57 o 



NA TURE 



[October 3, 1901 



put the services of the best naturaUsts at the disposal of students, 

 and offer free tuition and living to come and study with them. 

 Libraries, great museums, great teachers are made available to 

 him who would work and had the requisite capacity. 



All these advantages will, however, count for nothing if 

 zoological research do not attract the best men and if the best 

 men be not accorded time and means for research. Our best 

 students slip from our grasp to go into other professions or into 

 commerce, because we can offer them no outlook but teaching, 

 administration, and a salary regulated by the law of supply and 

 demand. We must urge without ceasing upon college trustees 

 and corporations the necessity of freedom for research and 

 liberal salaries if America is to contribute her share to the 

 advance of zoology in the twentieth centurj'. 



THE CARNEGIE TECHNICAL SCHOOL AT 



PITTSBURG. 

 "T^WO of the addresses delivered by presidents of sections of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 at the recent Denver meeting were concerned with scientific 

 and technical education. Mr. J. A. Brashear, Chancellor of 

 the Western University of Pennsylvania, described the plans, 

 drawn up at Mr. A. Carnegie's request, for a great technical 

 college at Pittsburg, and Prof. C. M. VVoodward, Dean of the 

 School of Engineering and Architecture, Washington University, 

 St. Louis, took as his text the differences between the educa- 

 tional ideals of to-day and of the time when education was 

 considered merely as needful to the " embellishments of life." 

 The movement towards a study of the materials and forces of 

 Nature and the problem of modern life — sociological, commercial 

 and industrial — has produced a change of front as remarkable as 

 it is gratifying. Out of the vast extension of the horizon of 

 human activities which the movement has promoted, and a 

 corresponding multiplication of occupations, has come an im- 

 perative demand for better education and for technically educated 

 men. The scheme for the Carnegie Technical School has been 

 drawn up with the intention of suggesting how to train students 

 to supply this want. 



Reference has already been made (July 25, p. 319) to the 

 report of the committee appointed to determine the best plan 

 and most suitable scope of the new institution which Mr. 

 Carnegie is prepared to build, equip and endow in the city of 

 Pittsburg. Further details are given by Mr. Brashear in his 

 address, and are here summarised. After a careful di.scussion of 

 the plan of procedure, the committee on the plan and scope of 

 the proposed school decided to call to their assistance, as an 

 advisory board, Dr. Robert H. Thurston, Prof. J. B. Johnson, 

 Dr. Thomas Gray and Dr. Victor Alderson, acting president of 

 the Armour Institute of Chicago. 



Each member of the advisory board formulated his plans 

 without consultation with other members of the committee, yet 

 it is a matter of interest to know that the expressed views of 

 the advisory board as individual members were so nearly in 

 accord on the general principles formulated for the great school 

 of technology. The following is an outline of the scheme for 

 the new technical school : — 



First, as to site. The advisory board suggested that not less 

 than fifty acres be secured, and as a tract of sixty-five acres is 

 available not far distant from the Carnegie Institute, the board 

 strongly recommended its purchase, or a similar piece of land 

 as near by as it is possible to obtain it. A potent reason for 

 placing the technical school near the Carnegie Institute is the 

 fact that its library is rich in technical and other valuable works 

 which need not be duplicated in the technical school library ; 

 indeed the association of the school with the great and increas- 

 ingly valuable library, museum, art gallery and Academy of 

 Science and Art is certainly to be desired. 



As to the buildings for the technical school, but little has been 

 suggested. Dr. Thurston in his report has given an interesting 

 resume of the space occupied by the student in the various 

 German technical schools, remarking that the German motto 

 " viel Platz, viel Licht, viel Luft," would be an excellent guide 

 in determining this question. He says : " Ample space, good 

 light and plenty of fresh air are essential, although the architect, 

 who should be the most earnest and intelligent of them all, is 

 often woefully deficient in appreciation of their importance when 

 brain work is going on." Dr. Thurston further states that 

 taking figures from the best German technical schools, which 



NO. 1666, VOL. 64] 



are based on the largest experience, the school of architecture 

 at Berlin has 150 feet floor space per student, the engineering 

 school 35 feet ; but this latter department is so much over- 

 crowded that arrangements are being made to give the student 

 in this department at least 75 feet of floor space. In marine 

 engineering 1 1 1 feet, and in metallurgy and the chemical 

 departments each have 426 square feet of space. Prof Thurston 

 advises not less than 30 square feet per student in class rooms, 

 in drawing rooms about 100, and in laboratories from 150 

 to 500 feet, according to character of the work to be done and 

 magnitude of the space required for machinery and apparatus. 



The Brunswick school has 410 feet floor space per student in 

 all departments. At Karlsruhe 450 square feet is provided in 

 the department of electrotechnics. The cost of the Berlin 

 building is placed at 1000 dollars per student, of the Brunswick 

 buildings 2000 dollars per student. From these data it may be 

 seen that an institution which may be called upon to provide for 

 a thousand students at once, and perhaps three or four times that 

 number in the near future, must be planned upon a most liberal 

 scale to meet the demands which shall be made upon it. 



As to the scope of the work of the new school, Prof. Johnson's 

 proposed scheme is as follows ; — 



A. Colleges. Courses of four years with a high school pre- 

 paration : (i) College of Science ; (2) College of Engineering ; 



(3) College of Commerce. All these to be of university grade, 

 with degrees conferred at graduation. B. Schools. Courses of 

 three years with a grammar school preparation: (i) Manual 

 Train School ; (2) Domestic Science School ; (3) School of In- 

 dustrial Design ; (4) School of Commerce. All these to be of 

 high-.school grade. Diplomas to be given at graduation. C. 

 Artisan Day School. Courses of three years, with a preparation 

 in reading, writing and arithmetic. To include courses of in- 

 struction in subjects of essential importance in the practice of 

 the various trades. D. Night School for day workers. Pre- 

 paration .same as C. Regular courses, and also special instruc- 

 tions of practical value to day workers of all sorts and all 

 employments. 



Prof. Johnson, Dr. Alderson and Dr. Gray studied a number 

 of the industries of Pittsburg, and in all their reports they 

 emphasised the value of the secondary schools. The question of 

 monotechnic or trade schools, i.e. where a young man or woman 

 can learn at least the rudiments of a trade by which they pro- 

 pose to make their living, was also discussed ; and it is the 

 opinion of both committee and advisory board that in due time 

 this part of the problem should be given earnest consideration. 



Dr. Alderson recommended that the six following depart- 

 ments should be established, each with several branches : — 

 (l) Engineering, (2) Secondary Education, (3) Library Economy, 



(4) Domestic Arts and Sciences, (5) Art, (6) Evening In- 

 struction. 



Dr. Gray recommends that the institute should offer a course 

 of instruction covering the whole nine years of study ; that it be 

 divided into two distinct schools, a secondary and upper 

 secondary, and a higher college or professional school. He 

 advises that the secondary school commence first above the 

 grade schools with a minimum age limit of fourteen years, and 

 that the course of this instruction should include all the subjects 

 commonly given in the best high schools with the possible ex- 

 ception of Latin and Greek, and in addition the subjects more 

 commonly given in business schools or colleges, along with this 

 course of class-room instruction, provision should be made for 

 practical instruction, either manual or otherwise, bearing upon 

 the particular branch of industry which the scholar intends to 

 enter. 



Dr. Gray recommends a good sound course in English for 

 students of the secondary school, but not a study of foreign 

 languages. He also recommends that the technical college or 

 professional school be open only to a selected small number of 

 students who have shown special fitness for the work, and that 

 the entrance requirements should be considerably higher than is 

 usual in existing technical colleges. For this department ex- 

 tensive laboratory practice is recommended and thorough drill 

 in the methods of testing properties of matter and in investi- 

 gational work. 



The general scheme laid out for the great technical univer- 

 sity by Dr. Thurston comprises the following colleges: — (i) 

 Mechanical Engineering and the Mechanic Arts, with eight 

 diflerent departments of Mechanical Engineering ; (2) Civil 

 Engineering, with six departments; (3) Architecture, with three 

 departments ; (4) Mines and Metallurgy, with two departments ; 



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