356 



NA TURE 



[February 8, 1900 



co-ordinates of right ascension and declination. This the author 

 proceeds to investigate by applying the new method of reduction 

 to Dr. Frank Schlesinger's measures of the Rullierford photo- 

 graphs of the Praesepe cluster. In working out the equations 

 of condition, both the rigid least square solution and the 

 simplification devised by Mr. Dyson are given. From the 

 values of the residuals it appears that determinations of parallax, 

 &c., from photographs, may with advantage be carried out 

 entirely in rectangular co-ordinates, and the results thus pub- 

 lished. In addition, the approximate method of solution ot the 

 equations of condition is but little inferior to the rigid least square 

 solution. A great advantage of the adoption of this plan would 

 be the tendency to equalise the time of obtaining and reducing 

 the photographs. 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION IN RELA TION TO 

 INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS} 



ly/iat are the new industrial conditions which we now have 

 to meet ? 

 "IXTE have long known of the enormous progress being made 

 in Germany, especially in those branches of manufacture 

 of the more scientific kinds. Thus, most of the electric plants in- 

 stalled throughout the continent have been made in Germany, and 

 German firms are building practically all the large lighting and 

 traction plants in South America. In steam engineering and in 

 shipbuilding we know how efficient Germmyhas become. The 

 phrase "made in Germany" was intended to imply that the 

 goods so marked were not equal in quality to British made 

 goods, but the phrase no longer carries this meaning, and it 

 will be remembered that when the Kaiser IVilhelm der Grosse 

 made a record passage from New York to Southampton, having 

 beaten the best English record, she sailed into port with large 

 white letters painted on her side, " MADE IN GERMANY." 

 I was in (iermany myself just as this happened, and heard the 

 story passed round, to the great amusement of the Germans. 



In South Africa the same progress has been made by the 

 Americans, who have supplied most of the machinery used in 

 the South African mines, and the engineers engaged there are 

 nearly all young Americans who have received a good technical 

 training as engineers and electricians. Again, many of the 

 principal electric light and power plants in our own country 

 are equipped throughout by American firms in competition with 

 the best home companies, and erected at our very doors, not- 

 withstanding that the American plant has to be carried so many 

 thousand miles before it reaches its destination. 



It is frequently stated that this is owing to our own firms 

 being so full of work that they have orders two years ahead, 

 but the question is whether England has more work than she 

 can do, or whether the rate of production of that work is what 

 it might be if the plant employed in our various manufactories 

 were of a more up-to-date type. In any case it is clear that 

 the higher grades of the metalworking trades are no longer a 

 speciality of this country, but, on the contrary, both America 

 and Germany can compete with us on our own ground. 



But there is another direction in which, quietly but surely, 

 a revolution is being effected in methods of manufacture, 

 not only in engineering works of all kinds, but in many in- 

 dustries which have never until recently used machinery, and 

 this revolution is being brought about by the introduction of 

 the American Machine Tool. The characteristics of this 

 machine tool are its high quality, its adaptability to all kinds of 

 special work requiring automatic appliances, and the method of 

 working the tool so as to produce with great accuracy an in- 

 •definitely large number of interchangeable parts l)y working to 

 standard gauges. 



To give an illustration of the way in which these changes are 

 being brought about by the introduction of the American 

 machine tool : A few weeks ago I visited the newly-erected 

 machine tool factory of the Ludwig Loewe Co. in Berlin, one 

 of the largest factories of the kind in the world, having cost, I 

 believe, nine million marks to build and equip. The firm was 

 founded in the first place about thirty years ago for the purpose 

 of making sewing machines, but before it could make sewing 

 machines it had to buy American tools with which to make 

 fhem. Then after a time the American machines required to 



^ Abridged from a paper on " Metal Work as a Form of Manual Instruc- 

 tion in Schools," read at a conference of science teachers on January ii, 

 by Prof. W. Ripper, University College, Sheffield. 



NO. I5«0, VOL. 61] 



be repaired, and they had to start a small engineers" shop for 

 the purpose of repairs, and more American tools were purchased 

 to equip the engineers' shop. But this small engineers' shop 

 proved so serviceable and so successful that the sewing machine 

 trade was stopped, and the machine tool instead began to be 

 manufactured. From this beginning a great machine tool 

 business was gradually built up. The tools made were of the 

 newest and most approved American patterns. The head 

 engineer and works' foremen employed were Americans. This 

 business has now reached such enormous dimensions that it 

 includes not only the machine tool works above mentioned, but 

 also Arms and Ammunition works and Electrical Appliance 

 works, the whole employing, I am told, something like twelve 

 thousand men. 



From these works are passing out from time to time skilled 

 men with practical experience of up-to-date machine tools, who 

 become foremen in the various works and manufactories, and 

 the result is that, wherever they go, they soon introduce the 

 highest class of machine tools, and rapidly a great change takes 

 place in the amount of business done by the firms. America, as 

 is well-known in engineering circles, is doing an enormous trade 

 on the continent of Europe and with England also in improved 

 machine tools of the highest class. 



We have, of course, good machine tool makers in this country, 

 but few, if any, who have made a speciality of one single type 

 of machine tool, as is the case in America, which tool they 

 claim to be the most perfect of its kind, while they leave other 

 types to other manufacturers. By thus confining themselves to 

 one class of tool they greatly reduce the working costs of manu- 

 facture as compared with firms who make any and every class 

 and size of tool. 



A London Daily recently said, " there is no question that the 

 commercial interests of the United States are growing by leaps 

 and bounds. Europe is beginning to be inundated with 

 American goods, and American firms are getting contracts at 

 the expense of European rivals all the world over. This would 

 not be accomplished except for the fact that American manu- 

 facturing plants are maintained by the universal use of high- 

 class machine tools, operated by well-paid workmen, while by 

 far the greater number of shops in this country are equipped 

 with tools many of which are of the most antiquated type." 



It is probable the German workshops, generally speaking, are 

 in no sense better equipped than our own. In fact, we have in 

 this country, especially in connection with our great Railway 

 Companies, shops which are probably superior to anything else 

 of the kind in the world, also our textile machinery is superior 

 to that of any other country, but the (Germans are waking up to 

 the fact of their deficiencies as compared with the machine tool 

 equipment of the general American manufacturer. They 

 recognise that trade follows the machine tool, and the financiers 

 of Germany appear to be encouraging the rapid introduction of 

 a better class of machines for general works' practice. A similar 

 tendency is at work in this country, and the result is that the 

 industrial conditions are rapidly changing, and a new and more 

 efficient class of men to carry on our mechanical industries is 

 becoming more and more an absolute necessity. 



What we require in order to meet these conditions successfully 

 and to maintain our industrial position as a community of 

 metalworkers in competition zvith our rivals. 



It is clear from what has been already said that we need the 

 means of securing a steady supply of skilled machinists and 

 tool makers, with a competent knowledge of up-to-date methods 

 of turning work out. and of the best types of machine tools ; men, 

 in fact, who are competent to become, in course of time, leading 

 men and works' foreinen. 



There are, of course, works' foremen in England second to 

 none in the world, but every one knows, who has any knowledge 

 of works, that such men are singularly scarce, and when a 

 vacancy occurs, extremely difficult to replace. These men are 

 the brain of the workshop, and upon their skill depends very 

 much of the true success of any manufacturing concern. Almost 

 any man in the works could be more easily replaced than the 

 skilled works' foreman. 



Incompetent foremen are not only incapable of improving 

 methods of production, but they will not encourage the intro- 

 duction of new machines, which they themselves have not the 

 ability to understand and use. Such men initiate little, and 

 they continue to demand the same kind of tool and methods 

 that their forefathers used. But the deficiency in the supply of 



