Railways a National Industry 417 



goodwill and honourable feeling in addition to, or even as 

 distinct from, any pecuniary advantage the shareholders 

 themselves might eventually gain therefrom. 



Crewe Mechanics' Institution dates back to 1844, when the 

 Grand Junction Railway Company provided a library and 

 reading-room, and, also, gave a donation for the purchase of 

 books for the men employed in the railway works then being 

 set up in what was, at that time, a purely agricultural district. 

 In the following year this library and reading-room developed 

 into a Mechanics' Institution, the primary object of the rail- 

 way company being to afford to the younger members of their 

 staff at Crewe greater facilities for acquiring theory in classes at 

 the Institution to supplement the practical knowledge they were 

 acquiring in the works, though the benefits of the Institu- 

 tion were also to be open to residents of Crewe who were not 

 in the company's employ. The management was vested in 

 a council elected annually by the directors and the members 

 conjointly ; and this arrangement has continued ever since. 



Larger premises were provided in 1846, in which year the 

 Grand Junction combined with the London and Birmingham 

 and Manchester and Birmingham Companies to form the 

 London and North- Western Railway Company. The classes 

 were added to from time to time until they covered the whole 

 range of subjects likely to be of service to the students. Be- 

 ginning, however, with the 1910-11 session, the art, literary 

 and commercial classes which had been held at the Institute 

 for sixty-four years were transferred to the local education 

 authority, the Institute retaining the scientific and technolo- 

 gical subjects. In addition to the ordinary work of the classes, 

 the more recent developments of the " higher education " 

 movement have led to systematic courses of instruction 

 extending over four -year periods in (i) pure science, (2) 

 mechanical engineering, (3) electrical engineering and (4) 

 building construction. An Institution diploma is given to 

 each student who completes a course satisfactorily. Visits 

 are, also, paid to engineering works, electrical generating 

 stations, etc. Most of the teachers are engaged at the Crewe 

 works, and the instruction given is thus of the most practical 

 kind. 



One feature of the Institution is the electrical engineering 

 laboratory, provided by the directors of the London and 



2 E 



