July 21, 1881J 



NATURE 



263 



which, when erected, will be the first building in the 

 metropolis exclusively devoted to technical teaching. 

 Pending the completion of the Finsbury College, in- 

 struction is being given to a large and increasing number 

 of artisan students in some of the applications of chemical 

 science to manufactures and industrial operations, and 

 also in that new and widely opening field of labour and 

 invention — the application of electrical science to the 

 transmission and conservation of energy. Instruction 

 will also be provided in that college, when finished, 

 for those who are engaged in various handicraft 

 trades, and it is hoped that this kind of teaching, 

 which is gradually taking the place of apprenticeship 

 in France, Germany, and Sweden, will help in this country 

 to supplement, without supplanting, workshop training. 

 The Institute is also endeavouring to advance technical 

 education in a large number of towns in the United 

 Kingdom by holding annual examinations in technology, 

 and by encouraging, in connection with these e.xamina- 

 tions, the formation of evening classes for artisans, by 

 assisting in the payment of teachers of technical subjects. 

 During the early part of the present year more than 

 eighty such classes were in operation, and it is satisfac- 

 tory to know that the number of candidates recently ex- 

 amined by the Institute in different branches of techno- 

 logy was 1563 as compared with 816 in the previous 

 year. But it is to the Central Institution," the Lord 

 Chancellor went on to say, " the first supporting 

 pillar of which your Royal Highness has graciously con- 

 sented to set this day, that the Council look to crown 

 their endeavours and give unanimity to all their efforts. 

 In this college, from which the entire work of the Insti- 

 tute will be directed, instruction of a higher and more 

 advanced character will be given, adapted to the wants of 

 those who will be engaged in professional or commercial 

 pursuits, in which a knowledge of some branch of mecha- 

 nics, physics, or chemistry in its practical application will 

 be found not only serviceable but almost indispensable. 

 The building when completed will be supplied with labo- 

 ratories, in which the most delicate operations can be 

 carried on, with workshops in which the various branches 

 of mechanical and electrical engineering will be taught, 

 with studios in which applied art may be practised, and 

 with a lecture-hall, theatres, and class-rooms in which the 

 principles of science will be explained. Here, it is antici- 

 pated, will receive their professional training the sons of 

 manufacturers, many of whom have hitherto been com- 

 pelled to pursue their studies abroad — in Germany, in 

 Switzerland, in France, or in America, in all which 

 countries, for some time past, technical colleges, such 

 as this Central Institution is intended to be, have 

 already flourished. Here it is expected that arti- 

 sans who have shown merit and have won dis- 

 tinction at the branch or provincial colleges will 

 complete the training which may cjualify them to act as 

 managers and superintendents of works. Some of these, 

 it is hoped, will obtain their education in this college by 

 means of scholarships to be established by the Institute j 

 itself, possibly by provincial colleges, trade societies, or 

 other public bodies, or by private individuals who may be 

 interested in the promotion of technical education. And 

 here it is anticipated will be trained that body of technical 

 teachers, of whom there is in England at the present 

 moment so great a need, who will carry with them from 

 this college into the manufacturing centres, to be there 

 imparted to other students, a knowledge of the theory and 

 the practice of various crafts and industries. This insti- 

 tution will not be established as a rival to any other exist- 

 ing seat of learning ; least of all to the excellent schools 

 situated in this neighbourhood, which for some years past 

 have been the means of offering to hundreds of young 

 men and women a knowledge of the principles of science 

 and art. The aim of this institution will be to supplement 

 the teaching of those schools by giving instruction in the 



practical application of science and art to the trades and 

 industries of the country, and by cultivating and en- 

 deavouring to stimulate inventive genius. It is therefore 

 hoped and anticipated that the sister institutions, repre- 

 senting pure and applied science, will work in harmony 

 with each other, forming an alliance, the eflect of which will 

 be to raise the intellectual status and to improve the techni- 

 cal knowledge and practical skill of the working classes of 

 this country, and so to increase its industrial prosperity. 

 It gives nie great pleasure to be enabled to add that it 

 has seemed fit to Her Majesty to recognise on this occa- 

 sion the eminent services of Mr. Bramivell, the indefatig- 

 able chairman of the executive committee of the institu- 

 tion, by signifying Her Majesty's gracious intention of 

 conferring upon that gentleman the honour of knighthood. 

 It is anticipated that the cost of this building, when fully 

 equipped with the apparatus and appliances needful for 

 technical instruction, will not fall far short of 75,000/. Of 

 this sum 31,000/. has been alread subscribed by the wor- 

 shipful companies of Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Cloth- 

 workers, and Cordwainers ; the grant of the Drapers' 

 Company having been appropriated to the Finsbury Col- 

 lege ; and it is expected that about 24,000/ will be saved 

 from the annual income of the Institute during the building 

 of this college. The Council therefore, after paying the 

 amount which is due, will have at their disposal only an 

 estimated sum of about 55,000/, and they look to the 

 liberality of the Livery Companies, both of those who 

 have and of those who have not as yet subscribed to the 

 funds of the Institute, to make good the balance of 

 20,000/, so that the building of this college may be com- 

 pleted at once and as a whole, in strict accordance with 

 the plans." 



The Prince of Wales in reply made some forcible and 

 sensible remarks on the necessity to this country of im- 

 proved technical education — education in things as con- 

 trasted with words — if we are to keep our place among the 

 other industrial nations. " ( ther nations," the Prince 

 said, '' which did not possess in such abundance as Great 

 Britain coal, the source of power, and iron, the essence of 

 strength, compensated for the want of raw material by 

 the technical education of their industrial classes, and 

 this country has therefore seen manufactures springing 

 up everywhere guided by the trained intelligence thus 

 created. Both in Europe and in America technical col- 

 leges for teaching, not the practice, but the principles of 

 science and art involved in particular industries, had been 

 organised in all the leading centres of industry. England 

 is now thoroughly aware of the necessity for supplementing 

 her educational institutions by colleges of a like nature." 

 The new building, the Prince remarked, will be of consi- 

 derable benefit to the whole kingdom, not only as an 

 example of the Institute devoting itself to technical 

 training, but as a focus likewise for uniting the different 

 technical schools in themetropolis already in existence, and 

 as a central establishment also to which promising students 

 from the provinces may, by the aid of scholarships, be brought 

 to benefit by the superior instruction Ahich London can com- 

 mand. The Prince reminded his audience that the realisa- 

 tion of the idea ofsuch a college was one of the most cherished 

 objects which his father had in view. " It is to me," the 

 Prince stated, "a peculiar pleasure that the Commis- 

 sioners of the Exhibition, of which 1 am the president, 

 have been able to contribute to your present important 

 undertaking, by giving to you the ground upon which the 

 present college is to be erected with a sufficient reserve of 

 land to insure its future development. By consenting at 

 your request to become the president of this institute I 

 hope it may be in my power to benefit the good work, . 

 and that our joint exertions, aided, I trust, by the con- 

 tinued liberality of the City and Guilds of London, may 

 prove to be an example to the rest of the country to train 

 the intelligence of industrial communities, so that, with 

 the increasing competition of the world, England may 



