208 



NATURE 



{Jan. i, 1885 



agreed that general instruction in handicraft would be useful, 

 teaching children the use of tools without reference to special 

 trades, and, he believed, the experiment of fitting up a work- 

 shop in one school was one that was worth trying, and would not 

 be, in his opinion, very costly. He left, as an open question, 

 whether such workshop should be used in playtime, or during 

 the ordinary school hours. 



III. Statement of Mr. Philip Magnus, B.Sc, B.A., Director 

 and Secretary of the City and Guilds of London Institute 

 for the Advancement of Technical Education, and one of 

 the members of the Royal Commission on Technical In- 

 struction, made before the Special Committee on Technical 

 Education, July 4, 18S3. 



Mr. Philip Magnus gave the following evidence : — 



He stated that there is a double object in the establishment 

 of the Central Institution, now in course of erection at South 

 Kensington. On the one hand, it is intended to give the highest 

 technical education to persons preparing to become engineers, 

 manufacturing chemists, and managers of industiial works, and 

 other persons engaged in scientific research in its application to 

 particular trades. On the other hand, it is especially intended 

 as a training school for technical teachers. The latter function 

 of the institution is considered the more important, because the 

 experience of all persons connected with technical education has 

 shown that there is a great need of duly qualified technical in- 

 structors in all parts of the kingdom. It is very likely that 

 arrangements will be made by which teachers will be able to 

 come up to London in the summer months and to obtain lessons 

 in applied science and in the best methods of technical teaching. 



As regards the students who attend the Technical College, 

 Finsbury, he wished to 1 ay emphatically that a large portion of 

 them are artisans. There are indeed two classes of students 

 who attend the Finsbury Technical College : one class coming 

 in the daytime and the other in the evening. The evening stu- 

 dents are almost all engaged in industrial work, and very few of 

 them are clerks. Of those who attend in the daytime, he might 

 siy, none are clerks. A few have already been engaged in in- 

 dustry, and, feeling the want of technical instruction, have given 

 up their trade to devote a year or two to study ; but the great 

 majority are youths who intend to follow industrial pursuits, 

 and are carrying on their studies with that object. The total 

 number of students in attendance at the College in the evening 

 classes is 621, of whom 132 are apprentices admitted at half the 

 usual fee. Of the day students there are at present about 100 in 

 attendance, the school being opened under its present organisa- 

 tion only in February last. These students come from various 

 middle-class and higher grade schools. A fair proportion of 

 boys are expected to come from the Cowper Street schools, im- 

 mediately adjoining the college. At the same time it is hoped 

 that pupils will come to the College from other schools of the 

 same grade. It is indispensable that the boys to be admitted 

 should have a good knowledge of arithmetic ami of the rudi- 

 ments of mathematics ; i.e. they should be able to solve simple 

 equations and understand thoroughly the first bo 3k of Euclid. 



In answer to the question whether the Finsbury Technical 

 College could be made available to boys from elementary 

 schools, Mr. Magnus said he saw no reason why boys from the 

 higher grade of elementary schools, possessing a knowledge of 

 elementary mathematics, should not be admitted into the 

 College. 



In answer to the Chairman, he said it would be well for 

 candidates for admission to have some knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of science, although such knowledge is not absolutely 

 necessary, as some of the Professors of the College stated that 

 they would almost as soon commence the teaching ol scii nee 

 continue the instruction of badly taught students. 



The limit of age for the admission of students is fixed at four- 

 teen. Students entering at fourteen, having a fair knowle 

 the elements of algebra and geometry, and an acquaintance 

 with some of the principal facts of physical science, would be 

 well able to _;c 1 through the prescribed courses of the Finsbury 

 College ; and such knowledge might be acquired by boys who 

 had passe 1 through the higher Standards, and had taken mathe- 

 matics and mec'c.anics as specific subjects. 



Mr. Magnus thought it would be preferable that boys leaving 

 the Board Schools should be selected about the age of twelve or 

 thirteen, and drafted into higher elementary schools where they 

 might receive the necessary instruction in mathematics and 



science, and that they should be drafted from these higher 

 elementary schools to the Finsbury Technical College. 



The subjects taught at the Finsbury College are practical 

 science, including physics, mechanics, mathematics, and chem- 

 istry, mechanical and freehand drawing, handicraft work, French 

 or German, or both. In the workshops the students are taught 

 to work in wood and metal at the bench and at the lathe. They 

 learn not only the use of tools, but to chip, file, turn, and to 

 con tract simple apparatus. 



(Mr. Magnus here put in evidence his address at the opening 

 of the Finsbury College, as well as the programme of in- 

 struction.) 



Apprentices and workmen attend the evening classes to learn 

 the more difficult operations of their trade, and to gain an insight 

 into the processes of which they cannot always obtain satisfactory 

 explanation in the shop. It is to correct the effects of extreme 

 division of labour that evening technical classes are most needed. 



As regards carpentry and joinery, the institute is now endea- 

 vouring to devise a scheme of evening instruction in connection 

 with the technological examinations, which will probably lead 

 to the establishment of evening classes in this subject in several 

 provincial towns. 



Having been asked how the School Board might aid in the 

 development of technical education, Mr. Magnus said that the 

 Board might aid in various ways. 



Instruction could be given in the elementary schools in 

 machine drawing. Better instruction might also be given in 

 freehand drawing, of the defects of which the institute's ex- 

 aminers in technology generally complain. In a large number 

 of schools workshops might with advantage be established, in 

 which a certain number of the more advanced boys might have 

 the opportunity of gaining instruction in the use of tools, in the 

 same manner as is done in the primary schools in France under 

 the new Act. It would be a great advantage to the boys on 

 leaving elementary sch ids, be their occupation what it may. to 

 have acquired the facility of using their hands, and to have 

 gained a knowledge of the properties of different kinds of wood, 

 as well as of iron and other metals, which could only be obtained 

 by working these substances themselves. By the establishment 

 of workshops in schools, the boys, when apprenticed, would 

 advance more quickly in their career, and reality would be given 

 to their scientific instruction as well as to their lessons in me- 

 chanical drawing. He considered the great want of this country 

 to be higher elementary or intermediate schools of a technical 

 character. As regards the scheme of education to be given in 

 such schools, he referred to his address on " Technical Instruc- 

 tion in Elementary and Intermediate Schools," delivered before 

 the Society of Arts. He thought that scholars who distinguished 

 themselves at the ordinary elementary schools should be sent to 

 technical schools of this description in preference to such schools 

 as the City of London School or King's College School. Here, 

 in England, education is too distinctly and exclusively literary. 

 We want schools in which practical science, mathematics, and 

 modern languages shall be the chief instruments of education. 

 It has been the object of the City and Guilds of London In- i 

 lute partly to supply the deficiency by supplementing the existing 

 educational machinery. The Central Institution at South 

 Kensington will, doubtless, exert considerable influence on all 

 schools leading up to it. It will show that there is a school of 

 the same grade as the ancient Universities, giving a practical 

 scientific training instead of a literary or theoretical education. 

 The selected boys from primary schools should be led up to the 

 Technical University or Central Institution rather than to the 

 existing Universities, where they are too often drafted into 

 professional careers which are already overcrowded 



In answer to an inquiry as to the view Mr. Magnus held as 

 regards the value, if the study of English literature in schools, 

 Mr. Magnus staled that he attached the highest importance to 

 the study of English liteiature in higher elementary schools as 

 developing the imagination and giving pupils a taste for 

 reading. 



Besides mechanical and freehand drawing, pupils having a 

 taste for art should be taught modelling, the study of which is 

 not sufficiently developed in this country. 



He considered that geometry should be taught practically 

 without Euclid ; whilst Euclid is very valuable to those who wish 

 to become thorough mathematicians, he thought that very few 

 of those wdro learn the elements of Euclid derive any practical 

 benefit from the study. Abroad, geometry is generally taught 

 without Euclid. 



