G.— ENGINEERING. 129 



iron and steel, and as the inventions of Sir Henry Bessemer and Sir 

 William Siemens for making steel were developed, the necessity was 

 evident to engineers and chemists for training schools to deal with the 

 physical and technical problems involved in engineering and metallurgy, 

 so as to arrive at a far greater accuracy, both in design and construction, 

 than had hitherto been considered necessary or possible. I find on 

 reading the history of those early pioneers, both in engineering and 

 metallurgy, that they had to meet conditions similar to those which exist 

 to-day, that is to say, they had to force their ideas on to a rather unwilling 

 public in order to get them introduced, and in many cases they did not 

 reap the reward of their enterprise. Boulton and Watt had a desperate 

 struggle for their existence. Stephenson had great difficulty in even 

 getting his engine tried amongst those competing for the Liverpool to 

 Manchester railway, and yet was the only successful survivor of the 

 trials. To-day the fate of the inventor is little less hard. In many 

 cases he finds his invention has been anticipated, and in others there is 

 great unwillingness on the part of engineers and metallurgists to adopt the 

 ideas because of the risk involved financially in developing the processes. 



We have to admit, however, that the progress of industry depends 

 very largely on the enterprise of deep-thinking men who are ahead of the 

 times in their ideas. I may quote Dr. Clifton Sorby, F.R.S., as such an 

 instance. He introduced by his researches the microscopy of steel, and 

 yet it was many years before this became a recognised method of gauging 

 the quality of all classes of steel. Another great inventor, whom we all 

 respect and are delighted to have still in active work, is Sir Charles Parsons. 

 I look back many years to the early eighties when Sir Charles put in years 

 of research work in connexion with high speed engines before he success- 

 fully produced the steam turbine. Since that time he has devoted a large 

 portion of his life to developing improvements both in the design of the 

 turbine and the machinery for producing it, which have ultimately 

 brought about its world renown, and his eminence in the engineering 

 world was suitably recognised two years ago by the award of the Kelvin 

 Gold Medal. 



The technical societies in this country in the latter part of the last 

 century realised that special attention would have to be devoted to an 

 education which would combine a practical knowledge of engineering 

 with a course of technical education of a high level. This was also associated 

 with a preliminary examination to ensure that their students should have 

 a sufficient grounding in general knowledge to enable them to apply 

 themselves with success to the more intricate technical problems incident 

 to their profession. This action on the part of these institutions has been 

 fully rewarded by bringing into existence a body of highly trained 

 engineers with special knowledge of the different branches of engineering, 

 and, therefore, well able to lead our profession forward in the great 

 developments which are still taking place in all branches of engineering. 



Although in this address it would be out of place for me to discuss 

 education in detail, I cannot help feeling that the ground to be covered 

 in engineering education is now so great that the universities will do well 

 to apply education in general engineering problems for the first two years 

 of a university course, and allow an honours degree to be taken in one or 



1928 K 



