146 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. xxn. No. 554 



outnumber those of science. But let the official an- 

 nouncements of the schools speak for themselves. 



S S 



By above table it will be seen that for 6,673 students 

 some sixteen science teachers are provided, but in six in- 

 stances these teachers give instruction in other branches, 

 leaving but ten teachers devoting all their time to scien- 

 tific instruction. The extreme illustration is seen in the 

 first district, where fifteen teachers instruct in mathemat- 

 ics and grammar to one solitary teacher in science. 



If, however, we further examine the catalogues, we find 

 that in the elementary course (which is the only course 

 the great bulk of the students take) the sciences required 

 are physiology and hygiene, elementary natural philoso- 

 phy and botany. To teach physiology and hygiene to 

 teachers, it might readily be supposed that a person 

 trained in medicine would be demanded, but only one 

 such trained teacher is found in the twelve schools. A 

 fair knowledge of elementary natural philosophy is im- 

 parted, but the work in botany is abridged to so short a 

 time that it is questionable whether the graduates are 

 able to do much with it when they become teachers them- 

 selves. 



In the scientific course, which extends over two years, 

 chemistry, zoology and geology are taught for one term 

 each, natural philosophy for two terms. The same criti- 

 cism is applicable to the scientific work in this course as 

 is made above for the work in botany. 



If, from the strictly professional schools we now turn 

 to the academies and colleges, which prepare a large pro- 

 portion of the teachers of the state, we will find much the 

 same condition of affairs. As a rule, the academies and 

 seminaries can afford but a single science teacher. "With 

 the colleges it is but little better, except that largely these 

 institutions have been able to secure two professors for 

 the scientific branches, chemistry and physics being- 

 assigned to one, while geology and the organic sciences 

 are given to the other. Pennsylvania has twenty-six col- 

 leges for men (part of these co-educational) and eleven for 

 women (Last report of U. S. Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion). Of these thirty-seven institutions, the University 

 of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, the University 

 of Western Pennsylvania, Lafayette College and 



Bryn Mawr College are the only ones in any 

 wise fully equipped for scientific work. In some 

 cases there are more than two science professors 

 in one institution, but in other cases there is but a single 

 instructor. The writer has not, in his possession, cata- 

 logues of all the colleges, and hence cannot make a tabu- 

 lated statement, as has been done for the professional 

 schools. 



The answer then is reached. Scientific instruction in 

 the public schools is a failure because teachers are not 

 trained to impart it. At present, mathematics and gram- 

 mar are considered of far more importance than science 

 in the training of teachers. How long this state is to con- 

 tinue no one can affirm. The only solution of the 

 problem is better all-round preparation for teachers. 



ELECTRICAL COOKING. 



Some years ago (in December, 1890) the writer made 

 some experiments with a view to determining the effi- 

 ciency of electrical cooking, as the general opinion at that 

 time was that any such employment of electricity would 

 be too inefficient to be commercially practicable, and the 

 writer had reason for believing otherwise. These experi- 

 ments showed conclusively that the use of electricity for 

 cooking was more economical and efficient than the use of 

 coal in an ordinary cooking stove, but, as it was the in- 

 tention of the writer to take out patents on several points, 

 these results were not published at the time. 



Since 1890, the fact of the efficiency and low cost of 

 electrical cooking has been generally recognized, not only 

 theoretically, but also in practice. But although there 

 are now at least a dozen companies engaged in producing 

 electrical cooking apparatus, and their productions are 

 finding their- way into hotels, dining cars, steamers, and 

 private houses, so far as the writer knows, there have not 

 as yet been published any tests of the relative efficiency 

 of the new apparatus and the ordinary cooking stove. 

 For this reason the following results may be of interest, 

 the more especially as the results show the truly awful 

 waste of fuel at present taking place, and the direction in 

 which improvement both in heating and cooking must be 

 looked for. 



Details of apparatus used in making test. The cooking 

 stove was of the ordinary type, the enclosed grate which 

 holds the fuel being twelve inches long by six inches wide 

 by six inches deep. Ai-ea of top of stove, seven square feet. 

 Size of oven, 2x1.6x1.6 feet. Number of orifices on top 

 of stove, six. Orifices eight inches in diameter. A damper 

 is so arranged that the heat passes directly up the chim- 

 ney, after passing the six orifices for culinary utensils, or 

 may be directed around the oven, after passing two orifices 

 only. The total radiating surface is 37,200 square centi- 

 metres, approximately, and the average all day temperature, 

 so near as could be ascertained, nearly 100 degrees C. 



The box for electrical heating was a cube whose sides 

 were one foot in length. It was of jiolished tin, but no 

 attempt was made to render it more bright than it was 

 when bought. The box was heated inside by passing a 

 current of electricity through a coil of iron wire wound 

 inside the box. The watts used in heating could be found 

 by multiplying the current passing through the coil by 

 the difference of potential between its ends, a thermome- 

 ter inserted in the box giving the corresponding tempera- 

 ture. 



The total quantity of coal used in the stove, obtained 

 by taking the average of several weeks, was thirty pounds 

 per day. Taking the average value for the thermal equi- 

 valent of good coal, this would represent the production 

 of 100,000,000 calories, and therefore the efficiency will 

 be given by dividing the total number of calories of use- 

 ful work obtained from the stove by 100,000,000. 



