November 26, 1908] 



NATURE 



113 



able, only it required for its good working a standard of 

 previous attainment, which was reached only by Admiralty 

 students who had spent five or six years in practical work 

 at the dockyards, and in attendance at the special schools 

 therein provided. Even the best of the private students 

 were far less advanced on entry, consequently very few of 

 them were able to benefit fully from the higher and 

 specialised instruction provided at South Kensington. 

 Many private students did derive advantage from attend- 

 ance, and have shown this to be true in their subsequent 

 careers. On the whole, however, it must be admitted 

 that the scheme was pitched too high in relation to the 

 means of preliminary instruction then existing in this 

 country, and that to give it full effect a preparatory school 

 should have been created also, through which students 

 could have passed before proceeding to the Royal School 

 of Naval Architecture. Even to this day one of the greatest 

 dilTiculties in the way of utilisation by students of the 

 higher instruction provided in technical colleges consists 

 in the want of proper preparation. 



There are certain distinctive features in the arrange- 

 ments at the Royal Naval College which have stood the 

 test of thirty-five years' experience, and consequently may 

 be worth consideration by those engaged or interested in 

 technical instruction elsewhere. To a few of these I would 

 refer, because they have a bearing on higher technical 

 education in its general aspect. 



First, great care is taken thoroughly to prepare the 

 Admiralty students before they enter the college, so that 

 they may derive full advantage from the special facilities 

 existing there. For many years past the Admiralty has 

 niaintainrd at Devonport a college in which those who 

 are to become engineer officers of the Navy receive a 

 practical and scientific training extending over four or five 

 years. Entry to this school has been governed by com- 

 petitive examinations, and the parents of students have 

 been required to contribute to the expenses of the educa- 

 tion of their sons, so that the selection of the students 

 has been made from a higher class than that which 

 furnishes ordinary dockyard apprentices. At the end of the 

 training in this preparatory college a final selection is 

 made of a limited number of students of naval architecture 

 and marine engineering, who proceed to the Royal Naval 

 College to undergo a further period of three years' training 

 in the higher branches of their profession. During the 

 three years' course at the college the summer vacations of 

 the students are spent in the Royal dockyards on practical 

 work, so that Admiralty practice for about forty-four years 

 has represented what is now termed the " sandwich 

 system " of instruction, and it has worked well. 



Secondly, private students admitted to the Xaval College 

 have been required to possess and give evidence of possess- 

 ing a knowledge of practical shipbuilding obtained by a 

 period of service in shipyards, as well as a certain standard 

 of attainment in mathematical and scientific subjects. In 

 Germany a similar condition has been insisted on in recent 

 years, and a period of practical training must be under- 

 gone by every student who aims at any branch of engineer- 

 ing as his life's work, in the interval between leaving 

 the secondary schools and entering the higher technical 

 schools. 



Thirdly, the teachers of naval architecture and marine 

 engineering at the Royal Naval College are officially called 

 *' instructors," but reallv perform the duties of professors. 

 They are appointed only for limited periods, coming from 

 and returning to their professional work. .All of them have 

 been distinguished graduates of the college, and, after the 

 completion of their studies, have acquired considerable 

 practical experience at the Admiralty, in the dockyards, 

 and (in many cases) during periods of service at sea. 

 Thus equipped they enter upon their work as teachers. 

 It is ensured that teachers never " lose touch " with the 

 practical side of their professional work, and shall never 

 continue so long in the position of instructors as to be- 

 come stale, and therefore less capable of dealing with the 

 professorial duties entrusted to them. 



Care seems to be required also in another direction at 

 the present time. No teacher of any branch of engineer- 

 ing can he regarded as properly Qualified until he has 

 gained actual experience and borne the burden of responsi- 

 bility in connection with the design and execution of 



NO. 2039, VOL. 79] 



important works. It should never happen that those who 

 teach should be lacking themselves in one side of the 

 training— and that the not less important side— which, by 

 common consent, is needed for the modern engineer. 1 he 

 .Admiralty system meets this requirement, and has worked 

 well. It has furnished capable professors of naval archi- 

 tecture and marine engineering, not merely for Admirally 

 establishments, but for universities at home and abroad. 



Turning to results obtained from the work of the Royal 

 Naval College during the last thirty-five years, it must 

 suffice to say that they have been altogether satisfactory 

 when judged by the positions which have been or are 

 occupied by men who graduated there. The Admiralty 

 staff of naval constructors and marine engineers has been 

 mostly recruited from that source, and the highest offices 

 have been successfully filled by ex-students of the Royal 

 Naval College. 



It may be interesting to add that about twenty-hve 

 years ago the Admiralty constituted a Royal Corps of 

 Naval Constructors. The scheme for that corps provided 

 for the admission of qualified men who had not received 

 their training under the Admiralty, or in Admiralty 

 establishments, subject to the condition that candidates for 

 entrv showed proof (by examination and by recorded 

 service) of thorough training in both the science and prac- 

 tice of shipbuilding. . ,,.,.,. 



Closely allied with the scientific education of shipbuilders 

 and marine engineers is the provision for instruction of 

 naval oflicers and shipowners in the fundamental principles 

 aoverning the construction and propulsion of ships. As 

 rctrards officers in war-fleets and in mercantile marines it 

 is advantageous that they should possess some knowledge 

 of the principles of buoyancy, stability, and structural 

 strength and should have mastered the elements of 

 eno-ineer'ing. On the side of shipowners similar know- 

 led^cre would undoubtedly assist commercial success. From 

 the° nature of the case shipowners must determine the 

 rtoverning conditions of the trades in which ships are to 

 be employed, and naval architects must discover the best 

 possible solutions of the problems laid before them. In 

 the case of warships, naval officers properly claim the 

 right to select the qualities of armament, protection, speed 

 coal endurance, &c., which they wish to have embodied 

 in desicrns. It is equally undesirable for the naval architect 

 to assume the right of laying down the conditions to be 

 fulfilled in new designs, as it is for shipowners or naval 

 oflicers to assume the position of amateur ship designers. 

 If naval officers or shipowners can be endowed with an 

 understanding of the elementary principles affecting ship 

 construction and propulsion thev must be better able to 

 appreciate what is or is not possible under the conditions 

 of practice, and therefore they will be much less likely 

 to lav down conditions which are incompatible with one 

 another or impossible of realisation. These considerations 

 led me to suggest in 1873 that the Department of Naval 

 Architecture in the Royal Naval College at Greenwich 

 should include classes in which officers of the higher ranks 

 in the Royal Navy should receive elementary instruction 

 of this kind. These classes have now been in successful 

 operation for more than thirty years, and there is ample 

 evidence of their utilitv. Subsequently to the establishment 

 of these classes at Greenwich it was decided also to give 

 systematic instruction to junior naval officers in the prin- 

 ciples of shipbuilding and engineering, and good results 

 were obtained. In the most recent arrangements for the 

 education of naval officers at Osborne and Dartmouth 

 fuller expression has been given to the same idea, and 

 no one questions the advantages which will be gained 

 thereby. In these days it is obviously a necessity tliat 

 every naval officer charged with the great responsibilities 

 attaching to the use and management of warships, which 

 are full of complicated machinery, should possess a con- 

 siderable knowledge of engineering. The only matter on 

 which difference of opinion exists is in regard to the further 

 training of that class of officers who will eventually be 

 placed in responsible charge of the propelling and other 

 machinery of warships. 



From the preceding remarks it will be understood that 

 the sole provision made for the higher education of British 

 naval architects for a very long period was in schools 

 established bv the Admiralty; but this reproach was re- 



