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VII. ON PEACTICAL SCIENTIFIC INSTKUCTION. 



By George Gore, F.K.S. 



The remarks in the following paper are directed more particularly 

 to education in physical and chemical science, not because there are 

 no other sciences to which they would apply, but because those are 

 the sciences selected as illustrations of scientific education. 



It is generally considered that of late years a more rapid pro- 

 gress has been made in trades and manufactures in America and in 

 some of the countries of Europe, more particularly in Prussia, than 

 in this country, and that this is chiefly due, not only to the exist- 

 ence of compulsory elementary education in some of those countries, 

 but also largely to the more general diffusion of scientific knowledge 

 amongst foreign workmen and directors of workmen. So far has 

 this opinion spread amongst those who are best informed upon the 

 subject, especially since the Paris Exhibition of 1867, that it is 

 thought unless great efforts are made in this country to ensure a 

 general and wide-spread knowledge of science, the prosperity of 

 our manufactures must speedily decline. 



To avert such a calamity "technical education" has been pro- 

 posed, and much has been said as to the means of supplying it. 

 " Technical education," in the fuller sense of the words, consists of 

 two things, viz. education in a school and instruction jn a manu- 

 factory ; but in the narrower sense it means the practical knowledge 

 and experience acquired during apprenticeship in a workshop. 



The object of " technical education " is essentially practical — it is 

 to make each pupil, whether intending to be a master or a workman, 

 better able to fulfil the duties of the special occupation in which he 

 is to be engaged ; for instance, to make a worker in brass a better 

 brass- worker ; an iron-smelter a more skilful smelter ; an electro- 

 plater a better plater ; a farmer a better farmer, &c. ; and the means 

 proposed for doing this is by a suitable course of scientific and tech- 

 nical culture at an early age. Ordinary school education is sup- 

 posed by some persons to be only intended to impart such a general 

 discipline of the mind as will fit a man for every employment, with- 

 out fitting him specially for anything. Technical education, on the 

 other hand, is more for the purpose of fitting a man for a special 

 pursuit. 



Some persons say technical skill is a quality which cannot be 

 imparted, — it is a gift of Nature. There is no man so great a 

 genius that education will not improve him ; skill in art does not 

 come wholly of itself, any more than knowledge of science does. 

 Under the present system multitudes of workmen of ordinary capa- 

 city in this country fail to learn because they have no proper teach- 



