June 



1 90 1 



NA TURE 



artisan class. No doubt our technical schools do excel- 

 lent work, but they in no way give that thorough and 

 systematic instruction which is given in the American 

 colleges, which do not wish to produce workmen, but to 

 train successful leaders of industry. The trade school, 

 which seems to have become inevitable in all countries 

 under the stress of modern industrial competition, is 

 evidently making its way in America, but, unlike us, no 

 attempt is made to teach a boy a trade in his spare hours 

 during the evening, but attendance is required during his 

 entire time. The course really forms a part of the high 

 school curriculum, and, while not developed to the same 

 extent as in Germany, it is clear that .Americans look to 

 some such school to give that training which was in olden 

 days given to the apprentice, but which will soon have 

 become impossible to acquire in a modern works. 



Perhaps the most interesting paper in the Proceedings 

 is one by a committee on American industrial education. 

 Great prominence is given to the manual training method, 

 not only for kindergarten work, but for all grades of 

 education up to the highest ; as is there stated, the 

 system is costly, but the results are said to be calculated 

 to astonish those who have never seen the manual 

 training system in operation. 



The agricultural and mechanical colleges, founded in 

 the first instance by land grant bills, are evidently the 

 backbone of .\merican education as regards applied 

 science. Some colleges, such as Cornell, have developed 

 in all directions, while others have confined their scope 

 to purely practical subjects. 



In all cases the instruction is based on a wide basis 

 of those pure sciences which are the foundation of all 

 technical knowledge. The Americans go further than 

 we do, and give up a part of the course to purely literary 

 subjects in order to give a broader education. 



The correspondence technical schools are probably 

 peculiar to America and are of quite a recent date ; 

 they are purely private concerns, which offer to give 

 complete instruction by a course of papers. As the 

 committee remark, the majority of students who com- 

 mence soon drop the courses, but the convenience of 

 learning by post is considered so great that these corre- 

 spondence classes will probably become permanent. 



The night school system is condemned by the com- 

 mittee in a most positive manner. The learner starts to 

 learn after a heavy day's work, and after the classes are 

 finished mind and body are alike exhausted. 



No systematic course of study is possible owing to 

 lack of time, while the whole atmosphere of the school 

 is said to be very far from stimulating and encouraging. 

 We are quite in agreement with this committee on this 

 subject, and wish that people would not place so much 

 reliance on the work of evening classes. 



We conclude with an extract from some remarks made 

 by Prof Alderson, of Lafayette, Miss. : — 



" Those who have had an opportunity to look into 

 this matter probably know full well that to-day the in- 

 dustrial decadence of England is due to her failure to 

 recognise the proper status of engineering education." 



Such remarks are not pleasant reading, but often a 

 dose of bitter truth is beneficial. Let us hope that it 

 may not be too late for the warning to be of service. 



F. W. BUR.ST.\LI.. 



NO. 1652, VOL. 64] 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Chemical Technology ; or. Chemistry in its Applications 

 to Arts and Manufactures. Edited by C. E. Groves 

 and W. Thorp. Vol. iii. Gas Lighting. By Charles 

 Hunt. Pp. xviii-f 312. (London: j. and A. Churchill, 

 1900 ) Price l8.f. 

 This, the third volume of a well-known work on chemical 

 technology, gives a history of the manufacture of gas 

 and its application to the purposes of illumination. After 

 a short historical introduction, about three-quarters of 

 the remainder of the book is occupied with a description 

 of the mode of manufacture, purification and distribution 

 of coal gas as carried out in this country. The con- 

 sideration of gas burners then takes some fifty pages, the 

 questions of the testing, analysis and determination of the 

 heat of combustion of gas occupying about twenty pages. 

 The apparatus used in the manufacture of coal gas is 

 described in great detail, chapters being devoted to the 

 construction and use of retorts, furnaces (several re- 

 generative furnaces being described in this section), 

 stoking machinery, condensers and scrubbers, purifiers, the 

 measurement and storage of gas — the numerous forms of 

 gasholders being very fully given — governors, distributing 

 mains and pipes, and gas meters. 



The mode of treatment throughout is that of an 

 engineer, or rather a gas engineer, writing for gas 

 engineers, and as representing the wide experience of 

 the author in this respect the work will doubtless be 

 found necessary on the bookshelves of every manager 

 of a gasworks. The only criticism which may be offered 

 in this respect is that the question of water-gas manu- 

 facture and distribution is not treated with the fulness 

 which the growing importance of the subject deserves, 

 a defect which may perhaps be attributed to the fact 

 that it is only within the last year or two that public 

 attention has been drawn to this subject by the agitation 

 of certain public authorities against the use of this gas, 

 and the subsequent appointment of a committee of the 

 Board of Trade to consider the matter. From the ab- 

 sence of any mention of this, and from other indications, 

 it is clear that the book was completed some two years 

 before the date of publication. Thus the limits of sulphur 

 impurity allowed in the metropolis are incorrectly stated, 

 and no mention is made of the complete alteration in 

 the method of testing London gas prescribed by the 

 London Gas Referees in 1S98. 



But a more serious objection is the mode of treatment 

 of the subject as a whole. As one of a series of chemical 

 handbooks, it is natural to expect that the subject would 

 be treated from a chemical, or at all events from a 

 scientific, as opposed to an empirical, point of view, and 

 this is by no means the case. The growth of gas manu- 

 facture in this country has been essentially empirical, 

 and, although dealing with a chemical manufacture, has 

 been developed almost exclusively by engineers without 

 any special chemical knowledge. This is faithfully 

 mirrored in the work under notice, in which mechanical 

 details are given with minute accuracy, but chemical details 

 are alluded to very briefly. Incidental references are made 

 to the modes of analysing coal gas at various stages of 

 its purification, although even here preference seems to 

 be given in gasworks to rough and empirical apparatus. 

 It is noteworthy that whilst the title of the book is "Gas 

 Lighting," the question of photometry is altogether 

 omitted ; and although, as mentioned in the earlier 

 chapters, the temperature at which the coal is distilled 

 is of supreme importance as regards its quality and 

 quantity, no mention is made of the use of any form of 

 high temperature thermometer, nor, judging from the 

 present «ork, does the pyrometer seem to be regarded 

 as an essential part of the equipment of a gasworks. 



There is still room for a work on coal gas which shall 

 treat of the subject from a scientific as opposed to the 

 empirical standpoint. 



