5S 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[FEBRrARY, 



gri'Lit measure, responsible for the profits on our internal industry — on 

 till" average of wliicli (le|)enil agricultural returns, and also by re- 

 action, an increased demand for labour." The fundamental basis of 

 operations is that the whole instruction, both theoretical and prac- 

 tical, shall be given in I lie College. This, according to the account 

 of its managers, includes the structure of railways, roads, canals, 

 docks, locks, and harboins, improvement of rivers, clearing mines of 

 water, and their necessary ventilation; the whole structure of the 

 steam engine, land and water transport, architecture and general con- 

 struction, naval architecture, ndning, drainage, embanking, reservoirs, 

 light-houses, arsenals, surveying, levelling, ndneral boring, modelling, 

 casting and forging, turning and boring. And what is to feed this 

 multitude ? — two loaves and five small fishes — a few professors of 

 matliernatics, drawing and latin, an architect, and some acres of 

 ground at Hampstead 1!! Is there any one so insane as to attempt to 

 carry out such a scheme ? — is there any parent so wasteful of his 

 own monev, or regardless of the interests of his child as to entrust 

 him to such a school '. hi an arena, scarcely fit for a cricket match, 

 are we to see exemplified the wonders of British art ; here, by magic 

 processes, are to be reproduced (id iiijiinliim the Grand Trunk Canal, 

 the Eddystone Light-house, the Steam Engine, the Menai and Water- 

 loo Bridges, and IMrmiiigham Railway, with its vallied cuttings, its 

 Kilsby tunnels, and its hilly endjankmcnts. The Clifton Bridge would 

 spun the ground, the Camden Town Embankment, swallow up the 

 soi', and the cutting to Euston Square take in the vvliole estate. 

 "Fhilosophy in sport, made science in earnest." We are either to 

 believe these delusions, or wc nuist recognise the sad reality, children 

 mis-spending their fither's money and their own time on mimic rail- 

 wavs, and gutter canals ; expert in all the verbiage which a well dis- 

 ciplined memory can retain, and going out into the world the children 

 wbiidi fhev came into the college. If this be the ollspring of the 

 Polytechnic School, an Institution which has Honrished under some 

 (d' the noblest men in France, we believe that, with indignation, they 

 will disavow their bantling; if it be an imitation of Russia, it is an 

 inntation rather of the barbarism, than of the grandeur of that 

 nation; we know that no example in favor of it exists in any other 

 country. In the workshops, South Wales, Birmingham, (ilasguw and 

 Newcastle are to be united; the steam engine is to be wrought, by 

 boys, from the native ore into all its wonderful applications as a 

 motive power. What more they profess to teach we know not, w'e 

 know that all these things, even if practicaljle as toys, will fail to 

 make engineers such as England has and England wants. The ignorance 

 of the ])rojectors is only equalled by their absurdity ; the manner in 

 which the design is to be carried out, is expressed by a synopsis of 

 the courseof instruction extending over a peaiod of five years, in the first 

 two years of wdiich the pupils learn nothing of engineering, exceptsur- 

 veying and levelling, their jirincipal acquirement being caligraphy ; 

 in the second vear we find these branches are taught in conjunction 

 with mineral boring and draining, and the jirinciples of Civil and 

 Navaf architecture. No progress has yet been made in engineering 

 fjul never mind, we can wait. The third year advances to shaded and 

 coloured drawing, drainage, embanking, and conduct of running 

 water, and the construction of roads; leaving, consequently, the 

 wliole instruction for the last two years. In this course, we find that 

 the principal engineering works (i, e. treatises) of the English, French, 

 and Germans are to be read. What those French and (iennan works 

 are we should very ranch like to know ; — to the best of our know- 

 ledge very few works exist, except translations from the English. 

 Among the magna opera of the last year, we find such terms as " a 

 grand ilrawing, with plans, sections, and parts in detail;" "grand 

 project for internal transport by land or water, with estimates ;" "a 

 memoir on some important question of civil engineering." The pen- 

 nyworth of bread to these gallons of sack, is the examination and 

 explanation of public works on the works themselves. The "lucidus 

 ordo" of the synopsis must be evident to the most unsystematical ; 

 drawing and caligra]iliy interpolated between mechanics and hydro- 

 graphy ; architecture between hydrography and physics, and the 

 same impartial systen\ is carried throughout. As to the work- 

 man's class, for which twelve guineas a year is to be charged, the 

 paltriness and inadequacy of instruction given exempts it from notice. 

 The pu|)ils may be admitted into the high school at fourteen years, 

 and on going through the prescribed course of instruction, as any 

 youth of moderate abilities and suflicient memory is sure to do, is 

 turned out on reaching his eighteenth birth-day, a duly qualified suc- 

 cessor of Brindley, Smeaton, Rennie, Telford, "avid Watt. 



This system, we may obsei-ve, is a clumsy imitation of the Poly- 

 tejchnic School, and other similar Institutions abroad, which are 

 adopted in tlie imperfect state of instruction, to supply the want of a 

 more practical coui'se. In the I'olytechnic or Gwerbe School, the stu- 

 dent finds those models which he can find with difficulty elsewhere, but 



under the guidance of a Stephenson or a Maudsley, he learns in that 

 school, w hich is the model to all Europe. In our pages * will be foinid 

 an account of the state of engineering abroad. Wliat it is here all 

 Europe tells; we boast the names of .Middleton, Worcester, Hooke, 

 .Savery, Newcome, Brindley, Milne, Smeaton, Bell, Edwards, Ark- 

 wright, Uennie, Macadam, Bramah, Huddart, Trevithick, Telford, 

 Woolf, and Murdoch ; and among the engineers of the present day : — 

 Walker, Ste|dienson, the two Uennies, the two Brunels, Cubitt, I.ocke, 

 Maudsley, Tierney Clarke, &c., many of whom enjoy an European 

 reputation. Such are the fruits of a defective system ; what has 

 Europe to show against it? The same defective system prevails in 

 the tfnited States, where gigantic works of the engineers measure 

 the continent from one end to the other. 



As to what must be the result of the proposed system, we fear w'e 

 can augur nothing very good, on one side they are deficient in strength, 

 ai.d on the other side they have to compete with powerful rivals. 

 The plan of the College itself, and its details, liave been rendered 

 ridiculous by fantastic absurdities; the very first page of their pro- 

 spectus is calculated to excite laughter; — a College for Civil Engi- 

 neers, plastered with the names of a set of Eton schoolmasters, as 

 honorary members ; unknown foreigners, as corresponding members; 

 the prospectus is dashed throughout with unmeaning italics; the dis- 

 tinguishing absurdities of the Hone and Black Dwarf School ; the 

 vice of those, who wanting strengtli of thought, make it up by variety 

 of type. One of the professorships is to be held by a clergyman of the 

 church of England, another is the cliaplain, and sectarianism is 

 openly proclaimed in a building devoted to the national pursuit of 

 science. Of what religion were the Marq\iis of Worcester and 

 Watt? "The College is based upon the principles of the established 

 Church." Church of England railways. Catholic steam engines, and 

 Presbyterian canals, whoever heard of such things? Could not the 

 moral and religious instruction of the students be provided for with- 

 out injuring the feelings of large masses of the population, by giving 

 a preference to a minority ? The food of the boarders will be of the 

 best description, and every care taken of their health ! — shades of 

 Brindley, Arkwright and Rennie, whoever heard of such superfluous 

 nonsense 1 " No pupil can be admitted without a certificate that he has 

 had the small pox, or has been vaccinated; and has no particular in- 

 firmity or contagious malady." " lie must be able to read .' and 

 write 1 fluently, and be master of the first four rules of arithmetic!!" 

 "Corporal punishment will not be permitted in the establishment I" 

 — " Suppose a gentleman designs one of his sons, at the age of five 

 years!!! to be a civil engineer." 



As to the supporters of this College, we find many men of high 

 title, but we look in vain for the support of any of the great men, 

 who, by tlieir engineering works, have contributed to their country's 

 glory. Only three names are to be found qualified as engineers, 

 none of whom are suflicient to attract of themselves public support. 

 As to the professors, of whom, by the bye, there are none for engi- 

 neering, it is saying enough for them to mention, that many of the 

 names are resiiectable. 



We now come to another question of the deepest interest to those 

 jiarents, who are so ill advised as to send their children to this 

 riekety College, that is, what is to become of the lads when they 

 have got their diplomas? Will they be employed by the present 

 engineers in jireference to their own pupils? — will they have greater 

 weight with the public, than men of acknowledged eminence ? — will 

 they be supported by the public like those who have received a 

 practical education under first-rate men? Our impression is, that 

 they will not, but that the lads will, after their five years of College 

 education, and an expenditure of several hundred pounds, be obliged 

 to pitch their diplomas into the Thames, and article themselves to 

 those who know sometliing of the profession. We earnestly call on 

 all wdio may be tempted by the luring proposals of destining children 

 from the cradle, and hatching engineers with more than an Eccaleo- 

 bion power, to ])ause and reflect on the waste of time and money 

 which they must incur from any failure of this kind, and to hesitate 

 before they become the victims of a few deluded theorists. So san- 

 guine are the projectors, that they talk of entrapping hundreds of 

 lads, and think nothing of a hundred engineers as the average pro- 

 duce of a year. This, according to our reckoning, would of itself 

 produce three thousand engineers, besides those educated in other 

 establishments ;!• and what is to become of the raw and ignorant 



* Vol. i.p. 3G9. 

 I As to how they are to suppuri llic competition of the engineers 

 .".nd cxisliug colleges, its mai.agers may kn<iw lictter th;m we prelej.d to ilo. 

 They «dl be ahl tu solve wliedier Kverett, Wchsler, Wallace, and KImes 

 are eipial to De Moran, Silvester, L.arilner, ;inil (iraham, or to Hall, Mu^e- 

 Icy, Dauiell, Wheatstone, WiiUips, BracUey, Cooper, and Tennent, 



