724 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 74» 



prises for which trained men are needed, 

 and the technical school must furnish them. 

 In using the term "technical college," 

 there is implied a more extended field than 

 that covered by the college of engineering 

 as the latter is generally understood. In 

 its broad aspects the technical coUege com- 

 prehends work in general science, in 

 mechanical, electrical and civil engineer- 

 ing, mining and chemical engineering, hy- 

 draulics, architecture, steam, marine and 

 railway engineering, sanitary science, for- 

 estry, agriculture, horticulture and the 

 various subdivisions of these comprehensive 

 and inclusive phases of scientific and in- 

 dustrial life. 



The very breaking up of any one of these 

 several branches or subjects gives us at 

 once the clew to the necessity for more 

 intensive and more extended work in the 

 departments they represent and shows 

 clearly the necessity for training an in- 

 creasingly large number of competent men. 

 While many who might pursue technical 

 courses are far removed from the special 

 school, still the duty of extending and 

 carrying on the work must rest in no 

 small degree with these schools, as so few 

 state institutions at present offer adequate 

 courses in these lines. 



In the old days before electricity was 

 used as motive power or for purposes of 

 illumination, when building construction 

 was almost entirely with wood, and work 

 in the arts demanded at best small quanti- 

 ties of iron and steel with little stone or 

 brick and no concrete, when work by hand 

 had not been supplanted by the labor- 

 saving mechanical devices, when problems 

 of transportation by land and water, of 

 heating, lighting, water supply, sewerage 

 and drainag», of bridge and road building, 

 of scientific agriculture were as yet unde- 

 veloped, the demand for technical educa- 

 tion was small. In the mechanical world 

 the civil engineer was the man of the hour. 



He who could establish a grade or con- 

 struct a single span was in the front 

 rank. Mechanical and electrical engineer- 

 ing courses, as such, were in embryo. The 

 work of the mining engineer was done by 

 rule of thumb. The "cut and try" method 

 was applied in chemistry and architecture. 

 Sanitary science was in an elementary 

 stage. The study of hydraulics was theo- 

 retical rather than applied. Forestry, ag- 

 riculture and horticulture were carried on 

 in the belief that "nature must take her 

 own course." 



But the application of scientific prin- 

 ciples in the arts and industries has made 

 possible an evolution that has resulted in 

 a revolution. More and more we have dif- 

 ferentiated our lines of work, until what 

 originally appeared to be a field in itself 

 is now broken up, and the expert is he who 

 spends a lifetime upon only one of the 

 problems of a given field of knowledge. 

 As Willam C. Gannett says: "The man of 

 science, and to-day more than ever, if he 

 would add to the world's knowledge, or 

 even get a reputation, must be, in some one 

 branch at least, a plodding specialist. ' ' 



There is, however, to this argument an- 

 other side that must be considered. While 

 in an earlier day the work was of a gen- 

 eral character, and the special phases of 

 science as yet undeveloped, this very spe- 

 cialization of which we have been speaking 

 has brought about a strong reaction. Con- 

 stant touch with the special phases of work^ 

 concentration upon a comparatively nar- 

 row field of human interest, can not but 

 have its effect upon the individual. This 

 fact receives abundant exemplification con- 

 stantly and illustrations need not be mul- 

 tiplied. Too often we find the technical 

 expert or man of science a technical expert 

 merely. If by nature he is narrow, his 

 training in the schools only tends to en- 

 hance this narrowness. Of art or letters, 

 music or drama, he knows little and cares 



