TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 859' 



importance of -wliicli is not so likely to be generally apprehended untU pointed out 

 as the importance of advances such as the electrical and metallurgical, involving 

 some new departure or novel application. 



That the character and rate of recent mechanical advance are both exactly such 

 as would be expected to follow, as the result of a deeper and broader Imowledge of 

 scientific methods and the principles involved, seems to be the very best proof of 

 advance in that other side of mechanical science in which this Section takes inte- 

 rest, or, more correctly, for which it exists — the increase and spread of mechanical 

 knowledge. 



It is as impossible as it is unnecessary for me to comment on the furore to 

 which the movement first for popular scientific and now for technical instruction 

 has reached — bringing into existence, by means of South Kensington, a complete 

 system of sensibly free elementary scientific education over the country ; then the 

 City and Guilds Technical Schools, with a general system of examination ; and cul- 

 minating in a Parliamentary Commission on Technical Education, with the pro- 

 spect of seeing its labours result in an Act of Parliament providing for absolutely 

 free technical instruction. 



Elementary education, whatever may be its subjects, must of necessity depend 

 for its permanent existence on some source of higher knowledge in those subjects. 

 AVithout raising such questions as whether there exist at present means of training 

 efficient teachers in all the branches for which technical education is promised, or 

 whether such means will be forthcoming as a result of the demand for teachers, I 

 would recall to your attention the recent progress made towards a higher training 

 in that branch of science which most directly relates to mechanical progress, and 

 which, according to no less an authority than the late Professor liankine, received 

 its first impulse from the institution of Section G. 



So long ago as 1855 Ilankine, in his characteristically concise address, dwelt 

 upon the good work which this Section was doing in making it known that the 

 application of the laws and principles of abstract mechanics to the purposes of 

 practical mechanics constitutes a science of itself; a science the knowledge of 

 which is essential before a knowledge of mathematics and abstract science can be 

 of use to the practical engineer or mechanic ; and for this science he then and there 

 claimed the name Applied jMechanics. As a proof of the influence of Section G 

 in making known the usefulness of this science he instanced the apparent increase 

 iu the desire to profit by the leetiires of the late Professor Lewis Gordon, which 

 had taken place since the Section was instituted. 



Professor Gordon, who held the chair of mechanics in Glasgow University, was 

 the first in this country to collect and embody in bis lectures, and subsequently in 

 a text-book, the important though scattered results of individual eiforts to found 

 the laws of practical mechanics on exact science. And at the time Rankine was 

 speaking, this chair, to which Rankine himself was called the same year, was the 

 only chair iu this country from which such lectures were given. 



Since that time the appreciation of that science has steadily increased ; other 

 colleges took up the subject mostly as forming part of coiirses entitled engineering 

 or naval science. Amongst these was Owens College, in which, not till after the 

 last meeting in Manchester of this Association, the leading engineers founded and 

 endowed, which is more important, the chair which it has been my fortune to occupy 

 for nineteen years. 



During the earlier part of this time both teachers and students were labouring 

 under the disadvantage arising from the novelty of the subject — the former having- 

 to make an almost arbitrary selection of what they would teach, and the latter 

 not knowing exactly what it was they were going to learn. Gradually, however. 

 by the help of experience from the somewhat earlier French schools and with the 

 admirable works of Rankine as a foundation, the lectures or theoretical courses 

 have become clear and distinct, while the advantage to be gained has become so 

 generally recognised that of late years there has been almost a scramble to found 

 new colleges to teach engineering or to introduce such teaching into existing 

 colleges ; and most satisfactory to those engaged in the introduction of this subject 

 is the fact that it is from the engineers themsehes that the interest and fund? 



