Feb. 2 1, 1884] 



NA TURE 



393 



have one chief professor, who shall devote the whole of his time 

 to the work of the Institution, and who will be expected to 

 direct and superintend the students in his department and to 

 train them in the methods of original research. In addition to 

 this appointment, it will be advisable to have two assistant 

 professors, who shall respectively take charge of the research and 

 of the technical departments. A separate laboratory will be 

 placed under the direction of each professor; and the arrange- 

 ments of the building, which provide three large laboratories, 

 besides several smaller rooms which may be used as such, render 

 jrassible this division of the work. Besides these professors, 

 demonstrators, laboratory and lecture assistants and attendants 

 will be required to complete the staff in this department. 



Engituetittg. — The instruction to be given in this subject will 

 liave tor its object the practical scientific training of persons who 

 intend to enter any branch of the engineering profession. The 

 instruciiou will be adapted to those who have already spent some 

 time in ihe office of a civil engineer or in engineering works, as 

 well as to those who desire to obtain in the College a sour>d 

 theoretical knowledge of the principles of science applicable to 

 their future career, and an insight into the practice and manipu- 

 lative work in which they will be subsequently engaged. The 

 professor appointed to take charge of this department will be 

 expected to devote the whole of his time to the work of the 

 College, and to lecture on such suV'jects as the strength of con- 

 structive materials; the construction of docks, roads, bridges, 

 and roofs ; machine designing ; hydraulic and other machinery ; 

 steam-engines, gas-engines, &c. He will also be required to 

 giv,- instruction in levelling and surveying, to superintend the 

 laboratory practice of the students in the testing and engine 

 rooms, and to direct their work in the machine shops and drawing 

 offices. He will need the assistance of a teacher of machine 

 drawing, and of a workshop instructor, besides one or two lab- 

 oratory demonstrators, and the necessary attendants to look after 

 the engines and machines. Later on, an additional professor 

 will be required to take charge of some of the work of this 

 department. 



Mechanics and Malhematics. — Immediately connected with the 

 teaching of engineering and physics is the instruction required 

 by the students of a technical college in mechanics and mathe- 

 matics. There is little doubt that the student's prOi;ress in the 

 several branches of engineering depends very much upon his 

 possessing such a knowledge of pure and applied miiheni.atics 

 as enables him to use it as an instrument of his ordinary work, 

 and for this purpose it is necessary that his knowledge should be 

 in advance of such applications of it as he may at any lime be 

 required to make. The professor appointed to this |-o t will be 

 expected to give practical instruction in the application of mathe- 

 matics and mechanics to the solution of engiuceringand phy-ical 

 problems. He will be required to devote the whole of his time 

 to the work of the College, aud to give courses of instruction, 

 illustrated by laboratory practice, on the principles of dynamics 

 and of mechanicism, on graphical statics, on descriptive geometry, 

 and on some of the higher parts of pure and applied iLathematics. 

 He will need the services of two demonstrators 10 assist in the 

 mechanical laboratory and in the drawing office. 



Physics. — In view of the present and future applications of 

 electricity to engineering problem-, cons derable iuiportance 

 attaches to the character of the instruction to be given umler ih!s 

 heading. The teaching of practical physics has only recently 

 been introduced into schools of applied science, and the number 

 of students receiving laboratory instruction in this subject in our 

 own colleges, and in foreign polytechnic schools, is still very 

 limited. The large number of students in at:endance at the 

 courses of electricity in the Finsbury Technical College show s 

 that there is already a strong demand for instruction in the 

 practical applications of this important branch of phy ical 

 science. In order to supply the requisite teaching staff in this 

 subject, it will be necessary, in the first instance, to appoint a 

 professor, who shall devote the whole of his time to the work of 

 the College, and who shall be responsible for the work of his 

 department. This appointment will be supplemented by that of 

 an additional professor, whose duties will depend very much 

 upon the particular branch of physics to which the chief pro- 

 fessor may devote his attention. Whilst it is highly desirable 

 that every facihty should be afforded in the Central Institu- 

 tion to students desiring to become electrical engineers, 

 of receiving practical instruction in the theory and 

 application of electricity to such technical subjects ,as tele- 

 graphy, electric lighting and the transmission of power, for 



experiments in which subjects special laboratories will be 

 set apart, it will be the duty of the chief professor or of 

 the additional professor to give courses of lectures on heat, light, 

 and sound ; to superintend and encourage labDratory practice in 

 these branches of physics ; and to take up from time to time the 

 consideration of other technical subjects, such as the principles 

 of thermodynamics in their application to the theory aud work- 

 ing of steam-engines, gas-engines, ventilation, &c. To complete 

 the teaching staflf of this department, the professors will require 

 the assistance of one or more demonstrators, according to the 

 number of students in attendance at their laboratories. 



Technology. — Under this heading is included instruction in the 

 processes and practical details of various manufactures, some of 

 which will be treated o f by the professors of the several depart- 

 ments already referred to, whiKt others will need the assistance 

 of specialists who will be engaged to give lectures on these sub- 

 jects. The gentlemen appointed to give these lectures will be 

 either the Institute's examiners in technology, or other persons 

 equally well acquainted with the technical details of particular 

 manufacturing processes. They will be appointed from time to 

 time as required, and will not necessarily form part of the 

 permanent staff of the College. 



The lectures will probably be of two kinds, according as they 

 are delivered during the session or during the long vacation. 

 The one course will form part of the curriculum of the ordinary 

 students of the College, whilst the other course will be especially 

 arranged for the instructijn of teachers of the Institute, regis- 

 tered under the scheme of Technological Examinations. The 

 lectures given during the session will be attended by the matri- 

 culated students towards the close of their regular course of 

 study, those delivered during the recess by teachers of technical 

 classe^ in Loadon and the provinces, wdio will be invited to hear 

 them without payment of fee. Arrangements will also be made 

 by which other persons seeking information on technical matters 

 may be admitted to these lectures. 



The lectures will embrace several of the subjects included in 

 the programme of Technological Examinations, such as Alkali 

 Manufacture, Spirit Distilling, Glass Manufacture, Pottery and 

 Porcelain, Printing, Weaving, the Manufacture of Cotton, Wool, 

 Linen, &c., and will treat of the technical details involved in these 

 and other indu-trial processes. For the illustration of the lectures, 

 specimens of materials in various stages of manufacture, models 

 and diagrams t.f machinery, will be required ; and these should 

 be found ready for use in the Mu,eum of Technology, a room 

 for which has been provided in the Institution. Facilities will 

 be afforded to the lecturers and students for carrying on experi- 

 mental work in explanation of the lectures ; and considering the 

 varied character of the work which may have to be performed in 

 connection w ith this department, for which it is impossible to 

 make provision at the outset, it is very imp irt.ant that here and 

 there rooms should be left available to lie fitted with such ar- 

 rangements and apparatus as experience may show to be desir- 

 able. These lectures will form a special and characteristic 

 feature of the iu tructioa to be given in the Central Institution. 



Architecturd and Building Construction. — To give complete- 

 ness to the instiuction which this Institution should afford, a 

 department of Architecture and of Building Construction should 

 be added to these already enumerated. The establishment of a 

 special school for Architects and Builders would not involve any 

 great addition to the professorial staff which it is suggested should 

 be provided for the other de, artments of the College. But as 

 the funds at the disposal of the Institute are not sufficient to 

 enable the Council to give effect at starting to a complete 

 scheme of higher technical instiuction adapted to all the difl[erent 

 industries of the country, it would seem advisable at first to 

 restrict within certain limits the work to be carried on in the 

 Institution, and to defer for some iiitle time the organisation of 

 this special school. 



Appli.d Art. — Under this heading instruction might be given 

 in decorative art, and in several special bianches of applied art, 

 particularly in those in which artistic effects are produced by a 

 combination of art with processes involving applications of 

 science, such as Chromo-lithography, Enamelling, Photo- 

 engraving on Metals, Photo-lithography and Photography. 

 Lectures might be delivered on these subjects, and on the scien- 

 tific principles connected with them ; and the processes them- 

 selves might be practically illustrated under the direction of ex- 

 perienced teachers in the workshops of the building. Lessons 

 might also be given in designing for, and in the execution 

 of, glass painting, mosaic work, wood and ivory inlaying, the 



