300 



NATURE 



[January 25, 1900 



■examination in English, mathematics, and one foreign 

 language. There is at present a strong tendency to 

 raise the standard required for entrance, in order to ex- 

 clude all but well-trained students. 



The length of the course is four years, and comprises 

 •mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, French, Ger- 

 man, and engineering. The course in pure science is 

 •extensive andthorough ; chemistry and physics both have 

 fairly extensive laboratory work, while in mathematics 

 the course includes differential and integral calculus, with 

 a small amount of differential equations. 



The bulk of the work in pure science is finished by the 

 end of the first two years, the last two years being devoted 

 mainly to professional subjects. The manual training 

 classes or workshops are considered to be one of the 

 most important parts of the engineering course. The 

 reason for the great attention given to practical work 

 is due to the entire absence in America of anything 

 similar to our premium pupilage system. There is no 

 •desire to reach the level of hand skill of a good mechanic, 

 the intention being to teach correct methods of using 

 itools, and to show how work should be done. 



There are usually four shops through which the 

 student passes in rotation. In the wood shop the course 

 consists of a series of exercises illustrating the use of 

 tools and forms of simple joints ; this is followed by a 

 course in wood turning, which naturally leads on to 

 pattern making ; fairly complicated patterns are made, 

 such as a spoked wheel, plug cock with the necessary 

 core-box. In the foundry, moulding is taught both in 

 sand and loam, and cores are made and baked by the 

 students ; castings are not made from every mould, but 

 only sufficiently often to show the correct methods of 

 working. In the smith's shop there are also a set of 

 exercises on forging, and sometimes the student has to 

 make and harden a complete set of lathe tools for his own 

 use in the turning shop. In the fitting shop the student 

 passes through a course in chipping, filing, scraping, and 

 then goes on to the machine tools, such as the lathe, the 

 milling machine, planer, and shaping machine. The 

 exercises have all been carefully thought out, so that 

 they form a progressive series, each illustrating some 

 principle. 



Summer workshop classes of about one month are 

 ■common, when the students devote their whole time to 

 practical work. During this period the students often 

 undertake to make either the whole of a machine or to 

 finish a previous year's work. At Sibley College they 

 have built wholly in their shops a 60 horse-power triple 

 expansion marine type engine, which is used for experi- 

 mental purposes ; the finish of this engine was quite 

 equal to any ordinary engine, and it was said to run 

 quite as well as any other steam plant. 



The shops as a rule are large and well equipped ; for 

 instance, there are thirty engine lathes besides other 

 machine tools at Sibley College. One of the most sur- 

 iprising features of their manual training is the amount 

 ■of hand skill which the student acquires in his com- 

 paratively short course ; this is, by the Americans, at- 

 tributed to the fact that their shops are entirely devoted 

 to teaching, and that therefore they can advance the 

 men more rapidly than is possible in a commercial 

 establishment. The question as to whether handicraft 

 is a suitable subject to be taught in a university is too 

 large to be discussed here ; but as regards America 

 there can be no doubt of its value, and it is found in 

 every really important engineering course throughout 

 the United States and Canada. 



The experimental work in the engineering laboratories 

 is very similar to our own, but everything is on a much 

 larger scale ; there are often quite a number of testing 

 machines and experimental engines, each intended to 

 •emphasise some special point. 



At Sibley College and at Boston there are special 



NO. 1578, VOL. 61] 



engines for teaching valve setting, both for slide valves 

 and Corliss gear. They have at Sibley College a small 

 ammonia refrigerating plant arranged for experiments 

 on the action of inverse heat engines. 



MacGill University has a very fine hydraulic plant 

 for studying the laws of flow of water through orifices, 

 pipes and over weirs. The electrical laboratories are large 

 and well equipped ; in the dynamo room there are 

 machines of all types for illustrating continuous, alter- 

 nating and polyphase currents. The supply of testing 

 instruments, such as ammeters, voltmeters, wattmeters, 

 appeared to be on a generous scale. 



At several institutions there are full courses for mining 

 engineers, with large laboratories for the reduction of 

 ores to the metallic state, the same type of machinery 

 being used as in a mine. Mining and metallurgy are 

 often taken together ; the metallurgy deals principally 

 with copper, lead, silver and gold ; the practical work, 

 as regards iron and steel, appeared small when the 

 industrial importance of these metals is considered. 



The very large number of students to be found in one 

 college is also significant. Canada is by no means a 

 populous country, yet there are nearly three hundred 

 engineering students at MacGill University, Montreal ; 

 and we find from two to five hundred students at all the 

 leading technical institutions ; yet in spite of these large 

 numbers, the supply of graduates seems to be unequal 

 to the demand. Almost every graduate can at once 

 obtain a post carrying with it a salary small, but generally 

 sufficient for an independence. 



It is difficult for an outside observer to form an abso- 

 lutely accurate idea of American methods of teaching, 

 but they certainly rely to a greater extent than we do on 

 text-books, and a considerable amount of home work 

 seems to be the rule. 



The recitation class, in which students are questioned 

 on the matter of the text-book, is quite unlike anything 

 in England ; it is intended to give the teacher a means 

 of discovering what the student knows, and as marks 

 are assigned for success in recitation, it plays an im- 

 portant part in the course. The written examination 

 does not appear to carry the weight that it does with us ; 

 no practical or drawing examinations are held, but every 

 piece of work is marked and counts towards graduation. 



A special feature is the way in which the purely pro- 

 fessional subjects are subdivided. Thus, at Boston, we 

 find no less than seven engineering professors besides 

 assistant professors. There can be no doubt that this 

 specialisation is beneficial to both staff and students. 

 To the staff it must be a great advantage to be able to 

 concentrate themselves on a special subject, which, of 

 course, they can carry further than if they were obliged 

 to cover a wide ground. The subjects of thermodynamics, 

 mechanism, and applied mechanics are really quite 

 separate, although often grouped together under the head 

 of mechanical engineering. 



Looking on the system of American technical education 

 as a whole, one cannot but be filled with admiration for 

 the manner in which they have carried out their ideals. 

 Technical education may be looked upon as similar to a 

 manufacturing process ; it should turn out a product of 

 the particular kind that is required for the industrial 

 needs of its own country. The actual educational value 

 of the methods of training employed should be sub- 

 ordinated to the commercial question, which is, whether 

 the student obtains that knowledge which will enable 

 him to be of use in industry. In a system of general 

 education the training of the mind is generally taken to 

 be of more importance than the actual knowledge, but 

 professional education stands on a different basis. If 

 this point of view be taken, then the persons who decide 

 on the value of technical education should be the 

 employers into whose service the graduate passes after 

 completing his college course. 



