3 68 
GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1 899. 
(a) Electricity.—Applied to position finding instruments, range 
dials, telephonic communications, firing gears, night sights, and an 
ever increasing number of purposes. 
(b) Mechanism—As seen in gun mountings, gears for elevating, 
traversing, breech closing etc. 
(c) The study of steam, gas or oil engines used in connection with 
hydraulic machinery and other purposes. 
(d) Hydraulics applied to mountings, loading gears etc. 
(e) Chemistry and heat, with reference to powders smokeless 
or otherwise, service explosives, or in connection with any other of 
the subjects enumerated, this being a science the application of which 
is very widely distributed. 
(f) Optics, dealing with telescopes for various purposes. 
(g) Metallurgy, especially in connection with those metals used in 
the manufacture of warlike stores. 
(h) An intimate acquaintance with all the principal stores classed 
under the heading of ‘ Guns ”, “ Carriages ” and “ Ammunition.” 
(i) Other minor subjects of less importance. 
As year by year these sciences will be more and more adapted for 
use, in connection with our Coast Artillery, it will I think become evi¬ 
dent that there must be two sides to the education of the Garrison 
Artillery officer, one “Military” and the other “Scientific”. It is with 
the scientific side that this essay has to deal and I will endeavour to 
shew that it is a necessary part of our education. 
If one takes a broad view of the present impetus for technical in¬ 
struction, one cannot but help feeling that if some similar system were 
introduced into the Garrison Artillery, it would have a great influence 
upon schemes of defence generally, by reason of the many modern¬ 
ising changes which would take place if all officers were as skilled in 
the scientific branches of their work as they are in the military por¬ 
tions. But if one looks at it from a narrower standpoint, one sees how 
this educational problem is daily getting more important, since it is 
fast becoming impossible for regimental officers to take charge of all 
warlike stores and materiel, because the scheme of their scientific 
education falls short of what is required for this purpose, and the re¬ 
sult has been that specialists have had to be introduced and are likely 
to go on increasing in number. 
With regard to technical education we are not so far removed from 
civil life as to make it impossible to draw comparisons, between what 
has been done in this matter during the last few years among the 
engineering and kindred classes, and the present tendency in the 
service. 
If one glances back at the history of “ Technical Instruction ” in 
civil life, one finds, that at first, attempts to give education to the 
workers, was looked upon in much the same way as technical courses 
are looked upon by many officers, and that one of the chief reasons 
why it was regarded with general distrust was, that this so-called 
“Technical Education” was never of a practical nature and men’s 
minds were imbued with theoretical ideas which were of no use to 
them in the carrying out of their every-day work. This feeling that 
