NA rURE 



[March 4, 1909 



THIL FfXCTIOKS OF TECHNICAL 

 COLLEGES.^ 

 JN glancing over tho early history of mcclianics' institutes 

 ■*■ in this country, it is not at all clear that their founders 

 {lelicved that the maintenance of the position of Britain 

 as an industrial nation was likely to depend in any direct 

 way on the more scientific education of the working classes. 

 The industrial position of the nation was still unchallenged, 

 l!ritish labour was still as efficient as that of any other 

 <ountry, the organisers of industry were second to none 

 in shrewdness and enterprise, and the rising suns of 

 America and Germany were still below the industrial 

 fiorizon. While the exact date at which these orbs arose 

 may be uncertain, there can be no doubt that early in 

 the last quarter of the nineteenth century they were already 

 well above the horizon, and were beginning to cast sharp 

 shadows across the industrial fields of Great Britain. Long 

 before these signs had become obvious to the commercial 

 and industrial classes, a number of far-seeing men, some 

 of them industrial leaders, but the majority men of science 

 or education, had raised the cry of more extended and 

 popular education in science. Thanks to their advocacy 

 this policy of reform Tiegan to make itself felt, and before 

 the final decades of the century were spent the modern 

 technical education movement was well under way. 



Even if I were sufficiently informed to sketch for you 

 the history of this movement, it would be superfluous for 

 me to do so, as you are already familiar with the various 

 stages in its development. My purpose in recalling the 

 past was rather to help me to present to you the situation 

 to-day, as it appears to me, not as a professed educa- 

 tionist, but as one who has for more than a generation 

 been closely associated with industry and with the applica- 

 tion of scientific methods to its development. I am fully 

 conscious that my own views on the subject of technical 

 education are still in process of crystallisation, and I can- 

 not do more than ask vou to accept nie among your 

 number as a student who desires to cooperate with you in 

 advancing the great cause you have at heart. 



These yearly gatherings may be regarded as halting 

 places on our journey, from which we may look back- 

 wards over the various routes along which we have been 

 travelling, and forwards into tho country which still 

 stretches ahead. The particular route on which it has 

 been my lot to travel has not been wanting in varietv and 

 interest for the traveller, but as I have not yet reached 

 the age at which my personal reminiscences could have any 

 claim on your indulgent attention, I only refer to the 

 journey in these general terms, and mainly because it has 

 been made over one of the less frequented routes. As 

 some of the hilly parts of the route h.nppened by good 

 fortune to be traversed in stimulating company and under 

 favourable conditions of the atmosphere, the views which 

 were then absorbed have left many vivid impressions, some 

 of which have no doubt influenced me in my choice of a 

 subject on which to address you. 



It appears to me that the time has arrived when we 

 rnay profitably review the position of the technical institu- 

 tions in their more direct relations to the industries of 

 the country. If we are possessed by the belief that the 

 industrial future of the nation must largely depend on 

 the spread of education in science and in the application 

 of its laws to the affairs of daily life, then we cannot 

 escape from the conclusion that it is our particular duty 

 to see to it that wc are taking a leading part in this 

 vitally important work. This is the task which has been 

 laid upon us by our founders and supporters, public and 

 private. It is also the task to which we have committed 

 ourselves from the moment when we began to enrol 

 students in our classes. These students have come to us 

 m the belief th.it we in our superior wisdom can guide 

 and^ train them' for the more assured places in the world 

 of industry, so that- our obligations to them also compel 

 us to .nssoriate ourselves more and more closely with the 

 industri.-il interests. It is hardlv possible to over-estimate 

 the importance of the task we'have undert.aken, and the 

 more we appreciate its magnitude the more likely shall we 



I ^dH^ 



In^^litlltin 



of the as5 



ivercd M thi- anrual m-eling of the A=siciatlr.n nf Technicil 

 Feliruary 5 by Dr. George T. Beilby, F.R.S., president 



NO. 2053, VOL. 80] 



be to cultivate only the broadest and most fully informed 

 views of the lines on which we may hope to discharge it 

 worthily. 



While we must realise that this is essentially the task 

 which is now laid upon the technical institutions, and that 

 it devolves upon these bodies to take the lead in stating 

 the problems which are involved and in working towards 

 their solution, we none the less gratefully recognise the 

 pioneer work of the universities in the same fields. It 

 behoves us, therefore, to walk hand in hand with those 

 universities which have established within their own 

 boundaries faculties of applied science, and to avail our- 

 selves of their experience, not only in this special depart- 

 ment, but also in other fields of professional training. For 

 the universities, however, this problem is only one among 

 the many with which they are called upon to deal, while, 

 for the technical institutions it is the central problem. 

 The very singleness of our aim, therefore, ought to give 

 a force and concentration to our efTorts which should go 

 far to ensure success of a kind which has never before 

 been attained. 



The training of men for the practice of the learned pro- 

 fessions has always been largely in the h.ands of the uni- 

 versities, and one of the principles which has been evolved 

 in the organisation of this training is of the deepest interest 

 for us, as it has an important bearing on the work we 

 are called upon to perform. This principle is that the 

 final judgment as to the courses of study and preparation 

 should rest mainly with practising members of the pro- 

 fessions. I think I am right in saying that in the faculties 

 of law, of medicine, and of theology, this has been recog- 

 nised, and that throughout their courses of study and 

 preparation the students are brought into coritacl with 

 practising members of the profession for which they are 

 qualifying. They have thus the opportunity of realising 

 the practical bearing of their intellectual studies on the 

 work of their profession, and the intellectual atmosphere 

 around them is that peculiar to their profession. One 

 result of this is that when the graduates in these 

 faculties leave the university they already possess' the 

 instincts of their profession, and are proud to be classed 

 among its members. They may be, and probably are, very 

 inexperienced members, but the fact remains that they 

 have been professionally trained. This means that the 

 knowledge they have acquired has already been to some 

 extent correlated to the work which they are expected to 

 perform. They have been trained to state the practical 

 prol^lems of their profession in a scientific way, and to 

 look for their solution through the inethods of accurate 

 and intelligent observation and reasoning. 



This principle is equally recognised outside the universi- 

 ties in the training required for the newer pio- 

 fessions. The professional bodies which regulate the 

 admission to their membership of civil engineers, archi- 

 tects, accountants, and analytical chemists, all require 

 that the education of the candidates shall be of a definitely 

 professional character, and it is always supervised by 

 practising members of the particular profession. 



If the training in our institutions is to be modelled on 

 the lines of the best professional standards, we shall have 

 to secure the active cooperation of representative men 

 from those industries for which we propose to train our 

 students. With the help of these representatives we must 

 organise courses of instruction, practical as well .as theo- 

 retical. Wc must give to the practical side the same 

 kind of reality as is found in the clinical teaching of 

 medical students, and it must be made compulsory for 

 all who desire to obtain the full diploma of the college. 

 It ought, therefore, to be supervised by a joint committee 

 of the board of studies and the representatives of the in- 

 dustries. If the colleges, with the cooperation of industrial 

 representatives who are themselves employers, can in this 

 wav organise and supervise the practical side of their 

 training, the education of the engineer, the electrician, ani3 

 the chemist will be rendered homogeneous from beginning 

 to end, and the diploma will then be as definite a guarantee 

 of complete professional training as the medical degree 

 now is. In both castas the experience which only results 

 from practice has still to be won, but the professionnl 

 training will enable its possessor to begin to make his 

 experience through his own practice. 



