September 24, 1903] 



NATURE 



505 



R.E., an exhaustive series of trials of the different kinds of 

 railway brakes then in use in England, the results of which 

 were recorded in an elaborate and valuable report. These 

 trials were referred to by Mr. Woods in his address as 

 President of Section G. Mr. Woods was President of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers in 1886-1887, and he died on 

 June 14, 1903, at the ripe age of eighty-nine. 



Technical Education. 



The subject of the technical education of engineers was 

 treated very fully in the interesting address delivered by 

 Prof. Perry, as President of Section G at the meeting of 

 the British .Association in Belfast last year. This question 

 also received thorough consideration at the meeting of the 

 Engineering Conference held in London in June last, as 

 well as at recent meetings of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers and of the Institute of Naval .Architects. The 

 systems in vogue in the United States of America and on 

 the Continent of Europe were on those occasions brought 

 forward in carefully prepared papers and fully discussed. 

 The main points at issue are : (i) whether actual handicraft 

 should be taught in the Technological School or College 

 along with the principles underlying the Engineers' art ; 

 (2) whether the year should be divided into periods in one 

 or more of which the science of engineering should be 

 taught, and in another or others of which craft skill should 

 be acquired at works ; (3) whether the principles should be 

 first acquired, during a longer or shorter term, leaving 

 experience in applying those principles to be gained at the 

 termination of the course. As regards the first of these 

 suggestions it appears to be in opposition to the judgment 

 of the most e.xperienced teachers. In respect to the second, 

 the Admiralty have carried it out for the last forty years, 

 and with satisfaction to the Service ; it is also common in 

 Glasgow, and Mr. Yarrow has included this system in the 

 apprenticeship rules he has recently laid down, whilst it is 

 to be tried experimentally in the Engineering Course at 

 King's College, London. .At the Engineering Conference 

 it was determined that the subject was of such importance 

 that its further consideration should be left to a Committee, 

 to be subsequently appointed. 



Since the British Association last met in Lancashire (in 

 1896) there have been important events and changes in the 

 chief technical institutions of the county. First, there were 

 last year the Jubilee celebrations of Owens College, Man- 

 chester, when it received congratulations on its half-century 

 of work from universities and learned societies in all parts 

 of the world. Here, as I need hardly remind you, the 

 engineering laboratory is under the able direction of Prof. 

 Osborne Reynolds, F. R.S., who presided over Section G 

 of the British Association at their Meeting in Manchester 

 in 1887. Then, also in Manchester, there is the recently 

 completed and admirable Municipal School of Technology ; 

 but as a paper will be read on this subject, and members 

 will have an opportunity of visiting the school and inspect- 

 ing its engineering laboratory, I will content myself with 

 wishing it every success in the manifold fields of'industrial 

 education in which it is engaged. .Again, only this year 

 Victoria University has lost a College, and Liverpool has 

 gained a University. At University College, Liverpool, in 

 the Session of 1884-5, 'i Professorship of Engineering was 

 instituted as a provisional measure. The erection of 

 engineering laboratories and the endowment of the Chair 

 were afterwards provided for by gifts in commemoration 

 of the Jubilee year of the reign of Her late Majestv, Queen 

 \irtoria. Prof. H. E. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S., was appointed 

 the Chair in the first instance, a position which he still 



ntinues to hold. 



This ylar a Royal Charter has been granted establishing 

 the University of Liverpool, and transferring to it the 

 powers of University College, Liverpool. I think one 

 cannot offer to the University of Liverpool a heartier wish 

 than that it may be as successful in the future as University 

 College, Liverpool, has been in the past, a wish in which 

 1 am sure you will all join. 



There is yet one other college to which, though not in 

 Lancashire, I should like to make a passing reference, the 

 first to include engineering in its educational curriculum, 

 viz. University College, London. It was originallv founded 

 in 1828 under the name of the " University of London," 

 :md has recently, together with King's College, become 

 merged in the present University of London. The first 



NO. 1769, VOL. 68] 



engineering laboratory was established at University 

 College in 1878, fifty years after the inauguration of the 

 college, whilst a separate chair for electrical engineering 

 was founded in 1885, and an electrical laboratory was 

 added ten years ago. One cannot say farewell to it as it 

 used to be without mentioning the name of Dr. A. B. W. 

 Kennedy, F.R.S., who was President of this Section of the 

 British .Association in 1894 at Oxford, and who has done 

 so much for engineering education. 



Before leaving the subject of technical education, 1 

 venture to express the hope that in the training of engineer- 

 ing students increased attention will be paid to the com- 

 bination of artistic merit with excellence of structural de- 

 sign, so that in respect to artistic treatment our engineer- 

 ing structures may not remain so far behind those of our 

 Continental brethren as is unfortunately now frequently the 

 case. 



Engineering Standards. 



A very important work has been going on quietly and 

 unostentatiously in our midst for some time past, the results 

 of which must affect the engineering profession at home 

 and abroad. I refer to the work of the Engineering 

 Standards Committee, which as many of my hearers know, 

 was appointed in 1901 and is now composed of 178 members,, 

 among whom are many Government officials. I alluded to 

 the earlier work of this Committee in my Presidential 

 .Address to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901, and 

 that work has since been gradually but surely extended. 

 The Committee has received not only the moral but the 

 financial support of His Majesty's Government, and the 

 results of its labours are being adopted by all the leading 

 Government departments. 



In addition to the main Committee there are no fewer 

 than twenty-five separate committees and sub-committees 

 engaged on work, covering a wide range of operations, 

 many of the members sitting on more than one committee. 



A few details of the work accomplished and in progress- 

 may be of interest. After careful deliberation the Com- 

 mittee published their first series of British standards 

 sections, covering all rolled steel sections used in construc- 

 tional work, shipbuilding and so forth. The Committee on 

 Rails has just issued the standard sections and specification 

 for British girder tramway rails, and it is now actively 

 engaged in drawing up a series of standard sections of bull- 

 headed and flat-bottomed rails for railway work. 



Another committee of a thoroughly representative 

 character is occupied in drawing up a standard specification 

 and standard tests for cement, and a standard specification 

 drawn up by so large a body of our leading engineers, con- 

 tractors, and manufacturers must be of great interest to 

 all those who are called on to specify tests for this materiaL 



The Government of India control to a very considerable 

 extent the working of railways in India, and they have 

 referred to the Standards Committee the important question 

 of drawing up a series of standard types of locomotives for 

 use on the Indian railways. The Committee which in- 

 vestigated this difficult subject has just forwarded its report 

 to the Secretary of State for India. Other committees are 

 preparing standard specifications for locomotive copper fire- 

 box plates and steel boiler plates, which it is hoped will be 

 published at an early date. 



The subject of screw-threads is one which has occupied 

 a Committee of the British .Association for some years past, 

 and I am glad to learn that the Committee of this Associ- 

 ation has been co-operating with the Standards Committee 

 and discussing the question of screw-threads of both smaller 

 and larger diameters, and also considering the cognate 

 subject of limit gauges so essential to all accurate work in 

 mechanical engineering. 



.Another Committee is dealing with standard flanges, and 

 I understand it is shortly proposed to consider the standard- 

 isation of cast-iron pipes. 



A very large and influential committee is engaged on the 

 subject of the materials used in the construction of ships 

 and their machinery, and most valuable information is being 

 collected with a view to the preparation of a standard 

 specification for steel and to the determination of forms for 

 standard test-pieces to be used when testing plates, forgings, 

 castings, and so forth. 



There are about half a dozen committees engaged on 

 various important electrical subjects, but as their work will 



