TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 727 



To have any good general system the employers must co-operate. Much of the 

 training is workshop practice, and it cannot be too often said that this is not to be 

 given in any college. The workshop in a college serves a quite difi'erent purpose. 

 Now how may the practice best be given ? I must say that I like the Finsbury 

 plan very much indeed, but there are others. When I attended this college in 

 winter I was allowed to work in the Lagan Foundry in summer. In Japan the 

 advanced students did the same thing ; they had their winter courses at the college, 

 and the summer was spent in the large Government workshops; the system 

 worked very well indeed.' In Germany recently the great unions of manufacturers 

 made facilities for giving a year of real factory work to the polytechnic students, 

 but it seems to me that these men are much too old for entrance to works, and, 

 besides, a year is too short a time if the finished product is to call itself a real 

 engineer. Possibly the British solution may be quite diflerent from any of these. 

 A boy may enter works at fourteen on leaving a primary school or not later than 

 sixteen on leaving a secondary school. In either case he must have the three 

 powers to which I have already referred so often. It will be recognised as the 

 duty of the owners of works to provide, either in one large works or near several 

 works, in a well-equipped school following the Finsbury principle, all that training 

 in the principles underlying the trade or profession which is necessary for the 

 engineer. 



No right-thinking engineer has been scared by the newspaper writers who tell 

 us of our loss of supremacy in manufacture, but I think that every engineer sees 

 the necessity for reform in many of our ways, and especially in this of education. 

 People talk of the good done to our workmen's ideas by the strike of two years 

 ago ; it is to be hoped that the employers' ideas were also expanded by their 

 having been forced to travel and to see that their shops were quite out of date.' 

 In fact, we have all got to see that there is far too much unskilled labour among 

 workmen and foremen and managers, and especially in owners. There may be 

 some kinds of manufacture so standardised that everything goes like a wound-up 

 clock, and no thought is needed anywhere ; but certainly it is not in any branch 

 of engineering. Many engineering things may be standardised, but not the 

 engineer himself. Millions of money may build up trusts, but they will he wasted 

 if the unskilled labour of mere clerks is expected to take the place of the 

 thoughtful skilled labour of owners and managers. I go further, and say that 

 no perfection in labour-saving tools will enable you to do without the skilled, 

 educated, thoughtful, honest, faithful workman with brains. I laugh at the idea 

 that any country has better workmen than ours, and I consider education of 



very easy to get up a reputation for science. The man is a bad engineer in spite of 

 his science, but people get to think that he is an unpractical man because of his 

 scientific knowledge. I do believe that the unbelief in technical education so very 

 general has this kind of illogical foundation. Four hundred years ago if a layman 

 could read or write he was probably a useless person who, because he could not do 

 well otherwise, took to learning. What a man learnt was clumsily learnt ; usually 

 he learnt little with great labour and made no use of it ; therefore reading and 

 writing seemed useless. Now that everybody is compelled to read and write, it is 

 not a usual thing to say that it hurts a man to have these powers. 

 ' It was the idea of Principal Henry Dyer. 

 ■ - Not only is there an enormous improvement in the use of limit-gauges and 

 checking and tools, and the careful calculation of rates of doing work by various 

 tools and general shop arrangement, but attention is being paid to the comfort of 

 workmen. There are basins and towels, and hot and cold water for them to wash 

 in. In the old days it would have been called faddy philanthropy. Now, owners of 

 works who scorn all softness of heart provide perfect water-closets for their men ; their 

 workshops are kept at a uniform temperature ; the evil effect of a bad draught in 

 producing colds, or a bad light in hurting the eyes, is carefully considered. In some 

 of these works it is actually possible for a workman or a member of his family to 

 get a luxurious hot bath for a penny. Will this really pay ? Some clever hard- 

 headed men of my acquaintance say they alreadj' see that it does pay very well 

 indeed. 



