the Society. In the Cantor Lectures, which I had the 

 honour of delivering before the Society of Arts in the spring of 

 last year, I alluded to the absence of such an establishment in 

 this country as "remarkable " ; before this Society I am tempted 

 to express myself more strongly, and to stigmatize its absence as 

 a national disgrace. 



Of course we all have more or less distinct ideas of what the 

 functions of such an Institute would be. It is premature as yet 

 to speak of the details of an institution which exists only in our 

 aspirations. But whatever may be the final outcome of the 

 movement which has been started, the whole duty of such an 

 institution might be summarized in the statement that its work 

 would consist in spreading a knowledge of all that is known 

 concerning photography, and in investigating that which is un- 

 known. In other words, its duties would be, as in the case of 

 kindred institutions, teaching and investigating. Without wish- 

 ing in any way to intrude my opinions into the deliberations of 

 your Council, I thought that I might with advantage avail my- 

 self of the present opportunity of submitting my own views with 

 respect to this question of technical education in photography. 

 In giving expression to these views I have in mind the con- 

 sideration that the remarks which I may apply to our special 

 subject apply to many other related technical subjects, and that 

 the course which may be adopted in the starting of such an 

 Institute as that which we all wish to see come into existence, 

 may have a wide and important influence on existing notions 

 concerning the whole question of technical education. 



In the first place, then, let me express the hope that any 

 action taken by this Society in the direction of photographic 

 technology, will be of the highest possible character. This may 

 appear to you quite an unnecessary caution, but it involves a 

 question of principle which it is very important to ventilate. 

 After many years of apathy in this country, and after experiencing 

 the inevitable consequence that we were being beaten in many 

 branches of applied science by our Continental competitors, we 

 underwent a few years ago a kind of revival in technical educa- 

 tion. One outcome of this agitation was the foundation by the 

 City and Guilds of London ot that Institute in whose service I 

 have the honour of being employed. It is not for me to dwell 

 upon the results which have flowed from the inauguration of that 

 Institute, but it is no exaggeration to say that the wave of public 

 opinion which raised it into existence is still surging throuijhout 

 the country. The last decade has witnessed the rapid multi- 

 plication of technical classes and colleges, the foundation of 

 technical associations, the growth of polytechnics, and last of 

 all, the diversion by the Government of the funds derived from 

 the beer and spirit duty in the direction of technical education. 

 The result of all this is that the means of technical education are 

 being spread broadcast throughout the land. 



Now it is one of our national characteristics that when we 

 once wake up to the circumstance that we are behind other 

 countries in any matter affecting our industries — or, I might say, 

 when we have this unpleasant truth brought home to us by the 

 superior workmanship or lower prices of our competitors — we 

 are apt to seek remedial measures to recover our lost ground by 

 what might be called indiscriminate and impulsive rushes. I 

 am afraid that the technical education movement has, to some 

 extent, been of this impulsive character. I am not going to be 

 rash enough here to attempt to lay down any precise definition 

 of what is meant by technical education ; but a few months ago, 

 the Duke of Devonshire, then Lord Hartington, made a speech 

 at the opening of the Storey Institute, at Lancaster, in the 

 course of which he said that technical education was not the 

 teaching of any particular trade or handicraft, but rather the 

 scientific principles underlying the trade or handicraft. I think 

 this fairly represents the opinions of those who have considered 

 the subject, and I hope that this definition will be borne in 

 mind in any movement which this Society may inaugurate. 



If now we review the situation, it will appear that the general 

 spread of this educational movement may be taken as an indica- 

 tion that we intend to give battle to our competitors, and that 

 we look to technical education to enable us to carry on the 

 industrial campaign. So far so good ; but our competitors, be 

 it remembered, have been actively carrying on this branch of 

 education during our long years of apathy. We have taken up 

 our weapons rather tardily, and, as I just said, somewhat im- 

 pulsively, and if we hope for success it behoves us to examine 

 these weapons critically, in order to make sure that we are 

 fighting on equal terms. In other words, are we adopting the 



best methods of technical education? This is the question 

 which should be put in the foremost place before any measures 

 can be taken by this Society in the much needed direction of 

 photographic technology. 



So far as concerns those technical subjects in which, as in 

 photography, chemistry is largely, if not entirely, the under- 

 lying science, I am bound to confess that the impulsive character 

 of the technical education movement to which I have referred, 

 may, if not properly directed, run us altogether ofi" the right 

 track. One of the greatest functions of this Society would be to 

 prevent such a calamity by diverting the tide of public oj^inion 

 into the proper channel for its own particular subject of 

 photography. The ideal technologist is a man who possesses a 

 good general knowledge of the principles of those sciences 

 underlying his industry, together with an expert special know- 

 ledge of his own subject. The first step in the training of a 

 technologist is, therefore, to lay the broad foundation of general 

 principles, and then to erect upon this foundation the super- 

 structure of special knowledge. You must understand that I 

 am attempting only to define an ideal technical training, liaving 

 more especial reference to those subjects connected with, or 

 based upon, chemical science. In the present state of affairs it 

 cannot be denied that there are large classes to whom this method 

 cannot be applied ; there are specialists in every industry who 

 know little or nothing of the scientific principles underlying 

 their occupation, and in such cases the method may have to be 

 reversed, and the in>truction may have to proceed from un- 

 scientific specialism to scientific generalisation. But this 

 method is, in my belief, only a makeshift which it may be 

 expedient to adopt to meet existing conditions— it is not 

 technical education in the strict sense of the word education, 

 but the tinkering up of a system which has been bad from the 

 beginning. It is only when we can deal with the student just 

 starting on his career as a technologist that the true method can 

 be applied ; as things are we have many years of tinkering work 

 before us, and it is to the rising generation of younger 

 technologists that the future industrial welfare of the country 

 is committed. 



The danger ahead which threatens the true cause of technical 

 education appears to me to be this: — The resources of the 

 country are being too much frittered away in the multiplication 

 of machinery for imparting elementary instruction, and the 

 higher specialisation which alone will save us in the end is 

 being crippled thereby. The elementary groundwork must be 

 laid, and this work, as far as it is being done, cannot be done 

 too well. But it is absurd to suppose that we shall recover our 

 lost position in any branch of industry by scattering broadcast a 

 knowledge of elementary science, and there leaving matters to 

 stand. A technologist is nothing — at least in any of the subjects 

 with which I have had c )nnection — unless he has the means of 

 superadding more advanced specialisation to his general 

 grounding. So far as the chemical industries of this country 

 are concerned, a few highly-trained specialists are worth more 

 than an entire army of elementary certificated teachers or prize- 

 winners. We are expending so much energy over our foun- 

 dations that there is but little left for raising the superstructure. 

 We are arming our industrial fighters with weapons which are 

 as pop-guns compared with the heavy ordnance of our 

 competitors. Unless those who are responsible can be 

 made to see that the elementary training in general prin- 

 ciples is, in a large number of subjects, quite useless unless 

 the higher specialization is equally well catered for, we shall be 

 no belter off in these branches of technology than we were 

 before. The elementary training bears to technology the same 

 relationship that the tuning of the instruments does to the 

 overture. There is a great deal of twanging and blowing going 

 on all over the country, but, as yet, comparatively few indica- 

 tions of a finished performance. There is enough money in the 

 hands of the County Councils at the present time to support 

 technical institutes adapted to local requirements on a scale 

 which would bear comparison with the polytechnics and technical 

 high schools of the Continent. If each county, or group of 

 counties, had its central technical institute, manned by compe- 

 tent specialists, then the elementary training might bear real 

 fruit, and we should look forward with greater hope to the result 

 of the campaign on which we have entered. It is not difficult 

 to see how the fight will end if we persist in blazing away with 

 this elementary small shot in response to the ponderous missiles 

 of our industrial competitors. 



Out of the haze of generalities which I am afraid I have been 



XO. 1162, VOL. 45] 



