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NATURE 



\Oct. 27, 1 88 1 



principle in nature, or a proposition of Euclid ; he is very proud 

 of this positive knowledge, and impatient of any sugge;tion 

 aiming at the accomplishment of the snme object by means not 

 sanctioned by his authoritative text-book. He is apt to be a 

 dogmatist, a splendid man for coming out first-class in a com- 

 petitive examination, and likely enough to make a good official 

 in a Government administration, but most unlikely to venture 

 of himself on such new embodiments of first principles of nature 

 as are essential to the accomplishment of improved result-, and 

 as have animated our Watts, our Cromptons, our Corts, and our 

 Bessemers in enriching the world with new processes. 



On the Continent, where the Governments themselves are largely 

 engaged in trade and enterpri^e, where railv ays, mines, and 

 factories are State establishments, it was necessaiyto create a 

 large staff of men educated to the point of being able to assume 

 at once a position of some authority in the ranks of rigid organi- 

 sation, and such men are provided by the polytechnic schools. 

 Our Indian Government being similarly situated, had to resort 

 to similar means, and to establish Cooper's Hill Engineering 

 College. 



In this country, where happily 'the great commercial interests, 

 with one exception, are still in private hands, educational esta- 

 blishments on the Continental model would be, I consider, 

 inappropriate. T he object a young man has in view is not the 

 attainment of a snug position in a Government establishment, 

 but to be fitted by his education for the great battle of life, in 

 which he Mill be judged, not by the answers he can give to 

 certain set questions in his competitive examination, but raiher 

 by the faculty he may have acquired of realising useful results 

 under even adverse circumstances and conditions. 



The time was, not long ago, when the opinion prevailed in 

 this country that useful knowledge could only be attained in the 

 workshop ; that a lad, after having mastered the three R's at a 

 primary school, had to be bound to a manufaclurer or craftsman 

 for a period of seven years, where his time was occupied in 

 routine work or in mechanical repetitions of one and the same 

 operation, causing him to give up thinking altogether, and to 

 become what was dignified by the appellation of practical man 

 — a man of notions, vith a supreme contempt of theory or 

 science. The reign of this practical man par excellence is happily 

 drawing to a close ; for those who wish to treasure up his 

 memory, I would recommend a lucid description of him by my 

 friend Sir Frederick Bramwell in his presidential address to the 

 Mechanical Section of the British Association in 1872 (which 

 may be found in the Transactions of that year). Since then Sir 

 Frederick Bramwell has done much to hasten the burial of the 

 character he describe=-, in making himself the principal pro- 

 moter of that splendid endowment, the London City Guilds 

 Institute, which, under wise direction, cannot fail to exercise a 

 very important influence on the educational devtlopment of the 

 country. 



Having now spoken, somewhat disparagingly, I fear, of both 

 the old English system and of the more recent Continental system 

 of technical education, I shall be asked, no d.iubt, what in my 

 opinion should be the plan adopted in preparing the mechanical 

 engineer, the manufacturer, and the artisan of the future for 

 their respective careers. The answer to such a que tidn is one 

 involved in much difficulty, scarcely admiting of universal 

 solution. There are, however, certain principles of general 

 application which, I submit, should never be lost .sight of. 

 Moral education being provided fur, the main object in teach- 

 ing the young should be to strengthen the power of memory, 

 and after that the reasoning faculty. The first is most appro- 

 priately accomplished by the conventional three R's, and by the 

 teaching of geography, history, and languages, both ancient and 

 modern ; and the second by mathematics, logic, and the natural 

 sciences. Sir John Lubbock, in addressing you some years ago 

 from this chair, forcibly called attention to the necessity of com- 

 bining both literary and scientific education in our grammar 

 schools, suggesting that at least ten hours a week should be given 

 up to the teaching of science. 



Such a system of education has since been established at Eton, 

 where (as reported in Nature, vol. xxiv. p. 287) all pupils attend 

 science classes, and are said to be very fond of what they are 

 pleased to call the "stinks " (in allusion to the cheuiical labora- 

 tory) ; whereas at other grammar schools a '' modern depart- 

 ment " has been added to the establi-hment, where science is 

 tanght to those only who elect not to go in for a classical career, 

 w hilst the classical scholars remain untaught in science as before. 

 I am of opinion that the Eton system is the better of the two, 



for I cannot regard an education to lie complete that does not 

 combine literary with scientific training ; the one gives the 

 polish and the other the fibre and practical direction to the 

 understanding. A Birmingham manufacturer by no means 

 despises polish to make his goods tempting in the market, but 

 he would hardly like to offer them composed entirely of lacquer 

 and polish without that solid fibre in the interior that is necessary 

 to fit them for practical usage ; such internal fibre may in our 

 case be hkened to the knowledge of useful information such as 

 modern languages and natural science, without which the clas-ical 

 polish must be devoid of the power to produce results, which 

 after all is the standard to be aimed at. 



The man of classics, the Bishop, the Legislator, and the Judge 

 of the future, educated at Eton, will be none the worse fir 

 standing upon an educational foundation comprising "stinks" 

 in its composition, whereas the man of practical pursuits will be 

 all the better for his early literary culture. 



But it may be urged that the time available for study is too 

 short to admit of both, and that one or other must therefore lie 

 chosen. I should venture to doubt the sufficiency of this objec- 

 tion, being of opinion that the study of the one kind of knowledge 

 quahfies the mind the better for the other, in the same way as in 

 after life recreative exercise of mind and body is resorted to in 

 order to relieve the drudgery of daily duty. 



The usefulness of science teaching depends of course to a 

 great extent upon the teacher, and upon the system adopted. 

 Science taught as it were by rote is of comparatively little value 

 in after life ; to be beneficial it should be practical, impressing 

 the mind vividly with the simplicity and the beauty of the law s 

 of nature, and for this purpose each statement of a law should 

 be followed up by ocular demonstration, nay by active co-opera- 

 tion on the part of the student in the experiment. For this 

 purpose no school ought to be without its chemical, its physical, 

 and its mechanical laboratories, where students could test for 

 themselves chemical reactions, verify phy-ical laws, and ascertain 

 the mechanical properties of materials used in construction. Nor 

 do these laboratories necessarily involve a large expenditure for 

 apparatus, the most instructive apparatus being that which is 

 built up in the simplest possible manner by means of pulley-, 

 cords, wires, and glass tubes, and, if possible, by calling into 

 requisition the constructive ingenuity of the student himself. 



Only after the student has attained a thorough knowledge of 

 first principles will it be desirable to introduce him to elaborate 

 instruments such as telescopes, polariscopes, electrometers, and 

 delicate weighing-machines wherewith to attain numerical results 

 and to commence original research. For this reason very com- 

 plete laboratories are of great importance at the universities and 

 superior colleges, where exact science and independent research 

 take the place of mere tuition of first principles. 



After first principles have been taught at school, the university 

 on the one hand, and the workshop, aided by study on the other 

 hand, are requisite to impart that special knowledge necessary 

 for the profession cr business to be followed in after-life. In 

 this respect the German University — that glorious institution for 

 the development of independent thought — offers advantages 

 much more commendable for imitation than the technical school, 

 and it is a significant fact that while the thirty universi'ies of 

 Germany continue to incre.a-e both as regards numberof studei.ts 

 and high state of efficiency, the purely technical colleges, almost 

 without exception, have during the last ten years been steadily 

 receding ; whereas the provincial "Gewerbe .Schule" has, under 

 the progressive Minister, Von Falk, been modified so as to 

 approximate its curriculum to that of the "Gymnasium" or 

 grammar-school. 



In some technical schools mechanical workshops are provided, 

 in which students may work at the lathe, the vice, and t e 

 planing-machine, and where they are allowed to construct small 

 stenm-engines or other pieces of machinery. I doubt very much 

 whether these toy steam-engines are such as would satisfy a 

 mechanical engineer in real practice, and ihink that both the 

 money of the institution and the time of the student could be 

 much better employed if, instead of imitating practic d engineer- 

 ing, he nere made to experiment with testing-machines in order 

 to obtain a thorough insight into the mechanical nature of mate- 

 rials, their absolute strength, their elastic limits, and the effecis 

 produced upon them by the processes of annealing, temperimj-, 

 and welding. University College, London, has taken a lead in 

 this respect under the able direction of Prof. Kennedy, and its 

 example will, I hope, be followed by other colleges. 



As regards middle class e Jucation, it must be borne in mil d 



