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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 305. 



engineering students were unable to resist 

 the seductive offers of positions in actual 

 practice, and left college before graduation. 

 Recently the demand has been almost ex- 

 clusively for graduates, and now a much 

 larger proportion than formerly stay to 

 graduate. When the competition of young 

 engineers for positions becomes greater, as 

 it doubtless will, probably a greater propor- 

 tion will be willing to engage in post-gradu- 

 ate study. But this element may not be- 

 come very effective in increasing the number 

 of engineering students seeking advanced 

 collegiate work, for some of them may pre- 

 fer to serve for a time after graduation as 

 apprentices at comparatively low salaries. 

 Already there are evidences of a consider- 

 able tendency in this direction. 



c. The third reason for the less number 

 of post-graduate engineering students is by 

 far the most important. Ordinarily post- 

 graduate study is primarily intended for 

 independent research work ; and this is 

 properly so, for after a young person has 

 been under the direction of tutors for fifteen 

 or twenty years, it is time that he should 

 attempt to blaze a road for himself. If 

 this research work is really original, it will 

 inspire the highest ambition of the student, 

 and will secure his utmost efforts. This 

 class of work will always attract. But de- 

 partments of study differ greatly in the op- 

 portunities for original research. The less 

 fully developed branches of study doubtless 

 have many unsolved problems waiting for 

 investigation, and some of these are such 

 that a recent graduate may reasonably be 

 expected to solve them, or at least to collect 

 part of the data required for a subsequent 

 solution. Engineering post-graduate study 

 offers fewer opportunities for this class of 

 work than many other departments of col- 

 legiate work, because of the more fully de- 

 veloped state of most branches of engineer- 

 ing knowledge. Again, the nature of the 

 investigations in many departments is 



such that they thrive better in a college 

 atmosphere than anywhere else. This is 

 not true, in general, of engineering investi- 

 gations. Finally, and most important of 

 all, original research in most departments 

 of study is carried on only because of the 

 enthusiasm of the investigator or by public 

 or private benevolence ; while in engineer- 

 ing most of the research work is done 

 in connection with practical work at the 

 expense of individuals or corporations or 

 municipalities having a direct financial in- 

 terest in the result. Many engineers de- 

 vote a large part of their time to original 

 research work, and nearly all practicing 

 engineers have more or less of such work. 

 The life of an engineering student before 

 and after graduation is much more nearly 

 continuous than that of a student in most 

 other departments. The ambitious engi- 

 neering student knows that, shortly, if not 

 immediately, after graduation, he can se- 

 cure actual engineering practice of high 

 educational value, and many choose posi- 

 tions chiefly with reference to the value of 

 the experience to be obtained. The salary, 

 the educational value of practical experi- 

 ence, the possibility of promotion — all draw 

 the engineering student away from post- 

 graduate study. In other words, the study 

 of engineering is essentially graduate work, 

 and there will probably never be any con- 

 siderable number who will pursue engineer- 

 ing studies beyond the present four-year 

 course. But there are sufficient reasons 

 why adequate provisions should be made 

 for the competent and ambitious few who 

 seek truly graduate instruction in engineer- 

 ing. 



All the preceding is intended to show 

 in rough outline the present state of en- 

 gineering education, and particularly the 

 rapid growth. The present phenomenal 

 rate of progress promises still larger things 

 for the future, and lays upon this Society 

 important responsibilities in directing the 



