TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 773 



•engineer well known as a canal-maker, to relieve the Dudley Tunnel under the 

 Castle Hill, which is still maintained in use and is a most interesting work. 



The numerous pumping engines are interesting as giving specimens of the 

 progress of such machines, and the chief station at Ocker Hill contains a row of six 

 large engines, all lately put in good order under one roof. 



The working of the mines, especially the thick coal (30 feet), caused very great 

 injury to the canal, but conjointly with the South Staffordshire Mines Drainage 

 Commissioners both canals and basins have been so much repaii-ed that the canal 

 works were perhaps never in more efficient condition. 



7. The Stourbridge Canal. By E. B. Makten. 



This canal forms an important link between the Birmingham Canal Navigation 

 •and the Severn and Bristol Channel, and is the water-outlet for the Black Country 

 in that direction. It was made in 1778, and as an engineering work it has points 

 of interest in its twenty locks and two large reservoirs, with a good system of 

 feeders to gather a supply of water, so important for working the locks. It also 

 receives water from a level about four miles long, cut from Coalboumbrook to ' The 

 Level ' near Woodside Dudley, to drain a large tract of mines, which was itself a 

 very clever piece of engineering for that time. Some wooden pumps of curious 

 construction were lately found in the level. The canal gathers toll at the locks as 

 road trustees did at turnpikes ; and as the through traffic has been much diverted 

 by railways, and the traffic on the level part pays no toll, there is not much more 

 than will pay the cost of maintenance. 



_ The diificidty is increased by a branch called the Stourbridge Extension Canal 

 being now owned by a railway company, and used, like the older canal, to collect 

 traffic for the railway without paying toll to the canal. The traders on the level 

 parts also have the use of the canal without toU or contribution towards its 

 maintenance. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 



The following Reports and Papers were read : — 



1. Report of the Committee for continuing the Inquiries relating to the 

 Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools. — See Reports, p. 278. 



2. The Character and Organisatimi of the Institutions for Technical Education 

 required in a large manufacturing town. By Dr. Ceossket. 



The phrase ' technical education ' requires strict definition, being employed in 

 various senses. Technical education must be distinguished from general scientific 

 study in its abstract methods; and also from the definite teaching of a special 

 handicraft or trade. 



It may be defined as education in the scientific principles which underlie manu- 

 facturing processes, those manufacturing processes themselves being employed as 

 illustrations of the scientific principles they involve. In a large manufacturing 

 town the requirements of several classes of the population have to be considered. 



Class A. — The children of the great mass of working men who are compelled to 

 ■earn their living at the earliest possible age. No higher gi-ade school will meet 

 their wants, and yet they ought to be scientifically prepared to take advantage of 

 technical evening classes on leaving school. The mass of our people need technical 

 education, and not merely a few exceptional scholars. To secure this the rudiments 

 of science must be taught in all public elementary schools under the following 

 conditions: (1) it must be taught experimentally — this is essential; (2) experts 



