SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN PRUSSIA. 45 



gulf between pure and applied science. The meri- 

 torious Beuth. who is unquestionably to be regarded 

 as the founder of the technical science of North Ger- 

 many, had indeed in the Berlin Industrial Institute 

 erected an institution, which was especially designed 

 for the diffusion of scientific knowledge among young 

 technologists. The existence of this institute, out of 

 which arose the Industrial Academy and finally the 

 Technical College in Charlottenburg, was howeyer too 

 short for raising the leyel of education of the craftsmen 

 of the period. 



Prussia was at that time still a purely military 

 and bureaucratic state. In its official class alone was 

 culture to be found, and it is doubtless mainly owing 

 to this circumstance that even at the present day 

 the semblance of an official title is regarded and 

 striven for as an external mark of a cultured and 

 respected man. Of the industrial body only agricul- * 

 turists. from whom the military class as well as the 

 bureaucracy was almost without exception recruited, 

 had a respectable status in the eyes of the latter. In this 

 country, wasted and impoverished by a century of wars, 

 there existed no longer a well-to-do bourgeoisie to * 

 counterpoise in culture and property the military and 

 official class. It must however be added, that this state 

 of things was in part attributable to the fact, that the 

 representatives of science always highly respected in * 

 Prussia under the rule of the far-seeing Hohenzollern 

 did not consider it compatible with their dignity to 

 manifest a personal interest in technical progress. The 



