724 REPORT— 1902. 



applied science.' The usual courses are only suitable for men who are preparing 

 to be mere mathematicians, or mere physicists, or mere chemists. Each subject 

 is taken up in a stereotyped way, and it is thought quite natural that in one year 

 a student shall have only a most elementary knowledge of what is to the teacher 

 such a great subject. The young engineer never reaches the advanced parts 

 which might be of use to 'him ; he is not sufficiently grounded in general 

 principles ; his whole course is only a preliminary course to a more advanced 

 one which there is no intention of allowing him to pursue, and, not being quite 

 a fool, he soon sees how useless the thing is to him. The Professor of 

 Chemistry ought to know that until a young engineer can calculate exactly by 

 means of a principle, that principle is really unknown to him. For example, 

 take the equation supposed to be known so well, 



2H3 + 02 = 2ILO. 



It is never understood by the ordinary elementary chemical student who writes 

 it down so readily. Every one of the six cunning ways in which that equation 

 conveys information ought to be as familiar to the young engineer as they are, or 

 ought to be, to the most specialised chemist. "Without this he cannot compute in 

 connection with combustion in gas and oil engines and in furnaces. But I have 

 no time to dwell on the importance of this kind of exact knowledge in the educa- 

 tion of an engineer. 



Mathematics and physics and chemistry are usually taugh in watertight com- 

 partments, as if they had no connection with one another. In an engineering 

 college this is particularly bad. Every subject ought to be taught through illus- 

 trations from the professional work in which a student is to be engaged. An 

 engineer has been wasting his time if he is able to answer the questions of an 

 ordinary examination paper in chemistry or pure mathematics. The usual mathe- 

 matical teacher thinks most of those very parts of mathematics which to an ordinary 

 man who wants to use mathematics are quite valueless, and those parts which 

 would be altogether useful and easy enough to understand he never reaches ; and 

 as I have said, so it is also in chemistry. Luckily, the physics professor has 

 usually some small knowledge of engineering ; at all events he respects it. When 

 the pure mathematician is compelled to leave the logical sequence which he loves 

 to teach mechanics, he is apt scornfully to do what gives him least trouble; namely, 

 to give as ' mechanics ' that disguised pure mathematics which forms ninety per 

 cent, of the pretence of theory to be found in so many French and German books 

 on machinery. As pure mathematical exercise work it is even meaner than the 

 stupid exercises in school algebras ; as pretended engineering it does much harm 

 because a student does not find out its futility until after he has gone through it, 

 and his enthusiasm for mathematics applied to engineering problems is permanently 

 hurt. But how is a poor mathematical professor who dislikes engineering, feeling 

 like Pegasus harnessed to a common waggon — how is he to distinguish good from 

 evil ? He fails to see how worthless are some of the books on ' Theoretical 

 Mechanics ' written by mathematical coaches to enable students to pass examina- 

 tions. An engineer teaching mathematics would avoid all futilities ; he would 

 base his reasoning on that experimental knowledge already possessed by a student ; 

 he would know that the finished engineer cannot hope to remember anything 

 except a few general principles, but that he ought to be able to apply these, 

 clumsily or not, to the solution of any problem whatsoever. Of course he would 

 encourage some of his pupils to take up Thomson and Tait, or Kayleigh's ' Sound,' 

 or some other classical treatise as an advanced study .- 



' At the most important colleges the usual professor or tutor is often ignorant of all 

 subjects except his own, and he generally seems rather proud of this ; but surely in 

 such a case a man cannot be said to know even his own subject. 



^ One sometimes finds a good mathematician brought up on academic lines 

 taking to engineering problems. But he is usually stain and unwilling to go 

 thoroughly into these practical matters, and what he publishes is particularly harm- 

 ful, because it has such an honest appearance. When we do get, once in forty 



