July 27, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



109 



give the world a true test, a living picture, of the 

 point of individual development at which the 

 whole of mankind has arrived, and a new start- 

 ing point from which all nations will be able to 

 direct their future exertions. 



How well it served its purpose is demon- 

 strated by the fact that at the exposition 

 in Paris in 1867 England found that while 

 in 1851 her supremacy had been undis- 

 puted, in 1867 out of 90 departments she 

 had superiority in only 10. An investiga- 

 tion led to the conclusion that the cause of 

 this was the better scientific instruction 

 given to artisans on the Continent. 

 France, Prussia, Austria, Belgium and 

 Switzerland possessed good systems of in- 

 dustrial education for the masters and man- 

 agers of factories and workshops, while 

 England possessed none. 



An Englishman, a judge in the class of 

 woolen textile fabrics, said, speaking of the 

 continental workmen: 



Brains sit at the loom and intelligence stands 

 at the spinning wheel. 



At this exposition the progress of France 

 and Germany was especially commented 

 upon. 



Sir Lyon Playfair, speaking some years 

 ago of the influence of technical education 

 upon the industrial prosperity of Switzer- 

 land, said: 



The Coventry ribbon trade, which has deserted 

 England, has settled in the valleys of Switzerland. 

 The polytechnic institute has aided in this result, 

 because it turns out seventy or more persons an- 

 nually, trained in the science and art requisite to 

 conduct Quch a manufacture successfully. 



This single branch of manufacture so trans- 

 ferred from England to Switzerland employs in 

 the latter thirty thousand weavers and other col- 

 lateral workers, such as dyers and superintend- 

 ents. The value of the annual export of this 

 manufacture from Switzerland is eight million 

 dollars, while the trade has languished at 

 Coventry in England until the annual export is 

 little more than three hundred thousand dollars. 



" The difference," says Lord Lyon, between the 

 Swiss trade and the Coventry trade, " is very 

 simple; it is involved in the answer given by 



Opie, the painter, to a youth who asked him how 

 he mixed his colors — ' I mix them with my brains, 



sir.' " 



It is a striking fact that England, which 

 has produced Arkwright, Watt, Stephen- 

 son and Bessemer and others equally dis- 

 tinguished, should have been unable to keep 

 pace with other nations in the application 

 and development of the principles which 

 these men first disclosed. It may be ac- 

 counted for in some degree at least by an- 

 other surprising fact, that in industrial 

 education England is excelled by all the 

 leading nations of the world. 



There is undoubtedly a demand in this 

 country at the present time for the educa- 

 tion of those in our industries who need 

 the skill of the mechanic and an order of 

 intelligence superior to that of the ordinary 

 workman. This has long been recognized 

 and has been met in some slight degree 

 both within and without this common- 

 wealth. This need is more apparent than 

 ever at the present time when the special- 

 ization of industries has reached a point 

 where the old-fashioned all-around me- 

 chanic is becoming more and more difficult 

 to find. 



While there is no great dearth of engi- 

 neers, there is a short supply of skilled 

 workmen of intelligence. This is a depart- 

 ment of industrial education that can not 

 be safely neglected. Germany has appre- 

 ciated this fact, and leads all the countries 

 of the world in this as in all other depart- 

 ments of technical education, and owes to 

 this, very largely, her present industrial 

 position. 



President Alderson, of the Colorado 

 School of Mines, in a recent article,- speaks 

 as follows of present conditions: 



There are six building and mechanical trade 

 schools in New York and Brooklyn, three in Bos- 

 ton, two in San Francisco, and two in Philadel- 

 phia. New York has two brewing academies; 

 Chicago and Milwaukee one each. Philadelphia, 

 Lowell, New Bedford and Atlanta have textile 



