July 7,' 1904] 



NA TURE 



with a large concave grating is to be used to obtain, if 

 possible, spectra of the brighter stars. The expedition is 

 under the immediate direction of Prof. Hale. 



The Orbit of Comet 1889 IV'. — The following elements 

 for comet 1889 IV. have been calculated by Dr. Guido Horn, 

 of Trieste, and are published in No. 5, vol. .\.Kxiii., of the 

 Memorie della Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiarii : — 



T =1889 July 19-32298 (M.T. Berlin) 

 « =345° 52' 42'-83 



a, =286° 9' 1 8" -3 1 

 i = 65° 59' ii"-i7 

 log 1/ =00169197 

 log e =9-9990087 

 log a =2 '6590039 

 Period = 9738 81 years. 



A table showing the similarity of the orbit of this comet 

 to those of six others which have appeared since 1684 is 

 also given. 



New Lists of Variable Stars. — Circular No. 79 of the 

 Harvard College Observatory contains a list of 19 new 

 variable stars situated in the constellations Orion and 

 Carina, and a list of 57 new variables in the region of the 

 small Magellanic Cloud. A careful examination of 1167 

 star images, contained in a region 30' square, on two plates 

 of the Trifid nebula revealed no variables. 



Circular No. 80 gives the positions and spectral characters 

 of six new variables discovered by Mrs. Fleming on the 

 Draper memorial photographs. 



Circular No. Si is devoted to some notes on eight variable 

 stars of long periods prepared by Miss Cannon from her 

 observations with the 6-inch telescope. The notes contain 

 short comments upon the individual observations and on 

 the agreement of the observed magnitudes on different dates 

 with the various published elements for each star. 



T//E EDUCATION OF THE AMERICAN 

 ENGINEER. 

 ' I ' HE growing success of American and German manu- 

 facturers in the international competition for the 

 world's markets has in recent years commanded alike the 

 earnest attention of our industrial leaders and of our 

 educational authorities. As numerous articles in these 

 columns have testified, many serious attempts have been 

 made during the past few years by expert observers from 

 this country to try to discover the precise connection between 

 foreign industrial success and the educational systems of the 

 countries the competition of which has been brought home 

 to us most decidedly ; and the greatest attention has perhaps 

 been given to the manner in which foreign engineers are 

 prepared in schools and colleges for their life's work. It 

 is little more than a year ago that Prof. W. E. Dalby laid 

 before the Institution of Naval Architects and the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers the results of his commission from 

 Mr. Yarrow to report on the training of engineers in other 

 countries, and as recently as May 5 the report of the 

 Mosely Educational Commission, which dealt at some 

 length with the same subject, was reviewed in Nature. 

 The most recent contribution to this important subject is 

 a paper by Dr. Mullineu-\ Walmsley read before the Institu- 

 tion of Electrical Engineers, and published in the Journal 

 of that society for May. Dr. Walmsley was given leave of 

 absence by the governing body of the Northampton Institute, 

 of which he is principal, and was instructed to investigate 

 the methods of higher engineering education in the United 

 States and Canada, and more particularly the effect, so far 

 as it could be ascertained, of the education on the engineer- 

 ing industries, the views of the great manufacturers and 

 employers on the value of the products turned out by the 

 schools, and the attitude generally taken up by them towards 

 these schools. The paper embodying the chief conclusions 

 at which Dr. Walmsley arrived and the more important 

 of his observations runs to fifty pages, and a few typical 

 examples only can be given in the space available. 



The paper is divided into six sections, the first five of 

 •which are concerned with higher mechanical and electrical 

 engineering education to the practical exclusion of other 

 (branches of engineering instruction. It was originally 



NO. I 8 10, VOL. 70] 



intended to include a chapter on the training of bench 

 hands, fitters and erectors, but eventually Dr. Walirjsley 

 contented himself with the statement that in many respects 

 " our arrangements here for the training of bench hands, 

 &c., are better than the corresponding facilities provided in 

 the United States and Canada." 



The engineering schools and their resources are first de- 

 scribed. The number and extent of the buildings devoted 

 to higher engineering education exceeds, says the paper, 

 anything that we can show in this country, but more often 

 than otherwise Dr. Walmsley found that the supply of 

 buildings was proving inadequate. There is evidence 

 throughout these American schools of lavish expenditure 

 on equipment on a scale to which we are, as yet, quite 

 unaccustomed. The laboratories and workshops are packed 

 full of apparatus and machinery for the use of students. 

 The author states, " it is difficult within the limits of a 

 paper not dealing exclusively with equipment to convey an 

 adequate idea of its complexity or extent to those who have 

 not visited the actual laboratories." The special needs of 

 teachers and students engaged in research work receive 

 particular attention by those who are responsible for the 

 equipment of engineering workshops and laboratories, and 

 the apparatus and fittings available include delicate instru- 

 ments unlikely to be required by the ordinary student, but 

 available for special investigations. It is interesting in 

 this connection to quote an expression of opinion by Prof. 

 .'\rmstrong in the discussion on the paper : — " There may 

 be a good deal of provision made for research, but there 

 is not much evidence of research work being done. What 

 the colleges are suffering from very largely is great over- 

 provision of appliances and under-provision of teachers and 

 well-prepared students." 



Dr. Walmsley 's remarks on the staffs of American 

 engineering institutions agree with expressions of opinion 

 to be found in the reports of Profs. Ayrton, Maclean, and 

 Ripper in the volume dealing with the Mosely Educational 

 Commission. It may be said to be generally admitted in 

 America that professors of engineering must be practical 

 men possessing a modern working acquaintance with 

 engineering processes on a commercial scale rather than 

 men possessed of high academic qualifications. It is recog- 

 nised by Transatlantic authorities, too, that it is all to the 

 advantage of the students if the professor is also actively 

 engaged in engineering practice, either as an advising 

 expert or in some other capacity. 



Financial considerations are given great prominence m 

 the paper, and much the same ground is covered as^ that 

 traversed bv an article in Nature of May 14, 1903, on " The 

 University 'and the Modern State," though Dr. Walmsley, 

 in addition, makes an interesting attempt to separate the 

 e.xpenditure on engineering from that on higher education 

 as a whole. Manv of the conclusions arrived at by Sir 

 Norman Lockyer in his Southport address to the British 

 .Association are quoted and substantiated by the author s 

 own observations. 



A comparison is instituted between the mental stock-in- 

 trade with which .American and English young men re- 

 spectively start their engineering training, and though Dr. 

 Walmsley does not claim that the school training provided 

 in the United States is perfect, he has little doubt of the 

 greater suitability of the American training for boys intend- 

 ing to become engineers : " both because of the later age 

 of entrance, and also because their general education, as a 

 rule, has been carried to a higher point, it follows that the 

 candidate for entrance into the technical courses in America 

 is better equipped than those in this country to take advan- 

 tage of the training of the professional school." Here, 

 again, we find Prof. Armstrong dissenting ; he is inclined 

 to doubt altogether whether the average product which 

 enters the colleges in America is in the least degree superior 

 to the average product coming up to our colleges. 



Under the heading " The Work of the Schools," much 

 valuable material as to the characteristics of the engineer- 

 ing courses in the colleges of the United States is brought 

 together. The rule is that in the first two years of the 

 course— which generally lasts four years— a fair amount of 

 time is given to mathematics, English, modern languages 

 and experimental science, and it is chiefly in the workshop 

 and drawing office that the specialisation towards engineer- 

 ing is apparent during these two years. Specialisation 



