212 



NA TURE 



[January 2, 1908 



ation why the chief draughtsman and foreman so often 

 state that they would rather have a boy straight from 

 school than one who has undergone a college training. 



To one experienced in both the . practical and academic 

 departments of engineering, it is evident that the average 

 college (raining is unsatisfactory. It has grown up 

 because it created least disturbance to the existing state 

 of things, and the development of this system is chiefly 

 the fault of the employers themselves. Anyone who has 

 read the literature dealing with technical instruction must 

 come to the conclusion that the advance in education has 

 been almost entirely due to the students alone. They have 

 seen the necessity for information concerning the principles 

 of engineering, and have in the past attended college 

 courses with no encouragement from outside sources. At 

 the present day this is fortunately changed, and employers 

 are, on the whole, not unwilling to support a system of 

 education which they see is advantageous to themselves. 



The author is of the opinion that our college engineer- 

 ing courses would be vastly improved if it were made 



three years he would keep up his studies, especially 

 devoting himself to mathematics and physics. At the end 

 of this time he ought to return to college, and take during 

 the winter the second year's course. The following 

 summer would be again spent in the workshops, and the 

 next winter would be devoted to the third course of college 

 work. Before allowing an apprentice to take up his 

 second year's course at college, it must be seen that he 

 can give evidence of having made material progress in 

 his theoretical knowledge during his three years at the 

 works. The method by which the student would continue 

 his scientific education in this period must of necessity 

 depend upon the employer. Attendance at evening classes 

 would produce least disturbance in the works, and there 

 is no doubt that a hard-working student could get a fair 

 amount of knowledge in this manner. The other 

 alternative is that the apprentices be allowed to attend 

 day classes for, say, two afternoons per week — a system 

 already being tried by several firms. 



The advantages of such a svstem are obvious. The 



Glasgo.v and West of ScotUind Techni :al College. 



the rule that a considerable amount of workshop practice 

 should precede the final attendance at college. In support 

 of this proposal it may be pointed out that if college 

 training is to produce men who are capable of inventing 

 new processes and improving existing methods of manu- 

 facture, then the training must not confine itself altogether 

 to principles, but must direct attention to current engineer- 

 ing work. It therefore follows that the student who 

 wishes to take up his technical studies with profit should 

 not only be prepared with a sufficient knowledge of mathe- 

 matics and physics, but must also have a working 

 acquaintance with engineering practice. The following 

 plan is suggested as one likely to be the most fruitful. 



The student after leaving school should immediately 

 proceed to college, and there take up the first-year general 

 course, whereby he will gain a preliminary grounding in 

 'mathematics and science. At the close of the college 

 session he ought to enter an engineering works, where 

 he should remain for at least three years. During these 



NO. T992, VOL. ']']'[ 



student would take up his second and third years' college 

 work with such a preliminary practical and theoretical 

 training that the whole character of present-day college 

 classes could be changed. The elementary descriptive 

 lectures, so necessary to schoolboys, could be omitted, and 

 in their place lectures of vital importance to every-day 

 engineering practice could be given, and the most recent 

 developments could be described and discussed. The labor- 

 atories, instead of being places for elementary testing, 

 might develop into schools for real research. Practical 

 problems that had arisen during workshop experience 

 might be settled by direct experiment, and an amount of 

 information gathered that would in a short time lead to 

 an immense improvement in our national engineering. It 

 appears to be almost universally believed that inventions 

 are the outcome of sudden inspiration to men of genius, 

 and, like poetic effusions, are independent of environment 

 and experience. Such an idea is far from the truth, for 

 most great discoveries have only been evolved after the 



