OcrosER 5, 1899] 
NATURE 
553 
workshop should be based upon sound theoretic knowledge. I 
am driven to enforce this question because (speaking again from 
my own observation) I find that in this country far too much 
weight is given to practical skill and what is called the “‘ rule of 
thumb” ; far too little to sound theoretic knowledge. 
In the middle of this century English machinery was im- 
measurably superior to any other. To our remaining content 
with this state of things, and to our seriously neglecting technical 
instruction, I attribute the very much greater comparative 
progress that Germany, the United States and Switzerland 
have made in the last fifty years, and, if I am not very greatly 
mistaken, we shall have before many years, in the East, an 
important commercial rival in Japan, since that country is de- 
veloping its manufacturing powers with an energy that is as 
remarkable as it is unexampled. 
Turning to other departments of indus no Englishman can 
ebserve without regret how certain branches have almost al- 
together abandoned this country, and been in a great measure 
feft to those who have paid more attention to technical instruc- 
tion. 
Nearly every requirement of a drawing office can be better 
and more economically obtained from Germany. From what 
source do all our pure chemicals come, our filter papers and 
most of our glass apparatus ? I admit that the workmanship 
of many articles made in England cannot be surpassed, but if 
we require any original or special piece of apparatus we are 
frequently compelled, as I have been, to go to Germany or 
france for their manufacture. 
I do not desire to press my point too far, and admit that a 
portion of this transference of work, which [ so much regret, 
may be due to cheaper labour. But the English mechanic is 
second to none, and if that false trade unionism, which en- 
deavours to prevent the most intelligent and skilled from reaping 
the full benefit of their abilities, be abandoned, I do not despair 
of seeing this country regain much that it has now lost. 
But it is to theoretic and technical knowledge that we must 
chiefly look. Consider, as an illustration, electricity in the 
service of man. Think of its innumerable applications, and of 
the number of hands dependent upon its industries. But for 
one man capable of designing or improving these powerful 
machines or delicate instruments, there are a thousand ready 
and able to carry out their designs. But it is the former who 
are the salt of the earth, and those who have the management 
of large concerns know well how to value them. 
It was to»meet the want that I am referring to that your 
Technical College was founded. Its objects are admirably 
stated in its programme, and your attention is drawn to the 
undoubted fact that no theoretic or technical instruction can 
supersede the necessity of obtaining practical experience in the 
workshop and factory. But, on the other hand, I believe that 
mo genuine success in the higher walks of industry is probable 
without thorough theoretic or technical knowledge. 
In my experience I do not think I have ever known a man 
rise to the top of the tree without it. I may, perhaps, be for- 
given if I refer to one great engineering genius, Lord Arm- 
strong, with whom it has been my privilege to be so long and so 
intimately connected. In whatever investigation he was en- 
gaged, he added to sound theoretic knowledge an intensity of 
application and an apparently intuitive perception of the 
results to be expected that I have rarely seen equalled. 
Of him it may be truly said that ‘‘ whatever his hand found 
to do, he did it with his might.” 
Sir William Harcourt, speaking a fortnight ago, attributed 
the immense commercial advance which has recently been made 
by Germany to the better teaching of languages, and to the 
4serman merchant being able to speak to the English buyer in 
a tongue which he can understand. I very much doubt if that 
has much to do with the matter, and I am sure that houses 
where business is done on a large scale very much prefer that 
all letters should be in the languages of the respective writers, 
and not in the doubtful English that is not unfrequently thrust 
upon us. There is no doubt that Germany is competing with 
us, as she has a right to do, successfully ; and, so far as I am 
aware, with respect to her manufactures, perfectly honestly. 
I say “‘ honestly,” because I do not believe in any attempt to 
enhance the value of one’s own wares by depreciating those of 
other people ; and I entirely differ from those who would attri- 
bute the success of our German competitors to their putting on 
the market inferior goods specially got up to imitate those of a 
superior class. It was some idea of this kind, no doubt, that led 
NO. 1562, VOL. 60] 
to the most ill-advised regulation that foreign-made yoods 
should be stamped so as to show their origin. It doubtless 
does this, but its effect is, I believe, in the direction of an adver- 
tisement for foreign goods, and there is some danger that if our 
own manufacturers relax their efforts the ‘‘ madein Germany,” 
which was, I think, meant to be a reproach, should become, on 
the contrary, a hall-mark of excellence, as when the W2lhelm 
der Grosse, one of the finest steamships afloat, steamed into 
Southampton water with a facetious placard, ‘‘ Made in Ger- 
many,” hanging on her side. 
In many articles, and especially with the apparatus of 
scientific research to which I have referred, this is already 
the case. 
Manufacturing progress has in Germany gone hand in hand 
with material progress, and any one who has travelled much 
must be astounded with the extraordinary improvement which 
has been going on in recent years, not only in German railways, 
shipbuilding and steel-working, but also in the buildings, order 
and general amenities of life of the great German cities, such as 
Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne. In the competition of manu- 
facture we are pressed very hard from steel to watches, from 
marine engines to scientific instruments. In nothing, indeed, 
have German manufacturers made more progress than in the 
making of all exactinstruments. In these departments Germany 
certainly excels us, so far as original and inventive improvement 
is concerned. 
Now, all this improvement, I feel inclined to attribute, not, 
with Sir William Harcourt, to any linguistic superiority, but to 
the far greater opportunities of technical study which are afforded 
in Germany. If we are to hold our own, we older men must 
try to multiply these opportunities of study in our own country, 
and you younger men must do your part by seeking to avail 
yourselves to the uttermost of any such opportunities provided. 
To you, gentlemen, who are about to commence the studies 
which will be useful to you in your future career, I venture to 
say a few words. Consider the marvellous progress that has 
been made in the physical and practical sciences during the 
century now rapidly drawing to a close. At the commencement 
of the century steam navigation and railways were unknown and 
unachieved. Our knowledge of the science of electricity was 
confined to a few isolated phenomena, and chemistry was in its 
infancy. Now the latter science has spread its branches until it 
seems likely it may bring into a common brotherhood the whole 
of the physical sciences. Consider, further, that knowledge and 
progress appear to be increasing in a geometric ratio ; who then 
can predict what will be the progress made at the conclusion of 
the twentieth century, or even during the first half of it? In 
forwarding’ that progress I sincerely trust that many of those 
whom I now address may be prominent workers. We have 
never wanted in this country the men whom I would call the 
captains of the scientific army, but I think we are much inferior 
to Germany in the rank and file, in the number of men who are 
willing to follow particular lines of investigation, and who thus 
do invaluable service to science. 
We older men, whose careers are approaching their termin- 
ation, cannot but look with envy on the career which may be 
open to some of you. It was said of the telescope, which 
opened to our vision infinite space, that it was balanced by the 
microscope, which showed us the infinitely small ; but small as 
are these objects, the kinetic theory of gases opens up to our 
appreciation, I had almost said to our view, molecules whose 
dimensions are inconceivably smaller. It would be vain to 
name to you the limiting dimensions of these molecules which 
have been revealed to us by the labours of Maxwell, Lord 
Kelvin, Clausius and others, but I have seen somewhere, possibly 
in the columns of NATURE, a statement which may be more in- 
telligible. It was something like this:—That though the 
molecules of hydrogen gas are so small that it would take about 
50 millions touching one another to make an inch, they are so 
numerous in a cubic inch of gas at 0° Centigrade and atmospheric 
pressure, that if the whole of them were formed into a row, they 
would go round the circumference of the earth more than a 
thousand times. The molecules also, as you probably know, 
are in violent motion. The highest velocity I have obtained 
with a projectile nearly reached 5000 f.s., but the average 
velocity‘,of the hydrogen molecules at the temperature and 
pressure I have named is somewhat more. I once calculated 
that a few molecules, I forget in how many millions, might 
exceed 50,000 f.s. 
We smile, and justly smile, at the seekers after what was 
