154 Transactions. — Miscdlancoiis. 



ill a block of wood made to revolve rapidly. It would also do well to show 

 the constant boiling point of the different compounds in a substance subjected 

 to fractional distillation, and for many other experiments. Mr. Ward, of the 

 School of Mines, has suggested that it would be useful for fractional distilla- 

 tion at high temperatures, for which the mercurial thermometer is not 

 available. I have had a thermometer made with brass instead of zinc for the 

 purpose of making experiments extending over some time in order to ascertain 

 if the instrument is reliable for purposes of observation at comparatively high 

 temperatures. When the thermometer is required to be sensitive to a very 

 small alteration of temperature I have used two such bundles side by side; 

 these two bundles are connected together by a diagonal piece of steel from the 

 top of one bundle to the bottom of the other. The two pieces supporting the 

 pins are brought up together, one from each of the other ends of the bundle 

 of strips. I may mention to any one wanting such thermometers that Mr. 

 Ladd, London, and Mr. IsToble, Christchurch, have made thorn, and are 

 consequently conversant with their construction. The dotted lines on the cut 

 represent zinc, and the continuous ones near them steel. 



Art. XVII. — A Scheme of University and General Education. By A. W. 

 BiCKERTON, F.C.S., Associate, Koyal School of Mines and Professor of 

 Chemistry in Canterbury College. 



\_Iicad before the Phllosoplucal Institute of Canterbury, 28th October, 1874.] 



. It is now a well established fact that from economical motives alone it is a 

 profitable investment for a country to give a fair education to its inhabitants. 

 It is even believed by many that the education of all might profitably be 

 extended considerably beyond what is now called "elementary education." 

 When a boy enters a workshop or an office his time for being regularly 

 taught has generally passed. All he meets with are too busily engaged other- 

 wise to give him any careful instruction. What he has now to do is to keep 

 his eyes open and learn for himself. It is frequently the case that with badly 

 trained reasoning powers he learns only by "rule of thumb," and there are but 

 few could give reasons for what they do. The result of this is, that disastrous 

 failures constantly occur when something has to be done out of the "regular 

 groove." The heaps of spoilt materials, often of splendid workmanship, which 

 are to be found in almost all old workshops, are monuments of this wasteful 

 ignorance. It is scarcely possible to conceive the amount of time lost and 

 the number of valuable lives wasted in attempting things which a slight 

 knowledge of natural laws would have demonstrated to be impossible. Per- 

 petual-motion engines, fly-wheels to increase the sum of work from a uniform 



