642 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 434. 



here and elsewhere to the chemists and 

 engineers of your rugged state. 



I am the more ready to discuss this 

 theme here, in the inspiring presence of 

 your mountains and their bracing atmos- 

 phere, because you have laid the founda- 

 tion for, and have the opportunity to 

 build up, a school of applied science (an 

 engineering school) that may stand un- 

 excelled amongst its eastern brethren. 

 True, you are far from the centers of 

 dense population ; but the hum of industry 

 is about, and great works are yet to be 

 accomplished before the wealth of your 

 state reaches its highest development; and 

 the engineering school numbering 500 stu- 

 dents may be as great as the school that 

 numbers 1,500. 



In the building up of your school of 

 applied science, in this, your university, 

 your people must remember that men and 

 money are required. Men who are prac- 

 ticed, and, if possible, great, in two pro- 

 fessions — the professions of engineering 

 and of teaching. Money is requisite to 

 pay for the services of these men, and 

 much money for the equipment of labora- 

 tories in which they may adequately teach 

 their students — the sons of your state and 

 of its neighbors. In following my remarks, 

 please remember that I bear no mission of 

 instruction to this university; but I make 

 a plea and explanation to those not tech- 

 nically informed friends of the university 

 who may not fully understand, and who 

 desire to know, whence spring the peculiar 

 advantages of technological education and 

 those requirements which demand particu- 

 larly large expenditures in its adequate 

 support. 



During the course . of two decades, we 

 as a people have rapidly advanced toward 

 an appreciation of the proper relations of 

 the engineer to his surroundings. The true 

 conception of engineering may be accepted 

 as comprised within the good old defini- 



tion, 'Engineering is directing the sources 

 of power' (and wealth) 'in nature to the 

 use and convenience of man.' The man 

 who with fullest success follows the pro- 

 fession defined by this keenly conceived 

 sentence must be a man of science, a man 

 of the world, a man of business, and a 

 man Avho is well acquainted with the trend 

 of human civilization and human aspira- 

 tions. To make such a man requires the 

 highest thought and effort of the best 

 teaching influences. Michael Faraday (one 

 of the magnificent men whose lives have 

 been dedicated to the commands of pure 

 science) said that it requires twenty years 

 to make a man in physical science, the in- 

 tervening period being one of infancy. 

 How much more effort must be carefully 

 expended to make a man not only in phys- 

 ical science, but also a man in business and 

 a man in sociology, all in one ! Such men 

 are all of the great engineers, measured 

 according to their times ; and to them ought 

 to be accorded in their youth the most care- 

 ful training. 



Our engineering college men at their 

 graduation should properly be looked upon 

 as apprentices in the engineering profes- 

 sion. The student must be inspired in col- 

 lege and taught to work for himself in the 

 manner adopted by George Stephenson, 

 when instructing his assistants and pupils. 

 'Learn for yourselves,' said he, 'think for 

 yourselves, make yourselves masters of 

 principles, persevere, be industrious, and 

 there is then no fear of your success.' 

 The students should be become thinkers in 

 college, capable of usefully applying their 

 scientific knowledge therein obtained; and 

 they should be expected to become thorough 

 engineers through experience in applying 

 this knowledge in a manner which may 

 only be gained in an apprenticeship in the 

 industries, similar to the office and hospital 

 apprenticeships of rising young lawyers 

 and doctors. 



