June 22, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



into the best engineering forms, bearing in mind economy of mate- 

 rial, with least sacrifice of strength, best method of handling, man- 

 agement, and the like, he comes equipped to struggle with new 

 machines of which he has had no previous special knowledge. The 

 school cannot give to the student all this desirable latent power, or 

 stored energy, for much of it must come in later life from individ- 

 ual, unaided effort ; and the experiences of daily application (often 

 coupled with some degree of failure) must be the teachers which 

 never leave the side of the devotee of engineering science. But 

 these teachers are most efficient, if the student has been trained in 

 the engineering school both and ever to reason before beginning 

 ■work, and to check his previous reasoning by the results secured. 



If we regard the technical school from this aspect, it is plain why 

 the various prime movers play so important an element in the course 

 of instruction, to the disadvantage of other possibly equally impor- 

 tant machines. 



They are the most direct applications of very important and lead- 

 ing laws of physics ; and the intelligent discussion of the prime 

 movers calls for quite a knowledge of these laws, both in experi- 

 mental and mathematical form. The problems of mechanics are 

 ■splendidly embodied in the design of the various parts, and in 

 many diverse ways, modified as is the appUcation by the strains to 

 which the parts are submitted, the strength of the materials, and 

 the practical methods of their working. Every conceivable strain, 

 simple and compound, since it enters the working of the steam- 

 engine, for instance, comes up for corisideration, while all the 

 leading materials enter its construction. The prime movers act 

 as fine checks on the student's individual efforts at design, for they 

 represent the embodiment of centuries of application and develop- 

 ment by the best engineering talent. They give opportunity for 

 experimental verification of the laws of physics and mechanics as 

 well. 



In other words, I maintain that the main reason why the prime 

 movers play so important a factor, and occupy so leading a part, 

 in the course of study of a technical school, is not directly because 

 they are such great civilizing agents and have so wide an applica- 

 tion, but because they serve, as above indicated, as the best 

 method of study for the incipient engineer. I do not think that the 

 latter point has been sufficiently analyzed, emphasized, and made 

 ■clear, certain as I am that you will agree with me as to its impor- 

 tance and truth. 



And it is for the same reason that other far-reaching machinery, 

 such as I have mentioned, great as is its use, and important as is 

 its development, can have but little time devoted to its study in the 

 technical school. It is because, as engineering exercises, these 

 machines do not equal the prime movers ; and saving of time 

 commands that the best exercises be adopted. If the prime mov- 

 ers were far less important industrial factors than they really are, 

 their study would, in a well-regulated course of engineering, which 

 is planned not as an advertising medium, but is based on the prin- 

 ciple of serving the student best, be just as important a matter and 

 as conspicuous as is the case to-day. I think the point of view that 

 the machinery discussed in the schools should be the educational 

 means, should be the exercises adopted for testing and furthering 

 a knowledge of the laws of physics and mechanics, as embodied in 

 design, is an efficient answer to much of the criticism of the class 

 to which we have referred. 



If it be insisted on, that the reason so much time is devoted to 

 the prime movers (notably steam-engines) is because of their general 

 application in all industries, I will admit that this may have been the 

 cause why originally they were put down for so much attention. 

 Had it then, however, not been shown that they serve as well as 

 the best exercises in the application of the laws of physics, me- 

 chanics, and design, they could not have held their place, and 

 would, long ere this, have had to give way to the study of other 

 devices of less wide application which answered the educational 

 need better. 



I fully appreciate the view that it is commendable, indeed desir- 

 able, that the students, when graduating from technical schools, 

 should possess some general knowledge of the leading machines in 

 the market ; but the first essential thing is, that they should have 

 -acquired the ability to be useful workers in every field by being 

 possessed of a knowledge of the principles and methods of proced- 



ure which underlies all engineering works and machines and their 

 design. 



At the same time let us not be slow to learn all we can from 

 criticism honestly advanced ; and so, while I do not deem it an 

 essential matter, I say (cost, room, and time permitting) it were 

 well, perhaps, if some few important machines, now totally neg- 

 lected, could find some place as types in the engineering labora- 

 tories, and receive some brief attention by visits to the factories, or, 

 in some cases, by evening lectures delivered by specialists. To a 

 limited extent this might prove, it appears to me, a proper field for 

 non-resident lectureships. It is indeed a question whether such 

 lectures on special machines not at all studied in the school, de- 

 livered by acknowledged experts, would not prove more useful than 

 the growing practice of having matters that are gone over in detail 

 in the regular course reviewed hastily in brief discourse by leading 

 engineers. In the nature of things, these outsiders are apt to be 

 at sea in point of exact information as to the extent of preparation 

 and acquisition of their hearers, the students, in the special subject 

 under discussion, and thus are led to indulge in the dispensation of 

 elementary information or fruitless generalities, which add little or 

 nothing to the students' knowledge or ability. 



But, before even this special lecture course is undertaken, we 

 should make sure that any time which can be gained cannot be 

 more advantageously employed in a more thorough course of the 

 prime movers themselves ; for to-day it is a common experience 

 and regret, on the part of professors of engineering, that they cannot 

 find in the crowded curriculum much needed leisure to devote 

 to some important educational problems in design and applied 

 engineering which these prime movers offer. 



The general view that time is an important factor, that the best 

 attainable must be accomplished within a given time, and those 

 exercises be adopted which will serve as the best means of further- 

 ing a knowledge of the principles in their engineering aspect, and, 

 furthermore, the desirability to embrace every thing of real impor- 

 tance in the course, makes it a vital matter to constantly scrutinize 

 and keep close watch on the course pursued, in the hope of dis- 

 covering whether some matters studied might not be omitted or 

 advantageously modified, so as to give spare time to the essential. 



Regarding it from this aspect, it has occurred to me that some 

 of the theoretical preparatory studies pursued, such as mathematics, 

 physics, chemistry, and the like, — and I purposely omit languages, 

 belles-lettres, and those general academic branches having a less 

 intimate connection with the engineering course, — seem not to be 

 carried out in some particulars so as to secure the highest efficiency 

 from an engineering point of view. 



Let me call your attention to this point. Is it not remarkable 

 that essentially the same text-books on physics, chemistry, analyti- 

 cal mathematics, descriptive geometry, and the like, are studied at 

 engineering schools as at the ordinary academic course of a univer- 

 sity ? Does not this fact of itself almost imply that the studies, as 

 pursued, are not made to specially adapt themselves to the needs 

 of the applied studies of the engineer ? Could not some abstract 

 developments, now dwelt upon at length, be advantageously omit- 

 ted, while physical experiments and applications in heat, electricity, 

 and the Hke, be more copiously introduced as exercises, both with 

 the view of imparting a thorough hold on the abstract taught, and 

 also as imparting requisite useful information and methods of pro- 

 cedure ? It is my opinion, that, in the application of mathematics 

 to physical problems, even the mathematician, and certainly the 

 engineer, can best test and master a knowledge of the mathematics 

 themselves. 



How common is the experience of those who, having acquired in 

 the usual way, even from the best of masters, what they considered 

 a pretty fair hold on calculus, — and this embraces the experience 

 of many gifted students, — when they tried to apply this knowledge 

 in the study of the mechanical theory of heat, found they really had 

 no thorough grip on the calculus, as they had presumed, and had, 

 in fact, to start anew, with a decided loss of time, which might, it 

 seems to me, have been avoided ! 



I concede the value as fully, and am as anxious as any one to 

 guard the pursuit of knowledge in the abstract on its own account. 

 Still, I say, why not in plane, solid, descriptive, and analytical 

 geometry, and in calculus and other analytical mathematics, gaia 



