414 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. X. 



to his labours in reference to Colour-Blindness. " We have no 

 doubt/' he says, " the researches which it [the work on Colour 

 Blindness] contains, and their practical relation to the safety of 

 ships and railway trains, which he was the first to point out, 

 were among the grounds of his appointment to the Chair of 

 Technology or Industrial Art, which has recently been founded 

 by the Crown in the University of Edinburgh." 1 



It was no small puzzle to the public at first, what Technology 

 meant. In December 1855 he reports, " Technology prospers, 

 and people are learning how to spell it." A definition given 

 before leaving Melrose, to his married sister, was probably the 

 first explanation of the word from him. 



"DEAR JEAN, The Professor salutes you, and grieves over 

 the absence of Technology from your dictionary. 



"Let us see what it means, by analysing it into syllables, 

 beginning with the final ones. Nology, or knowledge of, must 

 mean ' the acquaintance with,' so far good ; but what is ' Tech ?' 

 A pre-Adamic word, I take it, signifying, as well as I can make 

 out, 'things in general.' Altogether, then, we reach the full 

 idea of the Knowledge of Things in General. 



" You will find the word in no dictionary. They had to 

 wait till a knowledgeable man like me was born, before they 

 could coin the word. A stupid Greek scholar, if you met 

 him, would tell you that ' techne ' meant ' art/ and ' logos ' 

 meant ' science/ so that Technology signifies the science of the 

 Arts, as if my derivation did not mean the same. Science in its 

 application to the Useful Arts is the meaning of the word. 



" In short, I will lecture on Dyeing, Glass-making, Porcelain, 

 Baking ; on Hats, Shoes, Bleaching, Ink, Gold, Iron, and, as I 

 said before, things in general. On the objects of my Museum, 

 and the Arts connected with them, my plan will be as follows : 

 If a Shoemaker comes to the Museum, I'll talk to him about 

 nothing but Hats, and screw information out of him about 

 Shoes. When a Hat-maker arrives, I will pour into his ears all 

 the learning I have acquired from the Shoemaker, and extract 

 from the Hatter information to give the Cobbler on his next 

 visit. In this way I hope to do credit to my appointment. . . . 



1 'North British Review,' February 1856, Article 'Colour-Blindness.' 



