November 14, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



777 



matician is compelled to leave the logical 

 sequence which he loves to teach mechanics, 

 he is apt scornfully to do what gives him 

 least trouble ; namely, to give as ' mechan- 

 ics ' that disguised pure mathematics which 

 forms ninety per cent, of the pretence 

 of theory to be found in so many French 

 and German books on machinery. As pure 

 mathematical exercise work it is even 

 meaner than the stupid exercises in school 

 algebras; as pretended engineering it does 

 much harm because a student does not find 

 out its futility until after he has gone 

 through it, and his enthusiasm for mathe- 

 matics applied to engineering problems is 

 permanently htirt. But hoAV is a poor 

 mathematical professor who dislikes engi- 

 neering, feeling like Pegasus harnessed to 

 a common wagon — how is he to distinguish 

 good from evil? He fails to see how 

 worthless are some of the books on 'theoret- 

 ical mechanics' written by mathematical 

 coaches to enable students to pass examina- 

 tions. An engineer teaching mathematics 

 would avoid all futilities; he would base 

 his reasoning on that experimental knowl- 

 edge already possessed by a student; he 

 would know that the finished engineer can- 

 not hope to remember anything except a 

 few general principles, but that he ought 

 to be able to apply these, clumsily or not, 

 to the solution of any problem whatsoever. 

 Of course he would encourage some of his 

 pupils to take up Thomson and Tait or 

 Rayleigh's 'Sound,' or some other classical 

 treatise as an advanced study.* 



* One sometimes finds a good mathematician 

 brought up on academic lines taking to engineer- 

 ing problems. But he is usually stale and unwill- 

 ing to go thoroughly into these practical matters, 

 and what he publishes is particularly harmful, 

 because it has such an honest appearance. When 

 we do get, once in forty years, a mathematician 

 (Osborne Reynolds or Dr. Hopkinson) who has 

 common-sense notions about engineering things, 

 or a fairly good engineer (Rankine or .James 

 Thomson) who has a common-sense command 



Not only do I think that every teacher in 

 an engineering college ought to have some 

 acquaintance with engineering, but it 

 seems to me equally important to allow a 

 professor of engineering, who ought, above 

 all things, to be a practical engineer, to 

 keep in touch with his profession. A man 

 who is not competing with other engineers 

 in practical work very quickly becomes 

 antiquated in his knowledge: the design- 

 ing work in his drawing-office is altogether 

 out of date ; he lectures about old difficulties 

 which are troubles no longer; his pupils 

 have no enthusiasm in their work because 

 it is merely academic and lifeless; even 

 when he is a man distinguished for impor- 

 tant work in the past his students have that 

 kind of disrespect for his teaching which 

 makes it useless to them. If there is fear 

 that too much well-paid professional work 

 will prevent efficiency in teaching, there is 

 no great difficulty in applying a remedy. 



One most important fact to be borne in 

 mind is that efficient teachers cannot be 

 obtained at such poor salaries as are now 

 given. An efficient laborer is worthy of 

 his hire ; an inefficient laborer is not worthy 

 of any hire, however small. Again, there 

 is a necessity for three times as many 

 teachers as are usually provided in Eng- 

 land. The average man is in future to be 

 really educated. This means very much 

 more personal attention, and from thought- 

 ful teachers. Is England prepared to face 

 the problem of technical education in the 

 only way which can lead to success, pre- 

 pared to pay a proper price for the real 



of mathematics, we have men who receive the 

 greatest admiration from the engineering profes- 

 sion, and yet it seems to me that quite half of all 

 the students leaving our technical colleges ought 

 to be able to exercise these combined powers if 

 mathematics were .sensibly taught in school and 

 college. We certainly have had enough of good 

 mathematicians meddling with engineering theory 

 and of engineers with no mathematics wasting 

 their time in trying to add to our knowledge. 



