i8o SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



Next, in the practice of his profession, I would also allow the 

 candidate to choose his department. Thus, he might elect to be 

 examined in railway machinery, or in marine engineering, or in 

 tools, or in telegraphy. Then I would set him a real piece of 

 work to do, giving him perhaps a month or two months to com- 

 plete the work. At the end of that time he would bring up his 

 designs, calculations, estimates, precisely as if I were his chief 

 engineer and he were a resident or head draughtsman. He 

 should have free reference to all books and persons whatever ; 

 but when the designs were laid on the table he should be sub- 

 jected to a searching cross-examination as to his reasons for 

 adopting the given dimensions, materials, and forms ; he should 

 be called upon to justify his estimates and explain the motives 

 which guided him in drawing each clause of his specification ; 

 and I venture to say that a man who passed such an examination 

 as this, before a board composed in part of professors and partly 

 of practical engineers specially acquainted with the branch of 

 engineering in question, would prove a really competent engi- 

 neer in that branch ; and I also think that there are hundreds 

 of men in England who would be willing to purchase a diploma 

 by undergoing such a real test as this, who would laugh at 

 cramming themselves with undigested pen-and-ink sketches for 

 a three hours' examination in machinery at large. 



I have drawn no fancy sketch. The examination I recom- 

 mend is simply the form of examination actually held in Germany 

 with great success. It is usually taken by men who have been 

 some years in practice, and is, I believe, a sure passport to 

 advancement. 



A degree given in this way would be a degree worth having 

 in England also ; nay, it would be especially valuable to the 

 young engineer, who at present has no way of gaining any dis- 

 tinction except in the very limited circle of the shop or office in 

 which he works. The public credit due to all works goes to the 

 chief engineer or the responsible manager of the firm ; nor is 

 this essentially unjust, though young men sometimes rebel at it. 

 The responsible man must reap the shame or glory, but owing 

 to this very fact young engineers would be peculiarly glad of an 

 opportunity of gaining real distinction. 



Another motive for giving degrees in engineering is, that the 



