June 17, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



345 



not be classed as engiaeering. These are : Higher tnalhe- 

 matics, as far as it may be practically applied in engineer- 

 ing; chemistry and physics (including elementary electricity 

 and magnetism) ; and manual training. A few students en- 

 ter college who have been given a fair start in these, but 

 they are the exception, consequently the subjects must be 

 taught from the ground up, with a common-sense view to 

 their practical applications. Unlimited time could be given 

 to these preparatory subjects, but it is necessary to clear 

 them away in the actual time of two college years. With 

 this requirement, it is impossible to give a very thorough 

 knowledge of analytical chemistrj-, or of physics, but they 

 are taught so as to give the student a good working knowl- 

 edge and so that he can readily go deeper if he finds it to his 

 advantage in his future practical experience. The higher 

 mathematics require all the time that can be afforded, espe- 

 cially in its last division, that of applied mechanics, where 

 the student gets his systematic knowledge of the properties 

 and uses of materials. 



With the preparatory studies cleared away the student 

 must enter into professional studies in earnest, but there is 

 little time for true engineering. The developing electrical 

 engineer must expand his physics and his chemistry and 

 mathematics into the laws of electro-magnetism, alternating 

 currents, electrolysis and electro-metallurgy, and study the 

 conditions of their numerous practical applications in engi- 

 neering and the arts, each of which may demand months of 

 constant effort before an intelligent mastery is attained. 

 Neither can he confine his attention to these during two full 

 years, for he must gain an elementary but practical knowl- 

 edge of thermo dynamics and hydraulics, with an efficient 

 working knowledge of their applications in steam and 

 water-power plants. He must also get a common-sense 

 knowledge of the principles underlying the design, manu- 

 facture and selection of machinery. 



This is a great deal to expect a student to efficiently absorb 

 in four years, and it requires a most judicious selection in 

 order that nothing unessential be allowed to enter and that 

 nothing essential be omitted. Let us see how the selection 

 is made at the University of Wisconsin. The arrangement 

 of the fundamentals will first claim our attention. 



During the first year the student is given a course of four 

 subjects, continuing through the year. These are: 1st, 

 English and rhetoric, with such reference to technical forms 

 as seems desirable so early in the course; 2d, mathematics, 

 beginning with higher algebra, passing through trigo- 

 nometry and descriptive geometry, and into analytical geom- 

 etry; 3d, advanced French or German, grammar and reader; 

 4th, manual training. In the latter, which continues dur- 

 ing the following two years, we do not think it necessary or 

 desirable for the student to spend sufficient time during his 

 course to become a carpenter, machinist, blacksmith or 

 foundryman. His future calling will probably not demand 

 that his wages be earned in either of these trades, but they 

 are tributary to his profession, and he must have an intelli- 

 gent mastery of the tools, and an appreciation of shop re- 

 quirements. In order that some future day he may become 

 a successful designer, or a useful shopman or superintendent, 

 it may be desirable for him to take a properly arranged ap- 

 prentice course in a first-class commercial shop, after com- 

 pleting his college course. Mathematics are also continued 

 throiigh the second and third year, during which time anal- 

 ytic geometry, calculus and applied mechanics are passed 

 through. All mathematics are taught with especial view to 

 .future practical applications, and good use is made of the 



laboratory in applied mechanics. During the second year 

 of the course, elementary chemistry and physics are disposed 

 of, and here again the laboratory is put to good service. At 

 the same time, work in draughting and the elementary de- 

 signs of machines is begun. The third year is about half, 

 and the fourth year wholly devoted to what may properly be 

 called professional studies. The arrangement of the latter 

 in the electrical engineering course, we will examine later. 



Upon completing his techoical college course of four years, 

 an average student has speut at least 144 weeks of hard 

 study, much of it of a practical work-day nature. During 

 this time he has been called upon to spend upwards of five 

 hours per day in class room and laboratories, and about as 

 much more time in individual study. No one is likely to 

 go satisfactorily through such a course unless lie has a de- 

 cided taste for engineering work, but many students find 

 themselves capable of doing a considerable amount of extra 

 work, and yet have sufficient time for recreation to keep 

 their health and spirits. It is well for an engineering course 

 to stand beyond the reach of students without a taste for the 

 work, for a successful engineer must be pre-eminently an 

 enthusiast, while he is at the same time a candid and care- 

 ful thinker. Those who are not fitted by nature to become 

 engineers, are better placed in a general educational course 

 at college, and they are then more likely to become useful 

 to society and to themselves than if passed through the tech- 

 nical mill. 



It may here be asked. Of what use is the severely special- 

 ized education to the successful student in the engineering 

 courses ? The graduate does not become an engineer merely 

 because he has successfully met the college examination. 

 College cannot make an engineer, however practical the 

 course of study may be. Practice has made thousands of 

 good ones, without the aid of the college, but I venture to say 

 that these would frequently have become more eminent if 

 they had received a thorough technical college course. 

 While theory alone, wherever learned, cannot make a prac- 

 tical man, it is the one who can follow the guide of theory,, 

 along the paths of practical work and experience, who makes; 

 the fully-developed engineer. In order, however, that 

 neither theory nor practice may lead him astray, he must have 

 a well-educated common sense. The eminent and eloquent 

 engineer, Alexander L. Holley, well illustrated this in one 

 of his addresses, when he said: — 



" Mere familiarity with steam-engines is not, indeed, a 

 cause of improved steam engineering, but it is a condition. The 

 mechanical laws of heat were not developed in an engine 

 house, yet without the mechanism, which the knowledge de- 

 rived through this familiarity has created and adapted, the 

 study of heat would have been an ornamental rather than a 

 useful pursuit. So in other departments. . . . When one- 

 in any art can make a diagnosis by looking the patient in 

 the face rather than by reading about similar cases in books,, 

 then only may he hope to practically apply such improve- 

 ments as theory may suggest, or to lead in those original 

 investigations upon which successful theories shall be 

 founded." 



The true object of the technical college is here outlined. 

 It is to teach the fundamental theories, with a common-sense 

 view to their practical applications, in such a way as to aid 

 in a diagnosis, not by the application of a mathematical 

 formula, but by comparing the accumulated experience of 

 the practical world. Take two young men of equally good 

 ability and equal age; put one through a thorough technical 

 coll'ege course and the other through an apprenticeship of the 



