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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 489 



same length of time. Finally, put them side by side in a 

 working position, where they must work out their own sal- 

 vation, and the college man will usually have more ambition 

 and adaptability, and will outstrip his mate, though perhaps 

 not at once. The college man may fall behind at first, but, 

 having worked through the transition period, he will prove 

 the winner. I venture to say this is the well-nigh universal 

 experience of those who have had the opportunity of dispas- 

 sionately trying the experiment. 



Another illustration of the advantage of the technical col- 

 lege course, lies with the designer. To design good machinery 

 is a natural gift, and to become thoroughly successful re- 

 quires long experience, in order that the widely varying re- 

 quirements may each be given due weight. Proper instruc- 

 tion at the technical school may here do much towards 

 stimulating an appreciation of the lessons of experience. The 

 considerations of primary importance to be followed in de- 

 signing machines, are admirably divided by Professor A. W. 

 Smith into four: 1, Adaptability; 2, strength and stiffness; 

 3, economy; 4, appearance. In developing the design of a 

 machine, the practical, but highly sanguine inventor often 

 forgets all the considerations except the first. A theoretical 

 draughtsman may figure the strength to great precision by 

 formulas that may not fully cover the required conditions, 

 and in the meantime forget the other considerations. When 

 the design reaches the shopman, it must be altered to suit 

 his views of economy, as the prime factor. A machine is 

 thus produced that has lost part of its adaptability as designed, 

 and has neither sufBcient stiffness to properly do its work, 

 nor a thoroughly substantial, workmanlike appearance. The 

 economical shopman has been defeated in his object, for the 

 machine is hard to sell, or requires costly repairs at the ex- 

 pense of the maker. A proper college course should suffi- 

 ciently broaden a man, so that he can quickly appreciate the 

 demands of the prime considerations of practice, and will 

 apply his formulas with common sense and moderation. If 

 we replace our three men in the machine transaction by men 

 of equal experience and a technical college education of the 

 right sort, the work of each should supplement the work of 

 the other, and the product can be predicted, with some con- 

 fidence at least, to be a satisfactory commercial one. The 

 fault of much of the college training for engineers, has been 

 the lack of this education of the common sense or judgment. 

 The result has often been graduates with as great a con- 

 tempt for the practical man as the latter could return. These 

 graduates have, it is needless to say, been a failure in their 

 calling, and it is such men that technical colleges should not 

 turn out. The best engineering schools desire to, and do, 

 turn out men who have a capacity for practical work and 

 research, and who are in a fair way to make useful engi- 

 neers. 



It is comparatively easy to properly teach the fundamental 

 theories, hence it is so frequently overdone. It is not so easy 

 to educate the judgment of a student in electrical engineer- 

 ing, whose entire knowledge of his future profession has 

 been acquired from the electric bells in his father's house, 

 and who may never have examined a dynamo or storage 

 battery until he visited the college laboratories. But it is 

 wonderful how rapidly such students, when of good timber, 

 absorb a beginner's information and a thirst for investigation. 

 In this part of a student's education, the manufacturers and 

 large users of electrical apparatus, who have become directly 

 or indirectly interested in the work of the graduates, can 

 assist with little direct inconvenience and much indirect ad- 

 vantage. In a properly organized technical school, as shown 



above, the student gains his fundamental theory during the 

 first three years, and, if of good timber, he will absorb much 

 of the practical methods of thought required for successful 

 after- work. Moreover, a considerable part of the third year 

 is spent in practical instruction. As the fourth year is 

 wholly spent in practical training, or the education of the 

 common sense, the student must have some acquaintance 

 with the methods of commercial work before entering it, in 

 order that he may properly profit by the instruction. It is 

 impossible for many, and doubtless undesirable for the ma- 

 jority, to take a year from the midst of their college course 

 for outside work. The summer vacation between the third 

 and fourth years should, therefore, be occupied in some such 

 employment as wireman on electric light or telephone con- 

 struction, or better, in the station and repair-room of an 

 electric railway, under the eye of an appreciative superin- 

 tendent. Three months spent in this work may seem very 

 little, but it will do a deal of good in giving an apt student 

 a fair idea of how far exact formulas will carry him. It is 

 only by the generous co-operation of employers, that stj- 

 dents can obtain this summer's work. At first thought it 

 appears that the employer gains no advantage from it, but, 

 upon careful consideration, an advantage is evident. To 

 begin with, the properly trained student will not prove use- 

 less during the summer, and the satisfactory one will usually 

 find employment after graduation, with the interests of 

 those who afforded him summer work, and who thus gain 

 the benefit of his greater advancement during his last year at 

 college. In a similar manner, the manufacturer gains an 

 advantage from placing his apparatus in the technical school 

 laboratories for proper use in instruction. 



Suppose a student has completed the prescribed college 

 course, and has done a proper portion of repairing arma- 

 tures, stringing wires, or similar work, at some interval be- 

 tween his terms at college, what shall we call him ? A few 

 of the technical colleges of the front rank call their gradu- 

 ates engineers, but we have already seen that they must pass 

 through a transition period, during which the claim to the 

 title can be proved. To call an untried graduate an engineer 

 does not seem proper respect for himself or the successful 

 workers in his profession. The transition period may never 

 end for some graduates, while its length must always depend 

 upon the man. Until the graduate has been in practical 

 life a sufficient time to show his capacity, and has reached a 

 position of responsibility, he has no right to claim from his 

 college an engineer's degree. Upon this ground the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, as do many others, confers degrees in 

 engineering upon graduates of its engineering school of not 

 less than three years' standing, who have held engineering 

 positions of trust for at least one year. The minimum tran- 

 sition period is thus tacitly recognized as three years. Upon 

 completing his college course, the student is given a gradu- 

 ating degree of Bachelor of Science by the engineering 

 school, which is simply an endorsement by the University 

 that he has received a good technical college education and 

 is in a fair way to profit by it 



That the rigid specialization required in the technical 

 school may not diminish the graduate's field of vision and 

 thus his usefulness to society, is a matter of much concern. 

 'With the college left behind, there is little opportunity to 

 gain a broadening culture, except that received by contact 

 with broad men, while we have seen how little opportunity 

 for this can be afforded in the technical course. With this 

 in view, we recommend at the University of Wisconsin, 

 that all who can afford the time and money complete a four- 



