644 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 4a4. 



this precept of a great mathematician and 

 philosopher. 



To the engineering student in college the 

 laboratory is of inestimable value. In it 

 he can learn the true relations between 

 science pure and science applied. He can 

 learn to reason true, from cause to effect. 

 His mind may be developed less trammeled 

 than in the class-room, and the inspiration 

 to independent thought may be more read- 

 ily given deep root. ' Every branch of en- 

 gineering is becoming more firmly rooted 

 to the scientific bed rock upon which it 

 rests,' and the engineer must be a man o£ 

 scientific methods, besides being a man of 

 business. He must have learned with the 

 scientist that the price of success is con- 

 stant, concentrated effort. All this can be 

 taught better in the laboratory than in the 

 class-room. A spirit of indifference which 

 may be readily bred in the class-room, and 

 which is ruinous to success and happiness 

 in life, can not exist in the laboratory that 

 is properly administered. "Genius is nine 

 parts character. The prize is to him who 

 dares, not merely to him who can." In 

 the laboratory the student may he inspired 

 to dare. 



It must not be thought that I do not give 

 adequate place to the class-room lecture and 

 the text-book recitation. The laboratory 

 work should be carried on in unison with 

 and fortify the work of the class-room. A 

 power may be had through it which can 

 not be gained in the more formal meetings, 

 and I would have at least one half of the 

 time allotted by students to the study of 

 applied science spent in properly super- 

 vised laboratories. 



The subjects taught are not of so much 

 importance as the effect to be gained in the 

 students' powers, but certain branches lend 

 themselves particularly to the desired end 

 and admirable laboratory equipments in 

 those branches are essential to every fully 



successful school of engineering. Here the 

 budget of the university is affected. It 

 requires large sums of money to equip, 

 maintain and administer such teaching 

 laboratories, and only few (very few) of 

 the greater engineering schools have yet 

 approached a satisfactory point therein. 

 In this state of great mineral wealth, that 

 has been, and is still more largely being, 

 developed through the knowledge of the 

 engineer, it is reasonable to hope that- some 

 public-spirited citizen of ample means will 

 adequately endow the engineering labora- 

 tories of this, the university of his own 

 state, so that they may take and hold due 

 rank with the best. 



But some of you may say, "What is the 

 benefit to the body politic of the expensive 

 laboratories in our midst? "We admit the 

 benefit to the students who personally en- 

 joy their advantages, but is their effect 

 more far reaching 1 ' ' Most assuredly their 

 effect is more far reaching — it reaches to 

 the itttermost limits of the industrial prog- 

 ress and prosperity of the land. In this 

 nation the industrial pursuits are engineer- 

 ing pursuits, and each betterment of clear 

 perception amongst the engineers goes to 

 strengthen the roots of our whole national 

 life. He who truly ponders the question 

 of modern civilization can not but admit 

 that its best and kindest features rest im- 

 mediately upon the foundations of scien- 

 tific discovery and invention, and that the 

 engineers and their works constitute the 

 most mighty human force now moving 

 society. Let us think of a few of the en- 

 gineering feats of the century gone by: 



George Stephenson, in 1829, after pain- 

 fully developing the locomotive, won the 

 Rainhill contest, and the preeminence of 

 steam locomotion over draft animals was 

 'established before the world. Here was 

 the christening of that civilization which 

 rests upon the ready communication be- 

 tween the people. 



