ON GRAnilC MLTH0D3 IN MECHANICAL SCIEKC2. 613 



dealt with, and it may be mentioned tbat tlie proposition seemed to meet 

 ■with the general approval of the members of the Congress. 



With regard to teaching the principles underlying the modes of 

 solving problems, these appear to fall under two heads : (1) The process 

 •which has been called ' Combination of Segments ' may be said for 

 brevity to consist in obtaining from segments a resultant representing two 

 properties of the same kind as the given segments ; for instance, in the 

 case of statical problems, the magnitude, and direction of the forces. 

 (2) The process which corresponds to multiplication, in which two unlike 

 kinds of quantities are combined so as to form a result differing in kind 

 from either. These practically include all the processes employed, but 

 in applying them to different problems special teaching is necessary. 



The writer is disposed to think, on subsequent consideration and from 

 further discussion of the subject, that it may be advantageous to employ 

 familiar examples in kinematics, statics, and dynamics in the actual working 

 out of such problems, these being so selected that the students will be able 

 to understand without difiBculty the mechanical principles involved. The 

 more difficult problems would be reserved until the student is engaged in 

 studying the higher branches of applied mechanics, when he will by 

 reason of the above teaching be familiar with the graphical principles 

 employed. This system of employing familiar examples undoubtedly has 

 the advantage of interesting students in the subject, and is a point of 

 great importance in making clear the value of the methods. The pro- 

 posed course would only slightly modify the details of what is at present 

 actually taught in many engineering schools. It would, however, bring 

 clearly before the student the methods themselves as distinguished from 

 their applications. 



He would also remark that some eminent authorities on technical 

 education have very little belief in the separate study of graphical 

 methods apart from geometry and machine drawing. But for those who 

 are engaged in the actual work of engineering, especially those who have 

 very little knowledge of mathematics but are to a certain extent ac- 

 quainted with practical geometry, the writer is convinced, both from 

 experience in teaching evening classes of artisans and also with day 

 college students, that a clear treatment of the methods employed in 

 graphical constructions, as applied to simple rules of arithmetic, is of the 

 highest value. 



In bringing the report to a close he would farther remark that the 

 teaching in many English schools of engineering seems to introduce as 

 much of the practical applications of graphical methods as in any other 

 country, and that much of the apparently different treatment of the subject 

 in Eaolish as compared with foreign schools is due to a difference of 

 arrangement of courses and of terminology. 



