3/8 
GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1899. 
appear to be the only practical gain of this system and against this 
must be put the expense of two separate technical schools, one the 
Ordnance College for the higher training of men selected for appoint¬ 
ments, and another for the instruction of regimental officers generally. 
Method 4. Seeing that there is a necessity for a separate institu¬ 
tion at Woolwich to teach technical subjects, the simplest solution of 
the question is to form courses for regimental officers at 'this School 
of Instruction. The Ordnance College is already provided with well 
equipped chemical and electrical laboratories has the advantage of 
being able to make use of all the material in the Arsenal, not only in 
connection with guns, carriages and ammunition ; but with engines, 
boilers, machinery, electric light etc. etc.; technical instruction is its 
main object and that in the fullest sense of the term. By giving the 
training to all officers at the same place, a systematic course, including 
all the latest ideas, could be provided for, and a fixed standard work¬ 
ed up to. 
Supposing that every officer of the Garrison Artillery is put through 
a course in technical subjects after not less than two years service how 
many will have to be struck off duty annually for this purpose. It 
appears that about thirty-five to forty officers are added to the Gar¬ 
rison Artillery yearly. From this total must be deducted those offi¬ 
cers who go through such courses as the “Senior” or “Ordnance” with¬ 
out going through the regimental course, probably all that would 
be left would be thirty to thirty-five ; a very small number. The 
length of the course should be six months, longer if possible. When 
one comes to consider what the teaching of technical subjects means, 
how closely connected they are, the one to another, how for example 
in the teaching of electricity, some knowledge of chemistry, heat etc. 
is necessary, and so on with other subjects, and then that the applica¬ 
tion of all these subjects, chemistry, electricity, heat, steam, mechan¬ 
ism etc. has to be considered with reference to the various service pur¬ 
poses such as range finding instruments, communications, mountings, 
ammunition, firing gears etc. etc. one sees the uselessness of a course 
of less duration than six months. At the end of the course an officer 
should be allowed to spend a short time, from a fortnight to a month 
in studying that subject with which he is especially connected in his 
own company. For example an officer whose charge included range 
finding instruments might work for a few weeks with the Inspector of 
Range Finding, Woolwich, and so on. The proposition is that every 
officer in the Garrison Artillery, some time after two years service, 
shall go through a six months course at a service technical college. 
At first sight it would appear as if this would necessitate the with¬ 
drawal of many service officers from their companies for a long period 
of time, but I do not think this is so ; for first of all there are only 
some thirty officers to be put through annually, that is, with two 
courses, fifteen in each; these fifteen would have to be drawn from 
home companies or those near home, such as the Channel Islands, 
Malta or Gibraltar. With reference to this question of the withdraw¬ 
al of officers the following points must be considered: — 
(a) The period of the Long Course at Woolwich could be shorten- 
