16 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN SHIP CONSTRUCTION 
before undertaking the further study of naval architecture and marine engineering. 
Then we have very severe examinations twice a year, with the result that we take in 
from fourteen to eighteen students in September, and we graduate perhaps six, eight or 
ten, and I think we have gone as high as twelve at the end of the fourth year. 
The officers of Webb Institute feel that, where students receive so much at no cost 
to themselves, the institute is entitled to the best men of their kind and that they in 
return must do their best; otherwise, we might, due to our limit in number of students, 
be keeping in uselessly an impossible student, thus keeping a good one out. 
I should have also told you why we changed the name from Webb’s Academy and 
Home for Shipbuilders to Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. When Mr. Webb 
founded the institution, the word ‘“‘academy”’ meant to him as much as the word “‘uni- 
versity’ now means to most people. You will recall that since 1889 a number of colleges 
have been changed to universities, and a number of high schools have been changed to 
colleges, and the word ‘‘academy”’ is now defined so specifically by the Regents of the 
State of New York that it means nothing more than a high school. Therefore the 
Board of Trustees—and I may give here special credit to our vice-president and chairman 
of the school board of our institution, Mr. McFarland, for advocating the change— 
thought it was wise to change the name for the benefit of our students, because the gradu- 
ate of an academy does not now seem to mean much, whereas a graduate of an institute 
seems to carry more efficiency. 
Mr. H. P. Frear, Member of Council:—The outline of the course in naval archi- 
tecture at Lehigh University as given by Professor Chapman is a valuable contribution 
to the proceedings of this Society and introduces innovations which should broaden the 
field to students who inherit both engineering and executive ability. 
Comparatively few who graduate from technical schools possess these combined 
qualities, and some possess neither of them. Bright scholars or students, of which there 
are many, have little difficulty in passing entrance examinations or securing their degree, 
but scholarship alone is not the only requisite for success in a particular line. Being a 
college man myself, I am a believer in technical education, but during my thirty-seven 
or more years’ experience I have met with many cases of graduates who had missed their 
calling and could not compete with men of ordinary ability, trained from the ranks, 
but having in some degree a natural instinct or bent for their work. 
Some boys haveadecided mechanical inclination and demonstrate this from childhood 
by playing with mechanical toys and accumulating tools or apparatus with which they 
either make things or experiment. Many have come to me for advice before deciding 
to enter a technical school, and I have never failed to recommend a college education to 
those apparently having inherent mechanical ability. A large number, however, had 
not found themselves and possessed a more or less vague idea what they were going into. 
If there were some process by which boys of the latter class could determine their fitness 
for the profession before entering college, many mistakes would be avoided. 
With this in view it has been my invariable practice to recommend to every young 
man who came to me for advice, to first go into the shop for one or two years; after which 
I was able to advise with greater confidence. The shop not only helped the doubtful 
boys to decide before going too far whether or not they had made a wise choice, but it 
taught them all how to work and be useful, which was more than they sometimes learned 
in college. I always had some kind of a shop of my own as long ago as I can remember, 
