752 HEroBT— 190B. 



Section G.— ENGINEERING. 



PltESlDENT OP THE SECTION — ChAELBS HaWKSLEIT, M.Inst.C.E, 



THUBSDAT, SEPTEMBER 10. 



The President delivered the following Address*^ 



Since the last meeting of the British Association there has pa^ed from our midst, 

 to the deep regret of all who had the privilege of Isnowing him, one who, though 

 full of years, actively followed his profession as a Civil Engineer until within a 

 few days of his death. I refer to Mr. Edward Woods, who presided over 

 Section G of the British Association at Plymouth in 1877. Mr. Woods com- 

 menced his professional career on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway soon after 

 it was opened for traffic. In 1875 Mr. Woods was invited by the Royal Com- 

 mission on Railway Accidents to undertalie, in conjunction with Colonel Inglis, 

 R.E., an exhaustive series of trials of the different kinds of railway brakes then in 

 use in England, the results of which were recorded in an elaborate and valuable 

 report. • These trials were referred to by Mr. Woods in his address as President of 

 Section G. Mr. Woods was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 

 1886-1887, and he died on the 14th June, 1903, at the ripe age of eighty-nine. 



Technical Educcttio7i. 



The subject of the technical education of engineers was treated very fully in 

 the interesting address delivered by Professor Peny, as President of Section G at 

 the meeting of the British Association in Belfast last year. This question also 

 received thorough consideration at the meeting of the Engineering Conference 

 held in London in June last, as well as at recent meetings of the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institute of Naval Architects. The systems 

 m vogue in the United States of America and on the Continent of Europe were 

 on those occasions brought forward in carefully prepared papers and fully dis- 

 cussed. The main points at issue are: (1) whether actual handicraft should be 

 taught in the Technological School or College along with the principles underlying 

 the Engineers' art ; (2) whether the year should be divided into periods in one or 

 more of which the science of engineering should be taught, and in another or 

 others of which craft skill should be acquired at works ; (3) whether the prin- 

 ciples should be first acquired, during a longer or shorter term, leaving experience 

 in applying those principles to be gained at the termination of the course. As 

 regards the first ot these suggestions it appears to be in opposition to the judg- 

 ment of the most experienced teachers. In respect to the second, the Admiralty 

 Lave carried it out for the last forty years, and with satisfaction to the Service ; 

 it is also common in Glasgow, and Mr. Yarrow has included this system in the 

 apprenticeship rules be Las recently laid down, whilst it is to be tried experiment- 

 ally in the Engineering Course at King's College, London. At the Engineering 

 Conference it was determined that the subject was of such importance that 

 its further consideration should be left to a Committee, to be substqueutly 

 annoiuted. 



