',1
ARTES
LIBRARY
18371
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN |
AML
QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMUS VA)
CIRCUMSPICE
SYSTEMATIC
TECHNICAL EDUCATION
FOR THE
ENGLISH PEOPLE.
T
107.
R96
SYSTEMATIC
68016
TECHNICAL EDUCATION
FOR THE
ENGLISH PEOPLE.
BY
JO SCOTT RUSSELL, ESQ., M.A.,
=
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON;
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH;
MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE ;
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARTS;
•
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS;
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS ;
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS.
LONDON:
BRADBURY, EVANS, & CO., 11, BOUVERIE ST.
1869.
[The Right of Translation is reserved.]
LONDON:
BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
лвин
Reclass
8-16-39
Dedication
ΤΟ
HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY
THE QUEEN.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
The object of this Volume is to move the
minds of English Statesmen towards making the English
Nation the Best Educated People in Europe.
This effort can be excused only by making the
admission that there are now better-educated Nations in
Europe than the English.
1
That is a sad truth. This Volume proves it shows
how it has come about-shows the way to set it right.
The object of this Dedication is to entreat Your
Majesty graciously to consider the case of the uneducated
English Folk, who are now suffering great misfortune in
their Trades, Commerce, and Manufactures, as well as in
their Social, Moral, and Intellectual condition, through
having been neglected and allowed to fall behind other
Nations, better cared for, by the men whose duty it was to
lead as well as to govern the People.
vi
DEDICATION.
It is the humble prayer of the Author that it may
please Your Majesty to issue your most gracious commands
to Your Majesty's Ministers, to see to it, that for the
future the dexterous, energetic, willing working People of
England receive at the hands of their Government a prac-
tical Education for useful life, as thorough and systematic
as the Best Educated Nation in Europe.
If Your Majesty will only say the word, the thing
will be done, and a generation of Educated English men and
English women will speedily come forward and bless Your
Majesty for having given it the greatest blessing an
Enlightened Monarch can bestow on a loving People.
That is the fervent prayer of
Your Majesty's very obedient, old, and
grateful Servant,
J. SCOTT RUSSELL.
SYDENHAM HILL,
1 March, 1869.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I
THE APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK.
PAGE
English dislike to education.-The English an ill-educated nation.—
The national advantage of organised education.-Successful edu-
cation of foreign nations.-To be emulated by the English.—The
money value of systematic education.-Better than gold.-Apology
for the author.-His technical education and experience.-Ex-
ample of a successful English technical college.-The Royal School
of Naval Architecture.-All other professions equally require tech-
nical colleges.-Classes of Englishman in want of technical edu-
cation.-A. Table of professions.-B. Table of trades.-C. Table
of crafts
1
CHAPTER II.
AN EDUCATED NATION.
Systematic education in Germany.-Fragmentary education in England.
-Patriotism of Germany in education.- Evils of partial educa-
tion:-Corrected by complete education.-Englishmen put to the
test of decision.-Shall England be well or ill educated ?—Value
of system in national education.-Education diffused on the Conti-
nent.-Education of two kinds, general and special.-The five edu-
cational periods:-Begin with the sixth and end with the twenty-
first year.-Education identical through all ranks of society.—
Systematic organisation.-General and special education.-School
in aid.-Apprentice school.-Educational organisation of military
service.-Education of the third period. Where shall general edu-
cation end, and teaching begin ?-When it has to end with the
third period—When it continues.-Fourth period the right begin-
ning of technical education.-Technical college and gymnasium, or
classical college.-Separation into literary and technic.—Univer-
sities, literary and technic.-The two last the technic periods.—
Fourth period learned or technic: (1) The gymnasium or college ;
(2) The technical college. The fifth period: (1) The learned
university; (2) The technical university.—Table of systematic
education
•
•
•
11
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
PAGE
THE PRACTICAL ORGANISATION OF SYSTEMATIC AND TECH-
NICAL EDUCATION ABROAD, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
Organisation abroad.—A small German kingdom.—Würtemberg, with
1,778,478 souls, one-twelfth of England-Has a technical univer-
sity-A college for masters and foremen-Colleges for agriculture,
gardening, forestry, farming, and farriery-Eighty-eight grammar
schools and science schools in country towns-Elementary and in-
dustrial schools.-English education calculated on the same scale.—
Table showing the number and nature of universities, colleges, and
schools, professors, masters, and pupils, in the kingdom of Würtem-
berg.-Organisation of technical universities, colleges, and schools:
-One technical university-One college for masters and foremen
-Three colleges for agriculture, gardening, and forestry— One
college for animal culture and medicine-One school for art-work-
-Eighty-eight high schools and science schools - Village
schools.—Table of organisation.-Practical results of systematic
national education.-Character, manners, works.-An educated
peasant.-A revolution among educated peasants.-An educated
mob.-Common street life.-Money making in educated nations.—
Economy of public works.-Political eminence of educated nations:
Prussia. An organised democracy of educated men.-The edu-
cated citizen-soldier.-The army a university.-An educated people
a nation of patriots.—Wealth in trade dependent on education
CHAPTER IV.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION A NATIONAL WANT.
Educated, helpful, patriotic citizens, the real wealth of a nation.—Know-
ledge helps work, hinders waste.-Educated skill a way to wealth
and well-doing.—English aversion to technical education.-General
belief in England's perpetual supremacy :-A national error, its
correction.-National lessons :-Lesson I., 1851.-Lesson II., 1857.
--Lesson III., 1862.—Lesson IV., 1867, reformation, education.—
Practical examples of benefits arising from organised technical
education :-In iron manufactures-In iron armour and ships-
In artillery—In railway plant-In manufactures of machinery—
In quantity and price-In intelligent workmanship-In the Eng-
lish specialty of steel work.-Results of a generation of foreign
technical education.--One generation of fifteen years lost to Eng-
land.--Testimony of technical men to our national want of tech-
nical education : Jurors - Government reporters-Government
commissioner-Working men.-I. Jurors.-Schools Commission.—
II. Reports of Government Commissioner.—III. Reports of work-
men.-Workmen on technical training :-A chair maker—A hosier
—A stone-mason—A china painter-A wood carver-Birmingham
artisans.—Summing up the evidence.
27
77
CONTENTS.
ix
CHAPTER V.
THE TRUE WAY TO EXCELLENCE IN WORK AND EXCELLENCE
IN WORKMEN.
PAGE
The same education for masters and men.—Mutual good understanding.
-Separate education of ranks in society an evil.-Leads to misun-
derstanding and estrangement.-The master ceases to unite and
lead his men; the men seek other leaders.-Estrangement of
masters from men deteriorates both. The master descends from
skilled leader to become mere middle-man.-With the master the
work also loses caste.-The skilled master gone, the skilled foremen
and men go also.-Excellence ceases to be the aim of work.—
Cheapness is installed lord of work. The building trades:-Con-
ditions of excellence Causes of decadence. The unskilled
master-builder :-Unskilled in workmanship-Unskilled in ma-
terials. The master-workman's functions resigned to middle-men.
-These causes lead to the degradation of character, in work and
in workmen.-Ugliness, untruth, and unsoundness of work.—Skill
disappears under the reigning maxim of "cheap work" to be
sold “dear.”—The old way to wealth, by good work at fair prices.—
The new way to wealth, by bad work at low prices.-The remedy
for degradation of work and workmen.-Equality of education
will redress extremes of earnings-Will raise the rates of wages
for skilled labour-And diminish the extremes of social inequality 115
CHAPTER VI.
THE TWO SORTS OF EDUCATION-GENERAL OR GYMNASTIC—
SPECIAL OR TECHNIC.
Education, technic and non-technic-Non-technic orgymnastic.-Tech-
nical education.
national system
Nature of technical training. - Value of a
131
CHAPTER VII.
PRESENT STATE OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.
Five millions of Englishmen.-Two millions and a quarter of boys.
-One and a quarter million lads.-Three millions and a half
of males requiring education and technical training.—Teaching
wanted.-Schools wanted.-Classification of schools and scholars.
-Technical school and science teachers wanted.-Technical schools
and science teaching given.-State of English technical-education.
-Good education for the rich :- Individual universities, schools,
and teachers of the best gort.-Wants expansion, organisation,
X
CONTENTS.
PAGE
system.-Conditions of an organised system for England.-Ex-
amples of good technical institutions in England :-School of
Mines-College of Chemistry-College of Naval Architecture-
King's College-University College-Owen's College-Agricul-
tural College-Diocesan School of Chester-Engineering College,
Putney-Birkbeck and Mechanics' Institutions.-These institutions
only educate 25,000 out of 1,260,000 youths.-Estimate for the
better teaching of English youths in the period of science and
technical instruction
•
135
CHAPTER VIII.
A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ABROAD.
English impressions of a foreign university :-In Berlin-Carlsruhe
- Stuttgardt - Austria-Hanover-Switzerland-Zurich.-Swiss
public education.-Swiss patriots and statesmen—Their tech-
nical university in Zurich.-Zurich a model for England.-The
patriotism and liberality of Swiss citizens in matters of common
good.—The technical university of the Swiss nation, Zurich :-
Government of the university-List of professorships and courses
of instruction-Free choice of courses, subjects, and professors—
Organised curriculum for special professions. -Eleven modern
professions.-The eight divisions of Zurich.-Organisation of time
and place. Plan of hours in the architectural division.-Material
apparatus of education.-Observatory of practical astronomy.—
Laboratory of practical chemistry.-Museum of engineering works
and drawings.-Museum of engines and machinery.—Laboratory
for chemical research.-Museum of architecture.—Antiquarian,
zoological, botanical, and geological collections.-English teaching
deficient in material apparatus: from poverty?— Criticism of
Zurich.-Due mixture of practical work with theoretical study.
-Avoiding the danger of cram.-Conclusion.-Cost of the uni-
versity.-Practical results of education in Zurich.-Criticism
•
145
CHAPTER IX.
THE TWO LEARNED UNIVERSITIES OF ENGLAND GYMNASTIC
AND NON-TECHNIC.
The word "gymnastic."-Our universities eminently gymnastic.—
Gymnastic education preliminary to technic.-Modern technical
occupations :-The statesman-The divine, doctor, lawyer-Soldier,
sailor, architect, &c.-The learned universities technical for the
divine, doctor, lawyer
•
178
CONTENTS.
xi
CHAPTER X. ·
OUR MODERN PROFESSIONS, AND THE KINDS OF TECHNICAL
EDUCATION THEY WANT.
What shall be our technical education ?-Where to draw the line be-
tween gymnastic and technic.-It must vary with each profession.
-For the agriculturist ?-For the miner ?-For the metallurgist?
-For the merchant?-For the manufacturer?-For the machinist?
-For the civil engineer ?—For the architect ?-For sea-faring
professions ?-For men of science, professors, and teachers ? .
PAGE
185
CHAPTER XI.
SHALL WE CREATE NEW INSTITUTIONS, OR ROB OLD ONES?
Existing institutions should be enlarged and strengthened, not robbed
or straitened.-Education of skilled men a good investment of
national wealth.-The new institutions will give usefulness and
development to the old.-Endowed schools a wise expenditure of
trade corporation funds. Two millions of skilled men require to
be educated.-Technical schools no rivals of elementary schools-
Nor of secondary schools.-Technical schools supplementary to
high schools and grammar schools.-New technical schools should
be established in all towns.-Technical colleges wanted in all
cities.-Technical universities should be independent and new
institutions
. 212
CHAPTER XII.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-ITS SUBSTANCE
AND SCOPE.
An educated English nation.-Higher degrees of professional educa-
tion. The professions that require it:-Class I., the old profes-
sions, partly provided for-Class II., new professions, untaught
-Class III., leaders and teachers.-Twenty-one professions un-
taught. Advantage of teaching many professions in one
building.-Table
. 227
xii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, ITS TEACHING
AND TEACHERS.
PAGE
Technical education, hitherto traditional, must now become scientific.
-Wide fields of modern science.-Wide knowledge, sound know-
ledge.--Narrow knowledge dangerous.-Nature of human know-
ledge.-Law merely the form of power.-Laws of matter nature.--
Laws of human nature. The two divisions of knowledge:
Sciences, philosophies.-Object of the sciences.-Object of the
philosophies.- Two divisions in our university:-Schools of science,
schools of philosophy.-Mathematics.-Physics.-Cosmology.—
Biology.-Philosophy of mind. Speech.- History.— Society.—
Selection of studies.-Omission of theology, law and medicine.
-Table of two philosophies.- Professors and professorships:-In
mathematics-In physics-In astronomy, geography, geology—
In natural history-In the philosophies-In special applications
of science.-Number and nature of special technical applications
of science .
236
CHAPTER XIV.
OUR
ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ITS STUDENTS,
THEIR PROFESSIONS IN LIFE, AND CURRICULUM OF
STUDY.
Education of the twenty-two modern professions .
CHAPTER XV.
. 270
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-ITS METHODS AND
MECHANISM OF INSTRUCTION.
Methods of teaching.-Sink or swim.-Want of competent technical
teachers.—Total want of provision for high technical teaching or
teachers. High science.-The gift of teaching.-Practical skill.—
Technical teaching aims always at use.-Technical men for techni-
cal teaching.-The best men in the nation to be taken for teachers.
-Method of teaching in our university.-Illustration from technic
geometry.-Arts giving form to matter.-Material mechanism of
teaching.-Museum of geometry.-Halls of illustration.-Museums
of each science.-Hall of geometry.—Hall of mechanics.-Hall of
physical science.-Hall of chemistry.-Hall of astronomy and
geology.—Hall of nature.—Botanical garden.-Astronomical, elec-
tric, and meteorological observatory.-Hall of zoology.-Chemical
and mechanical laboratories.-Drawing schools and workshops.-
Experimental school.-School for original research.-Apparatus for
illustrations of teaching.-Good teaching will employ many
methods and various instruments
283
CONTENTS.
xiii
CHAPTER XVI.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-ITS GOVERNMENT,
WORKING, AND FINANCE.
PAGE
Knowledge goes from above downwards in society, not upwards.-High
education above must raise education below.—Money value of edu-
cation for a nation.-Past war costs twenty-five millions per annum.
-Coming war costs twenty-five millions per annum.—What should
the culture of all England cost?-Five millions ?—A grant for
technical universities of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
-Government of the technical university.—Table of finance
•
303
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SYSTEMATIC EDUCATION AND
THE TRANSITION PERIOD OF CIVILISED COUNTRIES.
Changing material conditions.-Changing relations of men and nations
-Require changes in our own culture.-Knowledge which was sup-
plied for the past, worthless for the future.-Training required for
the future.-Foreign tongues wanted for wide world commerce.—
Requisites of the rapid revolutions of modern trade.-The uni-
versal adoption of machinery for works of mere routine and brute
force.—Revolution in seafaring life.-A revolution in commerce.
-Principals and middle-men.-Loss of value to the public.-Loss
of character to the producer.-Necessity of higher training for the
merchant and manufacturer.-A moral revolution in commerce
and trade.-A revolution in mechanical engineering trade and
public works.-Revolution in chemical trades.-Higher morality
of an educated, skilled community.
. 313
CHAPTER XVIII.
WAYS, MEANS, AND ORGANISATION FOR THE SYSTEMATIC
TECHNICAL EDUCATION OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.
Organisation of education the business of Government.—Who will
undertake it ?-The educated workmen earn double wages.-In-
creased national revenue from skilled industry.-Difference in
value between highly-manufactured goods and rough raw material.
-Wanted, a fit minister of public education-A competent coun-
cil of education-Skilled teachers of technical science.-Duty of
Government.-Duty of local authorities.-Special education for
local trades and works.-Central university.-Local technical
colleges.-Country trade schools.-Cost of these institutions for
England.-Table
330
xiv
CONTENTS.
•
CHAPTER XIX.
THE ORGANISATION OF FIFTEEN LOCAL TECHNICAL COL-
LEGES IN THE CHIEF CENTRES OF ARTS, MANUFAC-
TURES, AND COMMERCE.
PAGE
The fifteen local technical colleges:-To be organised as preparatory to
the university-And also as finishing schools for local industry,
commerce, and agriculture.-Their science teaching-Their tech-
nical teaching-Its practical nature suited to the wants of the
district-Its teachers must teach the practical work of the district.
-Agriculture.-Building trades.-Collections of examples of best
designs, materials, and workmanship.-Mechanical trades, laws of
matter and work.-Work in metals.-Textile workers and works.
-Effect of education on taste, wages, and wealth.-Textile educa-
tion.—Decorative design.-—Colouring.—Courses of study.—Educa-
tion of merchants in commercial cities.-Education of miners in
mining districts.-Education of sailors and shipbuilders in seaport
towns
•
345
CHAPTER XX.
A TECHNICAL COLLEGE ABROAD.
Special nature of a local technical college. To fit the skilled trades of
the district-Pattern technical college.-Special for the building
trades. Classes of workmen.-Divisions of their education.-Pro-
fessors and teachers.-Courses of teaching:-First course-Second
course - Third course-Fourth course-Fifth course
. 370
CHAPTER XXI.
ON ENGLISH CLASS EDUCATION, OR THE EDUCATION OF
CASTE.
Marked distinctions of caste in English universities.-Teachers of the
poor, and teachers of the rich.-Ought the poor to be ill taught ?—
Do not the difficulties of poor scholars require able teachers?—The
poor scholars' school.-Necessity of refined teaching.-Middle-class
teaching should be also the highest-class teaching.—Higher class
teaching must not be lowered.—Middle and lower class teaching
must be raised.-Abolition of class distinctions, its social value.—
Are not technical schools class schools, inevitably ?--Therefore
elementary schools should be broad, not narrow
•
383
CONTENTS.
XV
CHAPTER XXII.
THE ORGANISATION OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS, SCIENCE
SCHOOLS, AND TRADE SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT ENGLAND.
PAGE
Higher technical schools to be placed in centres of twenty thousand
inhabitants.—Education of higher scholars in science and skill.–
Ages 12-15.-School in two divisions:-I. Preparatory for the tech-
nical college--II. Finishing school for skilled trades-III. Night
courses for the extended education of Division II. —List of teachers.
-Six teachers for special local teaching.-These will be preparatory
schools for technical colleges and universities.
CHAPTER XXIII.
391
THE ORGANISATION OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS FOR TRAINING
SKILLED WORKMEN AND APPRENTICES THROUGHOUT
ENGLAND.
""
Educated craftsmen only can achieve perfect work.-Educated work-
men do the commonest work better than the uneducated.-Edu-
cation teaches quick, easy ways of work.-Ignorant men waste
materials, tools, and time.-Improvements of great value to society
are lost from want of skilled men to use them.-Value of education
even for "unskilled occupations.- Education the essence of
skilled trades.—Geometry.-Laws of motion, force, and mechanics.
-Better schools, teachers, and teaching.-New laws of apprentice-
ship. Short time of schooling.-Education of apprentices the
only way to educate skilled workmen.--National want of organ-
ised village and workmen's schools:-1. Elementary village school
-2. Upper village school-3. Town higher school-4. Village
evening science schools.-Exhibitions for apprentices.-Table
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TECHNICAL EDUCATION OF THE ENGLISHWOMAN.
The English home.-Woman's work, home administration.-Founda-
tion of home.-Wise spending of husband's earnings.-Value and
economy of fuel.-Wise treatment of fuel.-Value of food:-Money
value-Health value-Strength value.-Cookery :-Waste-Fru-
gality. Family clothing :-Choice of materials- Cutting and shap-
ing-Sewing, embroidery, mending.-Knowledge of laws of health
and disease.-Prevention, not cure.-Religion.-Family education
and training is special woman's work.-Woman's education should
consist of that of all her children.--Virtue of mothers' teaching.
-Seven years of home education.-Seven years of school helping.
-Mothers' help in higher education.-This higher education of
special use to the poor man's wife.-An educated home. The lone
woman.-Education the special business of woman
•
399
414
xvi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXV.
WILL ENGLAND CHOOSE TO BE EDUCATED?
PAGE
What are the chances of England's becoming educated ?-Why should
another.country be better educated than England ?-Education in
other countries one generation ahead of England. The time for
the education of one generation is past and lost.-Whose fault was
it ?-Look to the future.-I. Find a fit minister of public educa-
tion.- Many difficulties obstruct him.-English prejudice and
apathy. Will the aristocracy take an earnest lead?-Why they
should.-Difficulties in Commons.-The opponents of education.—
A high class of teachers indispensable.-Distinguished men can be
obtained. The rank and condition of professors, teachers, and
schoolmasters must be raised.-Working men will not accept
inferior teachers.-The organisation of teaching must be complete
and systematic.--The succession of technical schools, colleges, and
universities must form a continuous series.-Success and failure
depend entirely on finding a fit man to be Minister of Education,
and making him strong
•
•
426
TECHNICAL EDUCATION
FOR THE
ENGLISH PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
THE APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK.
The aim of this book.-A crusade against ignorance.-English education
neglected. One generation behind.-Educate the new generation.-
Apology for the book.-The national advantage of organised educa-
tion.-Successful education of foreign nations.-To be emulated by
the English.-The money value of systematic education.-Better than
gold —Apology for the author. His technical education and experi-
ence. Example of a successful English technical college.-The Royal
School of Naval Architecture.-All other professions equally require
technical colleges.-Classes of Englishmen in want of technical educa-
tion.-A. Table of professions.-B. Table of trades.-C. Table of crafts.
this book.
THE practical aim of this book is to enlist in one Aim of
army of co-operation, English statesmen, patriots, men
of education, men of refinement, men of work, for a
crusade against ignorance, disorganisation, and neglect,
which disgrace our government, distress our manufac-
tures and commerce, and hinder our progress and well-
being.
against
This ignorance consists mainly in not knowing how A crusade
ill our people are educated; how well some other ignorance.
peoples have been educated; and how much good those
others have received from that better education. This
B
2
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
English
education
disorganisation has arisen from our not having
thought fit to give the English people the same syste-
matic training for their duties in life, by the same
national expenditure, the same Government interven-
tion, the same popular institutions, and the same pro-
fessional training, which have enabled the working
men of other countries to acquire in a short time, high
degrees of skill, intelligence, and training, and so to
change their relative position to ourselves, in their
own favour.
This neglect has grown from the belief that educa-
neglected. tion is of small use in real life and practical work;
that Englishmen require or deserve less education than
other breeds of men; or that it is the business of those
who are wanting in education to find it for themselves.
In other words, that the blind should teach the blind.
One gene-
ration be-
hind.
One consequence of this is, that our Legislature and
our Government must now bear the blame of not
having thought it consistent with their place and
duty to foresee and provide as good an education for
the English craftsman as other Governments have
provided for foreign craftsmen.
Another consequence is, that our rich men, capi-
talists, and masters, must now bear the burden of
having allowed the Government they should have
moved, but did not, to neglect the duty of educating
and training the people; and they must take blame
to themselves for having allowed many branches
of trade, skill and commerce, which yielded to
England the greatest remuneration, brought to her
commerce the greatest reputation, and afforded to her
people the highest wages and best work, to pass away
into the hands of better educated peoples, in foreign
lands guided by wiser heads.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
3
A third consequence of past neglect is, that the
time when we could have educated the present gene-
ration of Englishmen is gone by. We are "too late."
We of this generation must suffer from want of work,
want of wealth, and want of rank as a nation, until
we can by pains and labour rear a new generation, fit
to hold the place among nations from which we have
fallen.
the new
It is because it is now too late to mend this gene- Educate
ration, that I entreat statesmen, men of education, generation.
refinement and skill-men versed in the knowledge of
the civil organisation of other lands-those who have
not sunk patriotism in that narrow selfishness which
calls itself "personal freedom and independence "— to
unite in an enduring effort to begin from this day a
systematic, organised, national crusade against igno-
rance; and to resolve that the citizen of England is
by race, breeding and moral character, entitled to
receive, and able to turn to profit, as good an edu-
cation as the more favoured citizens of other
nations.
lish an ill-
If it be true that we dislike education, or at least The Eng-
like it in the least possible quantity; if it be true educated
that we dislike system, organisation, and methodical nation.
control; if it be true that we despise the paternal
Governments of foreign nations, and spurn inter-
ference, control or direction from the executive of our
own Government, in matters of every day and vital
importance to ourselves; then this book requires a
triple apology, for it advocates a far higher measure
of education than has ever yet been provided for us,
organised in a systematic manner, which must be in
great measure borrowed from nations we have long
affected to despise; and which, in order to be effectual,
B 2
4
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Apology for
the book.
The na-
tional ad-
vantage of
organised
education.
must be the work of statesmen wielding the powers of
the Legislature, and compelling us to do what we
dislike with our own.
The triple apology which the author has to offer for
assuming this invidious, odious, ungrateful task, is,
First: That he has been unwillingly driven by long
observation abroad, to the conclusion, that the English
nation is nearly the worst educated of the peoples
of modern Europe. Second: That our power, wealth,
influence and moral character, are now suffering
deeply, and are for the future likely to suffer much
more, if the systematic, elementary, scientific, and
technical education of the people be not at once
organised and made universal, and, by the intervention
of our Government, rendered effectual. Third: The
writer is thoroughly convinced that organised and
systematic education is possible in this country;
that the people are by nature so docile, so fond of
giving out their energies in useful work, and take so
much pride in the excellence of what they have learnt
to execute, that they deserve and would well reward
the pains and care of the statesmen who should under-
take their elementary, scientific and technical education;
and with this conviction he finds, that what mainly
hinders our acquiescence in organised education is
the ignorance of what such education is, and their
inability to see it carried out.
It is the aim of this book to show how to form a
nation of well-educated Englishmen; where each
workman shall thoroughly know his work; where each
foreman shall thoroughly understand the right princi-
ples and best methods of executing that work; and
where each master of a manufactory, and each member
of a profession, shall have received the highest edu-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
cr
cation in the philosophical principles and modern
methods of his art, science, or profession.
education
It is the further object of this book to show that Successful
these are not idle theories of an abstract thinker, nor of foreign
dreams of an enthusiastic socialist. It will show that nations.
the most advanced nations of Europe are those where
education has been most diffused, best organised, and
most thoroughly fitted to use. It will show that the
rivals we have raised up to our trade, our commerce,
and our power, have employed as the most powerful
instruments of rivalry, a national system of science
and trade education, such as we have scarcely con-
ceived, much less brought into general use. Further, To be emu-
this book professes to make the principles of a national English.
system of education so clear, the methods of organ-
ising it so simple, and the good to be derived from it
so plain, that it shall only remain for the English
people to decide whether they will accept or refuse it.
1
lated by the
value of
education.
It is even the object of this work to point out The money
what the money value of an educated English citizen systematic
is, over the money value of an uneducated English
boor. It is shown how easily education might double
the value of the work done, of the profit reaped, and
of the wages received. £25 represents the actual
cost in education of a highly skilled over a skill-less
workman. In other words, the cost of producing a
skilled workman is less than one year's purchase of his
increased value to the nation. If then, the matter
were put before the English merchant as a question
of mere pecuniary investment, it might be done in
this shape: "Some nations abroad advance to poor
meritorious men the school fees for their superior
education, as a loan to be repaid without interest." If
the nation were to advance as a loan to each working
6
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Better than
gold.
man, the cost of his superior education, it would be
paid back by th part of the increase of his weekly
wages.
2
Such is the profit and loss account of systematic
and technical education, carried out by the nation on
the capital of the nation.
I have not been led to this money account of the
value of education by any conviction of my own that
the sordid is the wise method of reasoning, or that the
English people or their statesmen would be more moved
by that than by other higher considerations. My own
opinion regarding the wealth of nations has quite
another standard. The greatest nation is not, in my
mind, that which has, like the Dutch, the largest
amount of gold and silver coin buried in its cellars,
nor that which, like the French, has the largest store
of bullion in the State bank; but that, to my mind, is
the greatest nation which counts the largest number of
well-trained, virtuous, and well-doing citizens, patriotic,
frugal and religious. That is the wealth by which it
my heartfelt desire to see my country distinguished.
In addition to this apology for the book itself, the
author owes a few words of apology to the reader for
having ventured to undertake its authorship. He is
himself a technical man, deeply desirous of obtaining
for all technical men the advantages to be derived
from early education and fit training. He desires to
acknowledge the great benefit he has through life
derived from having in his youth enjoyed the triple
advantage of university education in the humanities,
a course of mathematical and theoretical education,
and a thorough workshop training. The earlier part
cation and of his professional life was devoted to the advance-
ment of the scientific and technical knowledge peculiar
Apology
for the
author:
His tech-
nical edu-
experience.
is
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
7
to his own technical duties, and to the diffusion of
such knowledge among the members of his profession.
The middle portion of his life has given him experi-
ence in the practical duties of his profession on the
largest scale, and in the most arduous tasks; and he
now knows, by long experience, the virtues and the
defects of the English system, or want of system, in
the education and training of the various classes of
craftsmen, from the mere labourer to the most skilled
artisan. It is therefore after a life of long and large
technical experience that he now ventures to express
opinions designed to benefit mainly the race of technical
men who are to succeed this passing generation.
a successful
technical
college.
It may not be irrelevant to add that in this endea- Example of
vour to obtain for the young generation of English- English
men as good a technical education as that which is
given to the youth of any other nation, he is only
striving to extend to them a boon which he has
already had the privilege to assist in obtaining for the
rising members of his own profession.
The Royal College of Naval Architecture at Ken-
sington is one of the few establishments created by
the British Government for the technical education of
its professional men.
The author was one of those members of the Insti-
tution of Naval Architects who urged on the Govern-
ment of the day the establishment of that technical
college. Aided by Sir J. Pakington, they succeeded
in obtaining the necessary endowment. Her Majesty,
who has always been a true friend to the cause of
superior education, authorised the founding of a royal
college. Mr. Cole at Kensington organised the ap-
propriation of buildings and an establishment to that
purpose; the Constructor of the Navy's department
The Royal
School of
Naval Ar-
chitecture.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
All other
professions
equally re-
quire tech-
nical col-
leges.
Classes of
English-
men in
want of
technical
education.
aided in the organisation of the school; and under Mr.
Merrifield as Principal, and Dr. Woolley as Admiralty
Inspector, the Royal College of Naval Architecture is
now a type of that class of institutions which no
English profession ought to continue deprived of, and
where young Englishmen may obtain a training which
they need not be ashamed to compare with that of
similar institutions abroad.
The classes of Englishmen for whom systematic
technical education is required, and for whom scarcely
any means have been provided, are so numerous, that
those professions which are trained form rare excep-
tions. As a rule, technical education does not exist.
By technical education of course I mean, not that
general education which we all ought to have, and
which helps to make us intelligent, able, good men,
but that special education in our calling which should
fit and enable each of us to discharge in the best
manner the special narrow round of duty by which
each citizen fills his own personal place in social life.
The following tables comprehend in three classes
the professions, trades, and crafts, every one of which
requires, and should be provided with, special educa-
tion. In the first category, slender but inadequate
education is provided in England; for the second,
scarcely any; and for the third, nearly none.
extent of the want may be judged by the fact that
these classes comprehend nearly a million and a half
of Englishmen.
The
5
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
9
CLASSES FOR WHOM SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL
EDUCATION IS NECESSARY,
A.
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR-
1. The Statesman.
2. The Theologian.
I.
3. The Lawyer.
4. The Doctor.
(These four are already provided for by the Universities.)
5. The Agriculturist.
6. The Miner.
7. The Metallurgist.
8. The Merchant.
9. The Manufacturer.
10. The Civil Engineer.
11. The Mechanical Engineer.
12. The Machinist.
II.
13. The Architect.
14. The Naval Architect.
15. The Ship Owner.
16. The Marine Engineer.
17. The Sailor.
18. The Practical Chemist.
19. The Astronomer.
20. The Surveyor.
(Some of these are provided for by Government in the Royal Schools of
Mines and of Naval Architecture, which might form portions of the future
Systematic Course of Education).
III.
21. The Professor of Pure Science.
22. The Professor of Literature.
23. The Professor of Fine Art.
24. The Teacher or Schoolmaster.
25. The Political Economist.
(Some of these are imperfectly provided for in Universities and Schools.)
B.
HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR SKILLED OCCUPATIONS
AND TRADES AS TRAINING FOR-
1. Directors.
2. Practical Superintendents.
3. Foremen.
4. Leading Workmen.
5. Practical Farmers.
6. Superintendents,
Surveyors,
and Engineers of mines,
metal works, rolling mills,
and foundries.
7. Chief Clerks and Correspon-
dents in mercantile firms.
8. Managers and Superintendents
of large inanufactories;
Superintendents of manu-
facturing machinery; Assis-
tant Engineers, Contractors,
and Surveyors.
9. Land Measurers and Valuers,
10
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
B.-continued.
10. Mechanical Foremen and lead- 15. Manufacturers and Refiners of
ing Millwrights, Pattern
Makers, Founders, Smiths,
and Fitters.
11. Building Trades:
Masons, Carvers,
Chief
Brick-
layers, Joiners, Plasterers,
Plumbers, and Glaziers.
12. Shipbuilders, Fitters, Equip-
pers.
13. Marine Engine Makers.
14. Captains and Officers and
Petty Officers of merchant
ships.
chemical materials.
16. Dyers, Bleachers, Distillers,
and general Chemical Manu-
facturers.
17. Trigonometrical and Nautical
Surveyors.
18. Practical Astronomers, Mathe-
matical and Physical Geo-
graphers.
19. Designers.
20. Draughtsmen.
21. Schoolmasters and School-
mistresses.
(These are scarcely anywhere provided for.)
C.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR SKILLED WORKMEN AND
1. Ploughmen.
2. Shepherds.
3. Woodmen.
4. Gardeners.
5. Miners.
6. Colliers.
7. Engine Men.
APPRENTICES.
8. Furnace Men, Foremen, Pud-
dlers, Rollers, Founders,
Smiths.
9. Engineers, Fitters, Pattern
Makers, Founders, Smiths,
Engine Drivers, Machine
Makers.
10. Carpenters, Joiners, Brick-
layers, Quarrymen, Stone
Masons, Plumbers, Glaziers,
Slaters.
11. Cabinet Makers, Painters,
Carvers, Gilders, Uphol-
sterers.
12. Metal Workers, Iron, Tin,
Copper, Zinc, Lead, and
Steel Cutters.
13. Workers in the manufacture
of raw materials of the
Vegetable Kingdom.
14. Workers in the manufacture
of raw materials of the
Animal Kingdom.
15. Tool Makers, Mathematical.
16. Art
Workmen, Moulders,
Carvers, Casters, Engravers,
Decorators, Designers, Tur-
ners, Embossers, Painters,
Dyers, and Colour Printers.
17. Glass Blowers, Glass Cutters,
Glass Painters.
18. Porcelain and other Workmen
in Clay, China Painters,
Terra Cotta Workers, Tile
and Brick Makers.
(These are poorly and rarely provided for in Local Art Schools and Mechanics'
Institutions.)
CHAPTER II.
AN EDUCATED NATION.
Systematic education in Germany.-Fragmentary education in England.-
Patriotism of Germany in education.-Evils of partial education :-
Corrected by complete education.-Englishmen put to the test of
decision.-Shall England be well or ill-educated?-Value of system in
national education.-Education diffused on the Continent.-Education
of two kinds, general and special.-The five educational periods :-Begin
with the 6th, and end with the 21st year.-Education identical through
all ranks of society.-Systematic organisation.-General and special
education.-School in aid.-Apprentice school.-Educational organisa-
tion of military service.-Education of the third period.-Where shall
general education end, and teaching begin?—When it has to end with
the third period.—When it continues.-Fourth period the right begin-
ning of technical education.-Technical college, gymnasium or classical
college.-Separation into literary and technic.-Universities, literary
and technic. --The two last the technic periods.-Fourth period, learned
or technic: (1) The gymnasium or college; (2) The technical col-
lege. The fifth period: (1) The learned university; (2) The technical
university.-Table of systematic education.
education
many.
TWENTY years ago professional duty took me into Systematic
Germany for the first time. I cannot forget my first in Ger-
impressions at the sight of whole nations growing up in
the full enjoyment of systematic-organised—I might
almost say perfect--education. I had already become
acquainted with some theories and forms of education.
I had read Plato's description of the perfect training for
a nation. I was familiar with education in England,
in Scotland, and in France; I was familiar with
elementary school teaching, had enjoyed the privi-
lege of university education, and the still higher edu-
cation of the workshop. I was familiar with the
systems of Bell and Lankester, having had personal
12
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
ary educa-
tion in
England.
acquaintance with its authors, and had myself taken
an active part in schools of art and mechanics' institu-
tions, but I confess to have been profoundly astonished,
Fragment- I may say humiliated, at the sight of nations whose
rulers had chosen to undertake the systematic educa-
tion of their people; and of peoples who had chosen
to bear the burdens and make the sacrifices necessary to
obtain it. I do not know to what men or class of men
in Germany the forethought, organisation, and patriot-
ism are to be attributed which made them lay aside
personal ambition, political animosity, religious sec-
tarianism, and State parsimony in order to unite all
classes of the people in a unanimous effort to raise
every rank in society to a higher condition of personal
excellence and usefulness, and by diffusing equality of
education to extinguish one of the most grievous of
class distinctions.
of Ger-
many in
education.
It would be hard for us now to conceive the diffi-
culties which those men must have encountered who
began that early organisation of a democracy of educa-
tion in States which were political despotisms and
Patriotism aristocracies. An English statesman, after long resi-
dence in Prussia, once assured me that he regarded
the despotism of Prussia as more absolute than that of
Russia, and the high aristocracy of Prussia maintains
its power to this day; yet the king consented to pave
the way to democracy by universal education, and the
aristocracy assisted to raise the middle and lower
classes to that kind of social equality with themselves.
There, too, as with us, religious sectarianism flourished.
Catholics and Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists,
hated each other with the same cordial hatred with
which we Christians in England hate one another; yet
the despot, the aristocracy, the middle-class, and the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
13
people united in one great national act of self-
culture.
Corrected
by com-
cation.
Some of the evils which were foreboded came; rival Evils of
partial
sects became partisans and political agitators, and the education:
educated democracy having their heads turned, as it
was said, by an education unbefitting their rank and
position, rose in rebellion, made revolutions, and
enabled the opponents of education to say: "See how
your system has turned the world upside down."
Fortunately for the German people, the enlightened
and the governing classes were not deterred by this
fear of anarchy from pursuing that systematic educa-
tion which teaches men to look to higher sources for
liberty and well-being than to disorder and violence;
they continued their efforts during eighteen years more,
until they had fitted another entire generation for the plete edu-
duties of German citizenship, and having thus success-
fully educated an entire nation to intelligence, method,
science, work, and war-they now show as a people
who have no cause to fear the rivalry of any other race.
The problem now plainly put to us Englishmen is
this: Do you choose among the educated nations of
Europe to remain an uneducated nation, or will you,
the educated men of Great Britain-you, the political
governors of England-you, the aristocracy and wealthy
merchants and traders of England-will you consent
and agree that the education of the rising generation
shall be as good as that of any other educated people?
Will you not merely agree to let it be done, but will
you at once organise the ways and means of effectually
doing it?
English-
the test of
men put to
decision.
land be
Now that this problem is fairly before us, and before Shall Eng-
we give our answer, it may be useful to consider what well or ill
it is that we do undertake when we undertake that the educated?
14
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Value of
system in
national
education.
Education
diffused
on the
Continent.
education of the British people shall be as good as
that of any other people. I therefore propose to
describe the organisation by which the best educated
nations of the Continent have reached their present
distinction. But I must guard against its being sup-
posed that I would recommend as the policy of this
country the mere mechanical copying of the educa-
tional systems or institutions of other nations. What
I recommend is not servile imitation, but intelligent
rivalry and wise emulation. Let us set about the
reform in our own way, only let us have sufficient
forethought to make sure that the education we do
provide shall not be inferior in substance, method,
organisation, or completeness to the best that now
exists.
The first remarkable characteristic of continental
education as distinguished from our own is its com-
prehensive method, its systematic development, and
the admirable manner in which its details are fitted to
the special aims of practical life. If I am asked
whether I do not find an individual Englishman a
thorough scholar, an accomplished gentleman, a well-
trained, well-informed man, and quite the equal in
every respect to the gentleman of any other country,
I answer, certainly. But I add that I find the highest
class of gentlemen of every country nearly equal.
Again, do I not find British merchants or manufac-
turers with as wide knowledge, as shrewd intelligence,
as thorough acquaintance with business as the best in
other countries? I answer, yes, I find the best of
them equal in all countries. And last I am asked:
Where do you find a better workman than the skilled
British workman? I answer that there are English
working men who have educated themselves, and have
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
15
risen by personal merit to a rank which has no superior
in any other country. But what I add is this: that
the intelligence and civilisation which only education
can give are far more widely diffused through every
rank in life, stretch far wider and descend much lower
through all classes of society in the systematically
educated countries of Europe than in our own. It is
this general high level of civilisation that gives rank
to a nation; and it is this broad character of general
education which forms the elevated platform from
which are to spring still higher, through innate genius,
the exceptional men of mark and distinction.
of two
general and
The whole education of a nation may be divided Education
into two great classes: 1. That which educates and kinds,
matures the man, and which we call general educa- special.
tion; and 2. That which specially qualifies the citizen
for fulfilling that narrow round of duties which the
subdivision of labour in civilised communities imposes.
on the individual as his special contribution to the
commonwealth, and which we may call special or
technical. The educational establishment of a coun-
try must, therefore, correspond to this division,
and it will be complete or incomplete in so far only
as it accomplishes for each man both of these objects.
The first object therefore of legislation is to decide
how much time in the life of a youth shall be oc-
cupied in studies that aim at maturing his powers,
and how much in obtaining the special information
and skill that fit him for his special place in life. The The five
educational period of a man's life is supposed to com- periods:
mence with the sixth year, and end with the twenty-
first. This is for the highest education, and for the
lower degrees it has to end at 12, 14, 16, or 18 years,
according to the circumstances and destiny of the
educational
16
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Begin with
the 6th,
and end
with the
21st year.
Education
identical
scholar. The endeavour is in any case not to cease
his education until 16, and only hard necessity cur-
tails. it. This varying necessity gives forced variety
to the system, in obedience to which the method of
education has to be made flexible, even at the cost of
being unsymmetrical.
Beginning with the longest term of education, the
complete time occupied is fifteen years. This term is
divided into five periods, each of three years. The
first begins when the pupil has reached his 6th year,
and occupies his 7th, 8th, and 9th years; in this
period he receives what is called primary education.
The second period occupies the pupil's 10th, 11th,
and 12th years
it may be called the secondary
period, and its more advanced studies may be called
secondary studies. The name for this and the other
periods varies in the same country, and even in
different parts of the same country, and we shall keep
clear of confusion by adopting an English nomen-
clature and calling it the secondary series. The third
period comprehends the 13th, 14th, and 15th years of
the student, and his studies in this period are those
which correspond most nearly to the English grammar-
school or high school. The fourth period, occupying
the 16th, 17th, and 18th years, corresponds to the
upper forms in a public school, or to systems of educa-
tion given in colleges or schools preparatory to the
great universities; and the last period of three years,
ending with the pupil's 21st year, is the period corre-
sponding to our university.
The peculiarity of this system is that it pervades
through all the entire national education, and knows no distinction
of social rank: middle-class schools, ragged schools,
charity schools, are distinctions unknown. At a given
ranks of
society.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
17
age the rich and the poor receive the elements of
education alike, the difference consists in the length of
period during which the student or his parents · can
afford that he should live without earning his living,
and in special cases even that is no obstacle, for the man
who shows distinguished ability or special aptitude is
reckoned an honour and a gain to the community: to
let him stop short is reckoned a public calamity, and
without coming under the burden of obligation or
bending to the humiliation of charity, the distin-
guished son of a poor man continues his education
at public cost.
organisa-
It will be readily understood that these periods of Systematic
education being definitely fixed, it becomes practicable tion.
or easy to organise systematic education for each of
these five periods, which shall be everywhere uniform,
which the best masters shall be trained to teach in the
best manner, and for which it is practicable to provide
the best books and the best apparatus which the
highest pedagogic skill can devise. Thus each course
of three years is perfectly organised by itself, and in
each period a course is begun and completed. But
much more than this is necessary and practicable.
Each of these periods is so contrived that it not only
completes the pupil's education in what he has begun,
but gives him a perfect preparation for that which is
to follow. If I may say so, the successive school
periods perfectly fit into each other, and so the educa-
tion of life becomes an organised whole.
and special
I have said nothing as yet concerning the line of General
demarcation which separates the general education of education.
the educated man from the special education of the
working citizen. That is a point on which the variety
of the destiny of each citizen would appear to make
C
18
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
School in
aid.
Apprentice
school.
A
uniformity impossible and symmetry extremely diffi-
cult. These difficulties are mitigated or overcome in
the following way. To the end of the second period
there is no distinction between the education of one
child and another, but at the age of 12 a difference
may commence. The boy may have to earn his bread,
and can no longer devote his time to the studies of the
third period. An expedient is provided which does for
him all that these hard circumstances will admit.
school in aid, or auxiliary school, is provided for the
students in this period; it occupies a limited number
of days in the year or in the week, or sometimes a
given number of hours in the day, which are settled by
the local authorities in conformity with local conve-
nience, and the poorest boy's education is thus con-
tinued so as both to maintain his previous acquisitions
and add to them some portion of the studies of the
third period. This brings him to his 16th year, in
which he receives religious confirmation, and after
which, if inevitable, his education may cease. This is
what we will call the auxiliary school of the third
period.
But even now at 16 this young man's education
need not altogether cease. If he is to be apprenticed
to a skilled trade it does not cease. There is an
auxiliary school of the fourth period to aid him in
becoming a skilled workman. This workman, or
tradesman, or apprentice school not only keeps up his
former knowledge, but helps him to go beyond it.
The time so occupied is again suited to local circum-
stances: sometimes it occupies an hour before work in
the morning and an hour in the evening, or two hours
in the morning and none in the evening, or Saturday
afternoon and Sunday morning; and thus, in one
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
19
shape or other, all that can help him to become a good
citizen and a skilled workman is accomplished, with an
admirable steadfastness of purpose to the end in view
and a rare flexibility in the means of doing it.
tional or-
This brings the workman to the end of his 18th Educa-
year, and the period, it may be, of his military service. ganisation
of military
It may appear out of place that I should say here service.
anything of the military system of Northern Germany,
but I will give as my excuse the expression of a
Prussian officer, who, in explaining some of its pecu-
liarities to me many years ago, said, "You should
remember that the three years of his service in the
army gives our working man his university education."
This I have found to be really so to an extent we in
England find it hard to conceive. Their military
system has all the good points of our university and
public school systems, for the development of the
physical powers, for the formation of character and
manners. It forms habits of method and order, and
lastly it is actually and practically realised as the fifth
period of national education for the working man;
for in the schools which are established in every mili-
tary depôt the highest degree of education is afforded
which their preparatory schooling has fitted them to
avail themselves of.
of the
period.
Let us now go back to the end of the second period Education
and follow the career of the man whose better fortune third
enables him to pursue his full course of study during
the third period up to his 15th year. This period
answers, as I have said, to the education given in our
grammar or high schools. Of the boys who attend
this course, nearly all receive the same education, but
in it arises for the first time a serious doubt and
difficulty as to the nature of the studies. It is this—
0 2
20
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
for some boys it is the last period of regular education,
on the expiry of which they are to be launched into life,
and the question is, shall those who are to continue their
studies and those who are to end them receive identical
cation end, education? And also another question-shall all those
Where
shall ge-
neral edu-
and tech-
nical
begin?
When it
has to end
with the
third
period;
When it
continues.
who are to continue receive identical education? On
this point I may say that I find the opinions of the
ablest masters divided; some are for the separation at
this period of education into two kinds-technic or
non-technic, and some are for its taking place later.
I think that the preponderance of English opinion
would agree with my own in favour of the later time
for separation, and I think the preponderance of
opinion of enlightened men abroad also tends that
way.
I will go back, however, for a moment, and follow out
the career of those for whom this is the last period of
education. At the end of that time they go out into
trade or business, for them schooling is at an end, and
until a kind of technical schooling of the fourth period
was provided for them they found themselves even
worse off than the poorer class. These are a kind of
trade or commercial schools formed in the evenings,
and also on Sundays and Saturdays. These supple-
mental schools of the fourth period continue the
education of clerks in merchants' offices, of commercial
apprentices, of boys learning their fathers' business,
and in general of that class which does not aim at the
higher technical or learned professions. Thus their
education continues until they have learnt their busi-
ness and reached the age for military service, and I
may add that for this class also the military service
constitutes a university education.
I will return to the pupils who in the third period
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
21
period the
technical
are also destined to enjoy the privilege of a fourth
period. At this age it is probable that their profession
is not fixed, and, as the wiser plan, let us take for
granted that in this period all pass through the same
course; in this case all receive equally some education
in classics, mathematics, modern languages, physical
science, and fine art. The fourth period is from 15 Fourth
to 18, and here a separation of destinies seems to right be-
render a separation of courses of study inevitable. ginning of
Everywhere in educated countries from this time education.
forward two entirely different systems of education
are provided. One in which the elements of a
liberal education are given without reference to the
profession or trade of the pupil, or only with refer-
ence to such as are destined for the learned professions,
or for pure literature and abstract science. To this
correspond two classes of schools-the gymnasium
and the university. The other system of education is
the strictly technical. What the gymnasia and uni-
versities are to the learned professions, the technical
colleges and universities are for the modern profes-
sions.
college and
gymna-
classical
Thus in the two last periods the division, according Technical
to the destiny of the pupil, becomes systematic and
absolute. The fourth period of education therefore is sim
double; but in its twofold character it is as symme- college.
trically organised and complete as before. The literary
pupil who goes to the gymnasium, finds that the
literary education of the third period has exactly fitted
him to enter on the fourth; and in like manner, the
technical pupil of the fourth period finds that the scien-
tific part of his education in the third period has ex-
actly fitted him for entering on the technical studies of
the fourth. After each has served his three years in the
22
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Separation
into lite-
rary and
technic.
Universi-
ties, literary
and
technic.
The two
last the
technic
periods.
fourth period, he finds himself prepared either to enter
the learned universities or the technical universities.
But at this period also the education of many
pupils has to be regarded as complete. None but
those who court the highest degrees of learning need
enter the university; and none but those who court
the highest degrees of professional distinction need
enter the technic university.
The fifth period, or university period-learned or
technical-comes in some degree in substitution for
military service; but in all these countries, arrange-
ments are made which prevent interference with the
curriculum of the university, and a large portion of
the military service is dispensed with, in favour of
those who have taken care to qualify themselves by
private military instruction.
It now appears, I hope, from what I have said, that
the continental system of education is a perfectly
organised system, sufficiently symmetrical to satisfy
the most theoretical advocate of completeness and
universality; and that, on the other hand, it undergoes
periodic subdivision into branches and courses suffi-
ciently varied to adapt themselves to the wants,
conditions, fortunes and destinies of the enormously
increasing varieties of occupations of modern life.
According to the programme given, systematic edu-
cation becomes technical only in the two last periods, the
fourth and fifth; and between those two periods there
may be said to be a varying intensity in the degree
of technicality; for in the fourth period the education
continues to be a mixture, purely scientific, with the
purely literary, as if the two found it hard absolutely
to give each other up; and I find that by the highest
authorities, the practice of keeping the two elements
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
23
simultaneously alive in the mind of the pupil is
regarded with favour. Eclecticism in education is,
perhaps, the wisest of errors; for the final decision
of life and of individual bias is not always irrevocable
at 16; and it is found not unwise to retain in the
technical college some features of literary culture; nor
in the gymnasium do they abandon abruptly those
sciences which are the best foundation of technical
knowledge. In the fourth period, therefore, the literary
student cultivates science, and the scientific student
literature, but in the relation of predominant to sub-
ordinate.
period,
technic:
1. The
or college;
The whole course of the fourth period has however Fourth
for its main object, preparation for the university; on learned or
the one side, classic and philosophic on the other side,
technical and practical; but even in the learned uni- gymnasium
versities the possibility of use is never lost sight of.
There remain three professions in which ancient lan-
guages, literature, science, theology and legislation,
manifest their dominant influence over the society of
our time. The theologian is but half armed, who
cannot wield in his polemics the sacred records in
their original tongues; and, if only for the purposes
of pulpit illustration, he ought to be as wise in the
mysteries of pagan theology as in the hidden mean-
ings of modern ceremonies. The jurist inherits the
weapons of his trade from Roman lawgivers, and they
again from the Greeks; and thus the lawyer who
would not run the risk of speaking unknown tongues,
must be ready to cap his law by Greek and Latin;
and as to the physician, his craft has long been
kept a sealed book, and his mysteries enveloped in
a tongue not common to the multitude.
These three learned professions are technical to the
24
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
2. The
technic
college.
The fifth
period:
learned
learned universities abroad, as to our own at home;
they are so naturally bound up with the ancient
tongues, that there is no reason for transplanting them
to a technic university. For these three learned pro-
fessions the preliminary courses of the earlier periods
are also preparatory.
In
The technical colleges of this fourth period are strictly
preparatory for the technical university only.
them the dead languages are abandoned. The living
languages are sedulously cultivated; and among them
those chiefly which contain the greatest quantity of
special technical knowledge, or belong to countries
with which trade correspondence has to be chiefly con-
ducted. Special study is given to the pure sciences;
especially to those branches of them which prepare
the student for comprehending the highest principles
of his art, as afterwards to be taught in the technic
university. If, in the university, he is to make
physical or commercial geography his special study, he
is prepared for it by mastering the elements of mathe-
matical and astronomical geography, and in short, of
all the subjects which are afterwards to form his
special study in their higher theoretical ranges, and in
their world-wide practical applications. Thus, at the
commencement of the fifth period, the student is pre-
pared to study with advantage the highest science, the
highest philosophy, and to comprehend the methods
of their widest applications.
It is easily understood that the fifth period completes
1. The the education of the youth, and commences the work
university; of the man; it is plain that the technic university is
as inevitably the end of education for modern life as
university, the learned university for the three ancient professions.
It can surprise none of us, that a technic training has
2. The
technical
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
25
been thought as necessary for the new professions as
for the old. The wonder will soon be, how the English
nation could have so long remained comfortable under
the knowledge, that out of the dozen professions for
which the whole of her youth were destined, there
were only three for which it was thought necessary to
provide methodised means of instruction. It is much
to the credit of the German character, that a nation to
whom we have always accorded high praise for theore-
tical learning and abstract philosophy, should have
outstripped us by a whole generation or more in fore-
sight and farsight; and should have taken measures
to promote the application of all the discoveries of
abstract science to the speediest, wisest, and most
economical solution of the practical problems of daily
life and business. There are now six technical univer-
sities in Germany, and not yet one in England. There
are at least 100 preparatory and technical colleges in
Germany, for each school or college in England
having any pretension to teach the practical applica-
tions of science. Of the lower class we have scarcely
any; of the higher, none.
26
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
1
TABLE OF SYSTEMATIC EDUCATION.
PERIODS.
AGES.
I. Period
""
8
9
"}
SCHOOLS.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
I. Course.
II. Course.
III. Course.
SECONDARY SCHOOL.
II. Period
10 .
I. Course..
11
II. Course.
""
12
III. Course.
""
III. Period
""
13 .
14
15.
HIGH SCHOOLS.
Classical.
I. Course
Scientific.
I.
II. Course II.
III. Course III.
17
18.
COLLEGES.
Classical.
Technical.
I. Course I.
II. Course II.
III. Course III.
IV. Period.
. 16.
""
""
V. Period
. 19 .
20
""
21
""
UNIVERSITY.
Learned.
1
Technical.
I. Course I.
II. Course II.
III. Course III.
THE PRACTICAL
CHAPTER III.
ORGANISATION OF SYSTEMATIC AND
TECHNICAL EDUCATION ABROAD AND ITS CONSE-
QUENCES.
Organisation abroad.-A small German kingdom.-Würtemberg, with
1,778,478 souls, one-twelfth of England - Has a technical univer-
sity-A college for masters and foremen-Colleges for agriculture,
gardening, forestry, farming, and farriery-Eighty-eight grammar
schools and science schools in country towns-Elementary and indus-
trial schools.—English education calculated on the same scale.—Table
showing the number and nature of universities, colleges, and schools,
professors, masters, and pupils in the kingdom of Würtemberg.—
Organisation of technical universities, colleges, and schools:-One
technical university-Seven colleges for masters and foremen-Three
colleges for agriculture, gardening, and forestry-One college for animal
culture and medicine. One school for art workmen — Eighty-eight
high schools and science schools-Village schools.-Tables of organisa-
tion.--Practical results of systematic national education.—Character,
manners, works. An educated peasant.-A revolution among educated
peasants.- An educated mob.-Common street life.-Money-making in
educated nations.-Economy of public works.-Political eminence of
educated nations: Prussia.-An organised democracy of educated
men. The educated citizen-soldier.--The army a university.---An
educated people a nation of patriots.—Wealth in trade dependent on
education.
tion
I WILL now proceed to develop in their practical Organisa-
details the organisation of the great institutions with abroad.
which foreign nations have been provided by their
Governments for the technical training of their youth.
It will be highly instructive to notice how these great
educational colleges extend over all the divisions of
society, high and low, embrace every kind of occupa-
tion, and aid every branch of industry. As the ex-
ample of an educated nation, I might have taken the
28
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
A small
German
kingdom.
Würtem-
berg, with
souls, one-
twelfth of
symmetrical and perfectly organised institutions of
Prussia, or those of a country boasting a personal
freedom equal to, or greater than our own, like Swit-
zerland. But I think it may be more useful to us to
see how much more is done than in our country by
some of the smaller unpretending States; by some one
of those little kingdoms of which we English know
little, care less, and rather despise. I might take
Nassau for example, or Baden, or Hanover, and show
how these countries have been covered by a network
of institutions for the intellectual nutriment and moral
training of their subjects, and how I have found in
them all a degree of intelligence, culture and moral
well-being, which have seemed to me admirable and
enviable.
But the nation which I select for the purpose of
this Chapter shall be Würtemberg; I select it as a
model nation on a small scale, and therefore more
easily studied and more readily comprehended; and
as it contains only a population of 1,700,000, or one-
1,778,478 twelfth of England, or one-twentieth part of the United
Kingdom, we can readily see what would be the pro-
portion of similar institutions in England or Great
Britain which should enable us to say by a simple act
of multiplication, by twelve or by twenty, what would
be the number of technical universities, trade colleges,
and craft schools, which would provide as well for
the people of Great Britain as the little kingdom of
Würtemberg has already been long provided for.
England:
Has a
technical
university;
These model institutions of the kingdom of Wür-
temberg have the advantage of great symmetry and
continuity. There is at the summit for professional
men :-
1. The Polytechnic University of Stuttgardt, which
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
29
men.
is meant to educate the highest classes of professional
Among these are the modern professions of
civil engineers, mechanical engineers, and architects.
There is a course for the mercantile and commercial
classes. There is a course of chemistry, with its ap-
plications of the chemical arts and manufactures, and
there is a course of general superior scientific and
literary education for professors, lecturers, and men of
leisure.
The building appropriated to this purpose forms one
of the piles of finest modern architecture in Stuttgardt.
There are no less than fifty-one professors and teachers,
and besides the usual lecture-rooms and studies, there
are a chemical laboratory, a physical laboratory, mine-
ralogical museums, laboratories for constructive expe-
riments, plaster-modelling rooms, mechanical work-
shops, wood-modelling rooms, rooms for drawing, a
botanical garden, and an astronomical observatory.
To appreciate the value of such an institution, and
its fitness for giving in detail all the preliminary
knowledge which a professional man ought to have
before he becomes the pupil of the master who will
introduce and train him to practical work, the reader
must consult the detailed plan of it given at the end
of this Chapter.
2. A second, and even more remarkable educational
institution, is the school for the building trades, also
in Stuttgardt. It is a complaint continually made,
and with justice, against these technical colleges, that
the scale of education is too large, and its quality too
ambitious, to form any but the highest class of mem-
bers of any technical profession or trade; that the
more ordinary and numerous members of these trades
and professions, who equally require a thorough prac-
A college
for masters
and fore-
men;
30
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
tical training, find themselves insufficiently educated
even to enter the technical university, and without
leisure to devote to it the long and continuous time
necessary for its courses. A narrower course is want-
ing for foremen and clerks of works, and even for
directors and managers of small sections of trades,
and it is desirable that the humblest craftsman should
be able to get such education as, with intelligence,
diligence, and probity, should enable him to rise to
distinction and skill in some one thing.
For these great and wise purposes some of the most
distinguished directors of the technical university, after
many years' experience of the value of such education to
skilled craftsmen, and the incompatibility of giving the
highest and broadest education, equally with the nar-
rowest and humblest, in the same institution, represented
to the Government the expediency of forming a new
school, intended for building crafts and tradesmen of the
rank immediately under the professional men and skilled
masters of the technical university. That was ac-
cordingly established, and succeeded so quickly and so
completely, that it became necessary to erect quite as
large and as handsome a building, and to devote quite
as large a staff to that purpose as to the original poly-
technic university; it is now one of the most remark-
able and meritorious schools on the Continent.
men whom it was especially designed to help in their
trades were stonemasons, bricklayers, and carpenters,
to be trained for future master-builders; lower class
builders to be trained for master-builders, constructors
of public works, subterranean works, and construc-
tors of reservoirs; constructors of water-works, river-
works and mill-works, and land surveyors of the first
and second class. The general workmen whose edu-
The
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
31
agricul-
Colleges for
ture, gar-
cation it undertakes are plasterers, tilers, roofers,
joiners and carpenters, glaziers, turners, decorators,
ornament-sculptors, modellers, engravers, smiths, gold
and silver workers, gardeners, and husbandmen. Its
great merit is its perfect adaptation to the wants of
each separate class of persons. For young men who
are much employed in winter, and less in summer, it
provides summer courses of study, and gives them forestry,
vacation in winter, and vice versa. It has classes in farming,
the early morning, the same at mid-day, and the same riery;
over again in the evening; and the hours of the dif
ferent classes are so timed, that the pupil may attend
many or few hours of the day, and still obtain the
studies he requires.
This school is presided over by the most distin-
guished architect of Würtemberg, with no fewer than
twenty-eight professors and masters under him. Sys-
tematic courses are provided for those who can go
through the education required to obtain certificates
of competence; and their estimation of its value is
proved by the fact that the school is crowded by
exactly that class of men whom it was intended to
benefit.
3. The next class of institutions are wisely situated
not in the metropolis, but in the country, and they are
distributed throughout the districts. They are schools
for country occupations and trades, and are called
agriculture and forestry establishments.”
There is first a great institution at Hohenheim, with
twenty-one masters. It is divided into the farming
school and the gardening school, and special agricul-
tural courses. It has under it three practical farming
schools in three different districts, and each school has
under its care 400 square miles of territory. A large
dening,
and far-
32
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
eight gram-
and science
schools in
country
towns.
brewery is attached to one of these establishments,
and there are subordinate schools distributed through-
out the country. There are also winter evening schools
in the villages, and the practical result is, that last
year, in 523 places, 12,040 persons enjoyed the
privilege of agricultural instruction.
Supplementary to the agricultural education of the
farmers is an institution for the study of the anatomy,
physiology, training, and diseases of animals; it is
the veterinary college of Stuttgardt. Attached to it
are an hospital, in which last year 775 horses were
treated; a cattle hospital, in which 826 animals
were treated; a dog hospital, in which 213 animals
were treated; a smithy, in which 4000 animals
were shod.
Eighty- With such upper schools for the technical training
mar schools of the people, it will be readily imagined that there
must be a complete organisation of upper and lower
schools leading up to them, otherwise these higher
schools could not be filled with fit pupils; and as they
all require preliminary qualification, tested by an en-
trance examination, the preparatory schools are indis-
pensable. There are accordingly eighty-eight colleges
or public schools, separated into the two divisions of
classical and of science schools.
Elementary
and indus-
trial
schools.
In the classical schools there were last year 4565
pupils, and in the science schools 4734 pupils; showing
how evenly the two classes of schools provide for the
two classes of pupils. These are also divided into two
sub-divisions, upper and lower, called gymnasiums and
lyceums; and in the science schools, a school and a
college, or real school and science college.
Immediately below these are the public elementary
schools, and establishments for private instruction;
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
33
and, auxiliary to these, technical schools of the hum-
blest kind, in which girls are taught their business as
housekeepers, and boys are trained to the simplest
duties of life.
education
on this
When it is considered that these establishments are English
for the education of only 1,700,000 people, less than an calculated
eleventh part of the population of England alone, scale.
without Ireland or Scotland, it leads to the startling
conclusion that England, to supply her people with a
technical education as good as that of the little
kingdom of Würtemberg, should have 11 endowed
technical universities, each with 49 masters and
accommodation for 468 pupils, or that in all there
should be in the technical universities of England
more than 5148 technical students. That we should
have 11 building-trade schools or colleges with 26
masters in each, and in each 587 pupils, or on the
whole more than 6457 students. Of higher trade
schools there are in Würtemberg 108 in 89 towns
and 19 villages, so that to equal that, in England
there should be higher trade schools established in
979 towns and 201 villages, making in all 1180
schools. In these schools are 6453 pupils under
17 years old, and 1811 over 17 years old, making
a total of 8264 pupils. These are taught by 425
masters. To do as much in England, we should
have 4675 masters, teaching 90,904 children.
To know what the enormous sacrifice is which a
nation must make to accomplish this moral and intel-
lectual revolution, be it known that the expenditure
of the State amounts to 2s. 7d. per inhabitant!
Probably nothing will convince the English people
better of the value of such education than to inspect
for themselves the nature of that education, the num-
D
34
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
bers and classes of people who avail themselves of it,
and somewhat in detail what it all costs.
The following statement has been compiled from the
accounts of the Minister of Education of Würtemberg,
and will, I trust, enable the Englishman to put a
money as well as a social value upon the systematic
education which I desire to see given to Englishmen
of every profession, trade, and craft :
Table of the System of Universities, Colleges, and Schools for
Technical Education in the Kingdom of Würtemberg.
TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS.
1. TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY IN STUTTGARDT.
This consisted, in the year 1865-66, of a Mathematical division, with two
classes and one merchants' class, and a Technical division with two trade
schools.
I. Teachers:
20 head-masters, 13 trade and assistant-teachers, 4 under-masters,
6 ushers, 6 private teachers-together, 49.
II. Scholars and Students:
A.-In the Winter term 1865-66, 468, of whom 163 were in the Mathema-
tical and 305 in the Technical division. In detail there were-
In the
Cl.
Cl. Arch. Engin.
Machinery Chem.
Total.
Trade classes.
I.
II.
Sch. Sch.
Sch.
Sch.
Natives
16
65
49
76
56
34
52
348
Strangers. 16
5
12 21
32
70 61
97
76
2120
13
33
120
47
85*
468
Of the 120 strangers there were from-
Switzerland, 20; Austria, 19; Bavaria, 15; Russia, 12; Baden, 11;
Prussia and Grand Duchy of Hesse, 6; England, 5; France and
Saxe-Meiningen, 3 each; Hamburg, Holland, and Italy, the
United States of America, and Java, 2 each; Belgium, Cuba,
the Electorate of Hessen, Hesse Homburg, Oldenburg, Palestria,
Schleswig Holstein, Sweden, Turkey, Duchy of Waldeck, each 1.
* Remark.-Of the 85 students of the Chemical school 31 were employed in the
laboratory.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
35
According to the vocation of the fathers there were sons of—
Servants of the State
Other public servants
Followers of trade, and merchants
Followers of agriculture
Followers of other professions (artists, doctors, &c.)
99
54
201
17
97
468
The average age of scholars and students was, on the 1st October, 1865, in—
The Merchants' Class.
16 yrs. 6 m.
Cl. I.
17 yrs. 2 m.
Cl. II.
18 yrs. 2 m.
Technical Division.
20 yrs. 2 m.
With regard to preparatory education-
Of the 163 scholars of the Mathematical division, including the merchants'
class, there were educated—
•
At the Würtemberg real and upper schools
At humane institutions (seminaries, gymnasiums,
lyceums, &c.).
114
18
At other schools or private institutions
31
163
Of the 305 students of the Technical division there entered—
From the Mathematical division
112
•
From the lower Technical institutions (out of which
40 were out of the Mining schools)
53
From the other Technical schools
27
From other institutions (real schools, gymnasiums, uni-
versities)
77
From practical professions (architects, mechanics, apo-
thecaries, lithographers, shopkeepers, officers)
36
305
B.-In the Summer term of 1866 the whole number of students and scholars
was 393, of whom 149 were in the Mathematical and 244 in the Technical
division.
In detail there are—
In the
Merchants' Cl. I.
Cl. Cl. Archit. Engin. Machinery Chem.
Total.
II. Sch.
Sch.
Sch.
Sch.
Inhabitants. 9
64
50
60
49
28
39
299
Strangers .. 10
9
7
16
19
73
57 76
16 一​65
13
23
94
41
62* 393
* Remark :-Of the 62 students in the Chemical school, 35 were occupied in the
chemical laboratory.
+
D 2
36
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Of these 94 strangers there were from—
Austria, 17; Bavaria, 13; Switzerland, 9; Prussia, 8; Grand Duchy
of Hessen, Russia, each 7; Baden, 6; England, 5; Saxe-Mein-
ingen, Waldeck, North America, France, Java, each 2;
Frankfort, Oldenburg, Saxe Weimar, Saxe Coburg, Hamburg,
Schleswig Holstein, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Palestine,
Brazil, each 1.
III. Examinations.-(Technical maturity examinations):
Announced, 53; admitted, 52;
appeared, 51
{
Passed, 30.
{
·
42 from the Mathematical and 9 from
the Technical division.
29 from the Mathematical and 1 from
the Technical division.
IV. Prizes:
A. In the. Mathematical divisions for peculiarly satisfactory performances
in the technical maturity examinations, 1 prize.
B.-In the Technical division:
Arch. Sch. Engin. Sch. Mach. Sch.
Chem. Sch. Total.
Prize works come in.
Prizes awarded
4
2
2
1
1
8
1
1
...
V.-Collections, Apparatus, and Institutions of the Establishment, 24.
VI.-Economy of the Establishment:
In the year 1865-66 the income was—
A. The proper sources of income of the In-
stitution for fees, laboratory, and substitute fees.
B.-Addition from the State
18,500 fl.
57,500 fl.
-
£1,541 13 4
4,791 13 4
Total
76,000 fl. =
£6,333 6 8
2. COLLEGE FOR THE BUILDING TRADES IN STUTTGARDT.
This school numbered in the school-year 1865-66, with five classes in eleven
divisions,—
I.-Teachers :
18 head-masters, 6 assistant-masters, and 2 ushers,-together 26.
II.—Pupils :
A. In the Winter term 1865-66, 587.
Among these were—
1. According to position: 578 ordinary, and 9 extraordinary.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
37
2. According to home: 540 inhabitants, and 47 strangers.
Of the 540 inhabitants, there were 76 from Stuttgardt, 172 from the
Department of the Neckar, 87 from the District of the Black
Forest, 110 from the Danube district, 95 from the Taxt district.
Of the 47 strangers, 18 were from Switzerland; Baden, 15;
Prussia, 4; Austria, 3; Bavaria, 3; Nassau, Thuringia, Ham-
burg, Lichtenstein, each 1.
3. According to their calling: 475 actual builders (among whom 333
masons and stone masons, and 142 carpenters), 61 geometrical, and
51 of other trades (plasterers and stucco-workers, decorators, millers,
farmers, beer brewers, &c.)
4. According to the proficiency in trade: 63 overseers, drawers, polishers;
315 assistants, and 209 apprentices.
5. According to their preparatory education: From national schools, 267 ;
middle schools, 18; real schools and school secretaries, 222; upper
real schools, 42; Latin schools and gymnasiums, 26; technical schools
and other higher institutions, 12.
6. According to age: Between 14 and 17 years, 215; between 17 and 25
years, 350; between 25 and 30, 14; over 30, 8.
Lowest age for admission, 14 years; highest, 37 years:-
Average, 18 years.
Of the 587 scholars, the school has been visited by-
For the 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
time. time. tiine. time. time. time.
Builders
Geometricians
Other trades.
time. time. time. time.
168 107 102 74
31 20 5
33 6 9
20 3
2
2
31
3
|:
|
232
133 116 76 25
4
...
: : :
II.
III.
HEEEP
Attendance at the Individual Classes.
I. Class with 2 divisions
76 pupils
3
220
>>
""
""
3
137
IV.
""
"}
""
2
112
"9
"
""
V.
1
42
""
"
33
Total 587
""
1
1
5 classes with 11 divisions.
B.-Summer course, 1866, 115 pupils, among whom there were-
67 ordinary, and 48 extraordinary pupils.
109 inhabitants (among whom 27 from Stuttgardt), and 6 strangers;
Baden, 4; Prussia, 1; Hungary, 1).
87 builders (56 masons and stonemasons, and 31 carpenters), 6 geometri-
cians, and 22 other trades (mechanics, locksmiths, millers, litho-
graphers, modellers, &c.)
38
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
5 overseers, drawers and polishers, 61 assistants, and 49 apprentices.
54 from national schools, 45 from real schools, 5 from upper real schools,
10 from Latin schools and gymnasiums, 1 from the Polytechnical
school.
57 of from 14 to 17 years, 54 from 18 to 25 years, 3 from 26 to 30 years,
1 over 30 years.
Lowest age, 14 years; highest, 37 :-Average, 18 years.
Of the 115 pupils, the school has been visited by-
For the 1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
11th
time.
time.
time.
time.
time.
time.
Builders
11
39
27
7
2
1
Geometricians
4
2
...\
Other workmen
17
3
2
...
: :|
:|
32
44
27
9
2
Attendance at the Individual Classes.
I. Class
·
II.
""
III.
""
3 classes with
C.-Both courses together, 701 pupils.
13 pupils.
29
"
72
114
""
3. HIGHER TRADE SCHOOLS.
In the year 1865-66 there were in Würtemberg such schools in 108 places
(89 towns and 19 villages), with a total population of 444,568 souls.
The 108 schools are divided, according to their interior arrangements, into
the following groups :—
1. Finishing schools, with public rooms for drawing, in which
there are Sunday and evening classes for trades (Esslingen,
Ludwigsburg, Gmünd, Hall, Ravensburg, Caln, Biberach,
Rottenburg, Ellwangen, Ehingen, Geisslingen)
2. Finishing schools, with public rooms for drawing, in which
there are Sunday and evening classes for trades and mer-
chants (Stuttgardt, Ulm, Heilbronn, and Neutlingen)
3. Finishing trade schools, with Sunday and evening classes,
without drawing rooms (67 towns and 14 villages)
with }
4. Finishing trade schools with evening classes, but no Sunday
classes (3 towns and 1 village)
5. Trade schools with Sunday teaching, but no week-day classes
(2 towns)
6. Pure drawing schools with no further instruction (2 towns and
4 villages)
4
11
81
}
4
}
2
}
6
108
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
39
The attendance of pupils, which in 1864-65, in 101 finishing schools, was
8100, rose in 1865-66, with the same number of schools, to 8264, among whom
6453 were under, and 1811 over seventeen years old.
The number of teachers was 425 (against 401 before 1864-65), so that on an
average there is one master to every 19-20 pupils.
The entire sum paid by the State amounts to 21,243 fl. 21 kr. (= £1770 5s. Id.),
or 2 fl. 34 kr. (2s. 7d.) per head.
The subjects which most pupils attended were
with 4520 pupils.
Arithmetic
Free-hand drawing
4209
""
""
Mother tongue
4068
""
""
Trade drawing
2419
""
""
General drawing
1892
""
Book-keeping
1202
""
Plane geometry
1105
""
""
The schools most visited were-
Stuttgardt
Ulm.
Ludwigsburg
Heilbronn
Neutlingen
Biberach
•
Freudenstadt
Esslingen
•
Teachers. Pupils.
Teachers.
Pupils.
with 61
1285
Kirchheim
with 3
193
•
21
657
Geisslingen.
6
145
""
""
9
246
•
Ravensburg
7
142
""
""
11
240
Gmünd
6
130
""
""
17
209
""
Rottenburg
5
124
""
8
201
Caln
6
116
""
""
6
201
">
Göppingen
6
112
>>
12
196
Metzingen
3
105
The trade schools in Stuttgardt had—
One evening finishing school, with 19 masters and 375 scholars.
One Sunday trade school
22
673
""
""
One merchants' finishing school
One females' finishing school
15
149
""
""
2015
89
""
61
1285
40
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Organisa.
tion of
technical
univer-
sities, col-
ORGANISATION OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.
Having now considered the general nature, number,
attendance, and cost of a national system of schools in
an educated country, we should very inadequately
leges, and appreciate the value of such a system, unless we take
the trouble of examining the nature of each of these
classes of institutions, and the extent and character of
One college the teaching organisation which is provided.
schools:
One tech-
nical uni-
versity;
for masters
and fore-
men ;
The first remarkable circumstance is the number
Three col- and high qualification of the teachers.
leges for
agricul-
ture, gar-
dening, and
forestry;
One college
culture and
medicine;
The second is, the thoroughness and extent of the
courses of education.
The third is, the extent of the material organisation
for animal for teaching, the largeness and beauty of the buildings,
the nature of the museums and libraries which are
One school attached to them, and the provisions for practical
workmen; instruction in the nature of workshops, farms, hospitals,
and museums.
for art
Eighty-
eight high
schools and
science
schools.
Finally, the nature, character, business, and number
of the students who attend these institutions, and their
regularity and proficiency, may be to some extent
gathered from the following Tables :-
TABLES OF ORGANISATION.
1. TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.
2. COLLEGE FOR THE BUILDING TRADES.
3. COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY.
4. VETERINARY COLLEGE.
5. SCHOOL OF ART WORKMEN.
6. HIGH SCHOOLS, OR ACADEMIES AND SCIENCE SCHOOLS.
7. ELEMENTARY GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.
8. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
41
Organisation of a National System of Technical Education in
the Kingdom of Würtemberg.
I.
POPULATION, 1,778,478.
TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.
The object of this school is to educate future technics.
The instruction given is five courses of one year each.
It is divided into two branches-the Mathematical, and the Technical. The
former consists of two, and the latter of three classes.
The Technical is subdivided into four schools :--
1. For architecture.
2. For engineering.
3. For machinery.
4. For technical chemistry, with the subdivisions--
(a) Chemical manufactures.
(b) Mines.
(c) Pharmacy.
(There is also a parallel class devoted to preparing pupils for being merchants.)
Conditions of entrance:
1. A certain age.
For entrance into the mathematical division, the pupil must have
attained his 16th year.
For entrance into the merchants' class, the pupil must have attained
his 16th year.
For entrance into the technical division, the pupil must have finished
his 18th year.
2. In addition, they must have certificates of position, conduct, &c.
3. The necessary preparatory knowledge.
4. And, where under age, the written permission of parents or guardians
to enter the school.
They must pass an examination in which, for the mathematical division, the
following knowledge is required—
(a) Algebra up to equations of the 2nd degree, inclusive. Exercises in the
use of logarithms.
(b) Geometry and stereometry.
(c) Principal heads of plane trigonometry.
(d) Correspondence in the French language, with a proper translation of a
not difficult theme from German into French.
(e) Practice in German style-an exercise of a theme on a given subject.
(f) Knowledge of the principal periods and events in history.
(g) Knowledge of the elements of mathematical, physical, and political geo-
graphy.
(h) Practice in geometrical and free-hand drawing.
42
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
For entrance into the mercantile division, the examination will include the
following subjects :—
(a) Practice in reckoning figures, inclusive of decimal fractions, with regard
to mercantile requirements.
(6) Familiarity with the French language, translation of a not difficult theme
from German into French.
(c) Good German style-a theme on a given subject.
(d) Knowledge of the principal periods and events in history.
(e) Knowledge of mathematical, physical, and political geography.
In the technical division the pupils produce a certificate of competency
from the schools or masters they have visited.
A.-In the Mathematical division-
The fees are-
For ordinary pupils
50 fl.
(4l. 3s. 4d.) a year.
For extraordinary pupils, 1 fl. 30 kr. (2s. 8d.)
{
the half-year, for each lesson
a week.
B.-In the Technical division—
For ordinary pupils 60 fl.
(51.)
a year.
For extraordinary pupils, 1 f. 45 kr. (2s. 11d.) (the half-year, for each lesson
a week.
Besides this, the pupils pay 42 kr. (1s. 2d.) per half-year for servants; and if
they attend the chemical experiments, 5 fl. (8s. 4d.) for materials. In addition
to this, the entrance fee is 5 fl. (8s. 4d.).
•
There are the following means attached to the division of practical instruc-
tion :-
The chemical laboratory.
The physical laboratory.
The arrangements for mineralogical
studies.
The arrangements for constructive
experiments.
The arrangements for modelling in
plaster.
The mechanical workshops.
The wood pattern making.
The botanical garden.
STAFF.-Heads and Professors.
Director of the entire Institution.-Prof. Dr. Zech.
Head of the Mathematical division.-Rector Dr. v. Gugler.
Heads of the Trade Schools-4.
1. Architectural school.
2. Of the engineers' school.
3. Of the machinery school.
4. Of the chemical school.
There are 24 head masters, including those named above.
9 under masters.
11 assistants.
7 private tutors.
Older persons not wishing to attend regularly as students, are admitted as
"listeners." They pay 3 fl. the half-year, for one lesson a week; for two lessons
a week, 6 fl. (10s.); for each further lesson, 2 fl. more per half-year.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
43
CLASSES.
A.-MATHEMATICAL DIVISION.
First Class.
Plane and spherical trigonometry, in winter, 5 hrs.; repetition 2hrs.
2 hrs.
Lower analysis
. 4 hrs.
Analytical plane geometry. In summer, 6 hrs.
3 hrs.
"9
Descriptive geometry, I.
. 6 hrs.
2 hrs.
""
Plan and terrain drawing
. 2 hrs.
Free-hand drawing. In 2 divisions, each 4 hrs.
German language.
""
French language
English language
""
33
39
2 hrs.
""
4 hrs.
2 hrs.
""
Geography
•
2 hrs.
""
History
2 hrs.
""
""
Religion
Evangelical
1 hr.
Catholic
Recapitulation of plane trigonometry, general explanation of
functions, of the foundation of the right-angle co-ordi-
nate system, polygonometry, spherical trigonometry.
(Algebra, logarithms, geometrical progression, permutation,
combination, interpolation, &c., &c.
{
Co-ordinate system, transformation of co-ordinates, lines of the
1st and 2nd order, exercises.
Exercises on lines and planes, polygons, broken lines, planes
and broken surfaces.
Copying plans in original and reduced size, elevation, maps
with horizontals, &c.
Figures from casts in outline.
S Grammar, style, poetry, explanation of individual poems and
classical works.
{
(Mathematics and physical geography, the principal countries,
with regard to their history.
General history, ancient history.
44
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Higher analysis, I.
Second Class.
4 hrs.; repetition 2 hrs.
Analytical geometry of space. In winter, 4 hrs.
General mechanics
General physics
""
{D
Differential calculus, fundamental functions, maxima and
minima, &c., &c.
2 hrs. {Plane and right lines, surfaces of the second order, turning
Descriptive geometry
4 hrs.
Practical geometry
In winter, 4 hrs.
. 6 hrs.
In winter, 4 hrs.
Drawing of buildings
4 hrs.; in summer, 8 hrs.
"}
Free-hand drawing
4 hrs. ;
2 hrs.
Review of German literature
. 1 hr.
French language. In 2 divisions, each 2 hrs.
English language
History
"
""
2 hrs.
2 hrs.
right planes.
Sections of curved surfaces, &c., application of shadows and
perspective.
Encyclopædical review of plane geognosy, right-angle co-
ordinates, and geometrical levelling.
Elements of mechanics, solid and floating bodies.
Geometrical representations of architectural objects, lectures
on shadow drawing.
Counting house
. 6 hrs.
Mercantile arithmetic
. 4 hrs.
Universal history, middle ages and modern.
Mercantile Class.
Introduction to commerce, various kinds of trades, various
manners of book-keeping, conduct of an imaginary business,
various kinds of "conto " currencies.
Calculation of values; interest, compound and simple; ex-
change, &c., &c.
Dependence of productiveness on longitude and latitude, on ele-
vation over the sea, on mountains and directions of rivers.
Europe and the Colonies. Lands, with regard to merchandise
and commerce.
Mercantile geography
3 hrs.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
45
German language
French language
English language
2 hrs.
4 hrs.
.4 hrs.
Italian language
5 hrs.
French correspondence
2 hrs.
English and Italian correspondence
2 hrs.
Introduction to the laws of exchange
1 hr.
Free-hand drawing
2 hrs.
Religion
1 hr.
Gymnastics for the whole mathematical
division
2 hrs. a week.
In common with the Mathematical class.
B.--TECHNICAL DIVISION.
1. Mathematics and Mechanics.
In winter,
. 4 hrs.
4 hrs.
2 hrs.
Trigonometry and lower analysis
Higher analysis, I.
II.
""
Analytical geometry
Newer geometry
Descriptive geometry
In winter, 4 hrs.
In summer.
Differential comparisons, decided integrals, &c.
4 hrs.
Applied to shadow-drawing and perspective.
Practical geometry.
Method of least squares
Analytical mechanics
Engineers' mechanics.
In winter. 3 hrs.
4 hrs.
46
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In winter,. 4 hrs.
"}
2 hrs.
In summer, 4 hrs.
3 hrs.
""
2. Natural History.
·{
Universal systematic zoology, with regard to comparative
anatomy, pharmacy, and agriculture.
Knowledge of the construction of the human body.
Universal and special botany.
Natural families of plants.
With regard to their medicinal qualities.
Zoology
Anthropology
Botany
Medicinal pharmaceutical
botany
ceutical}
Knowledge of plants
Anatomy and physiology |
of plants
Use of plants
Use of the microscope
Mineralogy.
Crystallography
Geognosy
Petrology
Physical practice
S
In winter, 4 hrs.
3 hrs.
In summer, one afternoon.
One afternoon.
In winter, 4 hrs.; repetition 2 hrs.
وو
2 hrs. lecture
In summer, 4 hrs., with exercises.
General and technical chemistry
Chemical practice
4 hrs.
Two afternoons.
6 hrs.
.9 to 12
Chemistry for builders. In winter, 4 hrs.; in summer, 2 hrs.
Analytical chemistry
""
The modern theories of chemistry
2 hrs. ; in summer, 3 hrs.
In winter, 2 hrs.
The chemical and physical properties of crystals.
The laboratory is open from 9 in the morning till 5 in the
{ afternoon.
The lecture is for those who are not going into chemistry as a
profession, but only in so far as it concerns their individual
professions.
Qualitative and quantitative analysis.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
47
3. Technology.
Chemical technology
In winter, 3 hrs. ; in summer, 4 hrs.
""
in practice
9 hrs. private.
Mechanical technology
4 hrs.
Heating
In summer, 4 hrs.
Preparatory course
3 hrs.
Construction of Machinery, I. :-
(a) Lecture
5 hrs.
(b) Exercises in construction
Construction of Machinery, II. :-
. 6 hrs.
(a) Lecture, combined with practice, 7 hrs.
(b) Construction
6 hrs.
Construction of Machinery, III.
Lecture
. 4 hrs.
Construction
6 hrs.
Machinery for engineers
Lecture, 2 hrs.
Popular machinery
4 hrs.
. 1 hr. private
Statistics of iron roof and bridge con-
struction
{
Burning materials, lighting and fier. starch and sugar,
The metals most necessary to technics, their working; wood;
visits to working establishments.
Preparation, burning materials, transmission of heat, hearths,
4. Machinery.
{
For those who have worked in the shops, but do not possess
the necessary knowledge to attend the other classes. Repe-
tition of lower mathematics, elements of analytical geometry,
differential and integral calculus, mechanics.
Adhesiveness of materials, elements of machinery, water-wheels.
Stationary steam engines and steam kettles, locomotives and
Designs for entire works (workshops), pumps and all the
apparatus for works with steam and water power, with
heating and lighting, disp. of machines.
Application of steam and water power.
Machinery for raising heavy bodies, machines for working by
water and air, locomotives and railways.
Calculations of cost.
48
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Practical geometry
In winter, 2 hrs. lecture
{{
5. Engineering.
Instru, for measuring angles, plane triangulating, trigono-
metric and barometric levelling.
""
In summer, one afternoon for each division
{
Practice at measuring and distance tables, and the theodolite,
trigonometric elevations. Excursions of fourteen days.
Engineers' mechanics
5 hrs. lecture; 4—6 hrs. practice
Winter course
Summer course
Bridge building, I. In summer, 4 hrs. lecture;
4 hrs. practice
6 hrs. lecture;
6 hrs. practice
6 hrs. practice
""
II.
III. In winter
In winter, 8 hrs. lecture; 4-6 hrs. practice
In summer, 4 hrs. lecture; 12 hrs. practice
Ponts et chaussées,
and railway con-
struction
Tracing and ("earth calculation"?)
In summer, 2 hrs.
Elasticity and strength of building materials, beams, ceilings,
buttresses.
Statics and dynamics of liquid and gaseous bodies, with regard
to the practical work of an engineer.
Stone constructions, especially stone bridges.
Wooden and iron bridges, foundations, mode of building.
Iron bridges.
Mills, fountains, &c., railways, stations, bridges, roads, carriages,
barriers, signals, telegraph stations, and telegraphs.
6. Architecture.
Building materials
In summer, 4 hrs.
Construction of buildings, I.
4 hrs. lecture;
6 hrs. practice
·∙II.
2 hrs. lecture ;
4 hrs, practice
Higher architecture
Calculation of building costs
History of architecture (I. and II.)
Practice to the above (I. and II.).
2 hrs. lecture ;
4 hrs. practice
In summer,
2 hrs.
2 hrs. each.
2 hrs.
{Physical properties of mineral and vegetable building mate-
{
Stone and wood buildings.
Iron construction, and put-together buildings.
Public and private buildings, designs and plans, &c.
Ancient, middle age, and renaissance.
Graphic drawings and details of each period, with regard also
to materials.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
49
Comparative building forms
Designs (I. and II.) {
In summer, 2 hrs.
Two successive courses, one with 4 hrs., the
Artistic perspective (I. and II.) {
Free-hand drawing
.{
higher with 8 hrs.
Two successive courses, each
with 2 hrs.
"}
}{
As a preparation to designing.
A subject is given to the student to finish in one day, which is
judged by all the architectural teachers, and discussed with
the pupils.
Drawing and Modelling.
In winter, 8 hrs. ; in summer, 6 hrs.
with excursion.
Ornamental drawing and modelling {
In three divisions, each
with 6-8 hrs.
Special drawing classes for engineers, mechanics and architects.
Figure drawing, landscape drawing, in outline and shadows.
Drawing of ornaments from clay and plaster, designs for
ornaments, casts done by the students in clay or plaster from
their own or others' designs.
I
50
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
General Subjects.
History of the 18th and 19th centuries
Raphael and Michael Angelo
Explanation of works of art in the
lection
2 hrs.
History of the last twelve years
1 hr.
History of art in the middle ages
Dürer and Holbein
In winter 4 hrs.
•
In summer
3 ""
.
In winter 2 ""
State col-
up to 6,,
•
In winter 2,, private.
2-3
150
In winter
www
3
3
39
35
3
Mythology of the Greeks, Romans, and Ger-
mans
History of modern German poetry, in winter
Principles of esthetics (or knowledge of the
beautiful)
Agriculture and husbandry .
Trades:-
Borrowing money for founding a factory
-by advances, shares, companies, &c.
Interest on capital, premiums, dividends.
Profit and loss, &c., &c.
Laws of property
Grammar of the middle ages
Modern German grammar
Poetry
•
French language and literature
English language and literature
Shakespeare's dramas.
•
Italian-with the mercantile class
Gymnastics.
Fencing.
3,
3
3
∞ ∞ ∞ 243
23
33
39
335
""
private.
""
1 hr. private.
5 hrs.
2,
""
private.
Workshops.
Modelling of machinery and engineering objects. Both workshops are open
all day.
PLAN OF STUDY.
The plan of study for the mathematical division is given above.
In the technical division the choice of lectures is left free to the students.
A plan of study is here given as a sort of guide to the subjects which are most
necessary for each profession, the time which the student has to devote to it,
and the proficiency or position he desires to obtain in it.
A.—Architectural School.
First year.-Chemistry for technic builders; mineralogy and geognosy; prac-
tical geometry, with practice; engineering mechanics, with
practice; building construction, I., with practice; history of
art; free-hand and ornamental drawing.
↓
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
51
Second year.-Building construction, II., with practice; building construction,
I., with practice; designs, I.; perspective, I.; free-hand and
ornamental drawing.
Third year. High architecture, with practice; history of building, II., with
practice; comparative building forms; designs, II.; perspec-
tive, II.; free-hand and ornamental drawing.
Pupils who wish to go further, and become higher architects, decorators,
&c., have a special fourth year's course laid out for them by their master,
which will be regulated according to their special talents, the advance they
have made, &c.
B.-Engineers' School.
First year.-Chemistry for technic builders; mineralogy and geognosy; prac-
tical geometry; engineering mechanics; construction of bridges,
with practice; building construction, I., with practice.
Second year.—Bridges, II., with practice; building construction, II., with prac-
tice; construction of machinery for engineers; practice in the
construction of machinery; building history, I.; free-hand
drawing.
Third year.—Bridge building, III., ponts et chaussées, railways, with practice ;
surveying and calculations of earth works; history of building,
II., with practice.
C.-Machinery School.
First year.—Chemistry for technical builders; engineering mechanics; construc-
tion of machinery, with practice; free-hand drawing; mechanical
workshops.
Second year.-Construction of machinery, II., with practice; mechanical and
chemical technology; bridge building, II.; heat.
Third year.-Construction of machinery, III., with practice; ponts et chaussées;
building, II.; agriculture (political economy).
D.-Chemical School.
1. For technical chemists and teachers of chemistry :—
First year. —Physics for chemists; general and technical chemistry; analytical
chemistry; mineralogy; construction of buildings.
Second year.—Analytical chemistry; chemical practice; chemical technology;
practical physics; practical mineralogy; popular mechanics.
Third year.—Chemical practice; chemical technology; laws of property.
2. For miners :—
First year.—Physics for chemists; universal and technical chemistry; mine-
ralogy; machinery, I., with practice; construction of buil-
dings, I., with practice.
Second year.-Analytical chemistry; chemical, physical, and mineralogical
practice; machinery, II., with practice; heat.
Third year.—Chemical practice; chemical technology; machinery, III., with
practice; farming and husbandry (political economy); laws of
right and possession.
E 2
52
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
3. For apothecaries. (It is a two years' course, but if the pupil has made
sufficient progress, he can pass in one or one and a half years) :—
First year.-Physics for chemists; universal and technical chemistry; know-
ledge of medicine; zoology; general botary; medicinal pro-
perties of plants; mineralogy; chemical and microscopic
practice.
Second year.—Analytical chemistry; chemical and mineralogical practice;
pharmaceutical botany; the anatomy and physiology of plants;
microscopic pharmaceutical practice.
II-COLLEGE FOR THE BUILDING TRADES.
I.
The object of this school is to educate technically for the following trades :—
1. Future master builders (masons, stonemasons and carpenters).
2. Lower technical builders (upper building masters, public building and
foundation builders, and constructors of reservoirs).
3. Lower water-works and mill builders.
4. Geometers of the first and second class.
Besides these, individual classes can be attended by—
Plasterers, tilers, roofers,
Lower mechanics, glaziers, turners,
Decorators, ornamental sculptors, modellers,
Engravers, gold and silver workers,
Gardeners and husbandmen &c.
The classes go on the whole year round, and the course consists of five
half-years, and these can be taken either all in winter, all in summer
half-years, or partly in winter and partly in summer.
The pupils are of two kinds—ordinary and extraordinary. The first are
such as devote their whole time to the school; and the second such as
attend other schools, studios, &c. in addition.
Conditions of admission:
II.
In order to be admitted into school the pupils must-
(a) For the 1st class at least 14 years.
1. Have attained a certain (b) For the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th classes
age.
2. A certificate of good conduct.
respectively, 15, 16, 17 and 18 years, to
which exceptions are sometimes made.
3. The certificate of the necessary preparatory knowledge (for which
they must pass an entrance examination).
4. In cases of minority a certificate of the permission of parents or
guardians to enter the institution.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
53
III.
Divisions:
The school is subdivided into three departments :
1. A building school.
2. A geometry school.
3. A school for drainage and waterworks.
IV. STAFF.
Head: Oberbaumeister v. Egle; Assistant Head: Professor Häberle.
Professors and head masters:
For the building trades
وو
8 professors.
practical geometry and pure mathematics 2
mathematics and natural history
""
وو
وو
free-hand and ornamental drawing
•
general education
2 4 2 2
""
""
2
""
Other teachers : For religion, for ponts et
chaussées, for languages, for caligraphy, &c.,
&c., &c.
Assistant teachers
6 masters.
3
""
PLAN OF INSTRUCTION IN THE BUILDING TRADE
SCHOOL.
First Class.
With two parallel divisions.
Destined for such pupils as have only attended the national schools, or who,
having been at a higher school, were yet not found competent to enter the
second class.
German language
French
•
. 8 hours a week.
4
History and geography . 4
Caligraphy
""
. 6
""
Arithmetic
•
. 6
""
པ
C
Elementary geometry . 6
Free-hand drawing
""
. 6
""
Geometrical drawing . 6
German language.
French
Caligraphy
Second Class.
(Vulgar and decimal fractions,
compound and simple interest,
&c.)
(Plane geometry.)
(Plain lines, simple leaf and con-
tour lines.)
(Geometrical construction and de-
coration.)
Three parallel divisions.
6 hours a week. (Continuation of the former
class.)
2
. 3
""
(Plan drawing.)
•
W 3
54
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Geometry and stereo- 8 hours a week (Continuation and completion of
}
metry
Algebra
..8
Plan drawing
.8
Ornamental drawing
. 6
Natural history
وو
وو
وو
Third Class.
plane geometry, geometry of
space and cubic contents.)
(Powers, roots, logarithms, com-
parisons of 1st and 2nd grade.)
(Simple drawing in colour and
from plaster.)
Three parallel divisions.
6 hours a week (Weight and motion of water and
Representative geometry 8
Trigonometry
Practical geometry
Plan drawing
وو
29
2
· 6
""
. 6
Ornamental drawing .6
Building
. 5
Construction
. 5
دو
39
33
وو
bodies; heat, &c.)
(Complicated architectural de-
tails-windows, portals, &c.)
(Chalk and pencil drawings in
outline and shaded from plaster
models.)
(Form and decorative stone work,
cornices, windows, entrances,
&c.)
(Building in stone, walls in brick
and stone, brick and tile build-
ing.)
Mechanics
Fourth Class.
Two parallel divisions.
3 hours a week (Continuous lessons on stability
Applied representative 6
geometry
Plan drawing
Ornamental drawing
}
་
. 6
""
}
4
""
Knowledge of building) 2
materials
""
applicable to beams and rafters,
stability and machinery with
regard to the requirements of
technical builders.)
(Applied to stone carving, sha-
dows, &c.)
(Drawing in outline of whole
façades, and designs in renais-
sance style.)
(Continuation of drawings in the
third class.)
(Properties of various building
materials, and their adaptation
for different purposes.)
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
55
Building
5 hours a week (Decoration of buildings and dwell-
ing houses, size and disposition
Construction of build-) 5
ings
Builders
༢
"9
. 4
""
Heating apparatus . . 6
Building style
4
""
33
Fifth Class.
Division A.
of
space, &c., &c.)
(Wooden posts,scaffoldings,beams,
joints and suspensions, locks
and roofs, &c.)
(Instructions for master builders,
tools and instruments, general
rules, &c.)
(Chemical constitution and heat-
ing power of burning materials,
temperature of burning, length
of chimneys, drawing power,
calculation of sizes and con-
struction, roasting and fire-
room grates, &c., baking ar-
rangements.)
(Sketch of architectural history,
Greek and Roman styles,
sketches.)
Ornamental modelling. 4 hours a week (Modelling in plaster and clay,
Building construction . 4
"3
Designs of buildings . 9
39
Building styles
4
>>
Ponts et chaussées . . 4
Calculations of building Į 4
costs.
}
Agricultural buildings. 3
Mathematical practice . 4
""
>>
""
3:3
generally after drawings made
by the pupils ; casting.)
(More complex roofs, suspended,
&c. with iron applications; car-
pentry and glazing.)
(Designs for simple country and
town houses, parsonages, &c.,
&c., in sections, ground plans
and elevations.)
(Old Saxon style, Roman and
Gothic renaissance, sketches
and designs in each style.)
(Roads, wooden and iron bridges.)
(Estimates for materials andwork-
men, calculation for contracts.)
(Arrangement of space, organisa-
tion of store-rooms, barns, out-
houses, stables, &c.)
(Repetition of elementary mathe-
matics, with exercises.)
56
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Division B.
Designs for buildings. 10 hours a week (Designs for large schoolhouses,
of } 6
Designs for parts of) 6
buildings
Repetition of mathema-
tics, physics, and me-
chanics
Exercises on building
materials
Book-keeping.
6
""
2
وو
1 hour a week.
business and dwelling houses
on a limited space, hospitals,
&c.)
(Roofs, staircases, beams, and ceil-
ings to be drawn in large and
in minute detail.)
GEOMETRICAL SCHOOL (for Advanced Pupils).
Geometrical construc- 2 hours weekly (Solution of problems by con-
tion .
•
Algebra applied to geo-) 6
metry and stereome-
try
German exercises.
""
2
""
struction.)
(Solution of geometrical and ste-
reometrical problems by calcu-
lation.)
Special Classes for Geometers.
Representative geome- 8 hours weekly (As in the third class of the build-
try
e-}
Natural history (phy-
sics)
Trigonometry
6
""
""
22
4
""
}
ing school.)
(As in the third class of the build-
ing school.)
(Common trigonometry, polygo-
nometry,
transformation of
rectangular co-ordinates.)
(Building, measuring, &c.)
Plan drawing
Popular building and | 8
plan drawing
Practical geometry—
From the 6th Nov. to
15th March
•
From the 16th March
to 1st May
6
""
28
""
""
Mathematical practice 14
Machine drawing .
OTHER INSTRUCTION.
8 hours weekly (Curves and angular construc-
tions,drawings of parts of ma-
chines.)
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
57
Entrance fees.
For participation in one class during the whole course :—
(a) In the building school, 12 florins
17.
(b) In the building school (on account of greater length of course),
16 florins = 11. 6s. 8d.
In cases where a pupil is declared by the community to be utterly without
means, and can show a certificate of industry and good behaviour, he is
admitted without payment, or on part payment only of the fees.
III. COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY.
1. THE INSTITUTION IN HOHENHEIM.
A.-Agriculture and Forestry Academy.
This numbered in the year 1865-66:—
I. Teachers' places :—
10 regular professors (including the Director); 6 under-masters; 2
ushers; and 3 assistants=21.
II. Students :—
A.-In the Winter term 1865-66, 123; of whom 61 were of the
country, and 62 strangers. These studied:
Inhabitants
Strangers.
Agriculture.
24
60
84
Forestry.
Total.
37
61
2
62
39
123
Of the 62 strangers, 41 were from other German places : namely, Austria, 15 ;
Prussia, 9; Bavaria, 5; Holstein, 4; Baden and Hamburg, each 3; Hessen,
Homburg, and Lubeck, each 1. 21 came from other countries; as, Russia, 11;
Switzerland, 3; England and Norway, each 2; Portugal and Brazil, each 1.
B. In the Summer term 1866, 108; of whom 56 were inhabitants,
and 52 strangers. These studied :
Inhabitants .
Strangers.
Agriculture.
18
50
68
Forestry.
Total.
38
56
2
52
40
108
Of the 52 strangers, 33 were Germans; namely, Austria sent 10; Prussia,
Bavaria, and Baden, each 4; Holstein, 3; Hamburg, 2; Frankfort, Lubeck,
Hanover, Saxony, Mecklenburg, and Kurhessen, each 1; and from other
countries came 19: Russia sent 11; Switzerland, 4; England, Belgium,
Portugal, and Brazil, each 1.
58
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
III. Students' Excursions were made (besides smaller ones) during the
Summer term of 1866, to:
One Agricultural, to the Rechbergan seats, the Alb, and several
estates in Upper Swabia.
One Forestry, in the hunting district Dankoltsweiler, the Forest of
Ellwangen.
IV. Distinction of Students:-
Husbandmen.
Foresters.
Total.
By prizes
1 (stranger)
3 (inhab.)
4
By public commendation
1 (stranger)
1 (inhab.)
2
2 (strangers)
4 (inhab.)
6
V. Collections, Apparatus, and Institutions of the Academy-together 18.
B.—The Farming School.
On the 1st of October, the number of scholars was 25.
At the close of the school year, 9 left the establishment, of whom 4 went to
assist their father in his farms, 3 became stewards in the country, and 2
stewards of projects abroad.
The head-master taught field-measuring and botanising on Sundays and
holidays, not counting 464 hours, of which 118 were devoted to agriculture;
farming, 81; geometry and stereometry, 52; German language, exercises, &c.,
43; mental arithmetic, 39; accounts, 22; physics, 24; and drawing, 45.
The medical professor of the academy gave 37 hours lessons of instruction in
veterinary surgery.
Excursions of four days were made, with the older classes, to Baden and
Strasburg, besides which there were several minor excursions in the neigh-
bourhood.
C.—The Gardening School.
Five pupils were entered on the 15th October, 1865, of whom, at the end of
one school year, 1 remained for further instruction in Hohenheim, 1 was dis-
missed on account of illness, 1 emigrated to America, and 2 obtained situations
as gardeners.
The instruction given by the two gardeners of the institution occupied 280
hours, of which 45 were devoted to botany, 10 to fruit trees, fruits, and the
knowledge of special plants, 16 to repetitions, and 86 to drawing.
remaining lessons they share with the pupils of the schools for farming.
D.-Special Agricultural Courses.
The
1. The courses for meadow-land, and draining, and marking boundaries,
could not be given on account of the non-attendance of pupils.
2. Nine attended the sheep-course.
3. The fruit-tree course, in two divisions, was attended by 29 pupils. Seven
from the Neckar district, 10 from the district of the Black Forest, 2 from,
the Taxt district, and 10 from the district of the Danube.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
59
4. The agricultural course for national school teachers was attended by
19 teachers.
E.—Advice on Agricultural Matters
was asked about malt kilns; on hop-drying kilns; and on the cultivation of
lupines.
2. FARMING SCHOOLS IN ELLWANGEN, OCHSENHAUSEN,
AND KIRCHBERG.
These are adapted for 12 pupils, with a three years' course-so that each
establishment has 4 pupils.
Excursions were made by the pupils with the director or another master:
5 in Ellwangen; 2 in Ochsenhausen ; 3 in Kirchberg.
The State domains on which these farming schools are built, comprise :
In Ellwangen
•
In Ochsenhausen
In Kirchberg
•
394ğ miles.
4147 miles.
553ğ miles.
A brewery is attached to Ellwangen, in which 1800-2000 kilderkins of
beer are brewed yearly.
3. THE FINISHING FARMING SCHOOLS, AND OTHER ARRANGE-
MENTS, CLASSES, ETC., FOR THE SAME PURPOSE.
1
Obligatory
winter
evening
schools,
with in-
Free
finishing
schools for
farmers.
Agricul-
tural
meetings.
Agricul-
tural
lecture
No. of
Establish-
ments
structions
meetings. together.
in farming.
In the Neckar district
46
48
9
12
115
In the district of the
90
40
12
11
153
Black Forest
•
In the Taxt district
72
19
10
8
109
In the Danube district
97
17
15
17
146
In the whole country.
305
124
46
48
523
The attendance at these classes was:
In the Neckar district
1500
1000
300
350
3,150
In the district of the
2130
800.
290
210
Black Forest .
3,430
In the Taxt district
1220
350
270
180
2,020
In the Danube district
1980
480
630
350
3,440
In the whole country.
6830
2630
1490
1090
12,040
60
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
So that, in 523 establishments, 12,040 persons enjoyed the privilege of
instruction in agricultural matters.
The winter evening schools are the affair of the schoolmaster concerned.
The instruction in the free finishing agricultural schools was principally given
by the schoolmasters, and also by clergymen, veterinary surgeons, magistrates,
and farmers.
In the agricultural evening meetings, the lectures were given by the school-
masters and farmers of each district, who also superintend the reading rooms
and libraries.
IV. VETERINARY COLLEGE.
In the school year 1865-66, with two courses, it numbered:
I. Masters:-
4 head-masters, 1 assistant teacher, 1 usher=6.
Besides these regular masters, the pupils had lessons in chemistry and botany
from two other masters.
II. Pupils:-
57; among whom there were 55 regular, and 2 irregular; 45 civil,
and 12 military pupils; 41 inhabitants, and 16 strangers (of whom,
4 were from Schleswig-Holstein, 4 from Switzerland, 2 from Baden,
1 from Hanover, 1 from Hesse-Darmstadt, 1 from Kurhesse, 1 from
Oldenburg, 1 from Luxemburg, 1 from Russia).
III. The Examination was attended by 30 pupils, namely, 15 inhabitants,
and 5 strangers :—
Of the 15 inhabitants, 1 obtained the first class, 11 the second, 2 the
third, 1 no prize.
Of the 5 strangers, 4 obtained the second class, 1 the third.
IV. Prizes were awarded :—
In the second course, a first and a second.
In the first course, a first and two second, and besides, two "Smith
prizes."
V. Institutions:-
1. The hospital had to do with
(a) On the whole, 775 horses, of whom—
522 (26 more than in 1864-65), were taken into the stables of
the establishment, and
253 were treated out of the establishment.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
61
Of the 522 horses-
453 were put under doctors' care.
299
154
on account of interior illness.
on account of external illness.
69 were examined for defects.
Of those 453 which were treated, 307 were cured, 73 improved, 41 killed,
11 shot, and 21 sent away as incurable.
Besides this, there were 29 horses used for anatomical purposes, operations,
dissections, &c.
Whole number of horses, 804.
(b) The cattle in the hospital and those attended in the stables of
their proprietors, numbered, in the town and its eighteen sub-
urban villages, 820 animals.
Besides this, there were 6 cows for the supply of the pock lymph for the
central vaccinating doctor.
Total number of cattle, 826.
(c) The dog hospital had to do with 213 animals, of whom—
175 were handled medically, and
38 put under the supervision of the police.
Of the latter 38-
7 were killed for biting,
24 were taken up as mad, of whom 16 were shot as regu-
larly mad.
(d) Of other animals with which the establishment had to do, the
following are the numbers:
23 cats.
14 sheep (7 in the institution, 7 out).
40 pigs (3 in the institution, 37 out).
16 goats.
Total . . 93
Entire number of domestic animals treated by the establishment—1936.
2. In the smithy (in the course of the year 1865—66) :—
Shoes finished
Animals calked
Animals shoed
Given out to do
2605
1009
Among whom, 810 were of the town, 199
from outside; 1001 horses, and 8 head
of cattle.
4035 of which 1948 were new, 2087 old.
602
Given out to pupils in the
2nd course as patterns
70
62
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
VI. Collections :-
1. Exclusive of journals and papers, the library was enriched by
47 numbers.
2. The collection of anatomical and pathological works was enriched
by 57 numbers.
VII. Opinions (Judgments) given in Court, 10.
VIII. The Special Course for Smiths, which was established for the central
agricultural and trade places, was attended by 8 people (4 masters,
and 4 apprentices).
V. SCHOOL OF ART-WORKMEN.
I. Masters' Places :-
4 principal masters and 4 assistant masters-together, 8.
(In the Summer term, 1866, an extra head master was employed.)
II. Pupils :-
In the Winter term 1865-66, 50 (1864–65 there were 59; 1866–67
there were 55).
Among these 50 there were :-
(a) 44 regular; 6 irregular.
(b) Würtembergers, 42; strangers, 8 (from Austria, 2; Saxony, 1;
Baden, 1; Grand Duchy of Hessen, 1; Nassau, 1; Saxe
Coburg, 1; America, 1).
(c) According to calling :-12 painters, 18 sculptors, 5 litho-
graphers, 1 engraver, 2 wood engravers, 3 drawers, 1 decorator,
2 room decorators, 1 modeller, 1 dilettante.
Concerning the attendance at the different classes, there were :—
At the drawing and modelling after the antique
At the drawing and modelling after life
At the landscape drawing
At the oil painting
·
At the lessons in perspective and shading
At the lessons in anatomy
At the lessons in the history of art
•
26
30
21
12
6
30
9
III. In the Examination which was held according to law in 1866, there were
5 favourable results.
IV. Ten art pupils obtained Exhibitions, 5 for further instruction in the art
schools of Würtemberg, 5 to enable them to continue their studies
abroad. Besides this, 7 were taught free of expense.
V. Prizes were awarded to 10 pupils-5 first, and 5 second.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
63
VI. For the Exhibition of students' works of art, which precede the examina-
tions, 19 works in plaster were sent; among which there were 4 statues
and a relief, all original, and a relief portrait; 19 drawings from the
antique; and from nature :
1 Portrait drawing.
15 Landscapes.
26 Heads in oil.
2 Studies of animals in oils.
1 Coloured cartoon (composition), and
3 Engravings on copper.
VII. 12 Works were bought or ordered of the best pupils, the total price of
which was 1,972fl. (168l. 6s. 8d.); the price of the lowest being 50 fl.
(4l. 3s. 4d.), and the highest 580 fl. (48l. 6s. 8d.)
VI. HIGH SCHOOLS OR ACADEMIES AND SCIENCE
SCHOOLS.
A.-High Schools or Academies.
1. On the 1st of March there were 88 public academies. These are subdivided
into-
4 low Evangelical seminaries.
7 land gymnasiums, of which one is in connection with a boarding-
school, Catholic.
3 lyceums and one Latin school, with an upper provisional lyceum
class, and
73 lower Latin schools, of which two are erected provisionally.
2. The public academies numbered, on the 1st of March, 1866, together, 225
school classes, of which 7 were provisional. Of these, there were—
In the seminaries, as well as in the upper divisions of gymnasiums
and lyceums (including 3 provisional classes), 33 classes.
In the middle and lower divisions of the gymnasiums and lyceums
(including a provisional class), 66 classes.
In the 73 lower Latin schools (including 3 provisional classes), 126
classes.
Under the Latin schools there were 32 schools with 1 class, 31
with 2 classes, 9 with 3 classes, 11 with 5 classes.
The gymnasiums and lyceums numbered 23, the lower Latin
schools 42, together 65 classes.
3. In the public academies there were, on the 1st of March, 1866, in all
246 definitive head-masters' places (besides 5 provisional ones). Of these,
there were
In the seminaries and upper divisions of the gymnasiums and lyceums,
60 places.
In the middle and lower divisions of the gymnasiums and lyceums
(including the places mentioned above), 64 places.
In the lower Latin schools (including 24 assistants' places), 122
places.
64
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
4. The number of pupils in the academies was, on the 1st of March, 1866,
4565. Among these were 100 non-Wurtembergers.
If, on the one hand, the pupils in the lower Evangelical schools and those
of the Catholic conviction, as well as the pupils in the higher classes of the
gymnasiums and lyceums, are taken under the head of gymnasium
scholars, and if, on the other hand, the pupils in the middle and lower
gymnasium and lyceum classes, as well as the lower Latin classes, come
under the head of Latin scholars, the following numbers will be the
result :-
(a) On the whole there were on the 1st of March, 1866 :—
1. Gymnasium pupils. 2. Latin scholars.
635
3930
3. Total.
4565.
B.-Public Real Schools.
1. The number of public real schools was, on the 1st of March, 1866, 76, of
which 9 had special upper real classes.
2. These numbered 160 pupils' classes, of which 17 were upper real classes,
and 26 assistants' classes.
These 160 classes were divided as follows:
52 real schools numbered each 1 class.
11
""
""
5
""
""
4
""
16
1
وو
""
2
∞ J or W N
2 classes.
3
""
5
""
7
""
8
""
""
""
1
28
""
""
""
3. There were in all 169 and 143 definitive masters' places.
latter there were :-
Among the
18 head-masters' places in upper real schools (professoriats).
106 real-teachers' places.
19 assistants' places.
4. The total number of real scholars was 4734, of which 328 were upper real
school pupils. Of these there were :-
Protestants
Catholics
Israelites
Other sects
3715
793
221
5
4734
The schools which had the most pupils are the following
Stuttgardt, with 988 pupils, of whom 141 were upper real scholars.
Neutlingen,, 262
36
""
">
">
Ulm
Esslingen
248
16
""
""
39
""
224
42
""
""
""
"
Heilbronn
172
19
""
""
39
22
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
65
Hall,
with 172 pupils, of whom 21 were upper real scholars.
Ludwigsburg
171
17
""
""
""
""
Cannstatt
121
""
""
...
""
""
Biberach
114
وو
""
""
""
""
Tübingen
113
14
""
""
""
""
""
Gmünd
110
""
""
""
Ravensburg,,
106
و,
33
Rottweil
84
""
""
""
::23
""
""
""
""
22
""
""
Göppingen 80
Nürtingen
Freudenstadt 71
""
""
""
78
""
وو
""
;"
""
Kirchheim
70
""
""
33
Caln
66
وو
""
""
:
:
:
""
""
""
""
""
""
""
""
Aalen
60
""
""
33
""
33
VII. ELEMENTARY GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.
The nine towns which have elementary schools under the superintendence
of the masters and clergymen appointed by the Minister for Education, and the
object of which is the preparation of boys from six to eight years old for
entrance into higher schools, numbered, on the 1st of March, 1806, in all, 22
pupils' classes, with 22 masters and 1006 pupils; of whom 901 were Protes-
tants; 60 Catholics, 44 Jews, and 1 own confession.
The following are the towns, with attendance, and teachers :—
Stuttgardt
Ulm
Neutlingen
Esslingen
Heilbronn
Ludwigsburg
Cannstatt
Tübingen
•
·
10 classes, 10 masters, and 404 pupils.
وو
وو
3
3
149
""
""
1
1
112
""
2
2
95
•
""
""
Ι
1
66
""
""
""
1
1
39
60
""
1
2
1
58
2 1
""
""
22
2 1
222
""
47
وو
15
""
།སྒ
22
1006
Oehringen (provisional)
An analogous arrangement exists in many of the elementary classes of the
country town schools, principally in the real or lower Latin schools with one
class, in which the children who attend the national schools get extra prepara-
tion for their future entrance into higher schools.
Establishments for Private Instruction.
1. Boys' school, kept by Professor Pfleider, in Kornthal, with 112 pupils;
of whom 107 are Protestants, 5 Catholics, 32 Würtembergers, and 80
F
66
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
strangers; of whom 21 are Germans, and out of the rest of Europe, 46;
Asiatics, 2; Americans, 6; and Africans, 5.
2. The educational institution in Ludwigsburg, with 59 pupils.
3. The boys' school, of Professor Close, in Cannstatt, with 42 pupils.
4. The private elementary school of Hayer, in Stuttgardt, with 136 pupils.
VIII.--INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
1. In the year 1865-66 there were—
In Evangelical communities-
394 schools, 32,992 girls, and 977 boys=33,969 pupils.
In Catholic communities-
<
504 schools, 17,544 girls, and 644 boys-18,188 pupils.
Total of all industrial schools, 1450, with 52,157 pupils, of whom
50,536 were girls, and 1621 boys.
2. Hours of study :—
Number of hours taught in all the schools, 266,691.
3. Teachers:-
(a) In the Evangelical schools, number of female teachers, 1210.
.Their salaries together amount to 20,913 fl. (17267.)—so that each
mistress has on an average 17 fl. 17 kr. (1l. 8s. 9d.)
(b) In the Catholic schools, the number of teachers is 568.
Their salaries amount to 10,043 fl. 31 kr. (8387. 11s. 8d.) averaging
17 fl. 40 kr. each (17. 9s. 10d.).
Total number of teachers, 1778.
4. School costs-books, heating, and working materials :—
(a) On the Evangelical side, 32,963 fl. 15 kr. (27477.), according to which,
each school averages 34 fl. 51 kr. (2l. 18s. 5d.).
(b) On the Catholic side, 15,495 fl. 6 kr., according to which, each school
averages 30 fl. 45 kr. (2l. 11s. 3d.).
Total, 48,458 fl. 21 kr. (4039l. 16s. 8d.).
5. Grant from the State for this purpose:-
To the 560 Evangelical communities.,
To the Catholic side
7184 fl.
3936 fl.
=
5981. 13s. 4d.
3281. Os. Od.
11,120 fl.
9267. 13s. 4d.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
67
FINANCIAL.
In the Kingdom of Würtemberg.
I. The number of masters was, on the 1st of January, 187.
A.-Schoolmasters :
1. With incomes of 400 fl.—424 fl. (337.—357.) with house rent free, 1352
2.
""
3.
وو
425 fl.—449 fl. (351.—471.)
459 fl.—494 fl. (371.—40%.)
4.
""
475 fl.—499 fl. (39%,—417.)
5.
""
500 fl.-599 fl. (417.—50%.)
6.
""
600 fl.—699 fl. (501.—581.)
7.
""
749
""
""
200
""
64
""
""
163
""
""
113
وو
700 fl. and over (581. and over)
B.-Under masters
43
""
2684
299
C.-Ushers
·
644
Total.
3627
II. The number of masters who taught in classes :-
1. Head masters . 459
2. Second masters
3. Ushers
76
18
Sum set aside for their payment, 20,150 fl.
(1660l. 16s. 8d.).
553
Average income of each master or assistant,
36 fl. 30 kr. (31. Os. 10d.).
results of
national
In England I should naturally be asked whether all Practical
this admirable and systematic organisation for the systematic
teaching of a whole people, and of which I have said I education.
have carefully watched the progress for twenty years,
has been attended with any sensible result upon the
character, manners, and works of the people of those
countries. I should begin by saying that that is in
effect asking me-Would the people of these countries
be what they now are without that education? and
as the two experiments could scarcely have been tried
side by side, the answer must be in some degree hypo-
thetical. I will, however, answer this question as best
I can.
I begin by saying that when I compare in the same
country the persons who had attained maturity before
F 2
68
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Character,
manners,
works.
An edu-
cated
peasant.
this system was instituted, and that younger genera-
tion which has gone through it and come out into the
world of practical experience, I say without hesitation
that they are more civilised, and that they set about
their work in a wiser, shorter, less wasteful way; but
this is scarcely a satisfactory answer, for in the interval
between the uneducated generation and the educated
one, comprising 15 to 18 years, everything there as
elsewhere has changed in the direction of ameliora-
tion.
Perhaps, however, the best standard by which an
Englishman can judge a foreign people is by com-
paring them individually and personally with ourselves
through the medium of their character, their manners,
and their works. I will begin therefore by saying
that when in those parts of an educated country where
I am no longer a stranger, I meet an ordinary agri-
cultural peasant, I find him more intelligent, better
informed, more able to understand my questions
and to give a direct, purposelike answer, than a
peasant of the same class in England. He will talk
politics to me, because he has read it in his newspaper;
he will talk theology with me, for he studied it at
school; he will discuss the Italian question, the
Austrian question, and the French question, because
at school in the second period he studied their geo-
graphy, because he is up in their political history, and
he knows all that has taken place in his own country
from its earliest invasion. I had the good fortune to
among edu- assist one day in a peasant revolution, as they called
it. They were 7000. We stood out in a pour of rain
for two hours. The question was whether, to the
number of 10,000, the people should sign a paper
asking for a change of men and of measures in a part
A revolu-
tion-
cated
peasants.
.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
69
cated mob.
of the country where the same politicians had governed An edu-
for 25 years. The whole meeting was as orderly and
quiet as a ballot for members in a Pall Mall club; the
crowd was so quiet that we all distinctly heard one
man speak from the platform. I discussed with some
of this mob their grievances, which they stated with
the greatest good humour; they were the following:
That the banks and credit establishments of the
district were so organised as to favour the more
wealthy borrower as against the smaller landowner or
manufacturing borrower, and they wanted the honest
poor man to be trusted on the same terms as the
honest rich man; second, they conceived that the
town districts inhabited by the poor were not so per-
fectly cleansed and supplied with water as those
inhabited by the rich; thirdly, that the character of
the education given in the public schools of the second
period did not prepare their children for the third
period so well as it ought. As to the slightest vio-
lence, rudeness, or bad manners, these men would
simply have despised any member of the meeting so
vulgar as not to know how to behave himself; and I
think I can say that in that mob my clothes-and I
had dressed like one of themselves-were not touched
by those of any other person. I must confess that I
came out of that mob humiliated: the gathering cor-
responded to our Hyde Park meeting, for they were of
the lowest class to be found in a populous manu-
facturing district. They were brought together by
demagogues, one a barrister, another a master work-
man, a third the editor of a newspaper. I will add
that it was on a Sunday, and that every one had on a
Sunday suit, though some of these suits might have
performed that function 10 or 15 years. The petition
70
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Common
street life.
was afterwards signed to the required number, and the
revolution put into due official train. Need I say that
of such democrats and such revolutions one need have
no fear?
In the daily life in a street in an educated country
I see the absence of rude and rough manners, and I
recognise a general aspect of superior intelligence. I
call a street porter and give him a message—he sees I
am a stranger, and answers me in French or perhaps
in English; I intrust him with some purchases at
various shops; on his return, he delivers to me
a neat account like the bill of a hotel, properly
balanced. One of the items in the account was the
purchase of a book. Learning at the publishers that
the book was out of print, he bethought him of going
to a bookstall for an old copy. He brought me one as
good as new for less than half-price, but never thought
of pocketing the difference. Let me next take a
waiter at a hotel. We were talking at table of a
play by Schiller which had a French name which was
announced to be played, and of which none of us had
before heard the waiter, finding he could solve our
difficulty, begged pardon for informing us that he
had read in the life of Schiller that the play was
an adaptation from the original in French by Racine.
These are the little things which in a foreign country
give the stranger a truer measure of relative civilisa-
tion than more striking characteristics, but when one
finds them at every turn pervading the whole struc-
ture of society-when one finds in their beer-houses,
their cafés, and their dancing rooms, that with some
exceptions as to clothes and tone of voice, they are
courteous and well-bred, and their countenances full
of intelligence and good feeling, one seeks the cause,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
71
and finds it in a superior education and consequent
superior social condition.
making-
I will now come to the practical matters which Money-
show directly the results of a technical education in in educated
the production of one of its chief objects-the creation nations.
of wealth. It is notorious that those foreign railways
which have been made by themselves in the educated
countries of Germany and Switzerland have been
made far cheaper than those constructed by us in
England; it is known that they have been made by
pupils of the industrial schools and technical colleges
of these countries, and I know many of their distin-
guished men who take pride in saying that they owe
their positions entirely to their technical schools. I
find everywhere throughout their work marks of that
method, order, symmetry, and absence of waste which
arise from plans well thought out, the judicious appli-
cation of principles, conscientious parsimony, and a
high feeling of professional responsibility. In the ac-
curate cutting of their slopes and embankments, in the
careful design and thoughtful execution of their beau-
tiful but economical stonemasonry, in the self-denying
economy of their large span bridges, the experienced
traveller can read as he travels the work of a superiorly
educated class of men; and when we come down to
details, to the construction of permanent way, arrange-
ments of signals, points, and sidings, and the endless
details of stations, we everywhere feel that we are in
the hands of men who have spared no pains, and who
have applied high professional skill to minute details.
It is well known that many years before we would Economy of
follow their example, the engineers of the German works.
railways had introduced a system of constructing and
of uniting to each other the iron rails of the permanent
public
72
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Political
eminence
nations-
Prussia.
way, which made them cheaper, more durable and safe
than those employed in England. Happily for our
national reputation it was an Irishman who invented it,
though its advantages had first to be appreciated in
Germany before we would follow the example.
It is remarked by every traveller that the works of
their railway stations are, when compared with ours,
much more beautiful, convenient, and fit, both within
and without; the construction of their trains, the pro-
portions of their carriages, the fitness, convenience,
and comfort of their internal arrangements, all tell to
the disadvantage of ours, and the one thing in which
our railways excel theirs is in high speed. Theirs, on
the other hand, are economical in capital and high in
revenue.
It is now so much the practice to praise Prussia,
of educated that it is not without reluctance that I have decided
to give expression to the result of twenty years of
occasional visits to that country. The worship of mere
success is so vulgar a feeling that I would not willingly
add my voice to that chorus, but what I now say, I
have been saying any time for these twenty years.
When first I knew her she was a very poor country.
Territorially she was weak, consisting of scattered
patches of land isolated from one another, and sur-
rounded by nations neither loving nor helpful, and
even the feelings of the different portions of her own
community were anything but cordial to one another.
The taxation, as compared to the revenue, was enor-
mous, and the tax in person paid by the compulsory
and universal service in the army weighed heavily on
the people. The length of frontier to be defended
was so great that every working man in the kingdom
was compelled to do his work as it were with tool in
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
73
men.
one hand, and musket in the other. It was difficult
for an Englishman to see how such a country could be
tied together and acquire unity, and nothing but a
careful study of their institutions could enable him to
do so.
In the end, however, I came to see the import-
ance, in a political point of view, of the highly-organ-
ised system of education which, pervading all ranks,
has succeeded in producing two generations of educated
This education was the same in all parts of
Prussia, but by no means the same as in the surround-
ing portions of Germany. That first gave her an
intellectual unity. Another remarkable institution,
co-ordinate with this, was the political organisation,
that, like the education, was of one uniform system
through all the parts of the kingdom and through all
degrees. I do not think it is very generally known to
Englishmen that Prussia is an organised democracy,
and is not, as we imagined, governed by the King and
an aristocracy. She is governed by an educated de-
mocracy, who come indifferently from every rank of
society, who receive the highest education the country men.
affords, who are selected entirely by the distinction at-
tained in their technical and learned universities, and
who thence rise to fill all the high offices of the State,
except those personally surrounding the King, or form-
ing the political government of the time. All the
executive government is democracy, educated and
organised; everywhere, in the highest offices, exer-
cising the highest responsibilities, are found men of
the humblest origin, owing their position entirely to
education, ability, and long service. This same civil
executive extends through every department of the
country, and has its representative even in a small
agricultural village. This is another element of homo-
An organ-
ised demo-
cracy of
educated
74
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The edu-
cated citi-
zen-sol-
dier.
geneity and unity; it is a system, however, quite foreign
to our notions, for it makes a centralised unity of the
people and the Government, which, with our unsyste-
matic notions, we detest and vilify with the names of
"centralisation and bureaucracy," forgetting that there
is another name equally appropriate, namely, "organised
education and intelligence;" for it is not possible to
conceive a more admirable method of diffusing civilisa-
tion and order throughout a whole people, than to
plant in every community, and even in every little
village, a civilised, educated man, charged with the
single duty of promoting the welfare, education, and
order of that community.
The next institution which forms part of the educa-
tion of the people, and tends to build up the unity of
the nation, is that we have already referred to-the
perfect training of every citizen to carry arms as a
skilled soldier in defence of his country. I have
shown how it acts as a direct instrument of education,
from the fact that the army possesses an organised
system of schools, in which both men and officers find
the means of a finished education. But I have not
mentioned the influence of that system on the health,
constitution, civilisation, and good manners of the
The army a people at large. Side by side, in the barrack, in the
field, the peasant private soldier and the peer private
soldier serve as daily comrades on a perfect level, en-
joying the amenities of life and roughing it together..
All that we claim for our public schools on the ground
of manliness, physical strength, good carriage, manual
dexterity, habits of method and subordination, flows
equally from the three years' education and discipline
of the army, which is thus entitled to be called a uni-
versity for the people.
university.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
75
But the indirect effects are perhaps greater than
its direct influence, for each of these instructed men
carries back into the narrow community of his village
or town, and into his family, all the civilising influences
of this education.
cated
nation of
The last social result of systematic organised educa- An edu-
tion which I will indicate is its effect in imbuing a people-a
whole people with a profound spirit of patriotism. I patriots.
have never seen patriotism more profound or unselfish
than in educated Germany and in educated Switzer-
land; here and there and everywhere are to be found
individuals conspicuous for large self-sacrifice for the
public good, but I am not now speaking of con-
spicuous persons.
What I mean is this: that in
those nations the whole mass of the people are indi-
vidual patriots; personally, they are most industrious,
but they will spare any time required from their occu-
pations for the public good, without payment or
grudging; personally, they are extremely frugal and
economical, but for the common well-being of the
community—of the State-of the city-of the village,
they willingly impose upon themselves contributions
from their hard-won earnings; and, what is perhaps a
still higher measure of patriotism than money, men of
strong wills, clear views, and energetic personality are
ready to sacrifice their own views, preferences, and pre-
judices to that social organisation by which alone unity
of action and efficiency is to be obtained for a nation
or a community.
That this patriotism is the result of their large edu-
cation and systematic training I cannot doubt; and I
will venture to say that if the governing statesmen of
any people desired to secure to their body permanent
confidence, fidelity, and attachment, there is no way of
76
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
trade
tion.
implanting these sentiments so surely as by the convic-
tion that the Government had watched over their infant
years, had provided for their youth the invaluable bless-
ing of high education, and had never withdrawn its
wise solicitude until it had sent them out into life,
educated, trained, useful members of society.
These remarks apply rather to the quickened intelli-
gence and raised character of the people than to their
material advantages. But I may add that in every
country where technical education has taken root, and
had time to bear fruit, I also find unquestionable proofs
of the rapidity with which increased intelligence and
enlarged knowledge bring increase in employment and
Wealth in remuneration. From my personal experience I may
dependent say that within the last twenty-five years I have seen
on educa- large branches of commercial trade leave one country
and plant themselves in another because the workers of
the one were educated and those of the other unedu-
cated; and I have watched nations rising into import-
ance and power in Europe by education, and by the
order, organisation, and efficiency which education
bestows; and other nations lagging behind and losing
their place by reason of their unwillingness to educate
either the higher or the lower classes of their people.
But these material considerations find a better place in
the following Chapter than here.
CHAPTER IV.*
TECHNICAL EDUCATION A NATIONAL WANT.
Educated, helpful, patriotic citizens the real wealth of a nation. -Knowledge
helps work, hinders waste.-Educated skill a way to wealth and well-
doing.-English aversion to technical education.-General belief in
England's perpetual supremacy :-A national error-Its correction.—
National lessons:-Lesson I., 1851.-Lesson II., 1855.-Lesson III., 1862,
humiliation.-Lesson IV., 1867, reformation, education.-Practical ex-
amples of benefits arising from organised technical education:—In iron
manufactures-In iron armour and ships--In artillery-In railway plant
-In manufactures of machinery-In quality and price-In intelli-
gent workmanship-In the English specialty of steel work.-Results
of a generation of foreign technical education.-One generation of
education, fifteen years, lost to England.-Testimony of technical men
to our national want of technical education :-Jurors-Government
reporters — Government Commissioner-Working men.-I. Jurors.—
Schools Commission.-II. Report of Government Commissioner.—III.
Reports of workmen.-Workmen on technical training:-A chair-maker
—A hosier—A stonemason-A china-painter-A wood-carver-Bir-
mingham artisans.-Summing up the evidence.
tizens
wealth of a
the real
nation.
IF I have heretofore insisted more on the value of Educated,
helpful,
systematic national education for moral purposes than
patriot
as an instrument of material and pecuniary personal
and national wealth, I have done so because of the
faith which I profess that the wealth and greatness of
a nation consist, to my mind, much more in the mul-
titude of good citizens than in the multitude of good
dollars. And by good citizens I mean men of good
breed, strong-handed, warm-hearted, clear-headed, well
trained in arms, deeply imbued with a Christian spirit,
patriots, refined and educated human beings. A small
* A portion of this Chapter formed the substance of an article by the
author on Technical Education, published in Macmillan's Magazine.
78
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
waste.
country, thinly peopled with such citizens, is, to my
mind, a nobler sight than a crowd of luxurious capi-
talists, wallowing in the wealth of luxurious capitals,
or than a huge bank cellar stored with hoards of coin.
Knowledge If, however, I have dwelt rather on the intellectual,
helps work
-hinders moral, and social wealth, which are the immediate
results of the wide education and wise training of a
nation, it has not been because I neglected or wished
to undervalue the direct and immediate consequences
which inevitably flow into trade, commerce, and art,
from the employment of an intelligent, educated, and
trained people. It seems to me almost an axiom that
intelligent men must do better work than boors; that
trained, skilled men must do better work than clumsy
and awkward ones; and that the more any man knows
of the objects and methods of his own work, and of
the work of all those who around him are engaged in
co-operation, the more likely he is to do his own part
well, and so as to make it exactly fit into and form
one with his neighbour's work. Thus I think that an
intelligent community of workmen will get through
their work quicker, will fit its parts more nicely, will
finish off everything more sharply, will waste less
material by trial and error, and so give higher value
as well as quality and durability to all their work, than
ignorant, unrefined, ill-educated men.
Educated
skill a way
to wealth
and well-
doing.
I believe, therefore, that it is the function of those
who educate a nation with the intention merely of
improving their character, their intelligence, and their
ability, without taking any steps for the material
object of making them wealthy, nevertheless to ac-
complish that feat also, largely and inevitably. But
there is the second order of education, which I have
called the narrow and the technical, and which we
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
79
may also call special, by which every individual in a
nation shall not only be cultivated into an able man,
and trained as a good Christian, but shall, in addition,
have a training in the peculiar knowledge and the
specific skill of that narrowest routine of duty with
which each citizen in a civilised State is necessarily
called upon to occupy himself, and is expected to
acquire higher skill in performing than other citizens
around him. This special duty, craft, cunning or trade,
by which he becomes habitually a mason, carpenter,
joiner, plumber, smith, builder, architect, engineer,
mechanic, ship-builder, naval architect, parson, peda-
gogue or philosopher-each of these duties must be
learned by some one citizen, over and above and in
addition to all that he knows in common with others.
And as it is plain that the work of each citizen will
have value in exact proportion as he can do it better
than other citizens can, so it is obvious that the aggre-
gate work of all the citizens will have greatest value
in proportion as each has been best trained in his own
department. In short, the highest value in the world's
markets will be obtained by that nation which has been
at most pains to cultivate the intelligence of its people
generally, and afterwards to give each the highest edu-
cation and training in this special calling. In other
words, the value of the nation's work will vary with the
excellence of the national system of technical education.
aversion to
education.
All I have said above seems axiomatic. To me it is English
so, but I trust the reader will not be offended if I am technical
obliged to treat it quite otherwise. The English people
do not believe in the value of
Still less do they believe in the
technical education.
value of a national
system of universal education. And still less in the
duty of the Government, the Legislature, and the
80
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
General
belief in
perpetual
error-its
correction.
educated part of a community, to undertake the edu-
cation of a whole people. I am therefore compelled to
prove, as mere matters of fact, that which the accom-
plished scholar, or observant traveller, takes as an
axiom on which argument is wasted. It is the object
of this Chapter to prove that technical education has
brought good of a material and commercial kind to
those who possess it; that the want of it is attended
with pecuniary loss, and that there is social danger to
the community in our continued neglect of it.
Of late years a series of great public events have
England's been taking place, which have been of great national
supremacy: value in serving to awaken the British people from
that lethargy of supreme satisfaction with which they
have so long continued to regard themselves as the
most skilled, accomplished, and successful manufac-
A national turing people in the world. For half a century they
had been enjoying the fruits of the inventions of a
few men of genius who had created the whole system
of modern manufacturing machinery, and Providence
had also endowed them with the accumulated wealth
of countless centuries stored up in the bowels of the
earth, in the shape of coal and iron, ready to be used
or wasted and worked out in this manufacturing cen-
tury. The genius of a few men having set coal and
iron to do the manufacturing work of mind and man,
the citizens of England had begun to think that it was
they who were superior in intelligence and civilisation
to the un-coaled, un-ironed, un-engineered nations
around them. For half a century nothing occurred
to awaken them from this dream, and for that half
century the works of English engineers and English
iron and coal bore the highest reputation, and earned
the highest prices in the world.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
81
lessons--
1851.
The last eighteen years have seen a series of events, National
slowly, regularly, and disagreeably awakening the Lesson I.,
nation from a pleasant belief, once reality, now a
dream. Eighteen years ago there began a series of
competitive trials of intelligence and skill between the
citizens of the different civilised nations of the world.
Adam Smith's views of the wealth of nations were to
be put to the new trial of competitive examination.
The scene of the first trial was in London, in 1851.
It was the famous Universal Exhibition of the Indus-
tries and Products of all Nations. In that great school
the civilised nations of Europe had their first lesson
in technical education. There they were able to see
in how many things England retained her hereditary
excellence; and England was there able to see in how
many branches of taste and skill other nations pos-
sessed qualities in which she was wanting. But in
that competition she had no cause for humiliation.
The genius of Paxton would alone have sufficed to
rescue the skill and the manufacturing industry of
England from humiliation. For in the building of the
Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was exhibited an entirely
new and highly skilful system of modern architecture,
in which iron and glass, great staples of English
manufacture, and of modern invention, formed the
sole materials of construction of the largest building
of the world, and within which could be seen assem-
bled at one time 100,000 of the people of every nation
of the world, surrounded by the products of every
clime, and the works of every tribe.
1855.
This was England's first great lesson on technical Lesson II.,
education; the second was the similar Great Exhibition
held in Paris in 1855.
Nothing was more striking than the enormous pro-
G
82
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
gress nations had made from their first lesson. Some
members of each group of human inventions and
skill had felt their inferiority, and vigorously set about
its redress. England had been struck by the amazing
superiority of some continental nations in the beauty
and grace of design, which sufficed to convert the rude
and nearly worthless materials of clay and flint, which
are to her even more abundant than to other nations,
into valuable and invaluable works of art, in earthen-
ware and glass. She had occupied the four years' in-
terval under the auspices of the Prince Consort-the
real author of these international lessons—in collecting
and diffusing through the manufacturing counties the
best models of the best masters, in establishing for
the potteries and glass works schools of design, and
in training teachers for art workmen. These young
institutions already bore fruit in 1855, and England
was no longer outstripped in pottery and glass. It is
curious, but instructive, to notice that the Exhibition
of 1851 had disgusted the whole nation with its blue
earthenware plates, cups and saucers, borrowed from
the 2000 years' tradition of China, and with its huge
lumps of glass, called decanters and glasses, cut or
moulded into hideous distortions of form.
The largest shopkeepers of London will tell you
that ever since that date the old patterns are worth-
less, save for export to barbarous countries-that all
England has learnt a lesson, and made a revolution in
taste for these common things.
The lessons which French and German nations had
learnt were of another sort. They had felt their in-
feriority in the great objects of manufacturing and
constructive skill, in which, in 1851, we held supre-
macy. They were happy in having princes or sages
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
83
as wise as our own, who saw that the great manufac-
tures of England were iron and steel, the great instru-
ments of skill, industry, mechanical power, and trans-
port. They saw that the profusion of our raw materials
gave us vast advantages in time and money. They
were discriminating enough to see also that in mere
raw material, mere mechanical power, and mere brute
labour, competition with us was hopeless. And they
argued thus the one thing we can set against the
English wealth in raw material is greater skill in using
what we have. The way to compete with them in
mechanical power is to apply higher science in the
treatment and application of it; and the way to com-
pete with them in iron and skill is to buy of them the
unwrought material, which they will sell us at nearly
cost price, in consequence of their free trade and close
competition, and then to apply the skill of our own
artisans, highly educated and trained, to construct out
of these raw materials all the higher kinds of tools,
instruments, and machinery, in those forms and appli-
cations which enhance to the highest degree the value
of the material.
In 1855 we saw that the French and the Germans
had already advanced far into our own provinces of
iron, steel, and metal manufacture. We found that
they had already established schools in every metro-
polis, large town, or centre of industry, for educating
professional men and masters, for training foremen and
skilled workmen, and for educating apprentices. What
we saw in 1855 was instructive to the clear-sighted
and the thoughtful, but it was not humiliating to the
mass of the English visitors, and it did not alarm the
English manufacturers. Therefore, unhappily, they did
not take warning in time. They merely committed
G 2
84
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Lesson III.,
1862:
Humilia-
tion.
the common blunder of despising their rivals. When
they saw the enormous progress of the French in steam
machinery, and its metal products occupying a huge
annexe, they merely said: "Look! they have been
imitating us; but never mind, these are mere tours de
force got up under the patronage of the Emperor to
make a show at his Exhibition. They serve to gratify
the vanity of the French nation, but they can never
compete with us in quality, quantity, or price."
This self-satisfaction was a huge blunder. The pro-
gress of the French and German nations has shown
there was an ominous reality.
The third lesson was our own Exhibition of 1862.
It was the first Exhibition humiliating for us. Our ad-
ministration of that Exhibition was humiliating, for it
was a grand administrative failure. The building itself
was to us, as an intellectual, mechanical, and artistic
nation, an abject humiliation. Hideous on the outside,
without unity or effect as a whole; inconvenient in
the inside, ugly in its details, crowded and unseemly
in the distribution of the objects exhibited, with but a
single portion of it serving rather to exaggerate than
redeem the effects of the other-an admirably arranged,
lighted, and ventilated picture-gallery. Paxton was
still alive, and also the distinguished men who, allied
with him, had created the Exhibition of 1851, and had
afterwards transported it to form the Crystal Palace on
Sydenham Hill, there to serve as an enduring monu-
ment of our first great national lesson in technical
education, and as a permanent institution for the
refinement of the taste and culture of the people.
Though Paxton was still living, his genius was not
permitted to serve the nation, and that nation felt that
the quickest way to spare itself from perpetuating its
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
85
own disgrace and humiliation was to sweep off the
face of the earth this disgraceful monument of its
want of foresight, design, and organisation.
Thus disgraced by the edifice itself, there was little
to be seen in the interior to give an Englishman
cause for self-gratulation. Switzerland had there her
wonderful aniline colours, the discovery of her dis-
tinguished chemist, Schönbein. Prussia was there
with her huge ingots of Krupp's steel-already begin-
ning to displace on English railways the finest qualities
of Yorkshire iron. America was there with some of
her exquisite machinery for economising labour. Italy
was there with her already reviving manufactures of
classic earthenware, her decorated glass, and her Etruscan
gold. France had been diligently following up her de-
termination to equal us in our great staples of machinery
and iron manufacture, and the stately steam-engines
she then produced as examples of her ordinary work in
the steam-ships of her navy and mercantile marine
sufficed to show us that her progress was true, and
that we had been mistaken in calling her triumphs of
1855 tours de force. All around us in that Exhibition
were proofs that every nation had begun to rival us in
some one of our great specialties; and if we were not
instructed we were at least sufficiently disgusted with
that Exhibition to feel and to express a very pervading
conviction that for our part we would cease to repeat
Exhibitions which failed to mark any progress of ours,
and only served to advertise to the world the more
rapid progress of rival nations. That feeling of disgust
was the first wholesome symptom, but it did not at
that time mature itself into any conviction of the
necessity of any great national exertion to advance the
manufacturing skill of the English people. We had
86
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Lesson IV.,
1867 :
Reforma-
tion-edu-
exhibited a sufficient number of new iron Armstrong
guns, and models of iron and iron-coated men-of-war,
to make us feel that in all things we were not yet
distanced.
It was the Exhibition of 1867 in Paris which gave
the nations, and especially England, a final lesson.
cation. By that Exhibition we were rudely awakened and
thoroughly alarmed. We then learnt, not that we were
equalled, but that we were beaten-not on some
points, but by some nation or other on nearly all those
points on which we had prided ourselves.
Practical
examples of
benefits
arising
from or-
ganised
technical
In iron
manufac-
tures;
I shall shortly sum up the practical conclusions
which I myself and the most eminent of my colleagues
arrived at. We were sent by the British Government
to serve as jurymen in adjudging the awards of the
education: Exhibition, and to report to the Government the prac-
tical facts of national importance which we might
there observe. In the great manufactures of iron
men-of-war, with their huge steam-engines, ponderous
wrought-iron armour, we found ourselves equalled if
not beaten. The large marine engine of Dupuy
de Lôme neither excelled the English marine engine
in exquisite truth of workmanship nor in high finish,
for I have elsewhere said that the English workman's
conscientious pride in his work is not to be excelled
by that of the workmen of any other country. But the
design of the French engine showed so much fore-
thought, practical wisdom, and provision for economy,
as left no doubt that it would consume less fuel, do more
work, endure longer, and run less chance of accident
than our own engines; all of these being qualities
heretofore constituting our own superiority.
In iron
armour and
ships;
Next in iron armour. Their ships carried iron
armour as thick and as strong as our own, and they
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
87
were armed with guns and supplied with ammunition
which could just penetrate that armour, but which
that armour was just able to prevent from piercing.
And their ships presented arrangements for securing
all the advantages of simultaneous firing in every
direction which we had claimed for ours, with In artil-
this additional advantage, that the French had at-
tained that which we had at enormous expense tried
but failed in obtaining efficient breech-loading guns,
which enable them effectually to deliver 17 shots to
our 10.
Thus our naval supremacy was shown to be ended,
so far as the manufacture of matériel and mechanism
is concerned.
Coming to land-machinery and structures, we found
in the French department of the great building a
multitude of steam-engines of French manufacture,
and even from distant provinces, distinguished by our
own perfection of mechanical execution and high
finish, but distinguished also beyond any of our own
for the elegance and perfection of their mechanism and
arrangements for economy. With the French, fuel is
dear; they find it worth while to fetch it from
England and pay the freight, but they have set their
minds to compensate this inequality by their supe-
riority of design and contrivance. So they not merely
invented boilers well calculated to endure, keep clean,
and extract the largest quantity of heat out of the fuel
and to make with it high and strong steam, but they
also contrived the engines in such a manner as to turn
that steam to better account than in our engines, so as
to get more power out of a given quantity of fuel, in a
higher proportion even than the greater cost of our
own fuel exported into France. A clear triumph of
lery;
88
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In railway
plant;
In manu-
facture of
forethought and ingenuity over wasteful, unthinking
wealth.
There was but one steam-engine which rivalled
them, and that was more the contrivance of the
American than of the Englishman whose name it bore.
But perhaps the most remarkable group of all the
exhibitions in Paris, was the group of large manu-
factures in iron which showed the products of the
furnaces, forges, and iron-mills of France, Germany,
and Belgium. Everywhere in rails, railway-wheels,
railway tyres and axles; in large wrought-iron beams
for housebuilding, in iron plates and bars, and frames
for iron ships-in these, which were all our own, we
found ourselves rivalled, excelled, in size and quality,
and competed with in price. On land, therefore, as
well as at sea, our mastery of the iron trade seemed
to have disappeared.
In smelting, mining, locomotive building, and the
machinery; great branches of commercial machinery, a single great
establishment in France, called Creusot, appeared like
a chivalric knight to issue a challenge against all
England.
In quality
Creusot possesses the natural advantages of England,
and price; inasmuch as under its own soil it has the iron, the
coal, and other minerals, in the same abundance as
ourselves. But Creusot, under the wise direction of
President Schneider, was endowed with an advantage
which we have neglected-the possession of a syste-
matic organisation of technical schools. Creusot has a
generation of workmen schooled and trained on the
spot. The schools are a model which we shall long
emulate in vain. It will take us twelve years to over-
take Mr. Schneider. He imports his locomotives even
into England; and all round the coasts of France, and
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
89
round her inland borders, Schneider serves with loco-
motive engines, iron plates, and forgings, customers
who used to come to us for these commodities. It is
not in price merely that he competes with us. It
happened to me to be professionally occupied in a
foreign country where the iron for a large engineering
undertaking was about to be contracted for. Com-
petitive tenders were obtained from some of the best
works in England, and from Creusot. The prices were
so near as to have little influence on the result, but
they were slightly in favour of the English manu-
facturer. The contract was given to Creusot, and
when I inquired officially the reason which had sent
the contract to France, I was informed that they
could more perfectly rely on the uniform excellence
of the quality of the iron from Creusot than from
England—a result to an English engineer sufficiently
humiliating. I asked the value of this character in
the opinion of the buyers, and was answered that they
considered it equivalent to more than five per cent. in
favour of France.
ligent
Another fact of the same sort in the same place In intel-
expressed the same conviction. The large iron workman-
forgings which were imported for the same work, ship;
came from France, not England. The answer received
this time was that the large forgings were cheaper
in England than in France, but that in France the
forgings were so much better formed to the finished
shape as to be worth more than the difference in price.
I have dwelt on these instances mainly because In the
they are in departments in which I can venture to
express a professional judgment. In the Prussian
department were triumphs of technical skill, palpable
to all observers. Steel cannon more powerful than
English
specialty of
steel work.
90
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Results of a
generation
technic
education.
any of our own, carrying larger shot with heavier
powder charge. Large ingots of steel, of magnitude
and quality unequalled by any nation. Tyres of loco-
motive wheels, which, imported into England, supersede
our own highest qualities of iron; and complicated
members of machines forged by Krupp out of a single
piece of steel so as to be equivalent to eight or nine of
the old pieces, formerly fastened imperfectly into one.
These were some of the triumphs hastily exhibited by
Prussia, even at the end of her costly war.
I will not weary the reader with further observa-
of foreign tions of my own.* I have said enough to let him.
understand how the Exhibition of Paris startled a
thinking Englishman, and ended by convincing him
that England had been asleep, and that a whole
generation of wakeful, skilled workmen had been
trained in other countries during the interval between
1851 and 1867. Fifteen years is the time necessary
to train a generation of skilled men. Some nations
had already possessed that time and turned it to that
account, with the results we then saw in Paris.
One gene-
ration of
lost
England.
That is a lesson on no account to be lost. It is the
education crowning lesson of the series begun in '51, and it is the
(15 years) intention of the following evidence to impress on
Englishmen, from the legislator to the craftsman, the
great fact that we have let one generation grow up
uneducated and untrained, and that no question now
remains for us but this: shall we now allow a second
generation to grow up equally untrained, unskilled,
and left behind in the race?
* The reader who desires more information than is given in this
Chapter, will find it not only in the works themselves from which the
following extracts are made, but in the reports of the Juries and of our
own Government reporters, which are published in a separate volume.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
91
of technical
men to our
want of
technical
education :
ment re-
I now, therefore, proceed to give the opinions of Testimony
qualified men, who have, with extraordinary pains,
gathered the lessons and moral of the Exhibition of national
Paris for the benefit of the English people: A new
organisation was provided, of which we can scarcely
imagine the full value to have been apprehended at
the time it was initiated. There were, of course, the Jurors;
usual reports of the jurors and the prizes which fol-
lowed their awards; but awards and medals became
so profusely showered that their number nearly neu-
tralised their value. Besides, and, we may say, above Govern-
and beyond the jurors, was a higher series of reports porters;
prepared by Special Commissioners sent to report on
the results of the Exhibition, with reference to national
interests, and the large number of their reports have
already been printed and have already appeared in a
series of 'Kensington Blue Books.' A second series
of reports of a still more strictly technical nature was
elicited by the Commissioners of Schools, who had
ascertained that many of the reports on the French
Exhibition appeared to throw the blame of certain
cases of inferiority on the lower technical education of
the British people, and the Commission issued a series
of inquiries of which they then published the report.
ment Com-
On this report the Government, having taken alarm, Govern-
sent abroad a Commissioner, if not officially, at least missioner.
officieusement, to ascertain by personal inquiry whether
the alleged defects of our systems of education and our
inferiority to some other countries in some sorts of
technical skill were real or imaginary; and we have in
the
report of Mr. Samuelson to the Vice-President of
the Council of Education, the views of a practical
manufacturer concerning the previous statements.
these sources of information agree on three points,—on
All
92
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Working
men.
the great practical value of education to a people; on
the admirable organisation provided by the Govern-
ments of other countries for giving to their people sys-
tematic and universally-diffused technical education ;
and, thirdly, on the deplorable neglect of such mea-
sures which has characterised our own Government
and people.
But in my estimation there is a collection of docu-
ments of far more importance than all these put to-
gether, which has just been published in an unassuming
form by the Society of Arts, and issued from their
rooms in the Adelphi, at the small price of half-a-
crown. I doubt whether the Society itself clearly
saw what it was about when it undertook the harm-
less, beneficent duty of offering to pay the travelling
expenses of such English artisans as wanted to study
their own departments of trade in the French Exhibi-
tion, and could not afford the cost; and when in return
for this benefit it imposed the modest condition that
they should report in writing on what they had seen
and learnt. Out of this simple act has grown a collec-·
tion of reports, 689 pages of closely printed matter,
full of subject for the gravest thought-treating, in fact,
the whole question of the social condition, moral and
religious education of the workman, and of the duties
which various Governments have either neglected or
performed, in giving or withholding from the youth of
a nation that intelligence, skill, and taste which they
unanimously declare education can promote and de-
velop if it cannot create. It is the quiet, reason-
able, practical, and moderate tone in which all this
has been investigated and set down which renders
this volume the notable contribution to social science
in 1867.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
93
Of all these four separate sources of knowledge I
should wish to convey to my readers the aim, the
substance, and the conclusions. I fear I shall not be
able in one chapter to overtake all of them, for the field
is both wide and prolific, covering nearly all the branches
of human industry.
6
I. Taking up first the Report relative to Tech-
nical Education by the Schools Enquiry Commis-
sion of 2nd July, 1867,' I find the Commissioners
issuing a request for information to some eminent
jurors and others as to the truth of certain evidence
considered to be afforded by the International Exhibi-
tion at Paris of the inferior rate of progress in manu-
facturing and mechanical industry in England com-
pared with that made in other European countries;'
and they add, it has been stated to us that this
alleged inferiority is due in a great measure to the
want of technical education, and we have therefore
thought it desirable to ascertain from many eminent
English jurors in this department whether they agree
with this opinion, and we think it expedient at once to
report to your Majesty the answers which we have re-
ceived to our inquiry on this point.'
.
The gentlemen whom they consulted, and whose Jurors.
answers they have printed, were: Dr. Lyon Playfair,
F.R.S., Professor Tyndall, F.R.S., Dr. David Price,
J. E. McConnell, C.E., James Young, chemical manu-
facturer, J. Scott Russell, F.R.S., Captain Beaumont,
R.E., Robert Mallet, C.E., Rev. Cannon Norris, M.A.,
Professor Frankland, F.R.S., John Fowler, C.E., Waring-
ton W. Smythe, F.R.S., E. Huth, Peter Graham, A. J.
Mundella, W. Spotten, thus representing many of the
most important departments of our educated profes-
sions, our applied sciences, engineering, education, and
94
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Jurors.
manufactures. I shall content myself with giving the
essence of these opinions.
Dr. LYON PLAYFAIR gives as the result of his own
inquiry as a juror, and of those of other jurors: 'A
singular accordance of opinion prevailed that our
country had shown little inventiveness, and made but
little progress in the peaceful arts of industry since
1862.
Out of ninety classes there are scarcely
a dozen in which pre-eminence is unhesitatingly
awarded to us.
The one cause upon which
there was most unanimity of conviction is that France,
Prussia, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland possess
good systems of industrial education for the masters
and managers of manufactories and workshops, and
England possesses none.'
Professor TYNDALL says: 'I have long entertained
the opinion that in virtue of the better education pro-
vided by continental nations, England must one day,
and that no distant one, find herself outstripped by
those nations, both in the arts of peace and war.'
Mr. HUTH writes: I am sorry to say that although
we may still be unsurpassed in many of our produc-
tions, we no longer hold that pre-eminence which was
accorded to us in 1851.
The enormous strides
that have of late been made by our continental rivals
in France, Belgium, Prussia, and Austria will make it
daily more difficult for our woollen manufacturers to
hold not only their former prominent position, but even
to maintain their present one.
I found that
it is the want of industrial education in this country
which prevents our manufacturers from making that
progress which other nations are making.
I
found both masters and foremen of other countries
much more scientifically educated than our own.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
95
ever.
The workmen of other countries have a far superior Jurors.
education to ours, many of whom have none what-
Their productions show clearly that
there is not a machine working a machine, but that
brains sit at the loom and intelligence stands at the
spinning-wheel.'
Mr. McCONNELL says: 'In the class for which I was
juror for England, I made a very careful examination
and comparison of our locomotive engines, carriages,
railway machinery, apparatus, and matériel with those
exhibited by France, Germany, and Belgium. I am
firmly convinced that our former superiority, either in
material or workmanship, no longer exists.
Unless we adopt a system of technical education for
our workmen in this country, we shall soon not even
hold our own in cheapness.
It appears to me,
Government should take the matter in hand.
There should be mining schools in South Wales,
Staffordshire, and Durham; and machinery and engine
schools in Manchester, Glasgow, &c.'
Professor FRANKLAND says: 'As a juror in Class 44
of the Paris Exhibition, I was not only forcibly struck
by the want of evidence of progress in the different
branches of chemical manufactures carried on in Great
Britain, but still more so by the great advances made
by other nations, especially Germany, France, and
Switzerland, in respect of such manufactures, since
1862, when, as a juror in the corresponding Class, I
had also an opportunity of comparing the chemical
manufactures of different nations.
In the
Polytechnic schools of Germany and Switzerland the
future manufacturer or manager is made familiar with
those laws and applications of the great natural forces
which must always form the basis of every intelligent
96
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Jurors.
and progressive industry; it seems that at length this
superiority in previous training is more than counter-
balancing the undoubted advantages which this country
possesses in raw material.'
Mr. MALLET says, 'I fully agree that a better sys-
tem of technical education for all classes connected
with industrial pursuits has become a pressing neces-
sity in Great Britain, and that immediate steps ought
to be taken for organising and procuring legislatively
such a system;' he has been long convinced that
'unless checked by a vast improvement in our own
educational system, general and technical, the pre-
eminence of England must decline with a rapidly ac-
celerating pace.'
Mr. DAVID PRICE says, 'What is really wanted for
this country, and is of vital consequence to our future
prosperity, is a higher scientific culture of those who
are likely in the natural course of events to be master
manufacturers; so that when discoveries are made they
may fructify, and not stagnate or decay, as has too
often been the case, for want of intelligence on the part
of those who command capital and works, to see their
merits.'
The evidence given by other jurors is not less strong,
but I can only spare room for one more quotation, that
of Mr. MUNDELLA :-The branch of industry with which
I have been connected for thirty years, is the manufac-
turing of hosiery. I am the managing partner, employing
5000 workpeople; with establishments in Nottingham,
Derby, and Loughborough, employing 4000, and with
branches at Chemnitz and Pausa, in Saxony, employing
about 700 persons. I have for four or five years past
been increasingly alarmed for our industrial supremacy,
and my experience of the Paris Exhibition has only con-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
97
Cominis-
firmed and strengthened my fears. . . . I am of opinion
that Englishmen possess more energy, enterprise, and
inventiveness than any other European nation. The
best machines in my trade now at work in France and
Germany are the inventions of Englishmen, but are
there constructed and improved by men who have had
the advantage of a superior industrial education. At
the largest establishment in Paris these machines are
constructed and improved on thorough scientific prin-
ciples, under the superintendence of a young man,
who, I was informed, took high honours at the school of
the Government in Paris. . . . Precisely the same thing
is taking place in Saxony; but the Saxons are, in
respect of education, both primary and industrial,
much in advance of the French, and in my branch
they are our most formidable rivals. . . . The contrast Schools
betwixt the workpeople of Saxony and England, engaged sion.
in the same trade, is most humiliating. I have had
statistics taken of various workshops and rooms in
factories in this district, and the frightful ignorance they
reveal is disheartening and appalling.
In Saxony
our manager, an Englishman of superior intelligence,
and greatly interested in education, during a residence
of seven years has never met with a workman who
cannot read or write-not in the limited and imperfect
manner in which the majority of English artisans are
said to read and write, but with a freedom and famili-
arity that enables them to enjoy reading, and to con-
duct their correspondence in a creditable and often
superior style. Some of the sons of our poorest work-
men in Saxony are receiving a technical education at
the Polytechnic schools, such as the sons of our manu-
facturers cannot hope to obtain. . . . I am of opinion
that the English workman is gradually losing the race,
][
98
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
through the superior intelligence which foreign Govern-
ments are carefully developing in their artisans. . . . The
education of Germany is the result of a national
organisation, which compels every peasant to send his
children to school, and afterwards affords the oppor-
tunity of acquiring such technical knowledge as may
be useful in the department of industry to which they
are destined.' His concluding sentence ought to carry
great weight. If we are to maintain our position in
industrial competition, we must oppose to this national
organisation one equally effective and complete; if we
continue the fight with our present voluntary system,
we shall be defeated, generations hence we shall be
struggling with ignorance, squalor, pauperism, and
crime; but with a system of national education made
compulsory, and supplemented with art and industrial
education, I believe within twenty years England
would possess the most intelligent and inventive arti-
sans in the world.'
II. It is no wonder that with such a report made to
her Majesty from such a Commission as that of which
Lord Taunton is chairman, the Committee of Council
on Education should have thought it necessary to ob-
tain some little information as to what other countries
were doing for the technical education of their people.
They solicited through our representatives abroad such
printed papers as the various Governments could give
them regarding the organisation of technical schools,
and we learn that they are translating some of these
for public use. They also requested Mr. Samuelson to
visit, or accepted his offer to examine (for it is not
quite clear which), manufacturing industry abroad, in
its relation to technical schools; and the result is a
letter addressed by him to the Vice-President of the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
99
Committee of Council on Education, moved for by the
House of Commons, and printed in November last.
of Govern-
Mr. Samuelson, M.P., travelled in France, Belgium, II. Report
and Germany, examining as he went the most famous ment Com
manufacturing establishments on the Continent, which
stand in direct rivalry to our own.
He found every·
where in these establishments men of all ranks better
educated than our own; working men less illiterate
foremen and managers well educated, and masters
accomplished, well-informed, technical men. He
traced out the pupils of technical schools to their prac-
tical and successful results, as the superintendents of
large works, and he sums up the results of his exami-
nation in a paragraph which appears to confirm all the
reports made to that Commission, which was the origin
of the inquiry.I have attempted to show, by ex-
amples, what is the condition of some of the leading
industries in these countries (France, Switzerland, and
Germany). I do not think it possible to estimate pre-
cisely what has been the influence of continental edu-
cation on continental manufactures. . . . That the rapid
progress of many trades abroad has been greatly facili-
tated by the superior technical knowledge of the direc-
tors of works everywhere, and by the comparatively
advanced elementary instruction of the workers in
some departments of industry, can admit of but little
doubt.... Meanwhile we know that our manufacturing
artisans are imperfectly taught, our agricultural la-
bourers illiterate; neither one nor the other can put
forth with effect the splendid qualities with which Pro-
vidence has endowed our people. Our foremen, chosen
from the lower industrial ranks, have no sufficient op-
portunities of correcting the deficiencies of their early
education; our managers are too apt, in every case of
missioner.
{
or M
H 2
100
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
III. Reports
of work-
men.
novelty, to proceed by trial and error, without scientific
principles to guide them; and the sons of our great
manufacturers too often either despise the pursuits of
their fathers as mere handicrafts, unworthy of men of
wealth and education, or else, overlooking the beautiful
examples which they afford of the application of na-
tural laws to the wants of men, follow them solely as
a means of heaping up more wealth, or at the best for
want of other occupation: to the evils of such a con-
dition not only our statesmen, but also our people, are
rapidly awakening, and the disease being once acknow-
ledged, I believe the remedy will soon be applied.'
III. In the two preceding sections we have been
occupied with what we may call the upper side of the
question, that is to say, we have seen it from the
master's point of view, and we have also seen how it
is regarded by men of science, of education, and of
distinguished technical skill. Let us now see how the
questions of technical education and manufacturing
supremacy are regarded from the workman's point of
view, and so try to understand the under side of the
question.
What do our technical workers think of their own
skill, intelligence, taste, judgment,, knowledge, culture,
refinement? What do they think of their education,
of their school training and apprenticeship? What do
they think of the opportunities provided for the ma-
tured workman, who wishes to study, to copy, to in-
crease his stores of science, and rise to higher grades of
skill? What do they think are the duties of Govern-
ment to him and his fellows? Do they think foreign
Governments wiser in their care for their working
people than ours? Do they think the systematic edu-
cation of their people to be waste of pains or wise
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
101
foresight? In short, do they find in the institutions of
any other country any social amelioration which they
would wish to introduce into their own?
On all these points, and a great many more, we
have the evidence of fifty-five witnesses, all workmen,
most of them evidently superior workmen, and who
are entitled by their acquirements to be termed at
least self-educated men. Among so many witnesses,
we cannot call up all; but as we have enjoyed the
pleasure of reading the whole book, we will only call
such witnesses as appear to have made a special study
of each point.
on tech-
ing A
chair
maker.
1. On Early Technical Training.-Mr. LUCRAFT, Workmen
the chairmaker, says—' Seeing some lads at work with nical train-
the men in the carver's shop, I went to the bench of
one about fourteen-he was carving a chair-back, of a
mediæval form, from a working drawing. I expressed
my surprise that one so young was found capable of
carving so well, and was informed that boys at school
are specially prepared for the trade they fancy, so that
a boy about to be apprenticed to learn carving is in-
structed in ornamental drawing, modelling, and de-
signing.'
Further, 'I am bound to repeat that
in the race we are nowhere.
Without the
least doubt or hesitation, yet with the most profound
regret, I say that our defeat is as ignominious, and I
fear as disastrous, as it is possible to conceive. We
have not only made no progress since 1862, but it
seems to me we have retrograded.' He adds that the
mere mechanical workman stands not the slightest
chance with the workman of a cultivated taste.
'The art-workmen of France have a great advantage
over us in England; in Paris they are surrounded by
works of taste which none but the most obtuse can
102
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
A hosier.
A stone-
mason.
long remain uninfluenced by; their museums are central
and numerous; they are surrounded by works they
venerate and love, and their very nature gets impreg-
nated with them.
Something must be done,
or the working classes will be grievously wronged, and
the whole nation suffer.'
6
The lacemakers of Nottingham say-'We are unani-
mous in opinion that French laces display a decided
superiority in design and quality of material over the
English goods.' They express the hope that the
time is not far distant when some national system of
compulsory education will be brought into existence to
lessen the ignorance amongst us, and place our country
on an equality of intelligence with other nations.'
Messrs. KENDAL and CAUNT, hosiers, say-' We
observed, as a rule, that the French people did every-
thing with the greatest easc and tact, and without
much labour, and always made a good finish of what
they took in hand, so that nothing could be much
improved after they had done with it.
On
the whole, we are of opinion that the French have
made great progress of late years, and that they are
continuing to progress; and there can be no doubt
that the superior education that is given to the work-
ing classes on the Continent gives them an advantage
in some respects over Englishmen; but there are no
workmen so quick and so inventive as our own, as far
as we are able to judge.'
Mr. CONNELLY, stonemason, says The French-
man's familiarity with art, and his early training in its
principles, enables him to outstrip us; and as every
building in Paris is more or less decorated with carv-
ing, you are at a loss to know how they get all their
art-workmen; but the difficulty would not appear so
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
103
much if you could read the large placards in French
which are posted up at the ends of the bridges, and
other public places, informing workmen where they
can be taught drawing and modelling every evening
free of expense. That he outstrips the Englishman
in this respect does not, I feel certain, arise from the
possession of an especial art genius, but because what-
ever of it is in him is fully developed, and encourage-
ment is given to its practice; and if English workmen
are behind in this respect, it is not because art genius
is deficient in our nature, but because it is not deve-
loped and encouraged sufficiently.
It is im-
possible to estimate the loss which is entailed upon
England through the neglect of art culture in every
department of our industry; through it we are reduced
to mere "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for
other nations. The bulk of our manufacturing popu-
lation is engaged in manufacturing goods to be sold
cheap, or in producing raw materials for other people
to work.
On a ton of iron, for the labour of
which we get less than 17., they are sure to put 1007.
of labour before it leaves their hands.
painter.
2. Artisans' Opinion on the Responsibility of a A china
State for the Technical Education of its People.--
Mr. RANDALL, china painter, says When we come
to high-class ornamentations in iron, earthenware, china,
or glass, the superiority of French art is obvious. As
long as we confine ourselves to geometrical forms in
hammering, pressing, turning on the lathe, or printing
on the surface, we have no difficulty in holding our
own; but where an intellectualism is concerned, or a
free educated hand is required in decoration, our defi-
ciencies become apparent. The fault is less our own
than our rulers, who have denied us education, or who
104
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
fy
have at least given us nothing to fit us for our desti-
nation in life, but have left us groping in the dark, for
ever feebly attempting to overtake lost opportunities.
As we heard an English workman in another
branch of trade observe in Paris-there is much more
credit to an English workman if he is clever, for a
Frenchman has so many advantages, that if he only
has moderate talents, he can scarcely help but be a
good workman. He has excellent schools to give him
a primary education, and, go where he will, there is
something to educate his eye and elevate his taste.
We have been groping our way in ignorant and bigoted
security, and quarrelling in which way education should
be given, or denying it altogether, while other nations
have been getting before us; and if this Exhibition
have no other effect in England than to convince us of
our deficiencies, it will have had its mission-so far
as we are concerned. The present prosperity of this
country is so unmistakeably interwoven with its manu-
factures, and the pre-eminence of these depends so much
upon new adaptations, discoveries, and improvements,
as to demand for the workers in iron, china, and other
departments, the readliest and best educational training
and enlightenment this nation can give them. It is
not only idle, but suicidal, to dream of remaining where
we are. We must strike out in new paths. We must
advance with the world, or lose caste and trade together.
How many men know anything at all of the materials
with which they work? Yet such knowledge would
sweeten daily toil, would open the treasure-house of
thought, enable a man to convert to new uses elements
of force by which he is surrounded, and enrich the
nation by adaptations and modes of economising means
now in use. Every man ought to have the means
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
TECHNICA
105
within his reach to enable him to become master of
his art. With how many would a knowledge of geology,
chemistry, geometry, drawing, and mechanics, smooth
the path of daily toil, and render labour pleasant!
Why should not the miner find compensating pleasure
for the darkness and drudgery of the mine in a know-
ledge of the gases by which he is surrounded, and of
the minerals he is extracting from their long resting-
place in their subterranean storehouse? Let him know
something of their history, of the changes and natural
processes to which they were subject to bring them to
their present state. How cheaply purchased is the
pleasure of astonishment with which he might go on
reading the hieroglyphics and paintings of Nature in
the mine, interpreting at each stage the emblems of
earlier states and existences. Such an education would
tell in many ways. All that we ask for is, that the
State should fulfil efficiently unquestionable and ad-
mitted duties rather than disputed ones. We have no
wish for interference in a way that may weaken in the
least a proper sense of individual responsibility, that
may lessen the slightest individual energy, or offend
the sensibilities of the strictest advocates for economy
in the resources of the nation. Government for the
future will—if there is any meaning or force in the
late political changes-be more than ever the delegated
power of the people to execute its will in legislating
upon the admitted Benthamite" principle of the
greatest happiness to the greatest number; and whilst
doing so, it will undoubtedly seek to carry out the
injunctions of the wise in all ages from Solomon down-
wards, and supply education to those who are supposed
to be deficient of the will or the means of obtaining
it. What we complain of, and what the country
"C
106
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
A wood
carver.
raising the taxes to support the present system com-
plains of most, is that, being in the hands of the clergy,
and under inspection by men drafted from them, it is
used as a proselyting scheme, rather than an engine
for fitting children for their duties in life. They are
crammed with catechisms, Jewish pedigrees, with things
pertaining to the past, which have no relation whatever
to their future modes and pursuits of life, without being
taught at all the means by which their own wonderful
and diversified faculties might be made to bloom in
profitable fruition, so that both the individual and the
State itself should be compensated—each having its
positive welfare secured thereby.'
Mr. WINSTANLEY says: 'I should like to see a num-
ber of institutions --they might be called colleges, or
any other name. I would have them fitted up with a
number of workshops for different trades, and one
large room to be used as a lecture room, and for peri-
odical exhibitions. I would have lectures delivered
twice a week, by the best professors, upon different
branches of art manufacture. There should be a well-
stocked library and reading room, all on art manufac-
ture. There should be schools attached, for drawing
and modelling. Why I propose workshops is, because
working men in large towns have a great difficulty in
finding convenience to do anything for themselves by
way of improvement. . . . I would also have a committee
or council established by Government, or the Society of
Arts, that should receive working men presenting certi-
ficates for examination in their different branches, and
grant them certificates according to their merits.'
Mr. MACKIE, Wood-carver, reports: 'I visited the
Ecole Impériale Spéciale pour l'Application des Beaux
Arts à l'Industrie. On that occasion there was an
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
107
exhibition of the works of the students, and the number
and variety were considerable and interesting. Con-
spicuous among the exhibits were some large models
in clay. The Minister of Instruction had dictated the
subject, and the following were the particulars given.
A somewhat large tympanum of a pediment, to have
the head of a bull for a centre, resting upon a shield,
with accessories of boys and festoons of fruits and
flowers. The best was a very successful interpretation
of the order given. These studies were little more
than good sketches in clay, but it was evident that the
students were learning a most useful lesson, that would
stand them in good service when they went forth into
the world. . . . It seemed abundantly clear that the sys-
tem pursued was simple and rapid, and that the teach-
ing and practice produced valuable results. It seems
to have great vitality, never being without deep and
varied interest to the student, features that should dis-
tinguish every school, and without which they will as-
suredly fail in accomplishing the objects sought to be
obtained. A visit to the exhibition of the works of
the students of the Ecole Impériale Spéciale de Dessin
pour les Jeunes Personnes, showed that the young
ladies practised the same system with very profitable
results. I am informed that the fees are little more
than nominal, the main expense of the schools being
borne by Government.'
6
Mr. WHITEING, in his special report, says on the
subject: The notion of the functions of Government
entertained in this country would not be tolerated for
a moment across the Channel, and it may be doubted
whether our dislike to what is called special legislation
-to legislation, that is to say, which proposes as a
direct aim the improvement of the social condition of
108
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
our people, has not its weak as well as its strong side.
The constant difficulties experienced by individuals
struggling alone to effect social reforms, often never
aided by Government till the necessity of all aid has
passed away, would seem to indicate that it has.
From the view of the obligations of Government taken
by the French people, it necessarily arises that instruc-
tion, both superior and elementary, has long held that
recognised position under the protection of the State,
which it is only just beginning to have here. A due
provision for art education, for instance, is no favour
on the part of the administration, but one of the con-
ditions of its existence. In every town of any import-
ance in a manufacturing point of view, in every dis-
trict of all the principal cities, there is to be found the
art school, just as there is to be found the church or the
baker's shop. . . It is not denied that similar institu-
tions are to be found in our own country, but among us
there is a very perceptible want of Government respon-
sibility for the welfare of the schools, and they are not
placed under the direct patronage of the officials of the
district, who in France commonly attend to give a
solemn character to the distribution of the awards.
In France the Minister of Instruction has confided to
him, as it were, a nation in a certain state of know-
ledge, and he is expected when he resigns the seals of
office, to show that under his care that nation has
steadily progressed; he may demand certain aid from
the Government; his claims have a recognised place in
the budget, and he is entitled to speak by the admitted
importance of the interests over which he presides.
It would be well, if with us some such system could
be devised, in place of that which gives us an irregular
and spasmodic support to art, on the part of our public
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
109
representatives, and which too often leaves its fate in
the hands of only one or two well-meaning members
of parliament. . . . What is above all wanted, is Govern-
ment countenance, as well as Government aid. In
France, as we have seen, the distribution of prizes,
the opening of schools, is always made more or less
a ceremony; the whole population of the district
in which the school is situate cannot fail to hear of
what is going on. Publicity and éclat are given to all
the proceedings, and the school immediately reaps the
benefit. Of course it is not to be inferred that the
Government of France does everything for art educa-
tion, and private individuals nothing. There is a con-
siderable amount of private patronage, though to
nothing like the same extent as among us; but it is
always desirable to substitute for the irregular action
of individuals, however well disposed, the order, eco-
nomy, and persistent effort of an efficient body. . . . Let
us now consider what the State does for education in
France, both for primary instruction and for the special
training required later when an art or trade has been
chosen. The system of primary instruction so very
much resembles our own, both in the nature of the in-
struction given, and in the mode in which support is
obtained, that no detailed account of it will be neces-
sary. But it is in the facilities for the higher educa-
tion which ought to follow this primary teaching, where
the inclination exists, that the great divergence between
the English and the French begins. The ease with
which a poor boy may obtain an entry to one of the
imperial lyceums, or large public schools, which prepare
for the universities, and thence go up to the universities,
which very properly are in the capital itself, and are
all free, is something marvellous, and is only equalled
·
110
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
by the excellent facilities of a like kind which exist in
Germany. . . . The technical education of French work-
men is of two kinds, elementary and advanced. In the
first, the child having been early destined to a particular
trade, is placed in an institution, where he serves a
kind of preliminary apprenticeship to that trade, and
where primary instruction goes hand in hand with the
special training requisite to give him a more enlarged
knowledge of his business. These technical schools
for children are, however, only just beginning to be
established, but the results in the last of which ac-
counts were published, were in the highest degree satis-
factory. The children are occupied in all about nine
hours of the day. . . . In the morning they receive in-
struction of the ordinary kind, which is also given for
an hour in the evening, and during the day they work
in every respect as if they were apprenticed to private
individuals, only that a certain portion of the time is
devoted to teaching them the rationale of their art. . . .
It has been stated that at present these institutions are
very few in number, as hitherto they have only been
regarded in the light of an experiment, so that only a
very limited number of trades can be taught in them,
but there is little doubt that as an experiment they
have been successful, and that when their success shall
have obtained general recognition, the Government will
take measures for establishing them in all the principal
towns.
An equally important tentative effort in the way of
technical education has recently been made in the
establishment, under Government patronage, of an insti-
tution for the higher technical training of youths-
that is to say, for the union of the highest theoretical
with the best practical teaching in the manufacturing
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
111
arts. This institution is somewhat in the nature of the
Ecole des Arts et Métiers, only it is not so exclu-
sively theoretical as that, but aims at supplying a want
long felt in France, namely, that of skilled foremen
competent to superintend, or at least fully understand
all the operations of a large manufactory.
ham arti-
sans.
Mr. AITKEN, of Birmingham, in his introductory Birming-
report, which heads the reports of the Birmingham
artisans, says: 'Industry, formerly unaffected by
foreign rivalry, contended only with small producers
of its own nation, and then the competition was
small. But free trade has thrown down the barriers,
and the world is now one mighty, universal market.
To be successful in this competition, our nation (Eng-
land) must, therefore, put forward all its energies
to educate in technical and other schools the present
and coming generations; this was anticipated and
clearly seen. Humboldt, many years ago, foresaw and
predicted "that the time was not far distant when
science and manipulative skill must be wedded to-
gether; that national wealth and the increasing
prosperity of nations must be based on an enlightened
employment of natural products and forces." Justus
Liebig said: "The nation most quickly promoting the
intellectual development of its industrial population
must advance as surely as the country neglecting it
must inevitably retrograde." Peel saw this when he
uttered the memorable words, "If we are inferior in
skill, knowledge, and intelligence to the manufacturers
of other countries, the increased facilities of intercourse
will result in transferring the demand from us to
others;" and England's noblest Prince foresaw in
International Exhibitions (which he was the first to
inaugurate) the coming activity in things industrial ;
112
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Summing
up the
evidence.
and in order to provide for the coming competition he
inaugurated ere his lamented death a system of indus-
trial education.
In France, Prussia, Saxony, and the small State of
Würtemberg, &c., trade schools, in addition to others
of a higher class, arc in existence, and furnish the con-
necting link between the man of science who discovers
and the superintendent who is the medium, and who,
educated in these schools, aids by his instruction and
advice the workman in bringing into visible shape the
discovery of the man of science, rendering practically
useful that which existed as an idea only. If then
industrial and technical training has benefited other
countries and states in their industrial progress (which
no doubt it has), it becomes the duty of every English-
man to see to this important point.
It is impossible to go through the evidence of the
eighty-six representatives of the skilled workmen of
England without sharing their profound conviction :
1st. Of the pressing peril of the nation in regard to
manufacturing pre-eminence. 2nd. Of the culpability
of the educated classes and of the executive Govern-
ment in having neglected the education of the people.
3rd. That it is satisfactorily proved by these reports.
that the reluctance of the working classes to receive
superior technical education, to bear taxation for that
purpose, and to accept the active agency of Govern-
ment institutions and officials (which reluctance has
been put forward as an excuse for this neglect), has no
existence in fact, and that it is therefore the negligence,
apathy, and reluctance of the governing classes and
the Government which have hitherto alone prevented
the organisation of systematic technical education.
4th. It appears that until the mission to France of the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
113
English artisans in 1867, they, the working men of
England, were not aware that the Governments of
other countries had organised complete education in
all trade crafts, from the lowest mechanical labour
to the highest professional skill. 5th. Throughout
the whole of these Reports there runs a feeling of pro-
found admiration for the system of education given
in France; but they were evidently not aware that the
educated men and statesmen of France had themselves
become conscious that their system was far below the
level of excellence of the educated German nations ;
that a royal commission, under the presidency of
M. Béhic, formerly Minister of Commerce, had re-
cently been occupied with that subject, and had
arrived at the conclusion that the technical education
of France, which our artisans admired in Paris, was,
as a national system of technical education, extremely
defective; and the investigations of this Commission
prove that if England is the worst educated of the
first-class Powers of Europe, France is the second
worst. 6th. There runs parallel with these convictions
a consciousness that the English workman is by nature
the best of workmen, and that with systematic educa-
tion their works would excel those of competing
nations.
In conclusion I have to state my deep conviction that
the working men of England expect and demand of
their Government the design, organisation, and execu-
tion of systematic technical education, and there is
urgent need for it to bestir itself, for other nations
have already five-and-twenty years' start of us, and
have produced one or two generations of educated
workmen. Even if we begin to-morrow the technical
education of all the youths of twelve years of age who
I
7
114
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
have received sound elementary education, it will take
seven years before these young men can commence the
practical business of life, and then they will form but
an insignificant minority in an uneducated mass. It.
will take fifteen years before those children who have
not yet begun to receive an elementary education shall
have passed from the age of 7 to 21 and represent a
completely trained generation; and even then they
will find less than half of their comrades educated.
In the race of nations, therefore, we shall find it hard
to overtake the five-and-twenty years we have lost.
To-morrow, then, let us undertake with all energy our
neglected task; the urgency is twofold,-one half of
our youth, let us say, has received elementary, but no
technical education: for that half let us at once
organise technical schools in every small town, tech-
nical colleges in every large town, and a technical
university in the metropolis. The other half of the
rising generation has received no education at all, and
for them let us at once organise elementary education,
even if compulsory.
CHAPTER V.
THE TRUE WAY TO EXCELLENCE IN WORK AND
EXCELLENCE IN WORKMEN.
The same education for masters and men.—Mutual good understanding.—
Separate education of ranks in society an evil.-Leads to misunder-
standing and estrangement.-The master ceases to unite and lead his
men; the men seek other leaders. Estrangement of masters from
men deteriorates both.-The master descends from skilled leader to
become mere middle-man.-With the master the work also loses caste.-
The skilled master gone, the skill of foremen and men goes also.-Ex-
cellence ceases to be the aim of work.-Cheapness is installed lord of
work. The building trades:- Conditions of excellence - Causes of
decadence. The unskilled master-builder:-Unskilled in workmanship
-Unskilled in materials. The master-workman's functions resigned to
middle-men. These causes lead to the degradation of character, in work
and in workmen.-Ugliness, untruth, and unsoundness of work.—Skill
disappears under the reigning maxim of “cheap work" to be sold
"dear.”—The old way to wealth, by good work at fair prices.-The new
way to wealth, by bad work at low prices.-The remedy for degrada-
tion of work and workmen.-Equality of education will redress ex-
tremes of earnings-Will raise the rates of wages for skilled labour-
And diminish the extremes of social inequality.
An important but perhaps not an obvious result of
the systematic technical education of men of every
class trained together in the same schools, colleges,
and university, would be a transference of the same
organisation from the school to the workshop, and an
amount of good understanding between all fellow-
workers which cannot fail to lighten individual labour,
to save much waste of pains, materials, and thought,
and to give great unity and perfection to the work
done. The master being only a degree better educated
and instructed than his foreman, it is plain that less
pains will be required to make him understand what
The same
for masters
education
and men.
I 2
116
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Mutual
good un-
derstand-
ing.
Separate
education
society an
evil:
he is to undertake and do, and how he is to set about
and do it; and thus the master's work will be all the
easier, and his anxiety about its satisfactory execution
all the less. Next, the foreman or leading workman
will be only a little more able and better informed
than the men under him, and only a little less skilled
than his master, so that he can easily make his wishes
known to those who have so much knowledge in
common. The men, on the other hand, are perfectly
prepared by their education and skill to comprehend
the aim of their work and its relation to the materials
and the processes of which they are masters.
Here, then, is produced by community of education
that unity of co-operation by which the greatest and
noblest works can be executed in the best and highest
way.
Where, on the contrary, workmen, superintendents,
of ranks in masters, have all received independent training, and
come from classes of society kept apart from each
other, even in their elementary education, the work-
man more or less illiterate, the master perhaps a
scholar, but unskilled in work, it is plain that for some
time at least they will be kept far asunder by want of
common ground for sympathy. To remedy this evil
the workman should have had a higher education, the
master a more technical training; but in the absence
of these, what generally happens is a cure which per-
petuates and exaggerates the distance between them.
A middle-man steps in between the two-sometimes
he is a contractor for the labour of the men-who says
to the master, "I know the nature of the men and
their work, give me the money you have set aside, and
I will see that they do the work, and undertake that
it is done for the money." He takes care, of course,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
117
that he himself is well paid. The wider the distance
between master and men, the larger the margin for his
profit; it becomes his interest that this margin shall
grow, hence his skill is devoted to diminishing the
wages of the workman and the profits of the master:
to the men he complains that the master is a screw, to
the master he complains that the men won't work.
Thus, between uneducated men and unskilled masters,
a breach is made, ever growing wider and deeper. At
the root of much of the system of combination of men
against masters, will be found to lie this primary
incongruity of knowledge and ignorance, skill and
unskill; and from it an alienation of interests ever
growing, and always fostered by meddling middle-men,
who at last become an indispensable but baleful ele-
ment-beginning with conciliation, and ending with
alienation. It matures into class distinction of the
worst sort, continually deepening into class antipathy.
Now let us follow a little from these early begin- Leads to
nings what this want of common understanding and standing
sympathy must inevitably lead to. The men, cut off trange-
from their natural leader or master, come by-and-by
to select leaders out of their own class. Those with
whom they are on terms of friendly intercourse, and
with whom they co-operate for the benefit of their
families and for their own social preservation, are the
natural substitutes for their masters; and the secretary
and president of their trades' union, the treasurer of
their society, the leader of their public-house club or men;
committee, and the Potters and Beales' of their com- the men
binations, step into the place of leaders, obtain the leaders.
confidence of the men, and fulfil the offices of counsel,
co-operation, mutual help, and leadership which the
masters have left vacant. Henceforward, between
misunder-
and es-
ment.
The master
ceases to
unite and
lead his
seek other
118
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Estrange-
ment of
masters
from men
deterio-
masters and men there is no co-operation, but contract
and bargain--how to get most out of the men becomes
the ruling principle on one side, and how to get most
out of the master the ruling principle on the other
side. The man's pride in doing a good day's work,
which the Englishman used to feel entitled him to
self-respect, to the respect of his fellows, and in which
his master used also to take pride: that craftsman
charter is gone, and instead of it what have we got?
a combination to settle: how little can be done for a
day's wages, how long a day's work can be dawdled
over, or, if on piece-work, how cleverly the work can
be scamped so that the badness cannot be detected.
But, on the other hand, the deterioration of the
class of masters is not less in degree, not less rapid in
degradation, nor less fatal to the interests of both.
The master, trained without technical skill, has, as
we see, become alienated from his workmen and no
wonder; if he walks through the workshops and ven-
rates both. tures to address his men, very few words suffice to
make them understand that in talking of their work
he merely shows his ignorance, speaks with an air of
authority of that of which he knows nothing; and,
when he is gone, if not sooner, the men shrug their
shoulders, and say, "What a fool!" and are, for the
moment, reconciled to the middle-man, who, though
he may grind and pinch them, is yet skilled enough to
know a piece of good work from bad, and to dis-
criminate between an adroit workman and a bungler.
It is plain that such visits do not encourage the master
to return, since he feels he can neither understand
work nor workman, and so he too gets to be grateful
to the middle-man, who saves him humiliation, though
at heavy cost. Thus, gradually, the master is led to
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
119
abandon all personal care and responsibility for that
part of the work which is of the deepest importance to
his personal interests, full of grave consequences to
the whole community of working men, and which
seriously endangers the supremacy of his nation in
those fields of industry in which the skilled nations
are now battling in rivalry.
descends
skilled
mere mid-
But let us speak of its bad effects upon the master The master
himself. Alienated from his men, exiled from a close from
and critical interest in the quality of his work and its leader to
workmanship, he has to give up all endeavour after become
the skill of a craftsman, or the knowledge of a master, dle-man.
and descend to the level of a mere buyer and seller of
other men's work; a mere speculator in raw materials
and finished goods; a mere packer and retailer of
other men's wares; a vehicle of communication
between a distant or foreign buyer and the producers
in a manufactory which he merely owns, but neither
directs nor governs. He has become middle-man to
his own middle-man-he has ceased to be pilot or
captain of his own ship, and has degenerated into
what his men do not fail to call him, a "figure-head."
But, it may be said, this man has only changed his
profession: instead of craftsman he has become mer-
chant and shop-keeper, and what harm? From this
will be seen to grow much harm. When he who
should have been skilled master has turned out mere
buyer and seller, what becomes of his wares? Who
now takes pride in their excellence, their beauty, their
perfection of finish, their solidity of character, their
endurance of wear and tear? Who looks after the
work of the shop being a credit to the workman, and
a reputation to the shop; and who looks to it that no
single piece of work shall leave the shop which shall
120
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
With the
master the
work also
not sustain and enhance the reputation of British
wares, and carry the name of an old firm with honour
round the world? The truth is, that these things
cease to be cared for; the skilled master's place is left
vacant-the middle-man or the foreman is incompetent
to fill it, even if he cared to do so; and, moreover, the
unskilled master, who cannot judge between a skilled
and an unskilled workman, ceases also to be judge
between a good and a bad foreman; the smooth-
tongued, obsequious, pleasant middle-man is preferred,
and the rugged, plain-spoken man, who blurts out the
homely truth, is distasteful to the merchant master.
What he now comes to want is, that the work shall be
done cheap: well has become a second consideration.
His account with his banker is the subject of much
greater pride than his work and workshop. If the
work goes faster; if the returns come quicker, and
loges caste. the balance at the banker's swells; and if the master
sees and feels no difference in the quality of the work,
he is content, and thinks himself well served.
he may find out that the work he sold as good has
turned out bad; that goods stamped with his name
are either returned on his hands, or sold for less than
the invoiced price. But for that evil he has again a
mercantile cure; he may still further cheapen the cost
of production, doing the goods in greater haste, and
putting into them less valuable materials; and he can
console himself with this consideration, that, by cheaper
production, he has more than covered the cost of in-
surance against goods turning out bad. For a time,
also, the old name of the firm may carry him through,
and thus he may, for a time, make a profit by selling
both the name of his firm and the name of his country.
Moreover, the skill and dexterity, which he did not
Later
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
121
acquire in doing the honest and truthful business of
good work, he is becoming gradually able to com-
pensate by the skill he has acquired in mercantile,
financial, and banking affairs. What if his goods be
sometimes returned his bills are not returned; his
friends will smile on him, and on 'Change all will go
well; if he is not a manufacturer of sound goods, he
becomes a manufacturer of sound bills.
master
gone, the
foremen
and men
goes also.
It is easy to see that with the day of decadence in The skilled
skill of the master, begins the decadence of skill in
foremen; and when workmen have ceased to find skill of
their skill valued, their work appreciated, there remains
nothing but their self and their mutual respect, to
encourage them to maintain a high standard of excel-
lence in workmanship, or to desire to raise it higher. We,
in England, have had much occasion recently to notice
how undiscriminated, unappreciated skill tends to de-
scend to the low level of mediocrity, so that, in the end,
men cease to care for excellency or sufficiency of work.
They end by treating with mercantile masters for mer-
cantile terms; they say to him, who cannot appreciate
good work, "You shall pay us all alike;" and they
are right, for where men are paid unequally by the
mere favour of a foreman, middle-man, or manager, or
by mere whim of an unskilled master, promotion is
but another name for favoritism, and is most unjust
to the best men. But this forced equality reacts again
upon skill, and takes away all direct encouragement to
personal superiority.
ceases to be
work.
Observe, moreover, that in this way the business of Excellence
a man's life has ceased to be his pleasure, the way to a the aim of
personal career and distinguished technical excellence
is closed, the pleasure of work is ended; henceforth
the aim of this combined mass of equal men, equal in
122
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
skill or in unskill, is how to get most money out of the
moneyed man, their master, and how to take least out
Cheapness of themselves in the way of work in return; in short,
they apply to the master his own maxims of merchan-
dise, namely, to buy in the cheapest and sell in the
dearest market.
is installed
lord of
work.
The build-
ing trades
-condi-
tions of
excellence;
I have taken one example from the crafts which
belong to the manufacturing or mercantile type, and I
will now take another from a higher craft or profession,
not at first sight likely to come within the sphere of
mere mercantile or shopkeeping considerations. The
construction of buildings has been for ages one of the
highest crafts-high in aim, in methods of work, in
the display of profound science, consummate skill, and
refined taste. Masons, smiths, joiners, and all the
crafts connected with the building of temples, churches,
palaces, town-halls, universities, schools, homes, have
always been among the highest class of skilled crafts-
men, and received, during the middle ages, a technical
education superior to that of their fellow workmen.
The master craftsman of those old days was the most
skilled in his trade, and had risen by merit, slowly
through successive grades to his high position. He
who examines an old building will find in every tool-
mark on the stone the records of a man who knew
what he was doing, was proud of his work, and who
knew that one day a judge of work would come who
would say of him, 'that man knew what he was about.'
A group of workmen on the same building were a
group of critics, of masters and of scholars, alternately
teaching and rivalling each other, and a shop was an
organisation of skilled men, each knowing the exact
measure of the other's worth, and giving to the other
that rank and precedence in work which formed, in
· SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
123
fact, an aristocracy of workmen. No wonder then,
when every man did his best, and had a better man
above him, that the ancient architects and middle-age
workmen produced works which we with difficulty
attain to understand and despair to rival.
decadence
Such were the results of an organisation of skilled Causes of
men, let us look at the modern substitute for it.
The chief builder is no longer, or but rarely, a skilled
workman; for the most part he cannot handle a tool,
and therefore cannot teach the men under him; he
neither knows bad workmanship when he sees it, nor
if shown to him, can he teach how to do it better.
Under the skilled master every blunder was a lesson how
to do better next time, but under the unskilled master
blunders pass with impunity, and are paid as well for as
true work. Truth and perfection therefore cease to be
aimed at and achieved, because they cease to be per-
ceived and valued. Gradually the master mason ceases
to deserve the name of master or of mason, neither
understanding the craft of masonry nor of being
master to his masons. What then does he become?
A mere picture maker of buildings; a mere getter-up
of pretty drawings on paper; sometimes no better than
a respondent to advertisements in newspapers for com-
petitive designs. Thus the master mason disappears
and the draughtsman takes his place.
.
skilled
builder:
Let us watch the effect produced by this unskilled The un-
master-this picture-drawing architect-this seller of master
designs by competitive auction, first, on his work,
second, on his men. Between the drawings of the
master and the work of the men there remains a huge
void. His plans have ceased to tell the men how he
means them to do their work, for he had himself but
dim notions of any way of doing it; and as to his
124
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Unskilled
in work-
drawings, they have left the work to be done anyhow;
and so, if the men had nothing more to guide them,
they would have to do it anyhow, or nohow. This is
the state of things which inevitably led to the final
seclusion of the working man from his so-called master
mason by the introduction of a middle-man, who
should translate the unintelligible pictures of the craft-
less architect into the language of stone and mortar,
chisel and trowel, intelligible to the workman. This
manship; gap filled, the distance between master and man was
destined to grow wider; relieved from the labour of
practical plans his drawings grow fainter and feebler,
and soon cease to be intelligible to the middle-man or
skilled foreman, and thus a new middle-man is wanted,
and between them comes in a learned clerk, skilled in
interpreting his master's hieroglyphs, which it is his
business to make intelligible to the foreman, in order
that in his turn he may translate them to the men,
Thus the modern master is placed two removes off
from his men, but this is not the end.
Unskilled
in ma-
terials.
A master who knows so little of his men and their
work is likely to know less of the nature, qualities, and
worth of the materials of their work; hence it comes
that he can no longer be entrusted with the expenditure
of the money necessary to find the materials, to work
them, or to place them. A new middle-man comes in
to stand between the architect and his work this man
is the contractor, or bargainer for other men's work.
He knows where to find bricks cheap, cement cheap,
concrete cheap; stone, timber, lead, glass, iron, all
cheap, very cheap-cheap, that is to himself, for he is
of the merchant class, and has learned to buy in the
cheapest and sell in the dearest market. The materials
thus procured cheap by the middle-man have next to
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
125
be sold dear to the buyer or owner, and it is the busi-
ness of this middle-man to know as well the trick of
selling dear as of buying cheap-and indeed this latter
part is the easier of the two, for the man who has
made the pictures which have pleased the eye of the
owner, is but a sorry discriminator of the worth of
bricks, the strength of mortar, or the history, stratifica-
tion, durability of stone; and, to do him justice, the
contractor has chosen a stone which shall look as nice
and work as smooth, and seem as durable, as though it
were the true stone for which it is the make-believe
and so the owner, believing in the skill of his archi-
tect, is handed over to the tender mercies of the bar-
gaining middle-man.
workman's
middle-
We can easily predict the fate of such work, and The master
must pity the victim of such malorganisation. For the functions
pretty pictures he pays the architect that sum of five resigned to
per cent. on the whole cost which was really meant men.
to procure him the services of the most skilled man and
the use of the best materials, disposed in the wisest
way; but instead of this, he has to pay much more
than an additional five per cent. to a middle-man as
contractor, who finds him bad materials and sells them
for good, and he has moreover to pay middle-man
clerk of works, and middle-man foreman No. 3, for
putting the translated hieroglyphs into working shape.
No wonder then that he complains of architects who
don't know their work, and middle-men builders
who do.
Thus we see how technical disorganisation leads to
moral disorganisation, and we need no longer wonder
at bricklayers and masons who combine against financ-
ing contractors, picture-architects, and their employers,
and who merely follow their superiors in the practice
126
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
These
causes lead
to the de-
gradation
of cha-
work and
in work-
men.
of their mercantile maxim,--buy the cheapest, sell
the dearest. Who can wonder that enters a house
built by this class of men, under this class of archi-
tect, if, after due time has passed, the paint of the doors
racter, in peels off-the wood of the panels shrinks and cracks—
the varnish, adulterated with rosin, sticks to the clothes
-the half-zinc lead pipes of the cisterns leak, and the
stone of the mullion windows crumbles and goes to
powder through the frost and rain? "What matters
it?" say the architect, the contractor, and the builder ;
“we have got our money, he has got his house. Houses
don't last for ever; send for us, we will put it in order,
and you shall have the pleasure of paying us all over
again."
Ugliness,
untruth,
and un-
Of the truth of the lamentable picture just drawn
everyone who knows the thousands of villas which
soundness stud the environs of London with samples of the
of work.
Skill dis-
appears
under the
reigning
maxim of
"cheap
work" to
be sold
"dear."
"grand works" of London architects and their finan-
cial contractors, will be able to give strong confirma-
tion. Acre after acre of open ground disappears from
the face of the green earth, under millions of smoked
bricks and miles of hideous street. Comeliness seldom
greets the eye,
eye,———-symmetry and proportion are generally
hideous, and the workmen who have been employed to
scamp their work rejoice that now-a-days no man is
obliged to stamp his name in testimony of his respon-
sibility for that which was once an Englishman's pride
-honest, lasting work.
These are among the penalties we are now paying
for having earned, and gloried in the distinction, that
we are a nation of shopkeepers. Under this influence
talent and skill have to succumb to political economy
-to the laws of price-to the doctrine of free trade—
to the doctrine of unlimited competition-to the doc-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
127
trine of buying everything, including body and soul,
in the cheapest market, and selling everything-labour,
skill, knowledge, principles, morals in the dearest
market. This is the social problem we are working out:
need it be wondered that since masters have declared
their principles, and opened their shops everywhere to
dear selling and cheap buying, their men should also
open their shop to easy earning and dear wages, in
that they have no choice left them but to strike or
starve; and so we are busily working out the race of
misery-who shall strike hardest and starve longest.
The old
wealth, by
way to
good work
prices.
It is true there are quite other doctrines for human
society, but they are called the "doctrines of enthu-
siasts, philosophers, theoretical men; doctrines fit for an at fair
ideal world, but not for practical life in England in the
nineteenth century." There is such a doctrine as buy-
ing and selling at a fair remunerative price, and no
other; of making goods to seem what they are, instead
of manufacturing lies in matter, to be sold as truths;
there is the old-fashioned workman's way of giving a
good day's work, and the old master's of not grudging
a fair day's wage; there is the old chivalrous feeling,
that the man's honest work is his highest claim on the
esteem and regard of superiors-equals - inferiors ;
there is the old craftsman's pride in the name and
handiwork of his firm. It is also quite possible to get
public edifices built without public tender, by taking
the trouble to pick out the man who loves his profes-
sion for its own sake, and who loves his work for its
truth and excellence; to select men for its execution,
who love their work and take pride in its truth,
honesty, beauty, endurance. It is possible to select
good stone from bad, and buy good materials in-
stead of bad, if it be understood that the principles
128
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The new
way to
wealth, by
bad work
at low
prices.
The remedy
for degra-
dation of
work and
workmen.
of selection are to be, excellence with fair price.
There is the old doctrine, to live and let live, and still
continue to live and prosper. But in order to do this,
to accept these ancient exploded doctrines, we must
agree to shut up the ways to sudden wealth, and we
must also agree not to value a man by his wealth, but
to weigh much more the way in which he got it than
its quantity. A short and sure way to wealth is,
secretly to invent, and suddenly to make a large quan-
tity of some commodity, which is in appearance that
which it merely shams to be, and so rapidly to inun-
date the markets with it that it shall be all sold and
paid for before it is found out. The inventor may
then retire to his country seat, be elected high sheriff
of his county, and be duly returned to serve in parlia-
ment. On such a man, and on all his class, we must
learn to look down with contempt, and hold them up
to execration. The "honest skilled poor man" must be-
come a title to honour and respect; the "sudden rich"
must be suspect; not till sudden wealth brings sus-
picion of dishonour, and meritorious poverty is en-
couraged to hold up its head, can we escape the mis-
fortune of having our national name and fame dragged
in the dirt, and the name of a "nation of shopkeepers"
applied as an epithet of reproach.
That systematic education would lead to greater
equality in the distribution of wealth, to a true appre-
ciation of each man's worth, and to a deeper interest of
each man in his neighbour's well doing, is not difficult
to recognise. First, by equality of education, inequa-
lities in birth and fortune are in some measure equal-
ised. Second, when all men of the same district and
of the same age have been trained up in the same
technical schools, even though some have enjoyed a
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
129
In actual
Equality of
education
longer period there than others, it will follow that their
talents and characters are known to and appreciated
by their comrades, and the place of each man in the
rank and file of society is felt and conceded. The
fool cannot set up as master, nor the ignorant man as
foreman; neither would it be permitted that without
merit one man should monopolise a large portion of
the joint earnings. The master's merits will be valued
on some such principle as the men's merits, and the
share of the joint produce to which a master may be
fairly entitled, would be subject to the same apprecia-
tion as the earnings of each man. Capital would still
be entitled to interest, and labour to wages, but why
capital should absorb the profits of labour would be a
question as open to debate, as why one man should
reap the crop which another had laboured.
which another had laboured.
trade a very common practice is, that capital shall not will redress
merely have interest, but shall in addition put a large
quantity of wages into the pocket of the capitalist, to
which he gives the name of business profits, and that
of course is so much subtracted from the wages of the
men who do the work; but when education has given
to each man a knowledge of all the branches of his
work, and there remains no difference of rank, ex-
cepting superior skill and intelligence, then each man's
individual work will be weighed in the balance, and
the true share of his merit will be appraised in the
scale of wages. The question will be, how much in
that scale the true earnings of one man outweigh those
of another. Under the present system, the master of Will raise
1000 men may pocket in the shape of profits, one half wages for
of the whole earnings of all the men, or he may pocket labour;
only a sum equal to the wages of a hundred men, but
it will then be a matter for consideration whether one
-
extremes of
earnings:
the rates of
skilled
K
130
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
man in the same trade, possessing skill of the same
sort, can really be entitled to a just charge for his ser-
vices of ten or a hundred times the wages of his skilled
and educated fellow. It is plain that under such a
scale of estimation these unequal proportions would be
likely to diminish, and in the end that would be con-
sidered great merit which should give a man not only
the honour of leading his fellow craftsmen, but also
the advantage of double wages; the idea of giving
him tenfold or a hundred fold would have disappeared
from the catalogue of possibilities. The education of
the future will, therefore, lead to a great reduction of
masters' wages or profits, to a fair fixed remuneration
for capital invested, and to a fair division of the earn-
ings for work among those skilled men who execute it,
in some recognised proportion to the contribution
which their skill makes to the common work. Equality
minish the will be then, as now, impossible, but the scale of each
man's life may be one of steady, continual, meritorious
rise.
And di-
extremes of
social
inequality.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TWO SORTS OF EDUCATION-GENERAL OR
GYMNASTIC-SPECIAL OR TECHNIC.
Education, technic and non-technic-Non-technic or gymnastic.-Technical
education.-Nature of technical training.-Value of a national system.
WHAT do you mean by technical education?" was
the question put to me by a distinguished member of
the Legislature, who has long taken an active part in
the administration of education. I found the answer
less easy than I had anticipated.
The difference between technical and non-technical
education is radical and important. A large school of
thinkers in this country have been continually assert-
ing the aim and end of education to be, intellectual
gymnastics—not knowledge, or at least that gymnastic
is the primary, and acquisition only the subordinate
object of education. They say that the discipline of
the school and the university has for its object to train
and send into the world able men of matured intelli-
gence and ripened powers, good for all the avocations
of life, and prepared to enter upon its duties with
sound bodies, developed ability, and formed character;
but that it is no part of their business to communicate
any of that special knowledge, or develop any of that
peculiar skill which fits a man to excel in the one call-
ing of his life, or in the one profession which he will
have to select. All this, they say, may be the work of
the city, the State, the manufactory, the workshop,
Education
and non-
-technic
technic ;
K 2
132
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Non-tech-
nic or gym-
nastic.
Technical
education.
or the world at large, and life in general, but it is not
to be expected from the school and the university.
This I will venture to call the gymnastic theory,
and I use the term as an appellation of honour, not of
discredit, for I am myself much of this mind up to a
certain point. Large education, broad development,
general training, are the best possible foundations of
useful after life, but they are only the foundations
of knowledge and training. For the uses of modern
civilised life, the promising youth, who is good for
everything, is in fact good for nothing; the first class
university man who has taken honours, is scarcely
worth the pay of a day labourer beyond the walls of
his university for the uses, duties, and aims of civil-
ised life, his education has to begin. Take the highest
class examination passed, and we shall see that the man
who has best solved this problem is as yet fitted for no
one of the stations of life. That I call a non-technical
education.
By a technical education, I mean that special train-
ing which renders the talents of the educated man
directly useful to that society in which its youthful
member is destined to pass his life. We English live
in the midst of an energetic rivalry of competing na-
tions. The aim of our national life should be to do
the work of the world better, more ably, more honestly,
more skilfully, and less wastefully than the skilled men
of other countries. If we are less skilled or less honest
than others, we are beaten in the race of life. To the
national welfare and success, it is therefore necessary
that the young race of men who are to do the work
of England shall not merely come of a better breed,
grow up with more developed bodies, enjoy sounder
constitutions, and have passed through a better gym-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
133
nastic training than the youth of other nations, but
that each individual shall in his own special profession,
occupation, trade or calling, know more thoroughly its
fundamental principles, wield more adroitly its special
weapons, be able to apply more skilfully its refined
artifices, and to achieve more quickly, perfectly, and
economically the aims of his life, whether it be com-
merce, manufactures, public works, agriculture, naviga-
tion, architecture.
technical
This, then, is what I mean by a technical education: Nature of
that which shall render an English artilleryman a better training.
artilleryman than a Frenchman; an English soldier a
better soldier than a Prussian; an English locomotive
builder better than a German; an English ship builder
better than an American ship builder; an English silk
manufacturer superior to a Lyons silk manufacturer ;
an English ribbon manufacturer superior to a Swiss
ribbon manufacturer. I want to see English iron bear
a higher value, and English steel a higher character
than French and German iron and steel. I want to see
the steam engines built in England possess the reputa-
tion of doing a greater quantity of useful work, with
less waste of fuel, greater durability and smaller
repairs than the steam engines of any other country.
I want to see the railways that are made by English
engineers exhibit a more skilful selection of route, a
less wasteful employment of materials, and a more
perfect application of financial resources to econo-
mical results than those constructed by the engineers
of any foreign country. What I call technical educa-
tion is that kind of training which will make the new
generation of Englishmen excel the new generation of
foreigners in this coming rivalry of race and nation.
Whether such a system of national technical educa- Value of a
1
134
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
national
system.
tion can be devised as shall render this service to the
nation is the question which I shall now proceed to
discuss, for there are still many who believe that an
Englishman is born with the innate technical supe-
riority which renders a special training unnecessary,
and that the average Englishman need only be thrown
into a workshop, an office, or a manufactory, rough
and unprepared, in order to come out a cunning crafts-
man of unrivalled skill, an accomplished merchant,
and a consummate mechanician. If this heaven-born
training be a fact, we have only to leave the next
generation alone, and hug ourselves in the belief that
English supremacy in arts, trade, manufacture, and
commerce, is now and must remain unquestioned; but
if, as I believe, the days of this national hallucination
are passed, we may at once consider what it is necessary
to do in order to secure the interests of the generation
that is about to take our place.
CHAPTER VII.
PRESENT STATE OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN
ENGLAND.
Five millions of Englishmen.-Two millions and a quarter boys.—One
million and a quarter lads.-Three millions and a half males requiring
education and technical training.—Teaching wanted.—Schools wanted.
-Classification of schools and scholars.-Technical schools and science
teachers wanted.-Technical schools and science teaching given.—State
of English technical education.-Good education for the rich :-Indi-
vidual universities, schools, and teachers of the best sort.-Wants
expansion, organisation, system.-Conditions of an organised system
for England.-Examples of good technical institutions in England
School of Mines-College of Chemistry-College of Naval Architec-
ture-King's College-University College-Owen's College-Agri-
cultural College-Diocesan School of Chester - Engineering College,
Putney-Birkbeck and Mechanics' Institutions.-These institutions
only educate 25,000 out of 1,260,000 youths.-Estimate for the better
teaching of English youths in the period of science and technical
instruction.
THE wants of the people of England, to make them
the best educated nation in Europe, are as follows:-
Five millions of Englishmen have boys and lads of the following
educational ages :—
I. Elementary school period, 7 to 9
II. Upper elementary school period, 9 to 12.
III. High school or science school period, 13
to 15
IV. Apprentice and technical college period,
V. Apprentice and technical university pe-
15 to 18
riod, 18 to 21.
School-boys
Apprentice lads
or,
840,000 boys.
780,000,
720,000"
660,000 lads.
600,000,
•
2,340,000
1,260,000
3,600,000
136
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The three first periods are what we may call general
periods, because the training of these is required equally
by all intelligent human beings. The two last are the
special periods, because the technical destiny of each
lad should determine the sort of special training he
ought to receive to fit him for the duties of his
occupation in life.
Or, thus:-
I. and II. Elementary schools . 1,620,000
III. High schools and science
schools
School-boys
School-boys
720,000
Apprentices
.
IV. and V. Apprenticeship
and
technical colleges 1,260,000
•
Schools
wanted.
Classifica-
tion of
scholars.
If the boys are to be educated in science in the third
period, we must have:
III. 2000 schools, with an average of 360 scholars each.
If these apprentices are to be provided with technical
education in technical schools and colleges, either during
apprenticeship, or preparatory to it, we must have:-
IV. 2000 Apprentice schools, with 330 students in each.
V. 2000 Technical schools, with 300 students in each.
Such is the problem of English education if all that
should be done were done, and every lad were to be
provided with education up to the period of manhood.
But it is said that all these future Englishmen do
schools and not want superior education-that it will be enough if
the children of skilled men get technical education to
fit them for the places their parents now fill; that,
therefore, it is only necessary for the children of skilled
parents to have technical education, and of unskilled
parents to have merely elementary education. Thus
the number of pupils would drop off gradually, as
follows:-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
137
III. This period being halved on account of the uneducated parents'
children being excluded, would be reduced to 1000 schools,
with an average of 360 scholars.
IV. This period may be quartered, on account of the reduced
number of highly-skilled parents :—
500 schools, with an average of 330 students.
V. This period may be reduced to one-eighth, from the small
number of highest skilled men :—
250 schools, with an average of 300 students.
Even with this reduced scale of education, we get:-
III. 1000 schools
IV. 500 schools
360 scholars
330 students
•
360,000
165,000
V.
250 schools
300 students
75,000
1750 schools.
600,000
schools and
If, then, we allow to each science and technical Technical
school only six teachers, we have to provide 10,500 science
superior teachers and professors.
To sum up the needs of the English people: :-
teachers
wanted.
Science
Schools.
1750
Technical
Scholars.
600,000
Technical
Teachers.
10,500
The supply of these needs, under the Science
Department of the English Government, is :
Schools
having some
Science pupils.
300
Science
Scholars.
14,600
schools and
teaching
given.
Here, then, we come to the humiliating conclusion, Technical
that of 1,260,000 of the English youth, of an age to science
receive science and technic education, the English given.
Government takes care of less than one in 700. And,
further, that out of 600,000 youths, whose destiny of
life is special skilled technics, Government takes an
interest in less than one in forty.
But the "science education" given under the
auspices of the English Government to this small
number of persons is deplorably deficient in quality
and quantity.
138
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
State of
English
technical
education.
Good edu-
cation for
the rich :
Individual
univer-
sities,
schools,
and teach-
ers of the
best sort.
Sum paid by the Science Department for the
scientific education of the English nation :-
Number
educated.
14,600 scholars.
Value of
Education given.
15s. 7d. each.
Total.
£7,976.
It is officially announced that ten per cent. is to be
added to these payments in future!
So much for English scientific technical education
under the Government Department of Science in 1868!
How, then, are the English people educated? The
answer is, they are not an educated people. They
are, at least, an ill-educated people. They educate
themselves as best they may. The blind lead the
blind. They have been neglected by their governing
powers. They have fallen behind their rival nations.
They have been abandoned to their fate, and they
suffer.
The simple fact about English education is one on
which it is desirable there should be a clear under-
standing. Its fault is utter want of general systematic
organisation.
It would be absurd to say that there is not good
education to be got in England. That would be a
libel on our admirable universities, on our many ex-
cellent colleges, on our public schools, so well endowed,
so efficiently taught. There are many private schools
that have conferred nameless benefit on multitudes of
grateful pupils, and there are endowed schools, and
schools of religious sects, which give to many pupils
a superior education.
It is also right to admit that a man of leisure,
wealth, and perseverance, can find in England every
kind of instruction he can desire. If he knows
thoroughly what he wants-if he can choose one
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
139
university for one branch of knowledge, another for
a second, go to a private school where something is
well taught, and to some college where another hap-
pens to be well taught, he may pick up an effectual
technical and professional education here and there!
Leisure, money, and foreknowledge, will enable the
man who can help himself to get helped-and so in
England the man who can help himself always gets help.
But the growing youth, who has everything to learn,
and no help, how is he to find fit education and train-
ing for his work in life? For the ordinary English
lad, education must be pre-planned, prepared, brought
home to him, to his father's home, to his master's work-
shop. He cannot seek education. We must seek him.
Education, then, excellent of its kind, is to be found Wants ex-
in England. But in fragments, here and there; not ganisation,
organised; not made easy; not brought home.
The organisation it wants is :-
pansion, or-
system.
of an or-
ganised
1. That it be uniformly diffused among the people Conditions
near their homes.
2. That it be ordered so that one school rise above England.
another in orderly rank.
3. That the teaching be regulated in such wise that
the pupil who has to leave one place and seek another
shall find there the same things taught, the same way,
from the same books, to pupils of like age.
4. That the teaching in each rank of school shall so
fit the next, that the scholar of the lower is fitted for
the higher before he leaves; and that the studies of
the higher follow directly on from the studies of the
lower, and fit on to them.
5. That masters of these schools shall not have to
teach more pupils, or more matters, than they can well
teach. That, in elementary schools, a master teach
system for
140
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Examples
of good
technical
never more than fifty pupils; that different masters
teach different subjects.
6. That the payment of a master shall not depend
on the number of his pupils, nor on the wealth of their
parents, but that the payment be made according to the
excellence, experience, and knowledge of the man who
teaches. It would never do, in the teaching of a
nation, to let the poor and the many have bad teachers,
and to keep the good teachers for the few and rich.
English education, therefore, is inadequate in quan-
tity, fragmentary, not organised, not distributed, not
wisely paid for, not brought home.
Of the fragments of an organisation for technical
teaching, there are some that eminently deserve notice.
in England: But it will be found that most of these we owe to the
isolated efforts of individuals.
institutions
School of
Mines;
>
College of
Chemistry;
The School of Mines, in Jermyn Street, London, is
the work of the late Sir Henry Delabeche. There is
much in this institution which admirably fits it for a
place in a great system of national education, but its
sphere of usefulness is sadly narrowed by the facts,
that it has neither the advantage of technic schools,
which lead up to it; of co-ordinate institutions, that
educate analogous professions alongside it; nor any-
thing above to which it leads up. It is a lone school,
of the advantages of which our millions of technical
folk cannot possibly avail themselves, save by a passing
visit, or a rare holiday, or a rarer attendance on a
lecture. But it is a valuable institution, taught by
eminent men, with excellent material collections; and
the possible nucleus of a larger, better endowed,
collegiate organisation.
The College of Chemistry is a similar institution,
the creation, as I believe, of Prince Albert and of
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
141
Professor Hofmann. It has already demonstrated the
advantages of special training by having sent out
many pupils, who have become ornaments of British
chemistry. It also should form part of a large organ-
isation of technical teaching, instead of being left an
isolated fragment.
The College of Naval Architecture is another suc-
cessful technical school, but it has been created by the
force of private individuals, and has the misfortune to
occupy an isolated place, instead of forming part of a
great technical organisation. It was created, many
years ago, by the energy of some naval architects,
allowed to exist for a few years, then extinguished by
the English Government. Some time later it was
resuscitated, re-established, and, after a few years, was
once more stamped out of existence by uneducated or
jealous members of the Admiralty. In 1863 it was
again urged on the attention of the English Govern-
ment by naval architects who loved their profession,
was aided by Sir John Pakington while in opposition,
and passed by the Whigs while in power. It is now a
third fragment in the technical education of English-
men, is well organised, and ably superintended. It is
one of the proofs to Englishmen that technical educa-
tion of a high class is possible-even in England-if
only the Government will do its duty.
-
College of
Naval Ar-
chitecture ;
College;
King's College and University College, in London, King's
are, to some extent, technical colleges. They both University
have done good to the community by giving consider- College;
able facilities to students preparing to become civil and
mechanical engineers. They both suffer from the want
of sufficiently numerous and sufficiently well endowed
professorships. They both require large sums of
money for enabling them to supply the material
142
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Owen's
College;
Agricul-
tural
College;
Diocesan
School of
Chester;
Engineer-
ing College,
Putney;
means of education-museums, collections, galleries,
laboratories.
In the provinces there are few colleges or technical
schools of any distinction. Owen's College has earned
for itself a distinguished place in Manchester. It is a
technical college and science school of great excellence.
It is a proof of how much good moderate endowments,
well administered, will accomplish. But it is hindered
by inadequate buildings. It should have Government
salaries for a large number of professors. Those now
there are inadequately paid, and it well deserves to
have larger sums at its disposal for the material
mechanism of teaching instruments, collections,
museums, workshops, buildings, and grounds. The
College is an honour to Manchester, but its usefulness
is greatly hindered by want of schools below to lead
up to it, or anything beyond, for the pupils that have
passed through its curriculum with success.
The Agricultural College at Cirencester is an
example of a college for technical education which has
contrived to prolong an existence under great dis-
couragement. It only wants incorporation into a
general system of national organised education, and
the endowment of professorships and scholarships on
a sufficient scale, to become of inestimable bencfit to
the country.
The Technical Diocesan School of Chester is an
example of a science school, established by enlightened
local energy, which has been allowed to die a lingering
death by Government apathy and neglect. I do not
know if it be yet possible to resuscitate it as a local
technical college for Cheshire.
The Engineering College at Putney is another in-
stance of the meritorious attempt to perform Govern-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
143
ment duty by private effort. It, too, has died out,
and is now beyond recovery.
and Me-
Of technical and science schools there are a few Birkbeck
which prosper, or suffer, by individual exertion, and chanics' In-
do good in a narrow circle. There is a trade school stitutions.
in Bristol, a trade school in Hulme, at Manchester.
Special schools are growing at Halifax and Hudders-
field. Leeds and Bradford are moving. There are
mechanics' institutions which do some teaching, be-
ginning with their parent institution, the Birkbeck
Institution, in London. But they nearly all languish
for want of good endowed professorships and efficient
organisation of schools above, below, and around them,
to co-operate in training and forwarding prepared
pupils.
These in-
only edu-
stitutions
cate 25,000
out of
I do not propose to make an inventory of schools in
which some science is taught. I have shown that a
little has been done in England-enough just to show
a deep feeling of want-enough just to show a melan- 1,260,000
choly result of inadequate national teaching--an
exhibition mostly of that which is not done.
Of the 1,260,000 young lads in the apprentice
period of education, now, throughout England, we
may possibly say that some education in science is
given to 25,000, and we know that to 14,600 of these
the value of that national technical education is
15s. 7d. per head!
When the State shall have founded in England-
One great Technical University with 100 chairs,
Fifteen local Technical Colleges with 25 professors,
300 Science and Trade Schools with 5 to 25 teachers each,
it will have provided only for the teaching of 250,000,
one quarter of a million, out of one million and a
quarter of the youth wanting knowledge and skill.
youths.
Estimate
for the
better
teaching
of English
youths in
the period
and tech-
of science
nical in-
struction.
144
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In order to do this limited work well, one million
per annum is necessary, or 47. per head per annum
from Government, in addition to local aid. With the
aid of this million, and no less, technical teaching
may be fairly begun.
CHAPTER VIII.
A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ABROAD.
English impressions of a foreign university :-In Berlin-Carlsruhe-Stutt-
gardt-Austria-Hanover-Switzerland-Zurich.-Swiss public educa-
tion.-Swiss patriots and statesmen-Their technical university in
Zurich.-Zurich a model for England.-The patriotism and liberality
of Swiss citizens in matters of common good.-The technical university
of the Swiss nation, Zurich :-Government of the university - List of
professorships and courses of instruction-Free choice of courses, sub-
jects, and professors-Organised curriculum for special professions—
Eleven modern professions.-The eight divisions of Zurich.--Organisa-
tion of time and place.-Plan of hours in the architectural division.—
Material apparatus of education.-Observatory of practical astronomy.
-Laboratory of practical chemistry.-Museum of engineering works
and drawings.-Museum of engines and machinery.-Laboratory for
chemical research.-Museum of architecture.-Antiquarian, zoological,
botanical, and geological collections.-English teaching deficient in
material apparatus, from poverty ?-Criticism of Zurich.-Due mixture
of practical work with theoretical study-Avoiding the danger of
cram.-Conclusion.-Cost of the university.-Practical results of edu-
cation in Zurich.-Criticism.
pressions
A TECHNICAL university abroad was to me a sur- English im-
prise, a profound lesson, and a delight. It was a of a foreign
dream of my youth suddenly embodied in living university:
substance; and, unlike other realised dreams, the
reality excelled the fiction. It was one of my early
dreams, that highly-educated men should engage them-
selves in teaching skilled workmen the profound philo-
sophical principles which underlie all material work;
and, I hoped, so to make their work their pleasure;
excellence their ultimate aim; truth of execution, and
perfection of finish, their highest ambition. But I had
not then dreamed of that still higher kind of teaching,
L
146
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
which should do the same thing for philosophers,
statesmen, professors, and men of all functions in life
which require scientific training. I was myself mem-
ber of a profession for which there existed no teaching,
every member being self-taught; that is to say, being
either born by nature with special endowments, or
surrounded from his birth by special conditions and
circumstances, which made of him a man different
from others. Indeed, it might be said that teaching
him was impossible, because of his profession nothing
was known, and it had got to be spun out of his own
head. Hence there was an impression regarding that,
and all the other modern professions, that fitness must
be a natural gift, or a personal inheritance; that you
could no more make a man of ordinary talent an
engineer, or a practical chemist, than you could make
him a fish or a bird; and that he could only be taught
his profession, as in England we are taught to swim,
by throwing him in to sink or thrive.
This was the prejudice in which we were all brought
up; and I much fear it is the prejudice which still
governs the old-fashioned among us. Great, therefore,
was my surprise, when one day, some twenty years
ago, I found myself introduced, by a professional
brother in a foreign country, to a full-grown and
mature institution, in which all the members of the
higher and modern professions were systematically
taught and trained in the duties of those professions,
the same as any common carpenter or smith might be
taught the duties of his trade, and the mysteries of his
craft.
I say, mysteries of his craft, for at that time it was
mostly reckoned politic and wise, that what knowledge
a professional man had, he should carefully keep to
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
147
himself as his capital in trade-sedulously avoiding
everything which should give another man insight
into those cunning mysteries which it had cost him so
much to find out or create; and specially concealing
those simple maxims and rules, which, once found out,
would enable anybody else to be as wise as himself.
Amazing, then, it was to find here a public insti-
tution in which all these mysteries were unveiled, all
this secret knowledge made public property, and all
the cunning of each craft publicly displayed on black
boards, and eloquently explained by experienced prac-
tical men. In my country, many lucrative professions
were still the craft of mystery-men. In London, the
ambitious youth who aspired to professional dis-
tinction had still to pay to the mystery-man a fee of
100, 200, 300, 500 guineas, in order to be initiated
into all the secrets of his profession; and here I found
them all taught, and better taught, for the enormous
sum of 60 thalers a-year, or less than 107. per annum.
Perhaps it is not wonderful that members of pro-
fessions, who make large profits by the education of
private pupils, should be averse, as they very gene-
rally are, to new institutions destined to supersede
their personal labours, to challenge their right to the
exclusive possession of profitable secrets and mysteries,
by which they earn fortune and fame; and to make
these palpable to all the world. Perhaps, also, it is
not unnatural that men like ourselves, who are self-
taught, and therefore, I might say, half-educated,
should be slow to encourage the development of a
race of young educated men, whose criticism of their
vaunted works might be just, severe, and unpalatable.
This was then nearly universally, and is still, to some
extent, the state of professional feeling in England;
L 2
148
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In Berlin;
but there are, happily, many exceptions among the
younger and better-educated members of the pro-
fession.
To our English notions and prejudices, therefore,
this foreign technical university was an outlandish and
ungenial phenomenon.
Here, in Berlin, I found a large and handsome
building, close by the king's palace, in one of the best
parts of the town, and this was called, at that time, a
"Gewerbe-Schule," or royal school for trade teach-
ing. This very humble designation did not lead me
to expect the high scientific education and training
which was there provided for the young professional
men of Berlin. The truth is, that in Berlin, every-
thing but the three learned professions, law, medicine,
and theology, were still called trades, and not yet
admitted to the rank of professions, just as, in our
country, the time was when Brindley, the canal en-
gineer, was still reckoned a sort of superior ditch-
digger, and George Stephenson a sort of superior
engine-driver. The tradition had still enough influence
in Berlin to call a technical university for the modern
professions, a "trade school."
Since that time, the dignity of the "Gewerbe-Schule"
has been recognised. Its buildings, its endowments,
the rank and salaries of its professors, the number and
preliminary qualifications of its pupils, have all been
raised. It has now the recognised rank of a technical
university, with professors of equal dignity, and degrees
of equal weight.
Berlin being the first technical university with
which I became acquainted, and also one of the
earliest, I should naturally quote, as an example of a
"technical university abroad," this Gewerbe-Institut,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
149
or Gewerbe-Academie of Berlin. I recommend
those of my countrymen who care for such things, to
visit that institution, which is admirably conducted,
systematically organised, and a great boon to the
professional men of Prussia. They will find that it
in every way lends itself, by means of evening as well
as morning lectures, by trade associations connected
with it, by free libraries and museums, to the education
not merely of the higher professional men, but also of
the working men who have leisure and disposition to
desire high trade knowledge.
In
very many respects, therefore, I consider Berlin
a model technical university. I do not quote it, how-
ever, as my type of what such a university might be,
because it labours under some traditional and local
disadvantages, which somewhat narrow its sphere,
derange its symmetry, and cramp its development.
It is not symmetrical in the highest degree, because in
Berlin there had already existed, before it attained its
present growth, surrounding institutions, which had
monopolised a portion of its ground.
Kindred academies, institutions, or universities, had
already provided education and training for some of
the arts and professions which a more isolated uni-
versity would have systematically included in its
curriculum; and which it was, therefore, unwise,
unnecessary, or inconvenient, to include in the new
organisation. Precisely, therefore, because the Berlin
Gewerbe-Academie fits its place, and answers its special
purpose, it is less fitted to serve as a type of a sym-
metrical institution than some others of more recent
growth, more remote from the overshadowing influence
of rival and more ancient institutions. For similar
reasons, I do not propose to select the highly practical
150
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Carlsruhe; technical university of Carlsruhe, or the admirably
Stuttgardt; taught technical university of Stuttgardt, as models
Austria;
Hanover;
Switzer-
land:
Zurich.
for our imitation; although in both there is much that
is well worthy of emulation, and although I have had
the opportunity of studying both, and have adopted,
in what I propose for ourselves, many of the best
features of their excellent organisation. Of the tech-
nical universitics of Austria and of Hanover I have also
been induced to form a very high opinion, from the
accounts of them which I have received, both from
students who have enjoyed the great advantage and
privilege of studying in them, and from professors and
engineering friends, who have been good enough to
communicate to me all the information I desired
regarding institutions which I have as yet unluckily
not been able to visit.
I select, for the practical purpose of serving as a
type to ourselves for the constitution and organisation
of our English technical university, the technical uni-
versity in Zurich, and I do so for the following
reasons:-That technical university was created under
somewhat similar circumstances to those under which
we must create our own. Zurich is, like ourselves, a
commercial and manufacturing State; it is the Lanca-
shire of Switzerland. Switzerland, like ourselves, is a
free country, a religious country, and, consequently,
embarrassed, in action and organisation, by the desire
to abstain from interference with personal liberty of
action and liberty of enterprise. It is encumbered,
also, in its initiative by the same sectarian hatred
which sets Catholic Christians against Protestant
Christians; High-Churchmen against Low-Churchmen;
and orthodox folk against heretics of all sorts.
prejudices or principles, equally in Switzerland as in
These
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
151
England, made men jealous-especially churchmen-
of all other education than that bestowed by the
universities of the Church; and offered a dogged re-
sistance to the establishment of universities, which
were designed to fit men rather for their destinies in
this world than in the next; to inculcate upon them.
quite other doctrines than those of Grecian heathens
and Roman pagans, and to subject the doctrines of the
future to the dogmata of the past.
lic educa-
These prejudices, in which we share, caused educated Swiss pub-
Switzerland to remain in arrear of educated Germany tion.
in this matter of technical education of the highest
sort. But she had already shared with them, and even
anticipated them, in some of the advantages of the
humbler sort of technical education. The famous
Pestalozzi, the patron saint of pedagogues, was a
Swiss and a Zürichois; his spirit still reigns in the
elementary schools of Zurich, and his disciples are the
schoolmasters of the Zürichois. They had long, in
their teaching, substituted the teaching of thoughts and
things for the teaching of words merely; and their aim
has never been to train their scholars in those tricks
which dazzle the eyes of parents and inspectors at
school examinations, but rather to make them know
thoroughly that which is most necessary to life, and
to teach them to think soundly and speak truly. The
schools of Zurich were already schools of real life, and
not merely abstract science; and science, applied to
the practical business of life, had already, for more
than a generation, been taught in the Real and
Gewerbe schools of Canton Zurich.
It happened however, about fifteen years ago, that
the government of Zurich was in the hands of wise,
educated, and patriotic statesmen.
Swiss pa-
statesmen
triots and
152
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Their tech-
nical uni-
Zurich,
These men clearly foresaw the enormous material
benefit which would accrue to Switzerland, and
especially to Zurich, from the training of the more
highly educated youth to the practical business of life,
by means of a university, in which everything that
was most valuable in the sciences, arts, and manu-
factures of all other countries, should be taught by the
most distinguished men imported from all nations for
that purpose, in the best manner which their wisdom
could organise, and with all the practical means
of learning placed at their disposal which could be
invented or bought.
Switzerland accordingly, and Zurich especially, set
versity in about this task with a zeal and self-sacrifice well worthy
of our imitation, even if quite beyond all hope of
our rivalry. The town and canton of Zurich were
lavish of all the wealth necessary to raise their uni-
versity on a prominent eminence, the most beautiful
site near their city for the foundation of this national
institution. The city and the State competed with
each other to tax themselves, in order to endow
worthily this new university of the nation. The State
charged itself with the organisation of the curriculum,
the selection of the teachers, and the provision of
adequate salaries; and it also voted then, and has
continued to vote ever since, large contingents for the
enlargement of its observatories, laboratories, museums,
libraries, and art collections. The Swiss are true
patriots; and having once ascertained that their
national system of education was defective in the
great element of modern practical science, they deter-
mined to do, in the most thorough, systematic, and
comprehensive way, that which they felt they had
been wrong in so long neglecting.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
153
model for
It is the great extent, completeness, and symmetry Zurich a
everywhere apparent in the organisation of this great England.
technical university, which make it pre-eminently a
model for us; not to copy or imitate merely, but to
excel and go beyond. We must determine as they
did, not merely to copy some local institution in
another country, which had to be fitted into the exist-
ing institutions of an entirely local character, but to
supply, in a symmetrical and complete manner, every
existing deficiency in the whole national system of
higher education. The founders of the Swiss Poly-
technicum did not therefore ask themselves the
question: What is the smallest and least costly scale
on which we can begin to make good a few technical
deficiencies ?-but they asked themselves this other
question: What is there in the science, the philosophy,
the learning, the art, and the practical skill of modern
times, which can be learned and taught, or which has
been taught or learned in any other school of know-
ledge, but for which there is no adequate provision
already made for teaching to our own students in
the university of the land?—and those things we
will see to having thoroughly taught. They soon
found that the German universities had long been
in the habit of teaching far deeper science, far
larger philosophy, and far profounder art, than the
Swiss in the isolation of their mountains had ever
dreamt of
They found in the manufactories of Prussia, Belgium,
France and England, structures, machinery, and manu-
facturing processes utterly unknown to the skilled
men of Switzerland. What the Swiss did not already
know, it was quite plain they would be unable to
teach to the young generation; and so the Zurich
154
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The pa-
triotism
and libe-
rality of
Swiss citi-
zens in
matters of
common
good.
Polytechnicum had to become, and is, a cosmopolitan
establishment. The founders and governors of that
institution discarded at once the vulgar and pestilent
notion of patronage.
There were no places in that university to be given
away. What they did, on the contrary, was to search
the annals of pure philosophy and applied science, for
the names of those men who were best known for
science, skill, and the love of teaching; and these men
from every country they selected, and entreated to
come and teach their children, considering only how
they could best make it agreeable and convenient to
them to become the teachers and patterns of Swiss
youth.
When I say that the Swiss were profuse of their
wealth for the foundation of this cosmopolitan uni-
versity, I say a great deal more than these words will
seem to imply, when they are read in England. We
are a wealthy, profuse, and even, as some think, a
wasteful people. The Swiss, on the contrary, lead a
hard-working but sparing life-frugal even to the
extreme we might call them niggardly or penurious;
but though their personal wants are so easily satisfied,
such is their patriotism, and such their love for the
well-being of the community in which they live, that
to a stranger's eye they might seem extravagant or
wasteful. Their common schools are mansions; their
academies have the air of town halls. The Poly-
technicum at Zurich is larger than Buckingham
Palace; the apartments of students and professors, the
lecture halls and museums are large, lofty, well-aired,
well-lighted. The building itself is the chef-d'œuvre
of a German architect; and certainly, if we judge it
by its fitness for its purpose, rather than by profuse
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
155
decoration, or lavish embellishment, it is an admirable
structure.
Even physically therefore, or materially, it is a
model institution, while morally it teaches us this
lesson that there is one nation in the world suffici-
ently disinterested and patriotic to save money by
extreme self-denial, in order to lavish it with profusion
upon the intellectual training of the rising generation
for the practical duties of citizenship.
This self-denial, generosity, and large wisdom, have
been fully rewarded by the issue. The youth of the
country have flocked with avidity to Zurich, and the
young men thus trained are, with equal avidity, taken
out into the public works and manufacturing institu-
tions of Switzerland; and whether it arise from this
cause or some other, it is an astounding fact that the
Swiss, remote from the sea-that highway of merchan-
dise; remote from coal and iron-those staples of our
manufacturing industry; the Swiss in their far valleys
are rapidly growing a dexterous and successful manu-
facturing people.
From us they have taken away our Coventry ribbon
manufacture; from Lyons they have appropriated a
large portion of their famous silk weaving; in watches
and clocks they have long kept the rest of the world
going; and their intelligent, educated, skilled men are
prized all over Europe.
250 Swiss avail themselves of the advantages of
their technical university.
But it will be thought a far higher proof of the
value of such an institution when I add, that it has
attracted students from nearly every civilised country
in Europe; and that, of the 589 students who
frequent its halls, 250 are Swiss and the other 339
156
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The tech-
nical uni-
the Swiss
nation-
Zurich.
English, Americans, French, Germans, Poles, Hunga-
rians, Russians, Italians, Dutch and Belgians.
This technical university is governed by a permanent
versity of council, consisting of president, vice-president, three
councillors, three substitutes, and a secretary; and they
have immediately under them an executive chosen
from among the professors. The president Kappeler is
the real governor of the institution. He represents
also the central Government of Switzerland, by whom
he is named; and it is on his firmness as a ruler,
on his wisdom in the selection of professors and
teachers, and on his tact in the management of pro-
fessors and of students, that much of the success of this
institution has depended. He happens fortunately to
have a rare instinct for the discovery of ability in
men--especially in young men ; and he is continually
making search in foreign universities for the rising
professor who has not yet obtained adequate distinction
at home. He has accordingly surrounded himself with
teachers who unite the enthusiasm of youth in teach-
ing, to full knowledge fresh from the fountain of
learning. It is one of the evils, however, of this
system, that the school becomes a sort of nursery for
professors, and that the other technical universities
are much given to filching away from this, its young
and rising men. The system, however, on the whole,
works admirably, for there is by this means a con-
tinual infusion of young blood to maintain the circu-
lation of fresh thought, and the attractions of the
university itself are strong enough to retain in the list
of professors men whom the well-informed among
ourselves will at once recognise as the most distin-
guished men of their profession.
The vice-president of this institution is Dr. Alfred
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
157
Escher, a statesman of large views and unquestioned
patriotism, who may be regarded as, more than any
other individual, the founder of this national institu-
tion while the others are men who have attained
;
the highest distinction in the Canton they represent,
some of them well known in England.
GOVERNMENT OF THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.
President
Vice-President
Members.
A.-SWISS SCHOOL COUNCIL.
Mons. C. Kappeler.
Dr. A. Escher.
Professor Dr. Bern. Studer.
Councillor Aug. Keller.
Professor Pictet de la Rive.
Govern-
ment of the
university.
Deputies.
Director Aimé Humbert.
Councillor A. v. Planta.
Secretary
Choirmaster Jos. Ghiringhelli.
Mons. J. G. Baumann.
B.-COMMITTEE.
Director
Deputy
Mons. E. Landolt.
•
Dr. Gustavus Zeuner.
Secretary of Committee
Mons. J. Rudolf.
•
The teaching of the university is the work of thirty-
one professors, of ten assistant professors, and sixteen
private teachers and lecturers.
fessorships
of instruc-
tion.
Each of these gives several courses of lectures or of List of prc-
private instruction, and the whole number of subjects and courses
taught or courses of lectures this year is 145, exclusive
of a large number of additional or extra subjects,
which do not form essential parts of the regular curri-
culum of instruction. These 145 subjects of instruc-
tion are comprehended in the following list :-
158
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
PROFESSORSHIPS AND COURSES OF INSTRUCTION.
Prof. Arduini .
Prof. Dr. Behn-Eschen-
burg
Prof. Dr. Böhmert.
Prof. Dr. Bolley
Prof. Dr. Cherbuliez .
Prof. Dr. Christoffel
•
Prof. Dr. Cramer
Prof. Culmann
Prof. Dufraisse
1. Storia comparata della lingua e dei dia-
letti italiani.
2. Scrittori d'arte e artisti, il Cellini et il
Vasari.
3. Il Machiavelli.
4. Esercizi varg. di lingua.
5. The English historians.
6. Shakespeare's "King Lear," translated
and explained.
7. English exercises and grammar.
8. General economy.
9. Finance.
10. Lectures and discussions on political
economy.
11. Technical chemical practice.
12. Bleaching, printing and dyeing.
13. Manufacture of chemical products.
14. Glass and pottery.
15. Political economy.
16. International law.
17. Free trade, exchange, and protective du-
ties.
18. Differential and integral calculus.
18a. Examinations.
19. Theory of equations.
19 a. Examinations.
20. Elements of botany.
21. Universal botany.
22. Microscopic observations.
23. Earthworks, stone bridges and tunnels.
23a. Repetition.
24. Practical construction.
25. Roads and canals.
26. Droit civil.
27. Droit administratif.
28. Droit forestier.
29. Droit commercial.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
159
(30. Physical geography (inorganic).
31. Examinations.
32. Drawing for historical, geographical, and
economic studies.
Dr. Egli (private tutor). 33. History of geology.
34. Geographical phenomena :
Abyssinia,
Gulf-stream, Nile, Canal of Suez, &c.
35. Palestine-geographically and archæolo-
gically.
Prof. Escher v. d. Linth. (36. General geology.
37. Technical geology.
Dr. Fehr (private tutor). {38. Exposition of sculpture in the archæolo-
Prof. Dr. Fiedler
Prof. Dr. Frey
gical museum.
39. Representative geometry, with examina-
tions.
39a. Exercises in two groups, each 1 hour.
40. Plane geometry.
41. Elements of the theory of determinate
and rectangular co-ordinates.
42. Geometry of curves of the third order.
43. Zoology.
43a. Examination.
44. Technical drawing (preparatory course).
45. Technical drawing (first and second course
of the chemical technical division).
Mr. Fritz (private tutor). 46. Elements of machinery.
47. Machine drawing.
48. Lectures on machine construction.
49. Introduction to synthetic geometry.
Dr. Geiser (private tutor). 50. Selections from the higher parts of geo-
Prof. Gladbach
metry.
51. Construction of buildings.
52. Plan drawing.
53. Engineering plan-drawing.
Mr. Harlacher (private 55. Manufacture of wrought-iron and cast-
54. Theory and construction of girders.
tutor).
Prof. Dr. Heer
iron girders.
56. Pharmaceutical botany.
57. The plants of geology.
58. On fossil insects.
160
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Mr. Hug (private tutor). 59. Differential and integral calculus.
Prof. Keiser
Prof. Keller
Prof. Dr. Kenngott .
Dr. Kinkel
Prof. Kopp
Prof. Kronauer
Prof. Dr. Kundt
60. Practice in modelling ornaments, and in
stone carving.
{60.
61. German language.
62. Mineralogy.
62a. Examination.
63. Characters of minerals.
64. Museum of mineralogy.
65. History of ancient art, from Egypt to
Pompeii.
66. History of renaissance art (architecture
and sculpture).
67. Encyclopædia of forestry.
68. Theory of climates.
68 a. Examination.
69. Excursions and practical experiments.
{70.
(70. Mechanical technology (spinning, weaving,
paper making, &c.)
71. Technical physics.
71a. Examination.
72. Theory of light.
73. Experimental physics.
74. Mechanics.
Mr.Künzler(private tutor) 75. Differential calculus.
Prof. Landolt .
Prof. Lasius
Prof. Ludewig.
76. Technical mechanics.
77. Theory of forestry.
78. Foresters' duties.
79. Forestry (trade).
79 a. Examinations.
80. Excursions and practical applications.
81. Construction of buildings (second course).
82. Construction of buildings (third course).
83. Plan drawing and perspective (second
course).
´84. Construction of machinery.
84a. Examination.
85. Chapters from the history of mechanical
construction, with practical examples,
&c.
Dr. Mayer (private tutor) 86. Paleontology.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
161
Prof. Mequet .
Dr. Merz (private tutor) .
87. Differential and integral calculus (pupils
of the first year).
87a. Examination.
88. Differential and integral calculus (pupils
of the second year).
89. Pharmaceutical chemistry.
90. Examination in inorganic chemistry.
91. On scents and perfumes.
92. On alcohols.
M. Mösch (private tutor). {93. Geology of Switzerland, with regard to its
Prof. Dr. Mousson .
Prof. Orelli
Prof. Pestalozzi
influence on trade, &c. (gratis).
94. Experimental physics: first half.
94a. Examination in French.
946. Examination in German.
95. Chemical physics.
95a. Examination.
96. Differential and integral calculus (school
of architecture, first course).
97. Mathematics (preliminary course), alge-
bra, geometry, &c.
97 a. Exercises.
976. Examination.
98. Construction of streets and canals.
99. Practical geometry (in German and
French).
100. Inorganic and experimental chemistry.
100a. Examination in groups.
Dr. Piccard (private tutor) 101. Toxicology.
Prof. Dr. Prym
Prof. Rambert
•
102. Pharmaceutical chemistry.
103. Analytical geometry of the plane, with
exercises.
104. Introduction to the theory of functions.
105. Histoire littéraire, Corneille et Racine.
106. Exercices supérieurs pour les élèves
français.
107. Exercices supérieurs pour les élèves
allemands.
108. Exercices élémentaires.
109. Langue française (preliminary course).
(110. Introduction to the theory of numbers.
111. Analytical mechanics.
Prof. Dr. Reye
Prof. Dr. Rüttimann
112. Swiss federal constitution and rights,
M
162
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Prof. Dr. Scherr
Prof. Dr. Semper
113. Twelve literary world-known charac-
ters-Homer, Eschylus, &c., &c.
114. Lessing, Göthe, Schiller, their lives,
works, and companions.
115. History of the nineteenth century.
(116. Comparison of styles.
117. Designing.
Dr. v. Seckendorff (private (118. Taxes and revenues of woods and
tutor).
Mr. Stadler (teacher).
Prof. Dr. Städeler .
forests.
119. Ornamental drawing, decoration, colour,
&c.
120. Decoration of private and public build-
ings.
121. Experimental chemistry.
121a. Examination.
122. Selections from chapters on chemistry.
123. Practical chemical experiments.
Prof. Stocker .
124. Geometry of space, algebra, trigono-
metry.
124a. Exercises.
125. Mathematics of forestry.
M. Stutz (private tutor). (126. History of the Creation, with regard to
Prof. Ulrich.
the Bible.
(127. Landscape drawing in pencil, sepia and
{127.
water colours.
128. Pumps, turbines, and water wheels.
129. Construction of machinery.
Prof. Veith
Prof. Vögeli
130. History of Switzerland, 1474-1515.
Dr. Weith (private tutor).
Mr. Werdmüller
Prof. Wild
131. History of chemistry.
132. Review of inorganic chemistry accord-
ing to modern principles.
133. Groups of Cynaus.
134. Chemistry of animal bases and acids.
135. Figure drawing.
136. Topography.
137. Geodesy.
138. Plan drawing.
139. Map drawing.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
163
Prof. Dr. Wolf.
140. Astronomy.
140 a. Examination (for the engineering divi-
sion).
1406. Examination (for pupils of the sixth
division).
141. Elements of astronomy.
M. Wolfensperger
cal director)
(musi-142.
Harmony.
Prof. Dr. Zeuner
143. Technical mechanics.
143a. Examination in groups.
144. Theoretical mechanics (heat and steam
-steam engines).
145. Theory of insurance (calculations of pro-
bability and mathematical statistics).
In addition to these there are assistants.
of courses,
and pro-
In running one's eye over this large list of teachers Free choice
and subjects to be taught, the eye of the English subjects,
parent or guardian would find itself hopelessly over- fessors.
whelmed with embarras de richesses. But such a con-
tingency has been foreseen, and admirably provided
for, even without encroaching on that perfect liberty
of the individual of which we English think and talk
so much. The student of the Polytechnicum is at
perfect liberty to attend what courses he pleases, and
to neglect all he does not like. He may go to the
Polytechnicum either for business or pleasure; either
to qualify himself for some special duty in life, or to
study things in general, and thus far our notions of
liberty are here realised.
But in this free manner of study comparatively few
students enter themselves. Out of the whole number
of 762, only 173 are free students-the remaining 589
prefer to study, according to rule and method, for some
specific aim in life.
curriculum
There is an organised curriculum, prepared by the Organised
governors and the professors, which affords the parent for special
or the pupil all the best advice of matured wisdom as
professions.
M 2
164
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
to the course of study which the student should pursue
during the three years of his university career. These
studies are parcelled out over a period of three years,
and each year is divided into two courses-the summer
and winter half-year. The student is further assisted
by being told what are the subjects with which he
should be acquainted before entering the university, so
as best to avail himself of its advantages; and there
is this further kindly provision made for him, that if
he is unfortunate enough to have been badly prepared
in any of the essential points of preliminary study, a
special series of preparatory studies are provided as an
aid to make good his defects and bring him up to the
level of better prepared pupils. This is a department
well worthy of our attention in England; for, from
what I know both of the successes and failures of
attempts made there to introduce some technical
education, the great hindrance to good technical
teaching with us is want of good adequate prepara-
tion. A preparatory or strengthening division will
therefore, I fear, be for a long time a very important
part of our universities. I am, however, able to give
the comfortable assurance, that in a country where
technical education has once taken root, this retrospec-
tive educational division gradually diminishes both in
the number of the pupils and the extent of the rein-
forcement they require; and I know one or two
technical universities in which they have represented
to their governments the expediency of discontinuing
this division, for the admirable reason, that so good an
education is now afforded everywhere in the subordi-
nate technical colleges or Gewerbe-Schule which lead
up to the technical university, that no other measure
of preparation is necessary than simply to send back
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
165
the pupil for another term to the preparatory college.
It will, however, be long before we reach this stage in
England.
I have already said that the organisation of a
technical university on the Continent has inevitably
taken much of its character from the nature of those
institutions by which it was preceded, and from the
organisation of the institutions by which it has been
surrounded. And it must be further noticed that each
different country will have some branches of science
which are of far greater value to that country than to
some other, and vice versa. Thus, in an inland country,
remote from the sea, we should scarcely find naval
architecture, ship-building, or what, in the large sense,
we call commerce, holding any important place. A
school of naval architecture, or a naval college, could
scarcely be expected to find a place in Würtemberg,
Saxony, or Switzerland, while forestry, which in Ger-
many is a great science, would occupy a very subordi-
nate position in England, inferior, probably, in rank
to gardening; and while in Prussia, which is famous
for its mines, we should expect schools for mining and
metallurgy to have an equally prominent position to
that which they should hold in England, we should
imagine that a country formed chiefly of valleys, lying
between granitic ranges, would not be likely to count
any considerable number of its inhabitants as miners,
unless, indeed, its granite were fortunate enough to
be richly studded with gold, as in California and
Australia.
Looking, however, at the ground which is occupied
by all the technical universities now existing, we may
regard the following table as giving the heads of a
complete course of higher technical education, and
166
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Eleven
modern
professions.
The eight
divisions of
Zurich.
forming what we may call a model of a technical
university
1. School of Civil Engineers.
2. School of Architects.
3. School of Machinists.
4. School of Manufacturers.
5. School of Miners.
6. School of Naval Architects and Sailors.
7. School of Merchants.
8. School of Agriculturists.
9. School of Political Economists and Statesmen.
10. School of Modern Languages and Literature.
11. School of Professors and Men of Science.
The professions which are omitted, even from this
large list, are those which in every country have from
time immemorial been provided for by ancient univer-
sities and schools. Divines, doctors, lawyers, soldiers,
which we may call the ancient and learned professions,
do not ask a place in our modern university-will
probably be jealous even of our existence, and there-
fore will feel no wrong in being omitted from our
list.
Besides these fifteen professions, we might quote
others commonly ranked with them, but for the most
part these may be reckoned as branches of the fifteen.
The technical university of Zurich, one of the most
recent and complete, provides, as we have seen, 145
courses of instruction, and leaves pupils perfectly free
to select their own studies-a liberty which most of
them think undesirable. For the most part they fol-
low the map of discipline which has been placed before
them by the government of the university as that
which will give them the most speedy and effective
training for the duties of life.
The university constructs a programme of methodical
study which divides these 145 courses into eight groups
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
167
or divisions of study. 1. A course of architecture and
building; 2. A course of civil engineering; 3. A course
of mechanical engineering; 4. A course of mechanical
chemistry; 5. A course of agriculture and forestry;
6. A course for men of science, professors, and teachers;
and 7. A general course of philosophy, statesmanship,
literature, art, and political economy, meant for men
of no profession and of every profession, who desire a
cultivated intellect and a refined taste. There is an
eighth division, which is the preparatory or supple-
mental division I formerly mentioned, for bringing up
pupils who are behind their contemporaries, especially
in geometry, algebra, elementary, physical, and chemical
science, drawing, and languages.
ORGANISATION OF TIME AND PLACE.
tion of time
How to divide these 145 courses of study among Organisa-
681 pupils in such wise that no pupil and no professor and place.
shall be required to be in two places at one time is a
matter requiring great skill and organisation.
hours in
the archi-
division.
Luckily, early hours are still a feature in German Plan of
university life. In the columns of daily work, the hour
of 7 A.M. is remarkable; and as there is no breakfast- tectural
hour till 12, there are five hours of good study before
breakfast. Into these five hours it is desirable to com-
press most of the hard work of the day, leaving the
lighter work for later hours. How much pains and
trouble this organisation costs, and how it is possible
for student and professor to meet once or twice a day
without cross purposes, will best be understood by giving
the "time and place-plan," or organisation of a day's
work in one of the departments. It will be seen that it
is as complicated, but as exact, as a page of Bradshaw.
SUBJECTS.
1ST YEAR.
Differential and integral cal-
Organisation of the Architectural School.-Time and Place-Plan.
SUMMER COURSE.
1ST DIVISION-ARCHITECTURAL SCHOOL.
Head Professor, DR. SEMPER.
Number of
hours per week.
Place-Number
of lecture-room.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
culus
5
9 b.
Representative
geometry
(lecture)
4
6 d. 10 to
12 11 to 12
9 to 11 10 to 11 9 to 10
10 to 11
9 to 10
Exercises and repetition
5
19 b. 2 to
4
11 to 12
•
Architecture
3
15 c.
8 to 9
2 to 4
10 to 12
Architectural drawing.
4
15 b. 8 to 10
8 to 10
Composition
4
15 b.
2 to 4
2 to 4
Ornamental drawing
4
16 b.
1 to 5
Chemical technology of
building materials.
1
6 d.
7 to 8
...
:
...
History of art in the mid-
dle ages
4
7 d.
7 to
8 7 to 8
7 to 8 7 to 8
*Landscape drawing (4 hrs.)
19 c.
2 to
4
...
*Modelling (9 hrs.)
2ND YEAR.
Comparison of styles
Designing.
Mechanical architecture
Architecture.
Architectural drawing
Perspective Exercises
{ Lecture
Construction of streets and
canals
On building materials
Figure drawing (9 hrs.),
15 a.
(8 to 11)
8 to 11
::
2 to 4
12 to 5
443
9 b.
4 14b.
4 to 6
2 to 4
2 d.
8 to
9
11 to 12
:
:::
4 to 6
2 to 4
...
8 to 9
3
1 d.
9 to
11
9 to 10
4
14d.
7 to 9
7 to 9
1
7 d. 7 to 8
2
14 d.
8 to 10
...
...
...
2
2 d.
3
26 c. 4 to 5
::
7 to 8
10 to 11
obligatory
6 19 c.
Laws affecting buildings
1
2 d.
4 to 5
...
::
7 to 8
10 to 11
7 to 12
2 to 6
::
3RD YEAR.
Comparison of styles.
4
9 b.
...
Designing
4
16 b.
4 to 6
2 to 4
4 to 6
2 to 4
On manufactories
1
2 d.
10 to 11
Architectural drawing
4
16 d.
7 to 9
7 to 9
Ornamental drawing (deco-
ration and colour)
4
16 b.
1 to 5
Building laws
2
10 d. 4 to 5
11 to 12
::
*Painters' perspective in
ex-
sketching from nature (4
hrs.)
cur-
0:-
...
:
...
Ision.
The subjects marked thus * are not obligatory.
Saturday.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
169
apparatus
In addition to this vast living organisation of pro- Material
fessors, masters, and tutors, the Zurich University is of educa
rich in an element of secondary importance, but of tion.
unquestionable usefulness. The apparatus of teaching,
or the material elements of it, have been studied and
improved in Germany to an extent of which our
universities and schools have inadequate, if any,
conception.
tory of
1. Attached to the department of physical science is a Observa-
large astronomical observatory, set on a neighbouring practical
hill, and attached to the university as a place of in- astronomy.
struction, much in the same way as if the building of
Greenwich Hospital were transformed into a technical
school, and Greenwich Observatory attached to it as
the astronomical class room, with Professor Airy and
his assistants turned into professors of our school!
This forms what is called the collection or museum of
stars of the university.
of practical
2. The next building of the same sort is a large Laboratory
chemical and mechanical laboratory, forming also a chemistry.
separate structure, removed away from the building of
the university, and forming by itself what we should
consider a large school-building. This building may
be called the "College of Trial and Error," for it is
here that men are allowed to make their successes and
blunders; it is the college of discovery. A young
chemist, who fancies he has discovered a new gas, or
wishes to try a new mixture of old ones; a young
mechanic, who wishes to try an extraordinarily high
pressure of steam, or to drive a steam-engine by the
explosion of gun-cotton, or to use carbonic acid gas as
a reservoir of power for propelling steam-engines, and
who in the course of these experiments will probably
blow his apparatus to pieces, or set fire to the building,
170
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
engineering
is here placed in what is called a cell of safety, where
he is surrounded by the apparatus necessary to protect
himself and his neighbours from the evil consequences
of his mistakes; and where, if he set fire to the building,
he is supposed to be sufficiently far from the university
for it at least to be saved. This may be called a fortified
outpost of scientific education.
Museum of 3. Inside the university there is a large collection
works and of drawings and models, on a large scale, of every
kind of engineering work for the use of the civil
engineers.
drawings.
Museum of
engines
and ma-
chinery.
Laboratory
for che-
mical re-
search.
4. Next, there is a similar collection of all possible
engines and machines, exhibited either full-size or in
model, or in large drawings on a uniform scale and
systematically arranged; and this collection is in con-
tinual increase by the arrangement of the university,
which permits a student who has finished his career to
remain in the university to prosecute further studies
or original researches, and also employs those who
have a peculiar gift to make new engines, models, and
drawings, for the uses of the students. This collection
is rapidly growing.
5. In regard to the chemical laboratory for the
ordinary purposes of teaching, I need say little, ex-
cepting this, that in Zurich, as in Berlin, Carlsruhe,
and Stuttgardt, chemical laboratories have become
palaces of science, of which anything called chemical
laboratory in our country is but the threshold or
outer porch. I will use no words to describe what a
chemical teaching laboratory is, but I will merely say
that their extent and organisation is amply warranted
by the enormous value of chemical manufactures,
and the wisdom of their creation is justified by the
extent to which their pupils afterwards use the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
171
knowledge acquired there in improving, to a high
point of excellence, the chemical trades on which
they enter.
These laboratories of the university are the models
on which the pupils afterwards construct their labor-
atories of life industry.
architec-
6. A large series of models of architectural con- Museum of
structions and beauties, and a collection of drawings
and sculpture, form the legitimate accompaniment
of this school of architecture, over which that distin-
guished architect, Dr. Semper, well known in England,
presides. And it is agreeable to be able to say, that
some of the most beautiful buildings which decorate
Zurich have come from the hands of Semper and his
pupils; for it is one of the peculiarities of an educated
community that science and practice are married,
instead of being regarded as with us, an illegitimate
connexion.
7. A large zoological collection;
8. A large entomological collection;
9. An antiquarian collection;
10. A geological collection; and
11. A botanical garden,
are all adjuncts of the university, and have been
provided, either at the cost of the Confederation, of
the individual State, or of the city of Zurich.
Antiqua-
rian, zoo-
logical, bo-
tanical, and
geologi-
cal collec-
tions.
teaching
material
apparatus
verty?
In regard to the whole of this material apparatus English
of teaching, I think it necessary to say, that we deficient in
English are even more niggardly and negligent in the
provision of that, than of the living element of teach- from po-
ing. In truth, we want to spend as little as possible,
both of pains and money, upon the subject of teaching;
and whenever I have represented to members of our
Government teaching department, the inadequacy
172
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Criticism
of Zurich.
of the material element, I have been silenced by the
answer: "Oh! our House of Commons grudges us
already the little we ask, and were we to ask for more
it would only be refused." This too, from a House of
Commons which grudges 1,000,000l. for education, and
gives without stint 25,000,000l. for future war, and
25,000,000l. for the debt of past war.
This is a terrible mistake, for the material elements
of education enormously accelerate the progress of the
pupil. The two words "look there," are often more
valuable than an hour's lecture. The pupil takes into
his mind the form, colour, meaning, of the thing
itself, which no words could give him; and in good
collections of this sort, the insides of things are shown
him as clearly as the outsides; so that the pupil's
knowledge is thorough instead of merely skin deep.
It should also be remembered, that education by the
eye is as fertile in fruit as education by the ear; and
that merely to familiarise men with the sight of things
made as they should be, is the most effectual teaching
to avoid and dislike what is inferior or wrong.
material element of teaching is therefore secondary
only in value to the living element.
•
The
The reader will have noticed, that in the Swiss
university there are wanting some of what I have
reckoned as the essential elements of good technical
teaching. The school of merchants, the school of
naval architects and sailors, are not to be found in
Zurich University. But that, I have already explained,
is not so much a defect as a local adaptation to
Zurich, which has neither an ocean nor colonies, nor,
in the world-wide sense of the world, commerce.
Nevertheless, as Zurich University is acquiring world-
wide reputation, and draws pupils from all the quarters
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
173.
of the globe, and all the countries of Europe; and
as science and art are of no country and of no
place, I shall not be surprised, if some day they
complete the symmetry of their institution by the
addition of these wanting courses, for the sake of their
foreign pupils. Moreover, the commerce of Switzer-
land, and especially of Zurich, spreads daily more and
more widely, and demands from its merchants and
manufacturers larger requirements for its growing
fields of industry. There are other defects in this
technical university for which I have heard its former
pupils blame the authorities; but I think that,
probably, many of our English technical men will be
on the side of the university, rather than that of its
critics. Other technical universities have real actual
workshops for the manufacture of machines, and
matters of commerce as part of their university organi-
sation. This the university of Zurich has not; and
this the university authorities discountenance. They
assert that the workshop and the university should be
kept entirely distinct; that the three years of tech-
nical university study should come either after or
before the apprenticeship of the workshop, or initiation
into the profession. The truth to my mind is this:
It is not necessary that workshop, office, or counting-
house should be in the university, but it is necessary
that they should be closely united to it in time; and
the only question is, how best to effect the combina-
tion. I know three ways effectual in practice. The Due mix-
first way is, to give the practical training in the office practical
or the workshop immediately before or immediately theoretical
after the technical education in the university. The study.
second mode is, to give half the practical training
before the university course and half immediately
ture of
work with
174
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
after. The third method is, to lengthen out the uni-
versity period of education to the same number of
years as the practical workshop training or apprentice-
ship; and to spend one half of each year in the
university, and the other half in the workshop or office,
and complete both together.
I will not dogmatise on the question, which of these
is the best; I have seen them all tried, with a high
measure of success. My personal prejudice is entirely
in favour of the last. The alternation between work
and study makes each a bodily and mental recreation
for the other. Moreover, it has this direct supe-
riority, that during each working half-year you may
learn and make practical application of the prin-
ciples learnt in the previous half-year; and this
further good, that in the working half-year you will
find a multitude of things in practice, of which you
are unable to understand the nature and reasons, and
these you will be anxious to learn and delighted to
have made plain to you in the following year of college
or university education. My own observation is, that
you make far more progress in a given time by this
alternate method than by any other. The first method
has this fault for many professions, that before the
university period you are too young to complete the
workshop, and afterwards too old to begin. But there
is another kind of mixture which remedies this, and
that is the second; and it partakes of the advantages
of the third, because, in the first half of the workshop
period, the want of technical education is felt by the
learner, and afterwards supplied in the university,
while the last period shows the practical application of
those higher principles which have already been taught
in the university. This alternate creation of a want
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
175
and its supply, forms an admirable element in syste-
matic teaching.
the danger
Finally, I must admit that there is too much variety Avoiding
in the individual circumstances of technical students, of cram.
to encourage the hope that a plan equally useful to all
shall be adopted in any university. I have known
many young men who have come to these universities
from a distance, from a foreign country, and even from
the antipodes; there they had ample means of learn-
ing the practical part of their business, entirely before
or entirely after the university period; and for them
it might be inconvenient as well as useless to mix both.
For them the best plan is that in Zurich, of giving the
whole university course at once without interruption.
The danger in that case is, that the student may work
too hard, and that his university teaching may dege-
nerate into a process of undigested cramming.
My recommendation therefore, to the authorities of
the Zurich University would be, that they should give
serious consideration to the question, whether they
should not advise their pupils to alternate the practical
training of the workshop with the theoretical studies
of the university, wherever that may be practicable,
either by taking half the workshop training before,
and half after the university period, or by interpo-
lating alternate years and half-years of work and
study, in conformity with the individual opportunities
or convenience of the student.
In conclusion, we have only to say what this vast Conclusion.
engine for the improvement of the Swiss people costs
the Confederation.
The Englishman who studies these figures should
remember, that it is the provision made for a popula-
tion of only 2,500,000; for the most part only agri-
176
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Cost of the
university.
cultural peasants, inhabiting a mountainous and com-
paratively sterile country. In measuring the expense
we should also bear in mind, that francs go as far in
Zurich as crowns in London.
To the foundation of the Polytechnical University
the Federal Government contributed 20,000l. and the
canton of Zurich 136,000l. The annual expenses and
contributions of the students are:-
BUDGET OF THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF ZURICH.
Income.
1. Loan from the State treasury.
2. Loan from the Canton of Zurich
3. Pupils' fees
4. Loan from the Canton and State of Zurich for the
collections and museums
Total income.
£10,000
640
2,653
166
£13,459
Expenses.
1. Government of the University
2. Salaries of professors and teachers
3. Collections and museums
4. Prizes
5. Furniture, &c.
£1,680
9,500
2,146
40
93
Total expenses
. £13,459
Practical
results of
education
in Zurich.
Such is our model university; and I ought not to
leave it without testifying to its perfect success. My
first acquaintance with this university arose out of the
incident of a young relation of my own happening to
desire to obtain an education in a branch of civil
engineering, and finding it impossible to obtain that
education in England. Fortunately for him, an
Englishman of science, well acquainted with foreign
education, recommended to him the technical uni-
versity of Zurich. He went there : he passed through
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
177
its courses; returned to England; entered himself in
the usual manner as a learner in the works of an
eminent engineer. Here the advantages of Zurich soon
showed themselves unmistakeably; his superiority was
so evident, that he soon rose over the heads of much
older men, and long before his apprenticeship expired,
he had already been entrusted with heavy responsi-
bilities and important duties, which could not be
entrusted to men much older and more experienced,
but less skilfully trained, and less highly educated.
This youth was a standing example of the practical Criticism.
excellence of Zurich. This was the incident which after-
wards induced me to study carefully the organisation
of that institution, with the determination to do my
best towards obtaining for young Englishmen equal
privileges in their own country; and I may say, that
the result of a practical acquaintance with that insti-
tution, and of personal intimacy with many of those
who have been its pupils, is to satisfy me that this
Swiss university is a noble proof of the wisdom of her
patriots and statesmen-of the enlightened generosity
of the countrymen and citizens of Zurich; and that
the institution they have founded is in its aim, its
organisation, and its practical effect, well worthy of
the study and the rivalry of any statesmen and any
citizens, who do not believe their countrymen unworthy
of high intellectual cultivation, and sound technical
training for life.
N
The word
،، gymnas-
tic.'
"
CHAPTER IX.
THE TWO LEARNED UNIVERSITIES OF ENGLAND-
GYMNASTIC AND NON-TECHNIC.
The word "gymnastic."-Our universities eminently gymnastic.-—Gym-
nastic education preliminary to technic.-Modern technical occupa-
tions:-The statesman-The divine, doctor, and lawyer-Soldier,
sailor, architect, &c.-The learned universities technical for the divine,
lawyer, and doctor.
THE term gymnastic is so well understood in its
common application to bodily exercise, that we have
almost lost sight of its original and more orthodox
application to the systematic exercise and symmetric
development of mental power. In Germany, as in
Greece and Rome, a school for mental training, such
as we call a college or university, is still called a gym-
nasium; and it will be convenient for us to employ
the term gymnastic as supplementary to the word
technic. In this way we shall say: gymnastic school,
and technic school; gymnastic college, and technic
college; gymnastic university, and technic university;
and these terms will correspond to the continental
titles still in use-gymnasium and polytechnicum.
Our first duty will be to consider what is, or ought
to be, the exact nature of a gymnastic school, college,
or university, as contrasted with a technic school,
college, and university.
Our second question will be, how far our existing
schools, colleges, and universities, are in their nature
gymnastic or technic.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
179
Our third question will be, whether our existing
schools, colleges, and universities, can be rendered, at
the same time, both completely gymnastic and com-
pletely technic; or whether, for the future, the gym-
nastic shall form one entirely separate class of insti-
tutions, and a new class, entirely technic, shall be
created.
I do not think better illustrations could be cited of
institutions purely gymnastic, than our own two uni-
versities-Oxford and Cambridge. As we all know,
the one has reputation as a school of classics, the other
as a school of mathematics; but, equally in both, the
thing sought is the gymnastic, and the thing casual
and subordinate is the technic. Classics are taught
in Oxford, not for the purpose of preparing men
during the rest of their lives to talk Latin or to
write Greek; not to train Greek poets, or rear Latin
tragedians; nor even is the training of pedagogues in
those tongues the end and object of university life:
the whole course of the training, uses Latin and Greek
as instrumental merely. They are to the mind what
poles and bars are to the body; poles are climbed, and
bars are leapt, for the good the body gets in climbing
and leaping; and, when sufficiently leapt and climbed,
they are left for ever behind as useless matter.
Hexameters and pentameters are the bars and poles of
the mind, knotty, high, and hard to clear; to do them
is difficult once well done, they have served their
turn, and may be thrown aside.
Between Oxford and Cambridge there is little
difference, except that the gymnastic is not made by
hexameters and pentameters, but is built up of geo-
metrical lines, and differential and integral calculi.
The stone wall is as hard to climb, and the geometrical
Our univer-
sities emi-
nently gym-
nastic.
N 2
180
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Gymnastic
education
prelimi-
nary to
technic.
line as hard to leap, as the hexameter and pentameter
of classic verse; they equally strengthen the youthful
intellect, and, when well strung, the gymnastic poles
are equally flung aside.
Our classical and our mathematical universities are
then equally, and to the same extent, pure gymnasia,
with apparatus mainly similar in effect, and only
different in the nature of the material, and the source
from which it is drawn; and, in general, nine-tenths
of those who have completed their university studies
abandon for ever the classic lore and Greek geo-
metry, which cost them so many years of study
and pain. In how many cases such pain has been
well wared, and the gymnastic training been worth
the sacrifice of years spent in its drill, is a matter
which each class of scholar will answer in a different
way. To so many noble and great men has our
university gymnastic formed the successful training
of a brilliant and useful public career, that no one
dare say that they have failed in breeding great
men for the service of the country. The classics
and the mathematics are, therefore, both, perhaps,
in equal degree, the material of a noble gymnastic
education.
As non-technical schools, then, our universities are
admirable and for men whose lives are destined to
;
be non-technical, they are, perhaps, adequate and
sufficient. But in the modern life of the civilised
world, each man's sphere is becoming narrower; his
work harder, and more technical. A man must not
only be capable of learning how to do hard things,
but he must have acquired the skill of actually doing
them; and he must be capable of doing many things
as well as any man, and also some one thing better
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
181
than most men. That is the inevitable condition of
the educated man in civilised life.
technical
tions:
man;
Let us see what those technic occupations are which Modern
form the matter and substance of modern working occupa-
life—that is, the after career of your university man.
Is he born to wealth and leisure-then statesmanship
is his probable career; and, in England at least, states-
manship has been rendered the least technical of the
duties of life; and, even for a minister, it has been
reckoned the most important of qualities that he
should have the least possible technical knowledge of
the duties of the office over which he presides. For a The states-
statesman, then, an acquaintance with the Greek re-
publics, the Roman empire, and the history of nations,
may be considered adequate technical education. But
if our standard of statesmanship were higher, we
might, perhaps, require of a foreign minister that he
should be familiar with the tongues, races, countries,
manners, institutions, and ways of the peoples with
whom he is to conduct international negotiation. We
might require of the Minister at the Admiralty that
he should have a familiar acquaintance with the
nature of the vast establishments in which our fleets
are constructed, equipped, armed, and sent to sea; and
know something of the elements of their construction,
the fitness of their equipment, and the nature of their
armament; and that the duties of his admirals,
superintendents, naval architects, and sailors should
be not altogether unknown to him. If, in these and
other cases of ministerial responsibility, we required
special knowledge as a qualification for special duty,
then statesmanship might require, like other duties of
life, a special preparation and technical training; and
we should have to inquire how far our universities
182
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The divine,
doctor,
lawyer;
Soldier,
sailor, ar-
gineer, &c.
provided, even for the statesman, the technical pre-
liminaries required of a fit candidate for office.
As we now stand, however, the university may be
considered as adequate training for the youthful states-
man of rank and fortune.
But, we have to inquire, does it also fit for the
duties of common life the men of those other pro-
fessions which may be supposed to require liberal
education and high training? What do our univer-
sities provide besides gymnastics in the way of special
preparation for the career of the divine, doctor, lawyer,
schoolmaster, professor, man of science, military man,
chitect, en- naval man, agriculturist, machinist, manufacturer,
architect, engineer, naval architect, surveyor or ship-
owner? Have they set before them in the university
models for their imitation of all that is most perfect
in their art and duty, just as the statesman has set
before him the Greek democracy and the Roman
empire, as models to form or beacons to warn? Are
stores of methodical knowledge hoarded for them on
the shelves of the university library, or spread out
before them in the rooms of the university museum?
Are the lectures of the university devoted to ex-
plaining the methods, how to make the hard things
of life easy, the confused clear, and the doubtful
certain ?-If so, we will admit that the universities
are for these professions competent teachers, and have
a right to be called technic as well as gymnastic
institutions.
But let us look nearer at the hard facts. Our uni-
versities confer the degree "Master of Arts," as a
testimony of the highest proficiency, on the men who
have completed their university curriculum. Is such
a man really Master of Arts, or master of anything
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
183
that pertains to the theory and practice of those
multifarious arts that form the daily duty of pro-
fessional life? I fear, the most faithful alumnus of
our mother universities will not venture to say for
them, that Magister Artium is anything more than
a mediæval title, utterly destitute of the practical
meaning it was originally meant to bear; and that
the finished Master of Arts has scarcely begun to
learn the elements of the profession into which
he carries the fictitious title of Master. He has
done his gymnastic-he has not entered upon his
technic.
I have been told-and, in justice to our universities,
it should never be forgotten-that they were originally
technical schools, and of the most special kind. They
were founded originally for the rearing and training
of clergy, and then extended to the education of
lawyers, and finally to that of medical men. De-
grees of theology, law, and medicine, were the dig-
nities they conferred, although now an LL. D. need
know as little of practical law as a Master of Arts of
any practical art. Neither, I fear, can it be said that
the education of a medical man is to be adequately
found within the walls of either of our two great
universities.
Nevertheless, for the present purpose I will take it
for granted that the universities provide an ample
theological education for the clergy; an ample medical
education for the doctors; and sufficient store of legal
knowledge to initiate the youthful lawyer into the
mysteries of his craft and profession; and I will
confine myself to the further question,-Are our uni-
versities in any respect technical universities for
training in the other modern professions, exclusive of
universi-
The learned
ties, tech-
divine, law-
nical for the
yer, and
doctor.
184
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
the three ancient ones, theology, law, and medicine?
I think the answer must be that they do not, and that
they never were meant to; and for all the other pro-
fessions I will assume, for the future, that the two
great universities are gymnastic, not technic.
CHAPTER X.
OUR MODERN PROFESSIONS, AND THE KINDS OF
TECHNICAL EDUCATION THEY WANT.
What shall be our technical education ?-Where to draw the line between
technic and gymnastic.-It must vary with each profession.-For the
agriculturist? - For the miner? For the metallurgist? For the
merchant ?-For the manufacturer ?-For the machinist ?-For the
civil engineer ?-For the architect ?-For seafaring professions ?—For
men of science, professors and teachers?
be our tech-
nical edu-
cation ?
What sort of Technical Education shall we provide What shall
for our Technical men ?—Although, as we have seen,
there is much of modern education that is mere
gymnastic, and some that is unquestionably technic;
yet it is now, and may probably long remain, impos-
sible to draw a clear line of mathematical precision
among studies, and say, "On this side of the line, all
shall be called gymnastic; and on that side of the line,
all shall be called technic." The subject forbids such
abstract division: for here it may be purely gym-
nastic, and there it may break out into practical
flowers and fruit full of valuable technical use; or the
history of the individual may prevent it—for to-day a
student with no fixed destiny may do and learn that
which is mere gymnastic, and to-morrow, with a fixed
destiny, may do and learn the very same thing with
an aim and purpose purely technical. The man who
learns Latin to-day as mere gymnastic, may find
himself to-morrow destined to be a Catholic priest;
and so Latin may become the tongue of his craft.
186
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Where to
draw the
line be-
tween tech-
gymnastic :
The student of French to-day, which he learns as a
mere accomplishment, may find himself to-morrow
named as attaché to an embassy. Studies, therefore,
become technic or gymnastic, according to the degree
of their practical application, and according to the
varying destiny of the men who make them their
study.
When we ask, then, what sort of technical education
shall we provide, we must endeavour, however difficult,
to draw the line between technic and non-technic edu-
cation, if not quite precise, at least sufficiently clear to
show where, when, and how, gymnastic shall be con-
sidered to end, and technic education to begin; and
we must settle that line, not only for subjects and
places, but also for classes and individuals.
What, then, shall the gymnastic education be of
those pupils whom we shall agree to admit as candi-
nic and dates for our technic university? To what extent
must they already be linguists, grammarians, arithmeti-
cians, geometricians? Shall we exact of them reading,
writing, and speaking in some of the foreign tongues?
Shall they know history, ancient or modern? Shall
they know anything of the elements of political and
physical geography ?-anything or nothing of political
economy?—any logic or ethics, any elementary mathe-
matics, physics, or chemistry? Shall they be able to
handle any instruments, or draw truly any plain
forms that are set before them?
It is plain that the answer to all this must be, that
all these things form an indispensable part of a liberal
education, and therefore ought to be a portion of the
gymnastic education which every man should have
received before being called upon to decide his voca-
tion in life. An educated gentleman from 16 to 18
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
187
years old must know, more or less, all of these things,
at least in their elementary portions, and therefore it
would be unfair to call these elements any part of a
technical education, although in their higher grades
they might become eminently so. If it be agreed,
then, that at the outset of our technic university the
mere elements of those subjects shall be demanded as fession.
a condition of entrance, we shall be able to make a
fair start in our career of elementary education.
It must
vary with
each pro-
For the
agricul-
What, then, shall be the Technical Education
our Agriculturist ?-Shall he know anything of the turist?
nature of soils? Shall he understand anything of the
structure of plants?-what is good for their food; when
young; when flowering; when bearing seeds? Shall
he know anything about trees, fruits, timber? Shall
he know anything of manures, of their chemical
elements, of their history, and whence they draw
their virtue? Shall he know anything about insects,
especially those that infest crops and blight them?
Should he know anything of the anatomy of a horse—
of his physiology, of his diseases, and their modes of
cure? Should he study animal physiology, to know
how fat comes, how healthy structures are developed,
how races improve or decay? Should an agriculturist
understand a plan of his farm, drawn out on paper ?
Should he be able to make or improve the plan on
paper, and should he be able to lay out his improve-
ments from the plan on the ground? Ought he to
understand any of the principles on which to drain his
land, or to irrigate it when necessary? Should he
understand the mechanical construction of a gate, its
balance on its hinges, its mechanical action on the
gate-post? Would it be of use to him, or not, to
know something about the crops that are grown, the
188
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
animals that are reared, and the processes that are
employed in other countries than his own? Should
he understand the true mechanical principles on which
a good plough is to be made and worked, as distin-
guished from a bad one?-a good cart or waggon,
a good threshing-machine, or a steam plough?
If on all these our conclusion be that an agricul-
turist has a great many and very hard things to learn,
and that he will be the better throughout life for
knowing them than for not knowing them, then we
may safely draw the conclusion that he had better
learn something in the shape of technical knowledge.
Assuming, therefore, that the subjects given above are
those that he ought to learn, we have next to decide
what are the peculiar sciences that ought to be taught
in a technic university, in order to give him this great
variety of knowledge.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.
Farming Knowledge.
Nature of soil
Structure of plants
Food of plants
Manures
Structure and constitution of
animals
Rearing of animals
Diseases of animals.
Laying out of farms
Draining and irrigating
Gates and fences .
Technical Teaching.
Surface geology.
Anatomical botany.
Physiological botany.
Agricultural chemistry.
of Comparative anatomy.
Construction of farm buildings.
Improvement of seeds and breeds
Ploughs, waggons, implements
Steam engines and machinery.
Fruit trees and timber
•
Animal physiology.
Veterinary medicine and surgery.
Land surveying.
Surveying and levelling.
Practical mechanics.
Agricultural economics, and plan
drawing.
Agricultural geography.
Theoretical mechanics.
Elements of mechanism.
Technical botany.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
189
miner?
What shall be the Technical Education for the For the
Miner?-While the agriculturist is engaged in culti-
vating the earth's surface, in order to utilise for man
the productive energies of the rays of the sun, the
miner is as diligently exploring its hidden and interior
resources, to recover those buried stores of antediluvian
vegetation which millions of years of the sun's rays
had accumulated in former ages, and to bring to the
surface many precious metals and gems which the
intense heat of our huge central fire had, in the course
of time, refined, condensed, separated, and fitted to
form the material of mineral manufacture. To us,
who live on the surface, it is not easy to imagine the
needs and ways of these underground workers; but as
it is for our good they are spending their lives in sub-
terranean dungeons, shut out from the light of heaven,
it is for us to think of and care for their welfare, and
see if we can make their life more cheerful, their
occupation more wholesome, and their work lighter;
if we can teach them how more wisely to seek and
more surely to find the minerals we want; if we can
feed them with fresher and more wholesome air; if we
can more methodically teach them to draw plans of
their underground cities and works; if there be one
substitute for the light of heaven fitter for their use,
safer for their lives, than another; if there be know-
ledge that would save them the risk of fearful accident;
if there be kinds of mechanism and machinery to
lighten their labour; and if, by superior knowledge,
there are means of making that life, which has been
perilous and debasing, secure and civilised;--then no
pains we can bestow should be spared to render the
whole technic of mining, from the highest engineering
to the humblest coal-gathering, clear, well understood,
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methodical, and unwasteful. There can be little doubt
that, by the application of higher knowledge and more
practical wisdom, the enormous losses of past times in
property, human suffering, and human life, might be
spared; for it is only too true that the very abundance
of our mineral riches has made us wasteful, heedless,
and short-sighted.
If, therefore, it be true that far below our agricul-
tural population there is an under layer of population
farming out the vegetable and mineral productions of
past ages, then it is also true that we ought to aid
them in planning their work, draining and making
their subterranean ways, and using, in all their
work, artifices more refined, if possible, than the
highest of those used by the cultivators of the
surface. If we decide on this, we shall have to
provide for the miner the following course of technic
training :-
MINING TECHNIC EDUCATION.
Mining Knowledge.
Technical Teaching.
How to distinguish minerals
Mineralogy.
How to find minerals
Geology.
How to get at minerals
Ventilation of mines
Illumination of mines
Working of mines .
Economy of the products of
of }
mining
Survey of mines .
Mining health.
Geological surveying.
Mechanical physics.
Practical chemistry.
Elements of machinery.
Geometry and trigonometry.
Physiology and chemistry of life.
For the me- What shall be the Technic Education for Metal-
tallurgist?
lurgists?—It is the metallurgist who has to receive
from the miner his produce, and these he must take as
the miner gives them, in a confused heterogeneous con-
dition. It will, therefore, be necessary that he should
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
191
know what he is getting, not only by eyesight, but by
history, origin, and nature. If the miner must know
the natural shapes which characterise the minerals he
finds, no less must the metallurgist know the characters
of what he buys; and the history of the minerals,
whence they came, and how they grew, will help
further to enlighten him on their properties, nature,
and value. To the metallurgist, then, it will be as
useful to know mineralogy and geology, as for an
agriculturist to know seeds when he sees them, and
what plant they come from. But that is not enough :
scarcely anything ever comes to him pure; it is as if
the farmer received in one cart-load all the seeds of his
farm mixed rudely together with the seeds of weeds
and all sorts of rubbish. To distinguish, and sort, and
part, and analyse, and mix, is the next step in his
business; and all that means such a knowledge of
analytical and synthetic chemistry, that without it the
occupation of a modern metallurgist must degenerate
into mechanical routine, or the merest guess work.
And this knowledge is not enough, for he must add to
skill power, and wield the forces of nature-heat,
pressure, fierce streams of air, intense force of steam-
all the powers of the alembic, and the engine, to calcine
his refractory ores, to reduce his obstinate metals, to
fuse his minerals, and to part the useful from the dross.
The physical forces of nature, then, he must master.
Machinery, engines, and furnaces, must obey his con-
trol; his eye must temper or intensify the red and the
white heats, the blue and violet flames, to the precise.
degrees that suit the qualities and natures of the metals
he governs.
The resources of physical science-light, heat, elec-
tricity, galvanism, steam-engines, machinery—must all
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SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
unite their forces under his control, if he is to prove
stronger than mother Nature, to separate what she has
joined, and join what she has put asunder. To part
Nature's combinations, and substitute for them man's-
that, on a gigantic scale, is the duty of our modern
Vulcan. For the metallurgist, then, nearly all the
miner's education is necessary; and more, he is at
once miner, chemist, and engineer.
METALLURGIC EDUCATION.
For the
merchant?
Metallurgic Knowledge.
Nature and source of ores
Characteristics of minerals
Tests of minerals
Separation of ores
Reduction of ores
Refining of metals .
•
Manufacture of metals
Technic Teaching.
Practical geology.
Mineralogy.
Analytical chemistry.
Practical chemistry.
Science of caloric.
Sciences of caloric, electricity, and
magnetism.
Steam engines, machinery, general
physics, and mechanical engi-
neering.
What shall be the Technic Education for Mer-
chants?-Just as the metallurgist receives from the
miner the produce of his laborious diggings under
ground, so does the merchant receive from the farmer
of every soil on the surface of the earth the produce
of his culture and climate, and he makes his contri-
butions to the wealth of nations by the substitution in
each country of something more rare and of higher value
for some other thing common and cheap. This equal
exchange has the charm of making both wealthier;
each enriches the other, and thus the enlightened
merchant is the benefactor both of buyer and of seller.
To do his work well, he must know what is wanted
by all classes of the community in his own country,
and it is his duty to find out that thing in some other
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
193
part of the world where its abundance makes it little
valued, and whence it can be withdrawn without
loss or harm to the producer. This state of things
gives rise to what is called the mercantile equation.
The work he has to do, is to move this material out of
the place where it is abundant and cheap, into the
place where it is scarce and dear. The difference
between those two constitutes the merchantable margin;
the problem of his profit or loss comes out of the
question, whether he has the talent, knowledge, and
power to move the merchandise quickly, while it is
wanted, out of the cheap into the dear place, and at
less cost than the difference of price? These are the
elements of the mercantile equation. If he has know-
ledge and ability to do this, he makes a profit, and all
are gainers by the transaction; if not, and his margin
will not cover his expenses, he either makes a loss, or
he resorts to some of the thousand-and-one dishonest
artifices which throw the loss of his incompetence on
some other person who happens to be ignorant of the
false calculation which has been made. It is thus
evident that, for our world-wide modern business,
enormous knowledge is necessary, or enormous dis-
honesty takes its place. Original miscalculation by
the merchant is too often remedied by combination for
the production of artificial scarcity, by substitution of
false quantity for true, or in the shape of worthless
mixture; and so, where skill fails, dishonesty steps in,
and character disappears. Above all things, then, it
is necessary that the merchant should have two things
-high skill, and high character; he should know not
only the past history of trade in his own department,
but as the circumstances of the commercial and poli-
tical world are every day producing sudden change,
0
194
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-
his knowledge should be far wider than that which
seems to be required in the daily duties of a mercan-
tile office. While the staff of a merchant's house are
busied in routine transactions, the merchant should
forecast the changes which increased consumption or
diminished production may be bringing about in any
of those countries from which supplies come, or to
which exports go; for diminished supply, and increased
demand, he must be continually considering what new
sources the world can give, or human ingenuity con-
trive, to supply increasing wants; how transport can
be cheapened, time saved, risk diminished, exchange
made easy. There is no part of the industrial com-
munity, on the largeness of whose views, on the sound-
ness of whose character and practical wisdom, more of
the wealth, power, and well-being of the nation depend,
than on the class which, in the large sense of the term,
enjoys the proud title of British merchant. But, also,
there is no class whose name is more abused, or which
contains a greater number of persons who usurp the
title without contributing a single element to the
prosperity of that society, on which they merely live
as parasites and birds of prey. To give, therefore, to
the future race of British merchants such a large and
liberal range of education as shall make them worthy
representatives of this long highly-respected class, is
one of our most urgent and most responsible duties.
MERCHANTS' TECHNIC EDUCATION.
Mercantile Knowledge.
Knowledge of countries.
Knowledge of seas and ports
Raw materials, animal and vege-
table
Customs, usages, and institu-
tions of nations
Technic Education.
Political and physical geography.
Naval charts and nautical geography.
Geographical botany and zoology.
Political history, voyages and dis-
coveries.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
195
Population, consumption, and
production
!}
Mercantile and political statistics.
Correspondence, weights, mea- Foreign languages, literature, laws.
sures, and customs of nations.
Monetary affairs
Ships' freights, cargo, and insur-
ance
Supply and demand and price
Profit and loss
Laws of currency, exchange, banking.
Laws of mercantile marine, inter-
national law, and calculations
of risks.
S Political economy, and theory of
prices.
Calculation of exchanges, interest
and book-keeping.
manufac-
What shall be the Technic Education for the For the
Manufacturer?-But if it be the merchant who con- turer?
verts the cheap surplus of foreign climes to the use
and wealth of our nation, it is very frequently in
subordinate position, rather than directly, that his
work becomes a boon to the community. The produce
of foreign countries, as he finds and fetches it, is for
the most part only the raw material, in a state in
which it cannot enter into the supply of our social
wants until after it has undergone the multifarious
processes of manufacture. The cotton of America,
the jute of India, the grass of Spain, the cochineal of
Mexico, the wool of Australia, the hemp of Russia,
the hides of South America, the silk of Japan, are all
of small practical value in the raw condition in which
they reach these shores. It is the art of the manu-
facturer, by his industry and skill to give to them
forms, textures, combinations, and colours, which fit
them for the uses and purposes of civilised life. In
doing this, he doubles or triples their original value,
and so pays back to the merchant, by his skill, some
of the material which the foresight of that merchant
had originally procured for him; but the portion thus
paid back is so much enhanced in usefulness, beauty,
0 2
196
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
and value, that a comparatively small part of it, once
more exported to the country from whence it came,
both pays for the original cargo of material, for the
ship which brought it here, and now brings it out
again, and yields the merchant a double profit, after
having duly paid the manufacturer for its conversion,
and left a large portion of itself behind for home con-
sumption. This is the combination of manufacturing
skill with mercantile foresight which has made the
dense cities of England centres of an industrious,
thriving, and ingenious population.
But this wealth is to be created only so long as
skill, knowledge, and power are applied to it in
England in a higher degree than elsewhere to give to
the raw materials the texture, shape, and colour that
enhance their use and value. Should the day come
when our manufacturers are less skilled, less informed,
less able than our rivals, the flood of these materials
to our shores, and the back current of manufactures
to replace them, may take another direction and surge
on other shores. Let the tasteful manufacturer of
Lyons, the frugal workman of Switzerland, the well-
educated artificer of Germany, apply greater strength,
skill, and taste to the manufacturer's work, and our
goods will soon cease to pay either for foresight of
importation, conversion into manufactured goods, or
freight of transport; and so manufacturer, merchant,
and shipowner will fall down into low profits for
risk, low remuneration for work, and low freights for
ships.
No argument, therefore, is necessary to show that
the English manufacturer belongs to one of those
classes on whom the means of obtaining the highest
intelligence, knowledge, and refinement will be well
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
197
wared, or, indeed, cannot be left wanting, without
foreboding great national calamity.
The tools he uses in his processes are, for the most
part, boilers, steam-engines, driving manyfold com-
plicated mechanisms of delicate structure, moving with
nearly invisible speed, endowed with the highest re-
finements the engineer and mechanician is able to
devise or execute. We cannot afford that the man
who has to work with such tools shall grow up igno-
rant, awkward, unrefined. The man who does not
know the difference between the better and the worse
machine will never be allowed to own the better, but
will have the worst thrust upon him; and, in some
degree, already the work of the mills of the more in-
telligent mill-owners begins to fetch more money, and
to have a preference in the market; and as intelligence
and morality increase, the preference will become more
and more marked. Every day character, intelligence,
and taste enhance more and more the value of the
materials they deal with. Let us take care, then, that
the rising race of manufacturers grow up better skilled
in manufacture, better reputed for quality of materials,
and more discerning in matters of taste than those of
other lands. It is plain, then, that, like the merchant.
he must know the sources, the character, the sorts of
the materials that are to pass through his hands. The
selection and sorting of these is a first condition of
excellence; and as every different sort, from every
different source, has some peculiar quality and virtue,
the ability to select, by his own judgment, is of great
importance to him. To be able to select for each sort
of material the fittest process and best kind of machinery
for its preparation and conversion is the next step in
the manufacturer's trade; and if he be able to invent,
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SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
design, make, or select the most suitable mechanism
for working it up, that will give him high chances of
excellence. For the delicate, complicated processes of
refined manufactures, the choice of the best situation
for his establishment, the design and organisation of
the establishment itself, the wise selection of manu-
facturing power by means of coal, water, or steam,
the organisation of his workmen for the purposes of
their training, industry, and skill, are subjects that
require large economical views, and profound mechani-
cal knowledge. Every element used in his mill-oil,
tallow, steam, leather, fuel-is an element of waste,
loss, or frugality in use. The best markets to buy and
to sell in, the time to accumulate stock, or to reduce
it, are also matters of forethought and anticipation;
and last, not least, the ability to send out into the
world things of beauty in form, colour, arrangement,
and design, unsurpassed by other manufacturers, is so
great a pleasure to the individual, so important an
advantage to the commerce of the country, so im-
proving to the customer, is one of the means of so
enormously adding to the value of the raw material,
that the nation which possesses the greatest number of
such skilled men will be amply repaid for all the pains
it may have taken to educate and train them. A
manufacturer should combine, then, in his own person,
in no inconsiderable degree, the qualities of the
merchant, the machinist, and the artist.
MANUFACTURERS' TECHNIC EDUCATION.
Manufacturing Knowledge.
Technic Education.
Vegetable and animal physiology.
Economical geography.
Knowledge of raw materials
Sources of raw materials.
Sources of power
Nature of tools
Mechanical physics.
Practical mechanics.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
199
Mills and buildings
Social organisation of workmen
Drawing plans
Drawing designs
Coloured patterns
Dyeing and bleaching
Monetary affairs.
Profit and loss and insurance
Industrial architecture.
Political economy.
Descriptive geometry.
Decorative geometry.
Theory of colour and beauty.
Practical chemistry.
Laws of commerce and banking.
Interest, risks, and book-keeping.
machinist ?
What Technical Education should we give to the For the
Mechanical Engineer or Machinist? —From the days
of James Watt and Arkwright until now, comprehend-
ing the whole of the present century, the mechanical
engineer or machinist has formed one of the most
important classes of this country, and has conferred on
it immeasurable benefit. It was the mechanical engi-
neer and the manufacturer who, together, during the
early part of the present century, while the whole
of Europe was overrun by the curse of war, created
wealth in this country so rapidly, as to enable her to
struggle through a burden of expenditure to which
there has been no parallel, and to come out of it
prosperous and wealthy.
There are no occupations or trades concerning which
there could be so little difference of opinion as to the
practical importance of special technical education, as
this class of mechanical engineer and machinist. Philo-
sophers have defined man as the tool-using animal; but
if the man of this century were defined, the "engine-
maker" and "machine-user" would be his leading
characteristic it is the triumph of human nature in
our time, that it has achieved the understanding of the
forces of nature so completely, that whatever material
service we wish to perform, we can always discover
some elementary force in nature, willing to lend us its
aid to conquer our difficulty, provided we will study
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its nature sufficiently to direct it into the way in
which it can best serve our end. The steam-hammer
of Nasmyth, and the steel ingots of Krupp, are symbols
of the powerful yet plastic forces man wields, in his
gigantic shape-compelling processes of manufacture.
We may sum up the duties of a man of this craft by
saying, that there is scarcely a process now performed
by animal or man, which our engineers or machinists
of the next generation may not be called upon
perform better and quicker by machines of their own
creation.
Of the engineer and machinist it is therefore very
easy to indicate the course of instruction; unluckily,
much easier to indicate than to accomplish. He must
master all the known powers of material nature:
heat and cold; weight and impulse; matter in all
conditions-liquid, solid, and gaseous; standing or
running, condensed or rare, adamantine or plastic—
all must be seen through and comprehended, by the
master of modern mechanics. The same laws which
govern the machinery of the heavens, he has to apply
to the machinery of the earth; and the same exquisite
mechanism which the Creator has used in the structure
of his animals, the modern mechanician has to apply in
the construction of his microcosms. The modern
mechanician, who would be equal to his work, must
be prepared to shape a tool and frame an engine for
the execution of tasks which were never even dreamt
of by the older mechanicians.
TECHNIC EDUCATION OF THE MECHANICAL ENGINEER
AND MACHINIST.
Mechanical Knowledge.
Shapes and sizes of things
Quantities
Numbers
Geometry.
Algebra.
Technic Education.
Arithmetic, calculation.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
201
Weights.
Forces and motions
Strengths
Mechanical powers
Laws of solids
Laws of liquids
Laws of airs and gases
Generation of motion
Sources of power
Applications of power.
Mechanical inventions
Laws of gravity.
Laws of dynamics.
Laws of statics.
Theoretical mechanics.
Kinematics.
Hydrostatics and hydrodynamics.
Heat, light, electricity, attraction,
and repulsion.
Chemical physics.
Elements of mechanism.
History of machinery.
civil en-
What Technic Education should we give the Civil For the
Engineer? The great public works of a civilised gineer?
country have always demanded and generally received
from its Government, earnest solicitude and fore-
thought. In France, the civil engineers are the élite
of the nation; the most distinguished pupils in the
colleges throughout the country are promoted into the
central technic institution of France in Paris; and out
of this again, a selection is made of the most talented
for the "corps de génie maritime;" for the "corps de
génie militaire ;" and for the "corps de génie civil," or
ponts et chaussées."
66
By the great public works of a country so much is
gained or lost to the public well-being, that the most
liberal measures are justified, if they succeed in pro-
viding for its service the profoundest knowledge, the
most brilliant talent, and the highest skill. In the
time of the Romans, Europe was covered with those
wonderful roads which have been perpetuated to
the present day, and are marvels of conception and
Execution. The correction of rivers and supply of
waters to great cities, the drainage of marshes and
the irrigation of plains, have developed the industry
and created the wealth of populous countries; and it
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SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
has depended almost entirely on the wisdom or folly of
modern Governments, in the selection of their engineer-
ing systems, whether those great engines of commerce,
the modern railways, have been given to a country at
small cost, on a wise system of development, with
gain at once to the capitalist, to the trader, and the
Government. Where Governments have been wise, the
railways have been well selected, cheaply made, econo-
mically and profitably worked. Where they have
been reckless, ignorant, unwise, railways have been
made at great cost, extravagantly worked, dear to the
public, and unprofitable to the capitalist.
When it is considered that the telegraphs which
now work the commerce of the world; the great lines
of steam-ships which unite its most civilised portions;
the railways which everywhere connect the populous
centres of empires; the water supply; roads; ports and
harbours; the direction, training and permanence of our
navigable rivers are all works involving enormous cost,
involving the highest national interests, and requiring
consummate knowledge and skill, it is plain that we may
judge of the wisdom of a nation by the foresight and
forethought it bestows upon the rearing, training, and
selection of this corps d'élite or corps de génie; and it
is therefore self-evident that, in a technical university,
the pupils of this section must find a prominent place.
For England especially, with her wide-spread domi-
nions, it is evident that the youthful engineer should
be prepared to find a sphere of usefulness in any
quarter of the globe, and to carry with him a mastery
of all the resources of modern science and skill.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
203
TECHNIC EDUCATION OF THE CIVIL ENGINEER.
Engineering Knowledge.
Laws of water-standing and
running
Laws of dead matter
•
Laws of fixed and moving bodies
Building of bridges and ways.
Surveying, mapping, selection.
of routes
Erection of buildings
selection}
Estimates of cost and production
of public works
Steam-ships and machinery.
Technic Education.
Hydrostatics and hydraulics.
Strength and resistance of materials.
Statics and dynamics.
{Theory of structures in stone, tim-
and iron.
Geometry, trigonometry, and sur-
veying.
Theory of beauty and ugliness.
{Prices, wages, and economical valu-
S Naval architecture and mechanical
engineering.
To a great extent, the civil engineer must have also
the same education as the mechanical engineer.
architect ?
What should be the Technic Education of the For the
Architect?-In old times the architect was also the
civil engineer of the State. In modern times the
engineer must become to a great extent the architect
of the State; for whenever a modern building becomes
more than a mere dwelling-house, or decorated
mansion, it requires so many of the resources of the
engineer to give it strength and permanence, that it is
nearly impossible to say where engineering ends or
architecture begins. Up to the present time we must
admit, from the examples we have seen, that nothing
can be worse than the engineering of architects, unless
it be the architecture of engineers. The huge engi-
neering deformities that disgrace the City of London
are almost an excuse for the imbecile puerilities of
architects, who have tried to plant on the engineering
structures such meretricious masks as should hide
their uncouth uglinesses. When engineers shall have
received a good education, they will appreciate the
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SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
refinements of the sister art, and learn from the archi-
tects how not to create and expose to public gaze,
clumsy, ungainly masses of inorganised material; and
when, in like manner, architects shall have received an
education in all the arts by which strength may be
thrown into any form, and forms of strength developed
in any material, they will be able to erect beautiful
structures which do not tell lies, and buildings which
express at once artistic feeling, refined intelligence, and
a mastery of the materials they use, and of the
purposes these materials should be made to achieve.
In short, the engineer will gain what he now wants in
refinement, and the architect what he now wants in
directness of purpose and truth of expression.
What the architect wants to know is the qualities,
weights, and resistance of materials, quite as much as
the engineer; to understand shapes, strengths, and pro-
portions of different sorts of matter, quite as familiarly
as the mechanical engineer; and, further, to know
how to organise the skill of men and the power of
machinery for the creation of his structures, quite as
thoroughly as the manufacturer knows how to use
them in the creation of his wares. But, besides being
an engineer and a manufacturer, the architect has to
be an artist; he has to touch the feelings as well as to
overcome material difficulties; his works must not be
a dissight to his neighbour, nor a distaste to the passer-
by, who should be forced to exclaim, “There is a sight
does one good to see;
""There is a man who knew
his work, and did it; "There is a pleasure made
permanent for generations to come."
""
But if we will have such works and such men, we
must first train the men, and then appreciate their
work.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
205
TECHNIC EDUCATION FOR ARCHITECTS.
Architectural Knowledge.
Knowledge of forms
Technic Training.
Higher geometry.
Knowledge of ground
Knowledge of strengths and com-
bination of materials
Forming, shaping and moving)
masses
Knowledge of symmetry, pro-
portion and beauty.
Employment of materials
Decoration
Style
•
•
of }
Adaptation to uses and wants of
society
Nobility of plan and elevation
of purpose, as distinguished
from meanness and triviality
Knowledge of styles
Methods and processes of fur-
{
Surveying.
Civil engineering.
Mechanical engineering.
Theory of the beautiful.
Principles of masonry, carpentry,
and metal work.
Ornamental materials, and
workmanship.
art
Expression of use, intention, and
feeling.
S Health, cleanliness, comfort, and
convenience.
Esthetics.
{History of ancient, mediæval, and
modern architecture.
nishing, fitting, and finishing Contemporary decoration in differ-
{
faring pro-
What ought to be the Technic Education of the Naval For sea-
Architect, Naval Engineer, Shipowner, and Sailor?— fessions?
For the two first of these classes, ample provision has
already been made in the Royal School of Naval
Architecture at South Kensington, which would
naturally form part of such a technic university as I
have been describing; and there could be no school
devised in which the shipowner could obtain a better
knowledge of the qualities his ship ought to possess, or
where the sailor could better learn how all the qualities
which make a ship good at sea can be bestowed in
her original construction, and enhanced or diminished
by subsequent bad judgment or ignorance. To such
college might be advantageously added a complete
206
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
course of theoretical navigation and seamanship, for
the use of the officers and captains of the mercantile
marine.
TECHNIC EDUCATION OF THE NAVAL ARCHITECT,
NAVAL ENGINEER, SHIPOWNER, SAILOR.
Seafaring Knowledge.
Construction of ships
Technic Training.
Naval architecture.
science-
and teach-
ers ?
•
Construction of marine engines
Owning of ships
Navigating ships.
Marine engineering.
Construction, equipment, and outfit.
Construction and equipment, sea-
•
manship and navigation.
Together with the other elements of the course of
education now given in the Royal School of Naval
Architecture and Navigation.
For men of What Technic Education ought Professors, Phi-
professors losophers, Teachers, Schoolmasters, to receive ?—It
might be supposed that to excellence in teaching an
art or science, no other training would be necessary
than to have attained consummate excellence in the
art or science to be taught. This is one of those
partial truths which is neither true enough to be
reliable, nor false enough to be readily refuted, and it
is the source of many a grievous practical blunder. I
remember to have studied mathematics under a pro-
fessor who was a profound mathematician and a prac-
tical idiot. He pursued his even way with thoughtful
painstaking upon the board, following out investi-
gations of which he had neither explained to us the
end nor the plan; and, after a few days of futile
painstaking in attempts to follow him, we had to give
up the hopeless task, and occupy the remainder of the
course with reading our own books, making our own
drawing, or such other amusements as most pleasantly
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
207
passed our time, while the Professor continued to apply,
in social solitude, his chalk and board. This man
knew too much of mathematics, and too little of our
minds, to be of the slightest use to us.
But there came another Professor, the famous
Dugald Stewart, himself a young man, and a young
teacher; he had to teach as much as he knew, but he
had the wonderful ability of being able to teach all he
knew. He explained the excellence of his teaching,
by showing that he possessed the highest conditions.
of the art-hearty sympathy with his pupils, a thorough
knowledge of their condition, and the peculiar diffi-
culties of their subjects: "I teach well, because I am
only twenty-four hours in advance of my pupils; what
I teach, I have just learnt myself."
Each of these men may be said to have possessed
exactly one-half of the requisites of a teacher. To
give intrinsic value to the things taught, his own
knowledge ought to be so profound as to confer high
authority on all he says or shows. The second re-
quisite is that he should know the stepping stones of
the mind so thoroughly as to be able to guide his
pupils step by step across a difficult stream of thought,
without allowing them ever to strain their powers, or
get beyond their depth. That is true teaching, to lead
them an arduous way-so arduous, that they must
fail to find it without a guide. I know the case of
a distinguished foreign engineer, who, after having
executed for his country works of importance, felt a
strong desire to devote his matured powers to the
education of the rising race in his profession, whom he
knew to be inadequately and feebly taught. With
exemplary patriotism he abandoned his more lucrative
profession, and accepted the ill-remunerated post of
208
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Professor of Civil Engineering in the technic univer-
sity. His teaching proved a failure; he knew tho-
roughly what he wanted to teach, but found himself
unable to teach it. Luckily for his university and for
himself, he was a man used to overcoming difficulties.
He took to the study of Pedagogy, or Teaching as an
art; he had formerly studied physical science and
material nature, he now took to the study of psychical
science, or human nature. This new study was as great
a success as his former material achievements, and I
found that he had become one of the most successful
teachers, and one of the most beloved as well as es-
teemed of masters. He found his pupils, youths
green from the inferior schools, and before leaving him
he had converted them into youthful associates and
practical assistants, employed in the actual construction
and design of the details of public works afterwards
executed.
The training of an eminent teacher must therefore
consist of two parts. The original qualifications and
personal standing of the teachers in our high schools
cannot be too high. It would be of infinite benefit to
the nation, if the men by whom the minds of our
children are modelled, and by whom they are fitted to
fill their place in life, were the most eminent of our
compatriots. Who can doubt the benign influence
upon their minds of companionship with and sympathy
from a distinguished leading man? Might it not
confer a tone upon their whole life, and occupy their
minds with noble aims and thoughts?
Let us take it, therefore, as an axiom that we will
not accept as the teachers of our youth in their highest
professional walks, any but men whose knowledge of
their respective subjects is thorough and profound.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
209
In our country we have probably committed a great
blunder in not creating for the teachers of our children
a higher social position than we have hitherto given
to the professor, the tutor, or the schoolmaster. We
appoint as schoolmasters of our children, as their
associates and guides in their studies, men to whom
we neither give the highest seats at our social table,
nor place on an equality with our own society. If
we were truly wise, we should think no manner of
man too distinguished, and no social remuneration
unreasonable, which should tempt into the rank of
pedagogue the most distinguished men in science, art,
and practical life, and so secure the first condition-that
the things taught have the advantage of power, weight,
and authority.
Next, as to the method of teaching. We must
reckon that as a special art, for which the knowledge
of peculiar principles, acquaintance with special me-
thods, and a specific training, are in general necessary.
A man should learn to teach from another who is a
master in teaching. This master would show him how
he first analyses the special objects and aims of each
kind of teaching, and of each branch in that kind;
how he next analyses the state of mind and pre-
paration in which each pupil will have to commence
that kind of learning, and how he must then parcel
out into successive short journeys, with halting places
between, the many stages of distance that must inter-
vene between the pupil's aim and its achievement.
These three things, applied to all the subjects of
pedagogy, make the substance of what is the laborious
but valuable art of teaching.
This art will evidently have as many branches as
there are things to be taught. In each branch there
P
210
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
will be not only the analysis already given of aims,
methods, and conditions for each study, but there will
also be in each a different set of considerations con-
cerning the apparatus and mechanism by which the
pupil may best be aided in each special branch.
There is education by lectures, by books, by memory;
by analysis, by oral examination, by writing out
papers, by practical experiment, by modelling, by
drawing, by inventing; by work in little, by work in
large; by trial, and error; by method, system, and
organisation. All this must be known, and discussed,
and settled; and the teacher who is to teach well
must see that he has at hand the diagrams, drawings,
models, patterns, illustrations, materials-in short,
the mechanism and material part of all that he has
to teach. The schoolmaster is himself the soul of
teaching; but, to teach the work of life well, he must
have an ample storehouse of material, a library of
books, a museum of models, laboratories, and ob-
servatories.
It is plain, then, that one of the most important
branches of our new technic university would be that
in which each accomplished Professor would explain to
an auditory of young Professors, about to go out into
the world as teachers, the reasons which had led him
to adopt one method rather than some other of
initiating his pupils into the more arduous branches of
his technic. These pupils must have already learned
from him and others the subject-matter of teaching,
and it might be thought that they had nothing to do
but to begin and teach others as they themselves had
been taught; but this is by no means the whole truth,
for the younger masters will have in all probability to
teach quite another class of pupils, starting in quite
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
211
other conditions of preparation, with quite other aims
and ends of life, and requiring for their practical
training quite other methods and processes than those
through which the Professor had to pass. It is in this
way that each Professor will have in turn to become a
teacher of pedagogy in his own branch for the juvenile
Professors whom he is about to send out.
P 2
Existing in-
stitutions
should be
enlarged
CHAPTER XI.
SHALL WE CREATE NEW INSTITUTIONS, OR ROB
OLD ONES ?
Existing institutions should be enlarged and strengthened, not robbed
nor straitened.-Education of skilled men a good investment of na-
tional wealth.—The new institutions will give usefulness and develop-
ment to the old.—Endowed schools a wise expenditure of trade cor-
poration funds.-Two million skilled men require to be educated.—
Technical schools no rivals of elementary schools-Nor of secondary
schools.-Technical schools supplementary to high schools and gram-
mar schools.-New technical schools should be established in all
towns.-Technical colleges wanted in all cities.-Technical universities
should be independent and new institutions.
Ir is far easier to rob the rich than to thrive by
one's own self-denial and well-doing-and so, a certain
class of men, who would show virtue at a cheap rate,
have proposed to divert the endowments of old educa-
robbed nor tional institutions to the enrichment of new ones.
and
strength-
ened, not
straitened.
In other words—legislators who have not the courage
to propose taxation for the common good, are yet
willing to exhibit patriotism at the cost of unpopular
institutions; and are lavish in their gifts of the goods
of our universities and colleges, to new ones of their
own devising.
If our own colleges, universities, and schools of
learning, were already so wealthy, numerous, and
powerful as to make an addition to their number,
wealth, and usefulness, superfluous—it might be unwise
to attempt the creation of new universities, colleges,
and schools, for new uses. But as all our universities,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
213
colleges, and schools put together, form a teaching
deplorably inadequate to the complete and thorough
education of the portion of the nation for which
they were destined, wisdom would seem to lie in
seeing that they adequately fulfil all their own
special duties. Surely, rich England is not so mean,
niggardly, and poor, as to rob one part of her commu-
nity in order to give another part that education
which a wealthy nation can so readily afford, by a
little parsimony in the expensive luxuries of war—a
little economy in the follies of her lavish national
waste.
of skilled
investment
This proposed unprincipled misappropriation of the
common wealth of one community to the uses of
another, is a good reason for the alarm and opposition
with which open and manly demands for better teach-
ing at our common cost, are sometimes met by the alumni
and authorities of our endowed universities and schools.
They fear that the promoters of technical education Education
intend to promote it somehow at their expense, or to men a good
their hurt. For myself, as one of the early, earnest, of national
and I hope, active and energetic promoters of institu- wealth.
tions for supplying that which I think a great national
want, and hope to see become a great national benefit,
I desire at the outset to disclaim all intention to inter-
fere with, harm, diminish, or rival, existing institutions
for education, either in character, independent wealth,
or prosperity. I think the endowments of wealthy
universities, colleges, and schools, are admirable modes
of investing national wealth and capital. I know of
no way in which the wealth of rich and grateful
citizens can be more wisely spent, than in the en-
dowment of good schools for all posterity; and the
rich man who has no heirs, cannot adopt a more pro-
.
214
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The new
institutions
will give
usefulness
and devel-
opment to
the old.
mising posterity than the clever children of his fellow
citizens.
Instead, therefore, of robbing existing institutions of
a fragment of their wealth-instead of rivalling them
in a fragment of their honours-instead of diminishing
by a farthing the already scanty revenues of many of
their teachers-I conceive that the new institutions
would avert from them many dangers-would save
them from many natural enemies, now hankering after
their endowments; and would crown many of their
branches of instruction, now fruitless, with the diadem
of social, practical usefulness.
First, as to endowments of existing schools and
colleges. So far from robbing any of the ancient insti-
tutions to feed the new ones, I have the profound con-
viction that our universities and public schools are not
even sufficiently wealthy to accomplish that large and
wide duty which is entrusted to them, and which they are
continually blamed for not doing. It is given to them
to educate the children of all the great wealthy families
in our great and wealthy land, in a manner so high
and noble, that they shall not only fill and embellish
their lofty station, but become shining examples of
all that is enlightened, wise, and good. They were
endowed to make them patterns of religious training ;
to model youth on the examples of the heroes and
patriots of Greece and Rome, and to send them out
into life, filled with chivalrous principles-patterns
of refinement in thought and language, and models of
all that is wise and beneficent in the leaders of men.
To institutions whose duty it has been and still
remains to accomplish all this, who would grudge
a small portion of that vast hoard of national wealth
which their pupils are to administer and enjoy?
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
215
What a small tithe on the lands of England are the
whole revenues of our public schools and universities!
diture of
funds.
And as to the endowments of our second-class Endowed
schools a
schools, are there not merchant tailors enough in wise expen-
London sufficiently in need of good education for trade cor-
their children, to employ and usefully exhaust all portion
the funds of their trade association in good Merchant
Taylors' Schools? And in like manner, should not
each of the other rich guilds be allowed to appro-
priate some of their vast wealth for the superior
education of their children? When every one of those
rich guilds of the City of London has poured out its
wealth in procuring good schools for their craft, they
will find that no one will grudge them the wealth so
nobly applied.
This applies equally to the citizen schools of other
towns, of which it cannot be said that they are too
well and too expensively endowed; nor can it be said
in general, of the class of teachers in our existing
schools, that they are too highly paid, or placed in too
high a rank in social position.
In regard, therefore, to the emoluments of existing
institutions, not one farthing ought to be abstracted
for the special purpose I advocate. If any one thinks
that those funds are ill-administered, or that the work
is paid for and not done, let him make it his duty to see
that the money left, or set aside for that purpose, gives
to those classes the complete education for which it
was destined; but do not rob them to aid others.
skilled men
My aim in the establishment of institutions for 2,000,000
technical education is quite different; beyond, and require to
even remote from interference with our ancient univer- be edu-
sities and schools. Whole classes of men have grown
into existence in modern times, of whose occupation,
cated.
"
216
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
name, or existence, the founders of our great schools
never dreamt. No less than 2,000,000 of men, most
of them heads of families, fill the cities and manu-
factories of England, for whose very calling the men of
the last century had no name. In the present century,
more than that number are an absolute addition to the
population, and it is for this additional new race of
Englishmen that I demand additional schools, colleges,
and universities; and it is out of the wealth they
earn, and pour into the lap of the public treasury,
that I ask for this new and special contribution, in
order to enable us to perpetuate and increase the
earnings of their knowledge and skill, and so add to
the national wealth and well-being. I I put this upon
the lowest ground-the shopkeeper's ground. If I
thought well, I might demand it as a right, that a
small portion of the national earnings of these men
should procure a national education for their children.
I might have asked the nation, as she prides herself on
having among her sons men of incomparable skill and
knowledge, that she should take care to provide that
in the coming race of nations her children should still
fill a first place. But even if patriotism and duty fail,
I would still ask the British shopkeeper to make a
small investment in education and in culture of brains,
as a disposal of his capital which would enormously
enhance the value of his other property.
When I have thus drawn a marked line between
these 2,000,000 of skilled men and the rest of the
people of England, and when I thus propose to provide
their education by entirely new means, I hope our
universities and schools, and all who love and promote
their prosperity, will cease to regard as enemies
the advocates of technical education. On the con-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
217
trary, we wish to bring them pupils. An increase
in the number of educated and skilled men will
increase the number of the lovers of learning of all
kinds; not technical learning merely, but high education
of every sort, will be more and more in demand. It is
of the nature of learning that its scholar craves ever-
more; and no sound educational institution can ask a
better guarantee for its prosperity, than to see all the
ground around it, far and near, sown with a fresh crop
of learning and knowledge. The love of truth is
peculiarly the appetite which grows by feeding. We
are therefore, to the existing institutions of learning,
friends and helpers, not foes nor competitors.
Having once decided that for our 2,000,000 of
skilled workers an entirely new set of institutions of
a purely technical character are necessary, the prac-
tical question arises-what are the relations in which
the new institutions shall be placed to the old, so that
they may each obtain from the other the greatest
amount of co-operation?
schools no
elementary
I. Of elementary or primary schools. There need Technical
be no technical schools of the elementary or primary rivals of
period. They will depend entirely on the existing schools;
schools for the education of their pupils, but their
establishment will, nevertheless, tend to improve the
education, and promote the interest of primary schools,
for the technical schools will require that the pupils
who enter them shall already possess good primary
education, and they will have to prove that they are
competent to begin their technical education before
they are permitted to enter. Moreover, it will soon
become evident to the parents whose children are to
train for technical trades, that even in elementary
schools it would be well that the children should begin
218
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Nor of
secondary
schools.
to acquire the dexterous use of their fingers and eyes
by learning to draw accurately on paper the forms
which they see around them-first freely by hand,
then by rule and measure. It will also become obvious
that the less children do their elementary work by
rote, and the more they do it by method and reason—
even in reading, writing, and counting-the more
valuable will be the preparation for after-life. By this
means, therefore, the establishment of technical schools
will tend to give an increased worth to good teaching
in elementary schools.
II. If we now pass upwards from the primary school,
which gives mere education in the vehicles of know-
ledge, and to which it appropriates the first three years
of the child's school-life, to the secondary school of
the small town or larger village, in which the child
puts language and number to use, and learns, reads,
and records not words and figures merely, but the
things they mean-the technical schools will create a
demand for their instruction also, and will tend to
give additional value to what is there taught: for they
will require from their scholars on entrance, not only
that they should read, write, and count, but that they
should read with purpose; and that they should know,
understand, remember, and digest what they read.
They will have not merely to write letters in lines,
uniformly and clearly, but they will have to write
thoughts, methodically, clearly, and grammatically;
and thirdly, they will have to do, not mere accounts
of addition and multiplication, which cover slates with
figures, and fill up time with dreary drudgery, but they
will have to apply figures to purpose, and to the
measure of things in real human life. Schools, there-
fore, of the second period, which teach these things
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
219
well, will be sought and valued as the second class of
school, without which no technical scholar can enter
upon technical education.
schools sup-
to high
schools.
III. Primary and secondary schools being now free Technical
from all apprehended interference from technical plementary
schools, we come to schools of the third period, which schools and
form our town schools, high schools, upper schools, gamma
middle-class schools. Here, for the first time, the
question does arise-What relation is to exist between.
these and the technical schools? The first answer to
this question is, that there need be no interference,
that any change in these schools is entirely a mat-
ter of consideration for themselves, and that from
the outside no interference should be apprehended.
Such schools, probably, give the ordinary elements of
upper education; they teach Latin, Greek, English, a
little French possibly a little Euclid. Geography,
history, and arithmetic, which have been commenced
in the secondary, may be continued in the upper
schools; and with such a course--especially if meant
for the doctor, lawyer, clergyman, or gentleman of no
profession-the technical school would not interfere.
One thing it would, however, have to do on its own
account; those pupils who were meant for a technical
profession would, in this period, require to learn a
good deal more of higher arithmetic, elementary
algebra, and practical geometry; they might even be
asked to learn a little knowledge of plants and trees-
of beasts, birds, and fishes—of the existence of stars—
even of the laws of reason and common-sense; and
they might be asked to know something of the laws
of dead matter, and of the elementary substances of
which the world is made. By this it need not be
meant or understood that they are to learn anything
4.
220
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
New tech-
nical schools
should be
established
so formidable as what are vulgarly called the 'ologies ;
and such formidable words as geology, physiology,
botany, astrology, and natural philosophy, might all
be sedulously excluded; nevertheless, it might be of
great value to a boy's future, that by the age of fifteen
he should begin to have notions about the sorts of
stuff the world was made of-of the sorts of forces
by which things were moved or fixed in their places—
of the way in which one thing grows out of another-
and of the difference between a plant, a tree, a bird, a
beast, and a fish. All this could probably be taught
as well, and better, by not putting it into big words.
Now, the question which arises here is this-Would
the existing schools like the trouble of teaching all this
in addition to what they already teach, or not? My
own opinion is that they would rather not—even that
for their own interests, and the public welfare, they
had better not. What they understand and do well
they had better continue to teach well to their former
class of pupils, and thus we should agree to leave well
alone.
Without interfering, therefore, with the existing
town and high schools, it would be expedient to
in all towns. establish, in all considerable towns and centres of
skilled workmen, a new set of special schools for this
new special purpose. In these, no Latin or Greek
should be taught, so that there should be no inter-
ference with the old schools-only all the new tech-
nical knowledge wanted should there begin to be
taught; and it would also be of great advantage that
the pupils should learn to do all their reading, writing,
and counting in the modern languages, and in the
weights, measures, and coins of the trading countries
of Europe; for as our technical successors are to work
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
221
and trade with all the world, and are to be in con-
tinual intercourse with, and rivalry to, other educated
nations, he who knows modern tongues, and under-
stands foreign ways, will possess important advantages.
These are evidently not schools of ancient learning,
but of the modern world-the future world of busi-
ness and of trade; and so we shall probably agree
that they had better be quite apart from, and not at
all interfere with, our established schools.
The name given to these schools abroad is an
awkward, not very intelligible one; they are called
schools of real knowledge-Real Schulen-by which
they do not mean to depreciate, or attribute unreality
to the knowledge given in the old schools, but what
they do mean is-that whereas reading, writing, arith-
metic, and classical tongues are only ways or vehicles
to knowledge, the time must come in a man's life
when he should no longer acquire the forms of know-
ledge, but should get at the reality of knowledge; and
that at that time he should begin to study the nature
of the real material world we live in-of the living,
active people who live in it, and of the nature of
things and events in the life into which he is about to
plunge; that is what they mean when they call their
schools Real Schulen.
Such are the new knowledge schools which the
technical professions and trades absolutely require for
the training of their pupils, though they do not yet
give them the name of technical schools. It is a
matter, however, quite open to the choice of existing
schools whether they will choose and desire to open a
new class of knowledge schools in alliance with their
old schools, and whether they have rooms, means, and
fit men in the same building, and as part of the same
222
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
establishment. It is an alternative that they might
choose, and if it were done willingly, heartily, and on
an adequate scale, it might be as good for the public
service as if new and independent institutions were
created for the special purpose. But it is probable
that, in the greater number of cases, there would be
such an aversion to deviate from the old routine-
such desire to subordinate the new-fangled notions to
the old ways—that the attempt would be the realisa-
tion of the fable of new wine in old skins, and might
entail the double expense of first doing the work as
a failure, and then having to do it over again for
success.
IV. It is neither my desire nor intention that the
technical education of that higher class which is
wanted to prepare students for a technic university
shall be accomplished at the expense, or to the injury,
of existing public schools and colleges which train
men for the learned universities and for the learned
professions. These have enough to do if they train
well the classes for whom they are intended; and so
long as their halls are full of diligent students, and
their stalls are occupied by efficient teachers, it would
be folly to interfere with any successful educational
organisation. What we do want is, efficient training
schools of quite another sort-where men shall be
trained for their struggles with brute matter-where
they shall learn the laws by which to govern and
organise the materials and forces of nature, and be
taught to wield them at will; and for this purpose I
think the technical college preparatory to the technical
university would be better kept apart from the learned
school or college, whose quiet it might disturb, and
whose routine it would certainly derange.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
223
.
colleges
all cities.
I would, therefore, recommend that corresponding Technical
to every good public school or good training college wanted in
now in existence, there should be created an equally
large and equally well endowed establishment for the
technical part of the youth of England. Should, how-
ever, the managers of some wealthy ancient foundation
desire to comprehend this new institution within the
limits of their old establishment, I should strongly
advise that an entirely new building be erected for the
purpose, so as to prevent either the fact or the fear of
interference with the old. But this extension of an
old institution should only take place where a cordial
desire to extend the benefits of an old endowment
prompts hearty and sincere effort. In all other cases,
the foundation of a new technical college in such new
site as will best fit the new class of students and
studies is far the best measure; and this for another
reason, that it may be found convenient that the seats
of technical education should lie near those seats of
practical industry where the pupils may see carried
into practice under their eyes all the processes of
which the principles are taught in the college.
universities
indepen-
new insti-
tutions.
V. The last question which arises is-whether our Technical
great national universities should, or should not, at- should be
tempt to convert themselves into technic universities? dent and
I venture to express a strong personal conviction of
the inexpediency of their doing so. Between the learned
repose of Oxford and Cambridge, and the busy spin-
ning mills of Manchester and Leeds, I find no natural
congruity or association. I cannot see why the study
of the steam-engine and the spinning-wheel should be
more fitly initiated in the academic groves of Alma
Mater than amid the forges and steam-hammers of
Lancashire or South Wales; and it seems to me that
224
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
the laws of commerce and merchandise are more
naturally associated with Liverpool, Glasgow, or
London, than with the streams of the Cam or the
Isis.
But there may be quite an opposite view of this
subject reasonably taken. The thoughtful and well-
educated parent may desire to detain his son as long
as possible remote from the clamour of an exchange,
the smoke of manufacturing towns, and the din and
distraction of crowded cities. He might think it ex-
pedient that all the student can gain of fitting know-
ledge or abstract science should be acquired in the
quiet and seclusion of remote university life before he
is compelled to plunge into the turmoil of business and
the whirl of trade. Should such views be entertained
by a large number of parents, and should they find
sympathy and cordial support in the governing bodies
of our two ancient universities, I see no reason why
effect might not be advantageously given to their
views. What, in that case, I should like best to see
done, would be the creation of a new college within
its own extensive grounds, having its own buildings
apart, with its own professors, lecturers, museums,
laboratories, and observatories secluded within its
walls. It seems to me that in this manner no harm
could come to the university, and that all the members
there, destined for technical pursuits, might be drafted
off, and enjoy the privileges of this new technical
division of the ancient university.
It will be seen that what I most fear and deprecate
for these new institutions, is the meddling and
muddling which would most probably result from the
attempt to mix them up with old and established insti-
tutions.
If England were already so overrun with
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
225
good high schools, colleges, and universities, that no
more work remained for them to do, there might be
some reason for their disturbing present arrangements,
and diverting these establishments from occupations
they might have ceased to fulfil; but as the fact is the
contrary, and as the population of this country has
enormously outrun in numbers our ancient provisions
for acquiring science and skill, it appears to me that
it is for this new and enormous number of skilled
workers that new institutions and new kinds of train-
ing are wanted; and I think that the Legislature would
be much more wisely occupied in creating new schools,
colleges, and universities, for the new millions of its
tax-paying people, than in meddling with ancient
endowments, which will be much more likely to reform
themselves, if they have before their eyes the new and
model institutions created for modern uses, which they
would have strong inducement to imitate and emulate.
There is one class of institutions on which it is
necessary to say a few words. There are schools,
colleges, and even universities in England, which are
of the nature of mere mercantile enterprise. What
was called the University of London and is now Uni-
versity College, was a joint-stock trading company, its
trade being teaching. Such institutions have their
capital, dividends and debentures like a railway, canal,
or hotel company; and have therefore those vested
interests to be protected, which we, as a mercantile
nation, so profoundly respect. What part are these
institutions to take in a systematic provision for the
technical education of the people?
In regard to them I would proceed, as nearly as
possible, according to the analogy of the existing
endowed institutions. If they possess an efficient
Q
226
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
building, staff, and apparatus, and desire incorporation
with the national technical system, it would be easy,
wise, and just to incorporate them with it, reckoning
them at their intrinsic value, and awarding to them a
liberal and fair compensation for their accumulated
capital or vested interests. Some of these institutions,
like University College, might be enlarged, and
rendered much more efficient by such transformation
out of a mercantile enterprise into a national institu-
tion. It would therefore appear both wise and expe-
dient, that all free and voluntary institutions might be
left untrammelled and independent where they chose
to retain their isolation; and that powers should be
given to incorporate with the general system only such
as desired it.
CHAPTER XII.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, ITS SUBSTANCE
AND SCOPE.
An educated English nation.-Higher degrees of professional education.—
The professions that require it :-Class I. The old professions, partly
provided for-Class II. New professions, untaught-Class III. Leaders
and teachers.-Twenty-one professions untaught.—Advantages of
teaching many professions in one building.-Table.
I NOW assume that we have determined to become An educa-
ted English
an educated people, and that we have determined to nation.
acquit ourselves of our responsibility by providing
special training for all the professions, occupations, and
trades practised among the English people; that
while we abolish what is vulgarly called "class educa-
tion," we shall provide equally for working men of
every class, head-workers and hand-workers, the means
of enabling them to improve themselves, and to culti-
vate their power of usefulness to others, and to do so
thoroughly, in order that no citizen of England shall
have the right to say to the community that he has
become either useless or burdensome to it, because the
community neglected their duty to him at the moment
when they should have rendered him the services
essential to a life of independent usefulness.
grees of pro-
education.
At the head of this system of training for useful- Highest de-
ness, we must place our technical university. Here fessional
we must give the highest degrees of professional educa-
tion; it must send forth the professional leaders of the
nation; it must produce the future teachers of the
Q 2
228
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The profes-
sions that
require it:
people, and those who teach the teachers must be the
wisest, profoundest, and most experienced of her emi-
nent men. Subordinate to it, emanating from it, and
again leading up to it, must be numerous technical
colleges in our centres of manufacturing industry,
which are to be reproductions of it in miniature ; teach-
ing the same knowledge, developed into fewer branches,
and predominating in those special directions which
local wants indicate; with teachers who bring down
with them from the university above, all the know-
ledge and methods of teaching which superior wisdom
has wrought out, but making a special study of the
local peculiarities and practical wants of the district,
for the purpose of fitting the citizens for the special
duties of their citizenship, and the most forward
students for the higher instruction of the national
university.
In setting about the formidable task of creating this
university, we should reconsider in detail the nature
of the professions to which this higher culture should
extend. The following enumeration of these may
serve our purpose:
The statesman; the soldier and sailor; the theo-
logian; the lawyer; the doctor; the agriculturist; the
miner; the metallurgist; the manufacturer; the civil
engineer; the mechanical engineer; the machinist ;
the architect; the naval architect; the marine engi-
neer; the merchant sailor; the merchant; the ship-
owner; the practical chemist; the surveyor;
the
astronomer; the professor of pure science; the pro-
fessor of literature; the professor of fine art; the
teacher or schoolmaster; the political economist.
Such is the inventory of the men whom our uni-
versity has to send out, as the educated and accom-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
229
plished leaders and teachers of their fellow-countrymen.
They will be a corps d'élite of the youth of the nation,
trained and accomplished in the knowledge and skill
best calculated to render their lives of the greatest
service to their country and usefulness to their kind.
For the purpose of founding this university it will
be useful to separate some of these from the others, as
follows:-
1. The Statesman.
2. The Soldier and Sailor.*
CLASS I.
3. The Theologian.
4. The Lawyer.
1
5. The Doctor.
CLASS II.
6. The Agriculturist.
7. The Miner.
8. The Metallurgist.
9. The Manufacturer.
10. The Civil Engineer.
11. The Mechanical Engineer.
12. The Machinist.
13. The Architect.
CLASS III.
14. The Naval Architect.
15. The Marine Engineer.
16. The Merchant Sailor.
17. The Merchant.
18. The Ship-owner.
19. The Practical Chemist.
20. The Surveyor.
21. The Astronomer.
22. The Professor of Pure Science. | 24. The Professor of Fine Art.
23. The Professor of Literature.
24. The Professor of Fine Artister.
25. The Teacher or School-master.
26. The Political Economist.
CLASS I.
Class I.
fessions,
vided for;
The old pro-
partly pro-
The question we have to raise in regard to Class I.
is simple and soon settled. Our learned universities
were founded chiefly for the education of the divine,
the lawyer, and the doctor of medicine. These we
may call the old professions as distinguished from the
new. As our new university is intended in no way to
interfere with the old, and as the number of divines,
lawyers, and doctors, is sufficiently large to occupy the ↑
* The Army and Navy.
230
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Class II.
New pro-
fessions, un
taught;
whole forces and funds in the due and adequate train-
ing of these learned gentlemen to the all-important
duties which their titles imply, of taking the entire
charge and responsibility of the souls, the bodies, and
the goods of our countrymen on themselves, it will
be admitted that they have ample duties on their •
hands, and that they amply earn the gratitude of the
nation, if they fitly discharge such grave responsibility.
In regard to the statesman or legislator and his
servants the soldier and sailor, it is less easy to deter-
mine whether the universities do amply provide for the
training of these three governing classes. But when
we consider that the statesman is himself, generally,
though not always, an educated man, we may leave it
to him to say what is the education he desires for his
own class and his executive instruments. As far as
the Civil Service is concerned, the Civil Service Com-
missioners have long ago expressed their opinion of the
necessity of some small degree of education for states-
men and public servants of every rank; and after
having thus taken the initiative they may be left to
choose, find, and make their own way in their own
departments.
CLASS II.
It is this second class, the new professions, in which
modern society feels the deepest interest, and which
modern legislature incurs the deepest responsibility for
having altogether neglected.
Agriculture, it may be said, is the oldest of profes-
sions instead of a new one. But I will venture to
remark, that there are agriculturists and agricul-
turists—that is, agriculturists who let their land take
pretty much care of itself, and who know and care to
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
231
know as little as possible how plants grow, how the
earth feeds them, or how and why they thrive or die;
and agriculturists who know to the very bottom all
that is in their soil and all it wants; who know
thoroughly a good seed and a better seed—a good
breed and a better breed-good food for plants and good
food for animals; who know whence fat comes and
whence lean; who know whence full ears of corn and
whence lean ears; what sort of climate is good for
one sort of crop and what climate for another; what
plants draw their food from the top of the soil, and
what from the bottom; what food produces disease,
and what food cures it.
This is the sort of man for whom our university is
proposed to be founded, and agriculturists of that sort
we may reckon as entitled to the rank of a new pro-
fession.
In like manner, the architect may be reckoned one
of the new professions, although he is one of the oldest.
The architect is a member of a new and untrained
profession, because the wants, materials, and machinery
of architecture are all new. Modern buildings, modern_1
cities, modern manufactories, modern stores and ware-
houses, railway stations, locomotive-engine buildings,
and dock warehouses, are all new kinds of structures,
composed of iron, glass, machine-made bricks, and
modern forms and combinations of material, which
have to be combined by skilled parsimony into forms
useful to the modern owner, without being offensive
to the eye-sight of the spectator. Such architecture
requires to be the work of a new-made profession,
trained in all the refinements of science, engineering
skill, and æsthetic principle. Imitation of Greek
temples for modern warehouses, is, we trust, at an end;
J
232
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Class III.
Leaders and
teachers.
and we are sure that the school of Pericles would have
used quite other forms for cast iron and brick, than
those which they built of their admirable stone, and
which our uneducated architects merely copy, carica-
ture and mis-apply. Modern architecture is therefore
a modern profession.
It is unnecessary to say more of the sixteen modern
professions in Class II., except that where the name
does not happen to be modern, the nature of the thing
and the requisite knowledge are eminently modern;
and it is for those sixteen professions mainly, that our
modern technical university is essential.
CLASS III.
We have made this a separate class for convenience
merely, although in its essence it is one with the pre-
ceding class. Class III. consists of the teachers,
trainers and leaders of the men who form Class II.
The man who would teach technical or applied science,
must first know thoroughly the pure science of which
he is to teach the application and use; and so the pro-
fessor of architecture, or any other fine art, must first
know its theories and principles, before he can teach
the application and practical rules. The man who
would give instruction in the principles of exchange,
banking, and merchandise, must first know the political
laws of demand and supply, value and exchange, of
currency and circulating medium; and moreover, if
our technical university is to train young men ade-
quately and effectually for their future life, they must
be fit to teach them, not only all the technical know-
ledge now possessed by their rivals and contemporaries
in other nations, but also be occupied continually in
pointing out to them the probable changes of the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
233
coming time, in which they will encounter circum-
stances entirely different from the past, and have to
meet new difficulties, with instruments entirely
invented for an unprecedented future. Hence it is,
that our university would be defective in the perpetua-
tion of its usefulness, if it did not train the philosopher
of pure science, who is to be continually watching the
future, and aiming at further progress; and if it did
not supply a continual succession of professors, school-
masters, and teachers, always fitted to give the train-
ing to a new generation which will be necessary to fit
that new generation to the new conditions in which it
is launched into life. That among these teachers of
men we have ranked as a profession the men of letters
and the men of the press, will not surprise the states-
man who has considered how important to the ele-
vation or the degradation of a people, is the personal
character, ability and training of these, the school-
masters of grown-up men; and least of all will they
object to include in this enumeration the professors of
those higher, less material, less mercantile, more refined
arts, which teach and train the feelings and aspirations
of humanity, by a language far more elevating, incom-
parably more expressive than the black ink impressions
of geometrical types.
untaught.
There are, then, at least twenty-one distinct profes- Twenty-one
sions for whom our university has to provide know- professions
ledge and training; and the next question which arises
is-what shall this knowledge be, and of what sort
shall be this training? At first sight, the array of
uneducated professions is alarming by their number
and diversity.
How can one teach all these men all that variety
of professional knowledge? If our two great learned
234
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Advantage
of teaching
many pro-
universities are barely enough to teach the three
learned professions, what possible institutions could
we invent to teach all these other twenty-one?
The solution of this problem is far easier than it
seems. The solution is this-these twenty-one profes-
fessions in sions do not demand twenty-one separate establish-
one build-
ing.
ments and courses of instruction entirely different.
The great advantage of one central university over a
multitude of detached professional schools lies in this
very circumstance. For a great many of the modern
professions, much of the teaching must be alike, and
may be gathered simultaneously in the same room
from the same professor at one time by a multitude
of the different professions. All those who have to
do their work in dead matter may study its properties
and learn its laws together. All those professions
which have to deal with living matter may study
vegetable life in the same lecture-room, in the same
museum, in the same garden, in the same field, and in
the same forest.
The nautical astronomer, the geographical astro-
nomer, the trigonometrical surveyor, the physical as-
tronomer, and the professional observer, may all use
the same observatory, and inhale the wisdom of the
same astronomer. And the laws of strength, economy,
durability, and mechanical excellence of various mate-
rial structures, of various substances and forms, may
be studied with equal advantage in the same room by
the civil engineer, the mechanical engineer, the ma-
chinist, architect, and marine engineer.
It becomes, therefore, of primary importance in the
establishment of our university to consider first care-
fully, and in fact to prepare an inventory of all the
knowledges which are either essential to every one of
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
235
these professions, or which form helps and aids towards
their mastery. Then we are to see how those know-
ledges can be grouped together so that they may be
adequately taught to every class of student without
waste of time, money, men, or room; for it is plain
we cannot have an infinite number of professors and
teachers. Next we have to see how the teaching of
these men whom we select shall be grouped together
so as to afford to every class of student, not merely the
comprehensive views of science which form the solid
foundations of knowledge, but also the detailed and
special applications which will constitute its chief use-
fulness to him in his narrowed sphere of individual duty.
These form the subject of the following Chapters.
Classes for whom Systematic Professional Education and
Training is necessary.
I.
Table.
1. The Statesman.
2. Soldiers and Sailors.
5. The Doctor.
3. The Theologian.
4. The Lawyer.
(The first, third, fourth and fifth of these are provided by the Universities,
and the second by the military schools.)
II.
6. The Agriculturist.
7. The Miner.
8. The Metallurgist.
9. The Manufacturer.
10. The Civil Engineer.
11. The Mechanical Engineer.
12. The Machinist.
13. The Architect.
14. The Naval Architect.
15. The Merchant.
16. The Ship-owner.
17. The Merchant Sailor.
18. The Practical Chemist.
19. The Astronomer.
20. The Marine Engineer.
21. The Surveyor.
(Some of these are provided for by Government in the Royal School of
Mines and of Naval Architecture, which might form portions of the future
systematic course of education.)
22. The Professor of Pure Science.
III.
24. The Professor of Fine Arts.
23. The Professor of Literature. 25. The Teacher or School-master.
26. The Political Economist.
(Some of these are imperfectly provided for in schools and universities.)
Technical
education,
must now
become
scientific.
CHAPTER XIII.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, ITS TEACHING
AND TEACHERS.
Technical education, hitherto traditional, must now become scientific.—
Wide field of modern science.-Wide knowledge, sound knowledge.-
Narrow knowledge dangerous.-Nature of human knowledge.-Law
merely the form of power.-Laws of matter-nature.-Laws of human
nature.—The two divisions of knowledge :-Sciences, philosophies.—
Object of the sciences.— Object of the philosophies.—Two divisions in
our university:-Schools of science, schools of philosophy.-Mathema-
tics.-Physics.-Cosmology.-Biology.-Philosophy of mind.-Speech.
-History.-Society.—Selection of studies.-Omission of theology, law
and medicine.—Table of two philosophies.-Professors and professor-
ships :-In mathematics-In physics-In astronomy, geography, geology
-In natural history-In the philosophies—In special applications of
science.-Number and nature of special technical applications of
science.
THE problem of educating the highest members of
hitherto our civilised community in all the branches of know-
traditional, ledge which shall contribute to render them valuable
members of society, and worthy leaders of technical
men, may seem a problem too ambitious and hope-
lessly large. It is also difficult in proportion to its
novelty; for we may almost assert the practical dis-
covery of the secret that "knowledge is power," and
that science is the sole foundation of skill, to have
been made by the present century. The maxim had
been created and repeated long ago, but was scarcely
acted on until now. Tradition, not science, formed
the essence of the knowledge of our skilled trades
and professions; what was taught was merely that
which had been taught to our fathers, who thought
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
237
us sufficiently taught by the simple transmission of
their fathers' knowledge. Heat, light, and electricity
were scarcely recognised as beings and agents; they
were influences mysterious, almost supernatural; their
laws were little known, their nature ill understood.
The laws of heat, light, and electricity, seem creations
of modern science, and yet it would be hard to name
powers more omnipotent in their action, more universal
in their influence, more perfectly under the control of
technical men, than these three mysterious, impalpable
powers. Tribes of skilled men have in these days as
their chief duty to handle and direct heat, to initiate
and direct electrical currents, to manipulate the sun's
rays. For all these things the skill of our fathers is
of no use, and the master of modern sciences our sole
teacher.
of modern
Modern science is now so broad and manifold, that Wide field
it is hard to bring within one institution a sufficiently science.
large group of profound and able men to cover the
whole ground which is necessary for the teaching of
all our modern professions. But our teaching will be
a failure if it is not both broad and deep. The saying
that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" is just
in one application-namely, that he who knows bits
of a science, or bits of sciences, has knowledge of a
very dangerous kind. Scarcely any problem of modern
technical life can be solved by a single science. The
man who manipulates a single substance, cannot mani-
pulate that substance by a single science, or bit of a
science. Whatever be the substance he handles, it
must have form to deal with; and manipulation of
form implies knowledge of geometry. Its manipula-
tion may imply physical force, and the laws of force
and motion are parts of physical science. But his
238
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
ledge, sound
matter is either an elementary or a compound sub-
stance, and if so, will be liable to change of quality,
either in manipulation or use. The usefulness of an
exquisite instrument or machine may be altogether
ruined by some unheeded chemical defect, of which
the manipulator happened to know nothing; and so
the professional mechanic has often been ruined from
Wide know- his ignorance of chemistry. Thus, bits of knowledge
knowledge. are dangerous things; and even to the narrowest
technical accomplishment the largest survey of scien-
tific truth is the safest. The pioneer of social technical
life cannot therefore lay down the plan of his future
exertion on too large a scientific map, nor can he know
his own defined province too thoroughly and deeply.
The new field of science which must be covered by
dangerous. our teachers must therefore be carefully mapped out
before us, in order to settle who, and what sort, are to
be our teachers and teaching. Even at the risk of
being called theoretical, high-flown, and unpractical,
we must take a large view of human knowledge, in
order to pick out what is most wanted for human
needs. To assist us in this selection, I have prepared
the following simple map of teachable human know-
ledge.
Narrow
knowledge
Nature of
human
Knowledge for technical men may be divided into
knowledge. two sorts:
1. Knowledge of matter nature; and
2. Knowledge of human nature.
It may also have another division
1. Knowledge of the works of God and His
nature; and
2. Knowledge of the works of man and his
nature.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
239
merely the
form of
power.
I use this phraseology in preference to the more Law is
common expressions, works and laws of nature, because
to technical men, laws being mere empty forms of
thoughts or of words, can do nothing. To a technical
man who has had to do work of his own, it is impos-
sible to look at the world and its contents without
thinking of the Worker who made the world and its
contents. The technical man who has to mould
matter by his will into the forms which suit his in-
vention, fancy, or use, knows very well that laws
won't do work-that work must have a workman, and
he knows by his own nature that, in such things as he
can understand, the world around him is the work of
a skilled workman, infinitely stronger, more clear-
sighted, more dexterous and inventive than himself,
or the cleverest of his fellow craftsmen. To such a
man I need hardly say that to study the works and
the way of working of the Great Master-workman,
who set agoing the machinery of the heavens, who
arrayed the lily of the field in all its glory, and who
contrived every grain of dust to be exquisitely sym-
metrical in its own crystalline atoms, and who made
all matter of such a chemical nature as to reject all
confused, disorganised, ill-proportioned mixtures, will Laws of
be infinitely the best introduction to the man who ture.
desires to handle the powers of nature on a small
scale with the same dexterity, and according to the
same ways after which God has handled matter on the
large scale of the universe. For all works of man,
God has already made beautiful patterns, and provided
exquisite materials; and for the human workman there
is no such pattern to follow as the Divine workman,
His patterns, and His ways of working. His way of
thinking we call Philosophy, the knowledge of His
matter na-
240
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Laws of
human na-
ture.
patterns of work we call Science, and the knowledge
of His ways of working we may call Technical or
Applied Science.
Man's nature and works form the second division,
and to those technical men whose business lies with
living men and acting society, instead of with dead
matter and forces of nature, human nature is as neces-
sary, as difficult, and as complicated a study, as matter
nature. But as it is the duty of a large portion of our
race to teach others, guide others, and govern others,
and as we all have it in the destiny of our lives either
to be useful and helpful to the society we live in, or to
form hindrances and obstacles in the way of social im-
provement and social progress, so the study of human
nature is quite as practical, technical, and useful as the
study of matter nature.
The teacher who has to show others how to think
with truth, know with exactness, choose with wis-
dom, and act with effect, must have studied the laws
of thought, fathomed the well of truth, surveyed
the range of human choice, and studied the conse-
quences of human action. To him the human mind is
the first matter of study, and the next is that human
speech which man has created as the instrument of his
human thought. How to speak intelligibly, elegantly,
wisely, and persuasively, are four of the highest arts
in human technical accomplishment, and technical
excellence in these arts will go as far to rule the
future as eloquence and literature have done to rule
the past. But the organisation of man in human
society is a still greater work of human art, and
the knowledge of the way in which societies have
grown up into their present state of organisation is an
indispensable preparation to the technical men who,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
241
as historians, philosophers, or legislators, have to
study the amelioration of the condition of the human
race. How families, races, and nations have risen,
thriven, decayed, and fallen; how institutions have
been reared and destroyed; how religions have served
their day and disappeared-are the great lessons of
human life of which no teachers of their fellow-men
dare be ignorant. And lastly, those men whose
technical business it is to guide a State by legislation,
and lead the members of organised society upwards to
increased refinement, knowledge, and well-being, must
add to the knowledge of past organisations of human
society a thorough knowledge of all those principles of
legislation, and all those organisations of administra-
tion, which most immediately conduce to the security,
wisdom, wealth, and strength of nations.
divisions of
These, then, are two entire groups of knowledges The two
which it is impossible to omit from our technical knowledge
university, without leaving it maimed, deformed, and
ineffectual.
No man must be left to act on his own judgment
of that of which he knows only a corner or little bit.
The man who handles matter must know its whole
nature; the man who handles mind must know its
hidden working.
sciences,
philoso-
phies.
of the
It is necessary therefore that we map out this Object
human knowledge in its whole extent before we can sciences.
say how much of that knowledge is suited to form
part of human culture, whether any of it can be
omitted, and what are the selections to which we
may be forced by want of leisure or special inaptitude.
There are first the two philosophies-philosophy of
nature, and philosophy of human nature. Under
philosophy of nature we may consider the things
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242
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Object of
the philoso-
phies.
around us: first, in the aspect they present to us as
mere occupants of outside space, as mere empty forms.
We may go further, and becoming realists, examine
their natures and powers, as embodied forms or sub-
stantial realities. We may next study the matter
which fills space as it has been moulded, sub-divided,
mixed, separated, endowed with symmetry and organi-
sation. We may recognise in universal space fixed
stars, moving stars, celestial globes, planetary or lunar
worlds, our own globe, its lands and seas, its mountains
and valleys, its continents and islands, or we may dive
into its crust and study how it has been made, or how
it grew. Or last, we may philosophise on that intensely
more interesting phase of being than material substance,
or organised matter; we may study that living soul
with which creation is animated-the living, growing
plant; the living, locomotive animal; the creeping
things, the flying things, the swimming things, that
swarm around us;—the philosophy that comes nearest
to ourselves, the philosophy of life.
After having ransacked the world without, we may
next take to the study of the world within. What is
the nature of this human soul? What is this eternal
inner flow of human thought? How is it that we can
know what is passing without us, know what is passing
within us, and so, as it were, be where we are not,
know the past as well as the present, the distant as
well as the near, and even have glimpses of the far
future? Next we may study that part of our nature
which has to do more than think and know, which has
to choose and resolve, and which, choosing, resolving,
and acting, becomes a moving cause and origin, and
creating power in the phenomena of nature, and in the
events of society. Next we may consider the nature
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
243
of those forms without which the thoughts of one
human soul cannot pass into the thoughts of another
human soul, without which human society, culture,
and progress were impossible. The voice of thought;
the manifestation of the mind of man in his handi-
work; the creation of language, spoken, written,
emblematic, pantomimic, creative; the whole range of
the manifestation of human thought, open a wide field
for philosophical research, and of practical human know-
ledge. Next there is the study of the great story of
human life; the beginnings of our race; the early
families of human beings; their different natures, their
varying climates, their structures, cultures, and mental
aptitudes; their developments into nations with know-
ledges, arts, social institutions, religions. All that, the
great story of human society, forms a great volume
of the history of himself, the contents of which no
educated man can afford to ignore. Finally comes the
study of the great ends of human nature and of human
society. What is man, if not a portion of human
society? What is human society, if it do not add
to, promote, elevate, each human individual? Is not
mutual culture, mutual help, as much the duty of
human society as mutual protection? What are the
means by which we can best secure the progress of
the human being in society? How can we best save
him from want, ignorance, disease, vice? How can we
give him intelligence, refinement, well-being, useful-
ness, virtue? These are the great problems of human
life; they form the subject of the philosophy of human
society, the matter of human politics, the life of a
nation.
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244
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The map of human knowledge therefore consists of:
I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE;
II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN NATURE.
Next, the philosophy of nature is divided into the
following philosophies:
FORM;
PHILOSOPHIES OF
SUBSTANCE;
CREATION;
LIFE.
And the philosophy of human nature is divided
into-
MIND;
PHILOSOPHIES OF
SPEECH;
HISTORY;
POLITICS.
Two divi-
sions in our
:
Here we have already some data for the organisation
university of our university. These philosophies are by custom
science, not called philosophies of nature and of human nature,
philosophy. as we have called them; but the philosophy of nature
schools of
schools of
is generally called science, and the science of human
nature is generally called philosophy. Our university
will accordingly take those two divisions; the division
of science, and the division of philosophy.
THE UNIVERSITY.
I.-The Sciences.
1. THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES.
2. THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
3. THE GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES.
4. THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES.
II.—The Philosophies.
1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND.
2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE.
3. THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.
4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIETY.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
245
I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE.
But these eight departments of university teaching
must be broken up and specialised before they can
either be taught effectually to our students, or be by
them effectually employed to fill the wants of human
life. The philosophy of form must be used as a general
groundwork for the construction of the mathematical
sciences, and these sciences group themselves into the
departments of calculus and geometry, according as
their subject is viewed as made up of discrete parts,
or of concrete continuity. And each of these again
subdivides itself according as its elements consist of
measured or unmeasured quantities, and forms that
are stable or changing. Thus the philosophy of form
becomes the foundation of the mathematical sciences,
in their two departments of calculus and geometry,
and their four divisions of quantity, number, place,
and form.
The Calculus.
PHILOSOPHY OF FORM.
MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES.
Calculus of Quantity.
Calculus of Number.
Geometry.
Geometry of Place.
Geometry of Form.
The philosophy of substance becomes the foundation
of the physical sciences, which are two: the science of
physics proper, or natural philosophy, which concerns
itself with the properties and phenomena of matter,
and the laws of matter in general; and the chemical
sciences, which concern themselves with distinguishing
the different kinds of matter, their properties, their
combinations, and the phenomena which result from,
and the laws which govern, their union and separation.
Mathe-
matics.
246
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The one concerned with the properties of matter and
the forces which regulate its phenomena; the other
with the peculiarities of matter, and the specialities of
the phenomena of each: giving rise to the following
divisions:
PHILOSOPHY OF SUBSTANCE.
Physics.
Natural Philosophy.
Properties of Matter.
Phenomena of Force.
PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
Chemistry.
Chemistry of Elements.
Chemistry of Compounds.
We next come to what are often called the natural
sciences, in which we record the phenomena, and
examine the structure and distribution, of the material
creation of which we form a minute part. The survey
of the heavens; the inventory, places, and paths of
the stars; the earth, its form, its matter, its convolu-
tions; the sea, its distribution, its tides and waves,
and currents; the matter of the earth, its convolutions,
its hidden structures, its buried inhabitants;-all this
forms a world-knowledge, or cosmology, to which the
name of natural history, or natural science, is not very
appropriately given; and which the names astrology,
geography, and geology, do not very aptly describe.
Under the philosophy of creation we have therefore
the following departments :-
PHILOSOPHY OF CREATION.
Cosmology.
COSMOLOGICAL SCIENCES.
Geology.
Physical Geography.
Special Geology.
Cosmology Proper.
Astronomy.
Geodesy.
The last stage in our study of the world of matter
is that in which it has been so organised as to form
the structure of living beings. The habitations of
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
247
vegetable life are structures of wonderful complexity,
ingenuity, and exquisite beauty. Their hidden anatomy
displays to us wonderful examples of every kind of
invention, contrivance, and ingenious disposition of
matter, and furnishes examples of the application of
forces to produce motions, and of means and mechanism
to apply those motions to the functions of life and
usefulness. By means of the study of these, we too
may learn how to organise dead matter in conformity
with our thoughts; how to contrive mechanism to
obey our commands; how to set means on the way
to ends, so as to accomplish even our most fantastic
wishes. In the study of the structures and phenomena
of material life, we separate them into two great king-
doms, of growing life, and moving life; of rooted
beings, and locomotive beings; and in examining the
structure of these beings by the knife of the anatomist,
and the eye of the microscopist, we separate with ease
the structure of the rooted plant from the framework
of the moving animal. The vegetable kingdom and
the animal kingdom thus separate the world of life
into two; and it is hard to say whether the lesson
we take from the organisation of growth in vege-
tables, or the movements in animals, is the more
valuable.
The anatomy of plants, and the anatomy of vegetables,
is but the beginning of their study. We have next to
see how this hidden mechanism which we have revealed
does its work of developing, sustaining, and maturing
the living thing. How seeds grow into plants; how
the stem of the plant throws roots downward into the
earth, and out of that great chemical laboratory selects,
extracts, and draws up into itself the matter of organi-
sation and nutriment. How the same stem at its upper
248
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
end throws up branches larger and wider into the
region of the air, there to form another chemical labo-
ratory, where also it exchanges all the matters it does
not want for those elements in the air which nourish
its life; how each bud of each plant contains first a
new plant, the exact copy of its parent stem; and
how in the extremity of each stem is cradled a new
and young plant, at its birth encircled by the fanciful
decorations of wreaths of flowers; and how the cradle
of the young plant is so formed as to float its youthful
charge in the air, or bear it harmless along the surface
of the water, or coated with an armour which shall
secure the germ of future life against the blows and
shocks of storms. All this forms an insight into the
laws and workings of creation, quite as instructive,
quite as grand, even more removed beyond the sphere
of human mastery than the movements of the planets
themselves. This forms the physiology of vegetable
life, and leads us to study what food plants should
eat; what liquids they should drink; how they should
be tended, protected, propagated, improved. These lead
us up to the physiology of animal life. How the infant
grows, strengthens, matures; how its health should be
tended, developed; how its weakness
disease averted, misfortune set right.
of animal life sleep, food, digestion, sight, hearing,
taste, smell,—all those mysteries which make up the
human animal, and go to make the body a fit engine
for the rational mind, and habitation for the divine
soul, all that is the subject of the physiology of
animal life.
should be cured,
The whole story
The human body, then, is the crowning knowledge
of the whole science of the world of matter.
A step
further, and we trench on the philosophy of mind.
•
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
249
Anatomy.
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES.
Vegetable Structure.
Animal Structure.
1
Biology.
Physiology.
Vegetable Life.
Animal Life.
II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN NATURE.
Following close on the study of matter, of organisa-
tion, and of life, come the studies of mankind, of human
thought, of human choice, of human action.
To train the human mind to think rightly and know
truly; to train the human will to choose wisely and
act well, are practical problems of the highest value to
the individual and to humanity. But to train the
mind to right thinking, one must know the laws of
thought; and to train the mind to true knowing, one
must know the nature of true knowing and of false know-
ing the ways of finding truth and of falling into
error. To regulate human action and influence human
choice, one must thoroughly know the ends and means
among which one has to choose; the powers and
instruments through which one has to act. Thus all
human life and all human culture in thought, know-
ledge, choice, and action, has to form the matter of a
careful study, certainly not inferior in importance to the
study of the matter world. Hence a new department
of our university study, the study of the mind world.
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES.
Metaphysics.
Thought.
Knowledge.
Philosophy
of mind.
Ethics.
Choice.
Action.
250
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Speech;
Hidden thought or hidden knowledge, stored up in one
human mind, might go to the grave, lie buried there,
and fail to benefit humanity. To word our thought,
to communicate our feeling, to tell our meaning, to
express our wish, to show our plan and purpose, to link
other human beings to ourselves in thinking, knowing,
choosing, and acting that makes all mankind one.
Thinking is divine; it requires speech to make it
human. Knowing is good; it requires communication
of knowledge to make it useful. Choice requires a
reason; action a motive. Speech alone can communi-
cate our reason, and earn the approbation of our race.
Speech must tell the purpose of our action, explain
our way of acting, and earn the co-operation as well
as the sympathy of our fellows. The art of converting
hidden thought, of transplanting the thoughts of our
bosom into the hearts of others, of transferring the
knowledge of the past into the present, the knowledge
of the present into the far future, the knowledge of the
near into the distant; all that vast apparatus which
human nature has struggled for and human ingenuity
contrived to link one man to another, and distant time
and one place to another—that great apparatus of human
speech is the subject of another philosophy. But we should
be wrong if we confined our notions of human speech
to mere vocal articulation, to the characters of common
writing, or the typography of modern books. Speech
is but one action; writing but another action of human
life; and all those human actions which express the
meaning of the thinker, the intention of an action, or
the purpose of a work, are equally material incarna-
tions of thought, and belong to the large science of
expression. Literature is but one of the fine arts. The
human countenance, the human eye and hand and form,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
251
the human attitude and motion-all the graceful panto-
mimic art, is another language of thought and feel-
ing. There is a grace of attitude and a poetry of
motion, more expressive of internal beauty, and hidden
thought and feeling, than types or articulate sounds.
Then there is the poetry of sound, the language of
music; a language in all tongues common to the
human race; a language that moves even the rude
mind of the unlettered barbarian, subdues the ferocious
beast, and stirs the very stones. How colour becomes
the language of thought and a vehicle for the expres-
sion or perpetuation of beauty; how the pale marble
can image forth the qualities of a divine soul; how
perpetual bronze can lend the forms of melted metal
to give immortality to beauty; how stone and
marble columns and arches, embodying the exquisite
harmonies of music, can sing through untold centuries,
hymns of Divine praise; how all man's acts form monu-
ments of his thoughts, and records of all his ways;
how all matter can manifest all mind, human or
Divine-it is the business of the philosopher of human
expression to make plain; and the duty of the teacher
of science in literature and science in fine art, of science
in reasoning and science in persuasion, to lay down the
ways, and make plain the plans and means. How
thought developes into language, language into act,
act into feeling, feeling into poetry, and reason into
rhetoric; to know all that, is to know what the poets
of Greece-her architects and sculptors, her philo-
sophers and orators have handed down to us of that
classic era of human refinement. We have therefore,
in this branch of philosophy, pregnant themes of
thought, feeling, and action.
252
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
PHILOSOPHY OF SPEECH.
SCIENCES OF LITERATURE AND ART.
Expression.
Language.
Esthetics.
Method.
Logic.
Rhetoric.
The study of humanity has two methods: the study
of mankind as one, and the study of mankind as many.
As man is now presented to us in the world, he can
scarcely be considered as one. The Negro, the Hindoo,
the Greek, the Jew, the Saxon, the Celt, and the Anglo-
Saxon, can never be called, or studied, or judged as one.
Much that would be true of any one race or family
of mankind would be false of another. The ways of
the Chinese race, the most numerous family of men,
are utterly apart from those of all other kinds of men.
Their thinking is different, their morality is different,
their language different, their art different. If, then,
one would improve a nation or develop a race, one
must first study the nature of that race, and the history
of other races. One must know the defects of the race
and its strong points, and the legislator, patriot, parent,
or pedagogue, must with painstaking study strive to
make good the wants of the race, physical, intellectual,
and moral, by training, food, condition, education,
knowledge, and discipline. Races improve, develop,
degenerate, die out. They remain pure; they are mixed
and crossed; they are cultivated, or are neglected ;
governed well, ill governed, or governed not at all.
Thus the greatness of a nation may be achieved if
for one or two generations it possess and follow great
and good men. It may decay and degenerate when
virtue and wisdom cease to rule. Where wise men rule,
institutions are founded, established, and perpetuated,
.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
253
which form the people to industry, frugality, refine-
ment, patriotism, intelligence, self-denial, order, virtue,
and religion. When evil rule, selfish rule, or no rule
predominate, people decay, virtue fades, luxury reigns,
feebleness follows, religion subsides into form, empires
are extinguished, and nations fall into chaos.
The story of the human race then, its original
families, its noble nations, its patriotic institutions,
and its religions, true and false, the story of the
human race is the most interesting of philosophies.
Wisely told, history gives to each man the lesson of
human life. Man as an individual, feeble and un-
developed; man in a cultured nation, wise, great,
and good. Here then we have a field of knowledge
covering all human time, spreading over the surface
of the earth and sea, and comprehending all interests
——past, present, and future, family, race, and nation—
to man most dear.
PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN STORY.
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY.
Ethnology.
Race.
Nation.
Politics.
Institutions.
Religions.
Founded on the story of the past, each man, each
nation, each legislator, each ruler, has to think out
with wisdom and foresight, his own life, his children's
destiny, the progress of his own community, the wel-
fare of his own nation, its progress and its liberty. To
have lived a life of virtue and wisdom, each man must
have lived a life of usefulness to others, as well as of
personal improvement to himself.
How each man can help not himself merely, but be
useful to his neighbours, helpful to his community,
valuable as a citizen, and how the benefits of his own
time and place may be secured to his fellow country-
History.
254
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
men in coming times and spreading place; that it is
the business of each patriot to think out, of each legis-
lator to contrive the way, and of each government,
administration, or governor, to carry into effect.
The organisation of human society is the foundation
of the destiny of all the human beings forming that
society, now, and in time to come. All government
must be a government either of the wise, the ignorant,
or the foolish; the able or the incompetent; the honest
or the corrupt. A nation of men that knows not how
to choose the wise, the fit, the experienced, the patriotic,
the
pure, from among her citizens, to place them in the
front as her patterns and leaders, and to support the
heads of the people in the development of the higher
and nobler destinies of the nation-such a nation must
be content to be treated as it deserves, to be told only
that which is agreeable, to be led to do only that which
is pleasant, to have its best interests bought and sold
as itself buys and sells its own votes, and to have all
the great interests of the coming generation and the
coming time subjected to the narrowness, the meanness,
the party, and the selfishness of political degeneration.
The organisation of society therefore, not merely for
present security, but for the culture of the coming
generation; not merely for the enjoyment of present
wealth, but the maintenance of future strength; is a
subject for the study of the highest minds, for the
ambition of the highest aims.
PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIETY.
SCIENCE OF POLITICS.
Society.
Legislation.
Security.
Culture.
Administration.
Wealth.
Strength.
In thus coming to the conclusion of the list of
philosophies which are to be taught in our university,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
255
it will be readily admitted that some of these know-
ledges, if not all, are necessary to every well-educated
man of the world. The first philosophy, the philosophy
of the material world, is necessary to every man whose
life is to be a struggle with matter, whose duty it is
to be to transform, shape, and resist or direct its forces.
The second philosophy, the philosophy of human
nature, is still more essential to what is called a man
of the world; for if it be hard to understand, control,
direct, and use dead matter, it is much harder to train,
cultivate, mature, ennoble, and guide the matter of
society. Nevertheless, of all things in the matter
world, formal, physical, or living, none are so impor-
tant, so interesting, so material to human life, as the
study of mankind, past, actual, possible, and future.
studies.
Which of all these philosophies is to be individually Selection of
taught to each individual student, as the most impor-
tant matter for him, is a subject for future conside-
ration; suffice to say here, that there are few of those
matters of which any wise man can afford to be utterly
ignorant; and every wise man will readily admit that
to be profoundly master of any, he must be content to
master but very few. The wisdom then to be shown
in the education of a man according to this programme,
will consist in the judicious selection from among the
many things of which he should know something, and
the few of which he should know everything. This
too we will examine further on.
theology,
medicine.
But it is necessary to notice the grave omissions of Omission of
a multitude of important knowledges which are not law, and
included in our philosophy. An enemy to our philo-
sophy will notice that we have omitted the knowledge
of God, and that ours is therefore a Godless university.
He will further notice that all the mysteries of the
medical profession, and the important subject of human
256
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATİON.
Table of
two philo-
sophies.
health, find no place in our school, and therefore he
will be able to call us a university of misanthropists.
Thirdly, he will say that we are anarchists, for the
whole philosophy of that industrious body, the members
of whose active profession fill every corner of English
society, find no training in our university, and that,
therefore, lawyers are excluded from its privileges. To
all this there is a simple answer. We have not the
slightest objection to educate lawyers in the laws of
honesty and truth; to teach medical men the laws
of human health; and to teach theologians the nature
and laws of God. But we abstain from presuming to
do so, because these are the ancient professions for
which our ancient universities have been provided.
We desire not to trespass upon the slightest portion of
their ancient ground. It has long been their privilege
to create doctors in divinity, in medicine, and in law.
We mean to undertake none of these, not because we
undervalue them, but because we so highly value them,
and because we think that two great universities will
have their rich endowments well bestowed if they send
out into England and her colonies successive gene-
rations of profound theologians, intimately acquainted
with the nature and ways of God; lawyers filled with
the spirit of honesty, desiring only the peace, agree-
ment, and well-being of their neighbours; and doctors
of medicine, who will achieve that highest of all medical
triumphs of so training the rising generations to the
knowledge and practice of the laws of human health,
as that the business of doctor of medicine shall become
a well-paid sinecure. The training of these three learned
professions in such knowledge is a noble duty, a field
for noble triumphs, but not ours. Our philosophy
therefore consists merely of the subjects contained in
the following Table.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
257
KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE.
THE PHILOSOPHIES.
1. The Philosophy of Mind.
2. The Philosophy of Literature.
3. The Philosophy of History.
4. The Philosophy of Society.
HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.
KNOWLEDGE OF MATERIAL NATURE.
THE SCIENCES.
1. The Mathematical Sciences.
2. The Physical Sciences.
3. The Geographical Sciences.
4. The Biological Sciences.
SPECIAL KNOWLEDGES.
Philosophy of
Sciences.
Departments.
Calculus
Form
Mathematics.
Divisions.
S Quantity.
Number.
Form.
Philosophy of
Sciences.
Departments.
Divisions.
Metaphysics.
Thought.
Knowledge.
Mind.
Psychology
Choice.
Geometry
Ethics
Place.
Action.
Matter.
Mechanics
Force.
Literature and
Expression
Taste.
Substance
Physics
Elements.
Speech
Art
Chemics
Method
Compounds.
Language.
Logic.
Rhetoric.
The Heavens.
Geodesy
Races.
The Sea.
Ethnology
Nations.
Creation
Cosmology
The Earth.
Story.
Histories.
Geology
Under
the
Politics
·
Religions.
Institutions.
Earth.
S
Vegetable
structure.
Animal struc-
Legislation.Security.
ture.
Society
Politics
Administra-
Culture.
Wealth.
Vegetable life.
tion
Strength.
Anatomy
Life
Biology
Physiology
•
Animal life.
258
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Į
TEACHERS.
Professors
and profes-
Our next business is with the
teachers of our philo-
Where shall we seek
sorships: sophy. Whom shall we have?
them? What duties shall we give to each ?
In mathe-
matics;
1. In the department of the philosophy of form it
is quite plain that we must have one professor of the
mathematical sciences; and if our university were an
elementary school, a single professorship of mathematics
might be deemed enough for all that could be taught
or learned; but every student of higher mathematics
knows that there are two great organs of mathematical
investigation-geometrical analysis, and algebraical
analysis, and that their nature, laws, and methods,
are essentially distinct. The calculus ignores as much
as possible the specialities of the quantities with which
it deals, and regards as nearly as possible their abstract
relations.
Geometrical calculus, on the other hand, finds all its
elements in a very few species of quantity, compre-
hending at the most but three dimensions, and extend-
ing merely its own laws by analogy into the phe-
nomena of other quantity. Subordinate then to our
professorship of mathematics are at least two pro-
fessors or teachers, the one of geometry, the other of
calculus.
But even this subdivision of mathematics by two
is not enough for our high university. Discrete quan-
tities are of a familiar sort that mix themselves up
with all the measurable questions of matter and
common life, and therefore the philosophy of number
covers one large kingdom of thought, embracing all
the phenomena of matter, and all the relations of
human life which we are able to render exact by
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
259
establishing precise measures of space, time, bulk,
direction, weight, force, or commercial value.
A professor, then, of the philosophy of number must
find a chair in our university; and beside him we must
seat another-the professor who treats quantities not
as the vulgar units of common arithmetic, but who
represents all quantities, all their relations in all pos-
sible permutations, combinations, and fluctuations, by
means of abstract quantities, signs, and symbols; who
undertakes to forethink and predict all the possible and
impossible combinations of all conceivable quantities
in all conceivable relations. That is quite enough for
any human being, and entitles its master to fill a
separate chair.
The geometrical professor also, though limiting the
objects of his study to conceivable form and place,
and their actual and conceivable changes, has a simpler
task. The discrimination, the naming, the definition,
the construction and the representation of all the possible
forms of things under heaven, in the earth, and in
human thought, is surely a large enough occupation
for a single human mind, especially if, in addition to
grasping all this himself, he has to find the means of
making all these thoughts enter clearly into the minds
of others, and in that alone is duty enough for a single
chair. But when we go further, and follow the
geometer into all the laws of transformation of shape,
size, and place, and pass with him through all the
fluctuations which every conceivable relation of space,
place, direction, distance, and size can.give to growing,
dwining, or transforming shapes, then we have a field
open to us of higher or transcendental geometry, suffi-
ciently arduous, and entirely boundless, so that its
value, usefulness, and grasp are entirely measured by
s 2
260
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In physics;
the greatness of the mind of the professor whom we
call upon to assume the chair of the higher geometry.
Search we then the wide world round, here are four
chairs capable of occupying the minds of a Newton,
a Descartes, a Leibnitz, and a Gauss, if we can find
them.
Four professorships are, therefore, the smallest num-
ber we can found in our university for the mathemati-
cal sciences. Two in the divisions of the calculus,
and two in the divisions of geometry. If we are
more liberal, we should found also two superior pro-
fessorships-one of the calculus, and one of geometry,
not limiting either to one of its divisions, but grasping
the mutual relations of both. And if we were still
more wise and foreseeing, we should place one other
highest philosopher at the head of this whole philo-
sophy to develop the laws and expound the principles
which group together all the elements of mathematical
knowledge into one high philosophy-a philosophy of
exact thinking, and of boundless discovery; to teach
men, if possible, the thoughts of God, the great
geometer.
2. In the department of the philosophy of physics,
or the philosophy of the substance, stuff, or matter
which fills the visible forms with which we are
surrounded, and gives to them force, power, quality,
and energetic being, is probably the most immediately
important and fundamental of earthly knowledge.
The properties of the dead or living matter, of the
still or moving matter with which man has to deal, and
of which the world, ourselves, and all things in it are
made, that may be thought the true matter knowledge,
and indeed it is perhaps in a higher degree modern
science than any other human knowledge. Quantity,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
261
number, form, and place were known to the ancients;
the heavens, the earth, and the sea were studied by
them, and some of the natures of vegetable and
animal structures, and some of the laws of vege-
table and animal life, were familiar to them. But the
laws of the familiar phenomena of matter and force
were unknown to them, so that they could neither
handle a tool, fire a shot, nor create a machine with a
true knowledge of what that tool would do, where the
fired shot would arrive, or what the created engine
would achieve.
What we, therefore, call the physics of common life,
and its philosophy the common laws of matter, werc
comparatively little known to the ancients; and the
philosophy of substance, of force, of matter power,
and matter nature, is of the essence of modern mate-
rial philosophy. A high professorship of the philo-
sophy of matter force and substance may well be
founded in our university, and a chair of general
physics will find ample occupation for pupils and
teachers.
But modern matter discovery has overleapt the
bounds of those sciences which treat all matter sub-
stance and force as one. That all matter obeys one
law, and that all physical force is of one nature, is an
old doctrine, and the alchemist who sought to trans-
form earth or iron into gold only expressed his con-
viction of the physical unity of matter. Modern
chemistry has dissolved ancient physics and alchemy,
and may be said, by its analysis, to have created a
new world-a new world of matter and a new world
of thought; and so modern matter philosophy consists
of two quite distinct and equal regions of subjects and of
thought-the physical phenomena of matter, and the
262
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
chemical phenomena of matter. For our university,
therefore, are necessary, a school of physics, and a
school of chemics; one professor or more of physical
science; one professor or more of chemical science.
But even that physics which is concerned with matter
in general must be broken down into branches of
study. First must be examined and taught the pro-
perties which belong to all matter, and the phenomena
which matter and its laws exhibit to us; and in order
that we may govern matter, we must ourselves master
the nature of all those forces which it can exert or will
obey; and so the laws of force found for us a chair of
dynamics, and the phenomena of matter provide for
us the object of another chair, to master and teach all
the phenomena which matter exhibits to us, and to
follow certain laws through all the transformations
of matter, as the same substance becomes, first a solid,
next a liquid, or is finally dissolved into an air impal-
pable but real. The laws of force are, then, the subject
of one chair, and the phenomena of matter the subject
of another, both comprehensive divisions of the physical
departments of the philosophy of substance.
After the phenomena and forces growing out of
matter or governing it, we must consider the properties
and forces which belong to or grow out of one kind of
matter, and with which some other kind of matter has
nothing to do. It is the modern chemist who has dis-
covered that there are kinds of matter which have
nothing in common with properties which essentially
distinguish one kind of matter, and render it impossible
to apply one to the purpose of the other. A hammer,
as a mechanical tool, would be equally good for most
uses, whether made of brass, iron, steel, copper, or any
other sort of matter; but a chemical tool made of any
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
263
one of these substances might be totally unfit for any
other purpose to which it might be applied.
It is these differences in the natures of kinds of
matter, which form the special subject of that chemical
science which show us that in our earth alone are forty
or fifty kinds of matter essentially different, and that
out of these forty or fifty are made hundreds of other
kinds of matter, simply by combining these elements
with each other in certain definite proportions.
From this short statement it will easily be seen that
chemistry is one of those sciences to the teaching of
which it is not easy to set definite bounds. To say
that one teacher or ten teachers of chemistry would be
sufficient for our university is extremely difficult; it is
certain that ten teachers of chemistry would find ample
work in teaching and guiding 100 energetic students,
determined to master in three years the chemistry of
our material world. But the least number we could
assign would be professorships for the two great divi-
sions of chemical analysis and chemical synthesis; or
we might assign two-one to organic, and one to
inorganic chemistry. For the present we will content
ourselves with three-one for inorganic chemistry, one
for quantitative analysis, and one for organic che-
mistry, leaving them to add as many assistants as
the convenient subdivisions of their subject require.
The science of general physics is therefore a subject for
one chair, in which possibly might be also introduced
chemical physics, containing principles and matters
common to both. Next, two professorships; one of
the department of mechanics, or natural philosophy,
as it is sometimes called, and another for general
or inorganic chemistry. And next for the divisions
of properties of matter and laws of force, professors
264
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In astrono-
my, geogra-
phy, geo-
logy;
of special physics and dynamics, and in chemistry
professors of analytical chemistry and organic che-
mistry; in all, seven chairs.
3. The science of cosmology has so wide a scope,
that it is hard to limit the number of its professors.
World-knowledge implies, first, knowledge of worlds
in general; second, knowledge of our own world in
particular. How worlds in general grew or were made;
how stars group into systems; how suns carry their
planets through space; how our own world grew out
of a burning mass into a crusted earth, and what sort
of revolutions brought it into fitness for vegetable,
animal, and human life, there is a story demanding
almost superhuman power, knowledge, and skill, to
conceive and to make plain to us. It would require
the author of a "Cosmos" to teach us how cosmical sys-
tems were made, and the philosophy of the creation of
stars and of worlds is enough to occupy that one mind.
But in coming down from the heights of science to the
common work of life, the subject divides itself very
regularly into the duties of the man who studies all
the stars, and the duties of him who only studies the
conformation of our own particular world; and a chair
of astronomy, and a chair of geodesy, are two divisions
which the nature of the subject clearly dictates.
The astronomer who studies the heavens, and the
geodesist who studies the world in its larger relations
as one of the planets, have both a geometry of the
highest order to wield; and in addition to the geometry
of the heavens, they have the physical astronomy of
the heavens, and the whole field of celestial mechanics
or star machinery to master and teach. To the geo-
grapher and the geologist, the more limited task is
assigned of studying the world in its divisions of earth
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION
265
and sea, and of bringing to light the hidden treasures
of both. The one has to discover to us all lands,
peoples, and countries; to show the way across all
seas, to fathom all depths of the ocean, to predict
winds, tides, and seasons; and that is enough for one
professor. To another may be safely left the discovery
of all the treasures accumulated under the earth, with
infinite foresight, for the use of all-consuming mankind;
and to show in what folds and layers and pits each
kind of matter has been deposited and stored and kept
ready for our use, so that we may know how to seek
and where to find it whenever we want it, that is
quite enough for one professor of geology.
We have, therefore, in this division a professorship
of cosmology, a professorship of astronomy and geodesy;
and then we have four professorships of divisions—
first, of mathematical and physical astronomy; second,
of geodesy or mathematical and physical geography ;
third, of geography proper, or the surface of the earth
in its continents, islands, rivers, and seas; and fourth,
the constitution of the earth within, as a great store-
house of classified material. We have thus here seven
professorships with ample scope and work.
history;
4. The philosophy of life is a subject of still larger In natural
range. The laws which determine life and the mode
of development of living beings, and their relations
to each other and to surrounding creation, is a subject
sufficiently deep and large to form the duty of a single
chair for the profoundest of our thinkers. The study
of structure merely as an organisation of matter for
the purposes of life is a subject so complicated, that
the structure of vegetable and of animal life each re-
quire the devotion of a separate lifetime, and must form
the duty of a separate professor; and in like manner,
266
SYSTEMATIC 1ECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In the phi-
losophies;
the forces which stir vegetable life, and the laws which
govern its phenomena, are ample work for one or more
professors, leaving to others as a separate division the
study of the higher life of animals. We have thus a
professor of the anatomy of vegetables, and another of
the physiology of vegetable life; and we have a pro-
fessor of the anatomy, and another of the physiology
of animal life. We may, therefore, have in this de-
partment the following chairs :-a chair of biology,
one of comparative anatomy, and one of comparative
physiology; a chair of vegetable anatomy, another of
animal anatomy, a third of vegetable physiology, and
a fourth of animal physiology.
We have now, therefore, in the division of the
philosophy of matter nature, the following chairs :-
I. In the School of Mathematics :-Seven professorships.
II. In the School of Physics :-Seven professorships.
III. In the School of Cosmology :-Seven professorships.
IV. In the School of Biology :-Seven professorships.
In the school of humanity, or the philosophy of
human nature, there is ample scope for an equal
number of professorships; but whether the state of
education and of opinion in England would warrant
or sustain the appointment of so large a number of
professors in philosophies so immaterial and unmer-
cantile as some of these, may be matter of serious
doubt. It is not improbable that in some of the
schools of humanity a much smaller number would
represent the importance assigned to these studies in
England. The following serves as a suggestion of the
smaller numbers by which this department might be
initiated, leaving, it is hoped, the future prospect, with
extending knowledge and refinement, of an increased
number of teachers, giving equal importance to educa-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
267
tion in the laws of mind and education in the laws
of matter.
The following may be regarded as a provisional
arrangement:-
V. In the School of Psychology: -Two professorships.
VI. In the School of Literature and Art :-Seven professorships.
VII. In the School of History :-Two professorships.
VIII. In the School of Politics:-Two professorships.
Thus, in the whole university we should have forty-
one philosophical and scientific professorships provi-
sionally, and ultimately fifty-six.
III. SPECIAL TECHNICAL PROFESSORSHIPS.
applica-
tions of
science.
It is an axiom of education that knowledge or In special
science is the first condition of power in art; but it
is equally axiomatic that skill to apply that art will
not come of itself, and requires a course of initiation—
which course of initiation is called technical education.
How much of this technical education shall be given
in the workshop, and how much in the school, will
always be a matter for serious judgment, and will
depend on the nature of each subject, and the circum-
stances and capacities of each pupil. But it will still
remain unquestionable that one part of the initiation of
a man into the duties of his life will be better performed
in the school, and another in the workshop, or actual
business of life.
In addition, therefore, to these professorships of the
science necessary to deal with the material world,
there must be professorships of the best ways of
dealing with matter, under the particular conditions of
the destiny in life of each pupil; and it becomes a
question for serious consideration, what are the profes-
268
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Number
and nature
of special
technical
applica-
tions of
science.
sorships of application, or purely technical chairs, which
shall be provided in our university? Looking at this
subject à priori merely, one might solve the question
by saying that to every professorship there might be
attached a subdivision of application, to be taught
either by the same professor who teaches the theory,
or by a colleague appointed for the purpose. Such an
arrangement would be inadequate, for this reason that
the number and importance of the applications of a
subject to the business of life vary extremely, so that
some of these professors would be overwhelmed while
others were idle.
:
The number and nature of special technical chairs
must, however, be carefully studied, both in relation
to the professions of the students, and to the methods
in which the non-technical professors conduct their
teaching. In our technical university, the whole of
the teaching of the pure science will naturally be
conducted with a technical aim, and to that extent,
therefore, all the chairs will be technical chairs; but
supplementary to these, and having as their aim-not
the principles of knowledge, but the practical methods
of application, will be what I call strictly professional
chairs.
I. The School of Mechanics :-Five professorships.
II. The School of Civil Construction :-Seven professorships.
III. The School of Naval Architecture :-Five professorships.
IV. The School of Mines :-Five professorships.
V. The School of Commerce :-Five professorships.
VI. The School of Agriculture :-Five professorships.
VII. The School of Astronomy, Navigation, and Surveying - Five
professorships.
VIII. The School of Literature and Languages :-Five (?) professorships.
IX. The School of Fine Arts :-Five professorships.
X. The School of Political Economy :-Five (?) professorships.
XI. The School of Metaphysics and Ethics :-Five (?) professorships.
XII. The School of Pedagogy :-Three professorships.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
269
In regard to Nos. VIII., X., and XI., it is to be
remarked that these professorships might possibly be
all identified with corresponding professorships of pure
philosophy or science-a point which would be deter-
mined mainly by personal qualification in the professor,
and by practical convenience in the courses. There
remain, however, of purely technical professorships,
forty-five; so that, in all, our university will require a
teaching staff of 101 professors.
CHAPTER XIV.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-ITS STUDENTS,
THEIR PROFESSIONS IN LIFE, AND CURRICULUM
OF STUDY.
Education of twenty-two modern professions.
WHEN we have provided in our university fifty-six
courses of study, covering the wide fields of education
in matter and mind, it is quite obvious that we have
merely embarrassed the youthful student by the number
and variety of the subjects from which he has to select;
and if we leave him free liberty of choice, it is evident
that he will run the risk of much waste of energy and
time. In order that our university may be of the
greatest practical service to our student, we must aid
him in his choice by presenting him with that selection
of subjects which will most directly lead up to his aim
in life, and most easily conduct him through the diffi-
culties of learning to technical knowledge and technical
skill. As we have in the former Chapter classed our
professors according to the nature of the science they
have to teach, so now we must class our students
and their studies according to the nature of the aims
in life which they have in view. This will group both
teachers and taught into entirely new subdivisions.
It has already been agreed that we shall provide
technical education for twenty-one or twenty-two
professions, embracing all the modern professions, and
excluding the three ancient ones,-theology, law, and
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
271
medicine. And our first question is, whether for all
these we must provide twenty-two separate and inde-
pendent courses of study.
If these professional men were all to be educated in
different schools—in buildings apart from one another,
-we might have to provide twenty-two courses of
education; but as they are all meant to be taught in a
single building, we shall be able to simplify the matter
by means of systematic combination. Resuming here
the list of professions for whom we are to provide edu-
cation, we should have to form the following groups
of studies, corresponding to the technical occupations
of the students:-
THE SCHOOL OF MECHANICS.
Pure Science.
Higher Geometry.
Algebra.
Practical Applications.
Descriptive Geometry.
Arithmetic.
""
Statics.
""
""
Dynamics.
Energetics.
Constructive Geometry.
Geometric Movements.
Sources of Materials.
Properties of Materials.
Strength of Materials.
""
Chemistry.
Elements of Mechanics.
وو
Metallurgy.
Structural Mechanics.
Machinery and Tools.
Engines and Prime Movers.
Economics of Work.
Endurance of Machinery.
Machine Shops and Buildings.
Mechanical Manufactures.
Political Economy.
Workshop Economy.
Principles of Design.
Work.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Collection of Machines.
In the Collection of Machine Materials.
In the Collection of Raw Materials of Manufactures.
In the Collection of Engines, &c.
In Mechanical Experiment.
In the Factory.
Round the Tour of Home Manufactories.
In Foreign Travel.
272
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
THE SCHOOL OF CIVIL CONSTRUCTION.
THE ARCHITECTURAL.
Pure Science.
Highest Geometry.
Practical Applications.
Descriptive Geometry.
Laws of Number and Propor- Geometry of Vision.
tion.
Statics.
Psychology.
Esthetics.
Physics.
Chemistry.
Animal Physiology.
Botanic Organography.
Geology.
Art History.
Constructive Geometry.
Graphic Geometry and Surveying.
History of Building Materials.
Strengths of Materials.
Chemistry of Building Materials.
Geology of Stones and Cements.
Mineralogy.
Stability of Foundations.
Stability of Structures.
Theory of Arches and Roofs.
Forms of Beauty.
Forms of Strength.
Proportions of Mass.
Linear Decoration.
Surface Decoration.
Solid Decoration.
Building Processes, Tools and Machinery.
Building Economy.
Building Endurance.
Domestic Health.
In the Drawing Office.
In School of Design.
In Modelling School.
Domestic Economy.
Domestic Comfort.
Laws of Sound and Hearing in Building.
Laws of Ingress, Egress, and Seeing.
Laws of Climate and Weather.
On Use, Purpose, and Fitness.
Principles of Design.
Laws of Property and Buildings.
Landscape Design.
Work.
In Mechanical Experiment.
In the Museum of Ancient Models.
In the Museum of Modern Architecture.
In the Collection of Building Materials.
In the Collection of Decorations and Art Workmanship.
In an Office of Works.
On the Works.
On Travel at Home.
On Foreign Travel.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
273
THE SCHOOL OF CIVIL CONSTRUCTION-continued.
ENGINEERING.
Pure Science.
Higher Geometry.
Algebra.
Arithmetic.
Practical Applications.
Engines and Prime Movers.
Theory of Vehicles and Locomotive
Machines.
""
""
Statics.
وو
Dynamics.
""
ور
Energetics.
""
Hydrology.
""
""
Chemistry.
Geology.
Theory of Ships and Steamboats.
Chemistry of Building Materials.
Geology of Stones and Cements.
Mineralogy and Metallurgy.
Stability of Foundations.
وو
Crystallogy.
Building Combinations of Materials.
Sources of Materials of Construction.
Theory of Bridges, Roofs, and Tunnels.
Constructive Geometry.
Graphic Geometry and Surveying.
Descriptive Geometry.
Perspective Geometry.
Geometric Movements.
Strengths of Materials.
Elements of Mechanics.
Machines and Tools.
Theory of Rivers.
Theory of Tides and Waves.
Theory of Roads, Railroads, and Canals.
Principles of Architectural Design.
Principles of Metallurgy.
Economics of Construction.
Endurance of Structures, Engines, Ma-
chines, and Implements.
Work.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Collection of Engineering Models.
In the Collection of Building Materials.
In the Collection of Machines.
In the Laboratory of Strength of Materials.
In the Chemical Laboratory.
In Engineering Experiment.
In the Factory.
On the Works.
In Foreign Travel.
સ
T
274
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Pure Science.
Mathematics.
Physics.
Chemistry.
Geology.
THE SCHOOL OF MINES.
Practical Applications.
Descriptive Geometry.
Trigonometrical Surveying.
Mineralogical Drawing.
Distribution of Minerals.
Political Economy.
Practical Mechanics.
Elements of Machinery.
Steam Engines and Boilers.
Ventilation.
Drawing.
Physiology and Chemistry of Life.
Work.
In the Chemical Laboratory.
In the Physical Laboratory.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Museum of Geology.
In the Mine.
In Foreign Mines.
THE METALLURGIST.
Pure Science.
Practical Applications.
Mathematics.
Physics.
Chemistry.
Geology.
Smelting and Refining.
Practical Mechanics.
Strength of Materials.
Descriptive Geometry.
Mineralogical Drawing.
Combustion and Ventilation.
Elements of Machinery.
Steam Engines and Boilers.
Statics of Buildings..
Nature of Machine Tools.
Hydraulic Machinery.
Electro-Magnetic Metallurgy.
Work.
In the Chemical Laboratory.
In the Physical Laboratory.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Museum of Geology.
In the Metal Manufactory.
In Foreign Travel.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
275.
THE SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE.
Pure Science.
Mathematics.
Physics.
Chemistry.
Natural History.
Geology.
Applications of Science.
Anatomy of Plants.
Physiology of Plants.
Anatomy of Animals.
Physiology of Animals.
Geology of Soils.
Chemistry of Soils.
Chemistry of Manures.
Chemistry of Food.
Veterinary Medicine and Surgery.
Surveying, Levelling, Plan-drawing, and
Draining.
Practical Mechanics.
Principles of Steam Engines.
Agricultural Machinery and Implements.
Nature and Influence of Climates.
Buildings, Roads, Gates, and Fences.
Training Fruit Trees, and Timber.
Practical Work.
In the Mechanical Workshop.
In the Hospital for Animals.
In the Farm.
In Foreign Travel.
In the Chemical Laboratory.
In the Physical Laboratory.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Museum of Natural History.
In the Museum of Geology.
THE GARDENER AND FORESTER
Have an education of similar nature to the Agriculturist, with a
specialty in each case. Both have, in addition, to study the principles
of beauty in their applications to Landscape Decoration, and in their
combinations with Architecture; both require a large course of in-
struction in the Theory of Climate, and in Physical Geography and
Botanical Geography-both, therefore, must study Decorative Archi-
tecture. For the rest, the study of the same courses as the Agriculturist
is necessary.
T 2
276
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
THE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE.
THE MERCHANT.
Practical Applications.
Construction and Outfit of Ships.
Docks and Warehouses.
Pure Science.
Geography.
Natural History.
Ethnology.
Political Economy.
Doctrine of Probabilities.
History.
Languages.
Political Geography.
Physical Geography.
Geography of Plants.
Ethics.
Law.
Geography of Animals.
Geography of Minerals.
Weights and Measures of Nations.
Moneys of Nations.
Statistics and Wealth of Nations.
Laws of Value.
Laws of Insurance.
Laws of Navigation.
Principles of Exchange.
Theories of Price.
Interest and Banking.
Laws of Commerce and Shipping.
Work.
In Natural History Collections.
In Collection of Raw Materials.
In Counting-house and Warehouse.
In Foreign Travel.
Pure Science.
Mathematics.
Physics.
Chemistry.
Natural History.
Political Economy.
THE MANUFACTURER.
Practical Applications.
Geometrical Drawing.
Decorative Drawing.
Light and Shade.
Light and Colour.
Principles of Beauty.
Principles of Design.
Chemistry of Colour.
Animal Substances.
Vegetable Substances.
Mineral Substances.
Geography of Raw Materials.
Mechanics of Raw Materials.
Architecture of Manufactories.
Architecture of Warehouses.
Manufacturing Machinery.
Commerce and Banking.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
277
THE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-continued.
Work.
In Natural History Collections.
In Collection of Raw Materials.
In Collection of Machine Models.
In Collection of Patterns of Manufactured Goods.
In the Laboratory.
In the Factory.
In Foreign Travel.
THE SHIP-OWNER.
Pure Science.
Practical Applications.
Elementary Geometry.
Hydrostatics.
Arithmetic.
Mechanics.
""
""
""
""
39
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""
༤
་
1:39
35
14
39
Hydrodynamics.
Pneumatics.
Chemistry.
Geography.
Natural History.
Ethnology.
Political Economy.
Languages.
Ethics.
Law.
Descriptive Geometry.
Strength and Values of Materials.
Sources of Materials.
Physical Geography.
Weights and Measures of Nations.
Laws of Nations (and Customs).
Moneys of Nations.
Laws of Commerce.
Insurance (Principles of).
Principles of Exchange.
Docks, and Harbours, and Warehouses.
Navigation.
Seamanship.
Ship Building.
Marine Engine Building.
Sail Making.
Masting and Rigging.
Equipment and Outfit.
Lading and Storing.
Manning and Clearing Out.
Laws of Commerce and Shipping.
Laws of Freight and Insurance.
Laws of Measurement and Tonnage.
Ship's Husbandry.
Health, Food, and Safety.
Wages and Disbursements.
Merchandise and Exchange.
Banking and Interest.
Navigation Laws.
Book-keeping.
Stowage.
278
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
THE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-continued.
Work.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Ship Model Room.
In the Engine Model Room.
In the Building Yard.
In the Engine Factory.
In the Harbour.
In the Ship's Store Rooms:
In the Warehouses.
In the Docks.
In the Repairing Yard.
In Sail-maker's, Mast-maker's, Rigger's Yard.
THE SCHOOL OF ASTRONOMY, NAVIGATION, AND
SURVEYING.
THE SAILOR.
Drawing.
Practical Applications.
Strength of Materials.
Pure Science.
Elementary Geometry.
""
Algebra.
Arithmetic.
Physical Geography.
وو
""
Geography.
Commercial Geography.
39
Astronomy.
Nautical Astronomy.
Mechanics.
Chart-making.
""
""
Languages.
33
Pneumatics.
Marine Surveying.
Submarine Surveying.
Hydraulics. Ship Building.
Equipment of Ships and Outfit.
Stowage and Tonnage.
Masting and Rigging.
Laws of Tonnage.
Customs and Clearance.
Laws of Nations.
Navigation Laws.
Laws of Storms.
Laws of Commerce.
Laws of Freight and Insurance.
Ship's Husbandry.
Health, Food, and Safety.
Book-keeping.
Navigation.
Seamanship.
Harbours, Docks, and Slips.
Weights, Measures, and Moneys.
Steam-engines and Boilers.
Artillery.
Naval Tactics.
15
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
279
THE SCHOOL OF ASTRONOMY, Erc.—continued.
Work.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Chart Room.
In the Calculating Room.
In the Ship Model Room.
In the Engine Model Rooni.
In the Building Yard.
In the Engine Factory.
In the Repairing Yard.
In the Training Ship.
In Ships at Sea.
In Harbours.
In Surveying Ships.
In Ships of War.
THE SCHOOL OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE.
Pure Science.
Higher Geometry.
""
Algebra.
Arithmetic.
"
Statics.
Hydrostatics.
""
>>
Dynamics.
""
Hydrodynamics.
33
THE NAVAL ARCHITECT.
Practical Applications.
Descriptive Geometry.
Constructive Geometry.
Sources of Materials.
Properties of Materials.
Strength of Materials.
Elements of Mechanics.
Structural Mechanics.
Engines and Boilers.
35
14
Chemistry.
Metallurgy.
Pneumatics.
Propellers and Mechanism.
Artillery and Protection.
Metallurgy.
Economics of Work.
Laws of Commerce and Shipping
Freight and Insurance.
Navigation.
Seamanship.
Lading and Ship's Husbandry.
Naval Tactics and War.
Health, Food, and Climate.
Ship's Wages and Economics.
Harbours and Docks.
Equipment, Rigging, and Outfit..
Storing and Lading.
Measurement and Tonnage.
t
280
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Education
of twenty-
THE SCHOOL OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE—continued.
Work.
In the Drawing Office.
In the Model Loft.
On the Moulding Floor.
In the Collection of Marine Engines.
In the Collection of Materials.
In the Collection of Ship Models.
In the Experiments of Materials.
In the Building Yard.
At Sea.
In the Engine Factory.
THE MARINE ENGINEER.
This is a mixture of the Ship-builder and the Mechanical Engineer's
courses of education, with experience superadded of building Marine
Engines, erecting them on board ship, and managing them at sea.
We have now to consider how we shall group the
two modern students of these schools, that they may avail them-
selves simultaneously of such courses of education as
are common to each
professions.
group.
It is plain at first sight, that the civil engineer and
the architect are allied professions; that the mechanical
engineer and the machinist belong in one group; that
the merchant and the ship-owner go together; that
the manufacturer and the practical chemist have need
of the same knowledge; that the miner and the
metallurgist may be grouped together, as also the
astronomer, the surveyor, and sailor; that the states-
man, the political economist, and the man of literature,
have many studies in common: and we shall thus be
able to simplify much the courses of study each pupil
may have to seek out and appropriate to himself.
I. THE SCHOOL OF MECHANICS.
1. The Mechanical Engineer. | 2. The Machinist.
3. The Marine Engineer.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
281
II. THE SCHOOL OF CIVIL CONSTRUCTION.
1. The Civil Engineer.
1 2. The Architect.
3. The Naval Architect.
III. THE SCHOOL OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE.
1. The Naval Architect.
2. The Shipowner.
3. The Marine Engineer.
4. The Sailor.
IV. THE SCHOOL OF CHEMISTRY.
1. The Professor.
2. The Practical Chemist.
3. The Dyer.
4. The Mineralogist.
5. The Analyst.
6. The Chemical Manufacturer.
V. THE SCHOOL OF MINES.
1. The Miner.
1 2. The Metallurgist.
3. The Practical Chemist.
VI. THE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE.
1. The Merchant.
2. The Manufacturer.
|
3. The Political Economist.
4. The Shipowner.
VII. THE SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE.
1. The Agriculturist.
2. The Gardener.
3. The Forester.
VIII.—THE SCHOOL OF ASTRONOMY, NAVIGATION, AND SURVEYING.
1. The Astronomer.
2. The Surveyor.
3. The Sailor.
IX. THE SCHOOL OF LITERATURE AND Language.
1. The Statesman.
2. The Political Economist.
3. The Teacher.
4. The Professor.
X.-THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS.
1. The Architect.
3. The Painter.
2. The Sculptor.
4. The Decorator.
5. The Designer.
XI. THE SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
1. The Statesman.
3. The Merchant.
2. The Economist.
4. The Manufacturer.
5. The Professor.
282
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION:
XII. THE SCHOOL OF METAPHYSICS AND ETHICS.
1 2. The Professor.
3. The Moral Philosopher.
1. The Statesman.
XIII. THE SCHOOL OF Pedagogy.
•
1. The Professor.
Į
| 2. The Teacher.
3. The Schoolmaster.
XIV. THE PREPARATORY AND SUPPLEMENTARY SCHOOL.
A provisional arrangement for bringing up students who are insufficiently
prepared for the University.
XV. THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS.
1. The Calculator.
2. The Actuary.
3. The Statistician.
4. The Surveyor.
5. The Astronomer.
6. The Professor.
XVI. THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.
This is a school for the training of philosophers, men of science, and
men of leisure, who may not propose to become members of professions,
but who desire to cultivate the sciences and the philosophies for pur-
poses of personal improvement, and hope to apply their knowledge to the
advancement of human society. The subjects taught are those in the
Table on page 257.
CHAPTER XV.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-ITS METHODS
AND MECHANISM OF INSTRUCTION.
Methods of teaching. — Sink or swim. Want of competent technical
teachers.-Total want of provision for high technical teaching or
teachers.-High science. The gift of teaching.-Practical skill.-
Technical teaching aims always at use.-Technical men for technical
teaching.-The best men in the nation to be taken for teachers.-
Method of teaching in our university.-Illustration from technic geo-
metry.-Arts giving form to matter.-Material mechanism for teach-
ing.-Museum of geometry.-Halls of illustration.-Museums of each
science.- Hall of geometry.-Hall of mechanics.—Hall of physical
science.-Hall of chemistry.-Hall of astronomy and geology.—Hall
of nature.—Botanical garden.-Astronomical, electric, and meteoro-
logical observatory. - Hall of zoology.-Chemical and mechanical
laboratories. Drawing schools and workshops. Experimental
school.-School for original research. Apparatus for illustrations
of teaching.-Good teaching will employ many methods and various
instruments.
teaching.
It is an argument often used against the establish- Methods of
ment of our technical teaching, that technical know-
ledge does not admit of teaching; that technical men,
to be successful, must have it in them by nature; and
that those who have the natural gift will pick up the
necessary knowledge merely by living in the world
where it is wanted.
swim.
This is the argument of those whose whole art of Sink or
teaching to swim consists in throwing the child into
the water. It is the doctrine of sink or swim; and it
is the reason why a great many members destined for
useful professions once thrown in, never rise. The
exceptions survive and are therefore distinguished. It
284
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Want of
competent
technical
teachers.
is our object, not thus to waste, but to economise and
direct the mental force of our youth, so as to give the
nation a large predominance of skilled and apt men
over unskilled and ignorant. Nature will still continue
to make her men of genius ;—we shall be well satisfied
if we provide for genius apt and fitting tools, instru-
ments, and helpers:
But those who argue more closely still, say that the
teachers from whom the youths of skilled professions
learn their science, find such teaching and science as
they get of little help to them in practical life; and
that they will learn far more in the practical workshop
or merchant's office than they can be taught either by
the professor or in the university. These and many
other criticisms are true, and not true; and it is in the
distinction between that part of knowledge which is
best taught in the university, and that which is best
learned in the workshop, that we shall find a criterion
of what we should teach in our university, how we
should teach it, and what we should omit.
I am continually hearing the complaint made against
the professors of technical teaching, that they teach
nothing the pupils want to know; and I find the reason
of this to lie in the absolute want in our country of
any provision for the teaching of a high class of
teachers. Our teachers are themselves untaught; and
we select them with so little judgment, and assign
them their duties with so little skill, that we most
likely take a clergyman to teach mechanics, a doctor
to teach manufacturing chemistry, and a young barrister
from Cambridge to teach the building of bridges and
viaducts.
Moreover, we hold the office of teacher in so small
repute, that the moment a man of ability or practical
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
285
knowledge can find a way of escaping out of pedagogy
into remunerative working life, he is only too glad to
take his leave of an unremunerative, ill-appreciated
profession. He straightway turns himself back into
barrister, doctor, or clergyman, and becomes speedily
judge, physician, or bishop. Pedagogy is the worst
rewarded of all professions.
If our technical university is to be successful, its
machinery of teaching must be of a higher and more
powerful kind than any we are yet used to in England.
For the teaching of our science we must have the most
distinguished men our country affords; we must give
them an income as large as that of a bishop or a judge;
and as their success or their failure is to measure the
success in life or the failure of our own children, we
must treat them with the same consideration as we
should show to a great relation whom we expected to
bequeath them a fortune. There is no training for life
half so good, as to give the youth an early association
with men of genius and ability.
Total want
for high
teaching or
of provision
technical
teachers.
science.
Having selected eminent men for these distinguished High
positions, we must next take care that our eminent
men are distinguished by three things:-love for the
subject they teach; love for their pupils; and love
of teaching. You may have the best men, and the
worst teachers; and young men will learn little from
any man who cares little about their learning. The The gift of
gift of teaching must then be the second element in
our selection.
A third point is indispensable to technical teaching:-
knowledge of the purpose and end in life for which the
pupil wants his teaching.
For a mere philosopher and for a practical mechanic,
the science of physics must be taught in quite a
teaching.
286
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Practical
skill.
Technical
teaching
aims al-
ways at use.
different way.
Certain elementary principles are, no
doubt, the same for all men and all circumstances, but
that is only the purest and most abstract science. To
the man of science, the science itself is the end and
aim; to the technical man, science is the mere tool
and instrument, and what he wants to know, is not
the mere science only, but the means of shaping it to
his end, and the best way of using it so as to achieve
his purpose.
To aid the technical student, therefore, his teacher
must know two things thoroughly, instead of one:-1.
His own science profoundly; 2. He should thoroughly
know the nature of that practical profession, for the
aims of which his own science is to be made useful to
his pupils. In scarcely any of our schools is this last
requisite adequately recognised or met.
The essential feature of the method of teaching in
our technical university must be, that it shall through-
out bear the impress of its ultimate aim and purpose.
The forms in which abstract truth is expressed, must
be forms easily translated into the language of prac-
tice. When a doctrine is enunciated as the seed of
important science, the fruit which its cultivation will
bring forth must at least be indicated, so that the
pupil may understand from the beginning how the
abstractions which he takes pains to master are to form
tools to enable him with less pains to master greater
difficulties. If to the announcement of an abstract
doctrine the professor will merely add: "This you will
find a key to one part of your profession: that you
will find a tool to such a part of your business;"
these words will be like a silken string to guide the
groping student through many a dark difficulty. All
through the course of teaching of every profession, the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
287
shaping the means to the end must be the special duty
of our technical professor.
men for
teaching.
But where shall we find these twin giants, these Technical
two-fold men ?—master of the broad and deep truth, technical
and master of the sharp and narrow application ;-
masters of science, and masters of skill. There are
three ways to conquer this difficulty:-1. We must
resolutely search our own and foreign countries to find
such men, and at any cost we must bring them into
our universities. 2. The men whom we cannot find,
we must make-in two ways. We must take a man
of eminent science, and prevail on him to humble
himself, and go study, in the workshop of their
fathers, the trades and professions of the children we
wish him to teach. Let him stoop to learn the wants
of the business of whose principles he is master;-
that is one way to make technical teachers. Another
is, to take a man already distinguished as the most
eminent member of his profession, and prevail on him.
to qualify himself as the teacher of such science as
leads to distinction in his business. 3. Finally, we
must at once set about providing the future supply
of fit teachers by an organised system in our own uni-
versity of training eminent men for technical professors.
But that is already one of the special departments we
have indicated. Unluckily for the rising generation,
we are too late, and must improvise their teachers as
best we can.
This method of improvising technical professors is
not a theory. I have seen it employed with eminent
success elsewhere. I have seen a man of transcendant
ability prevailed on by his fellow patriots to descend
from the heights of pure science and study in humble
guise the technical difficulties of a modest trade, in
288
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The best
men in the
nation to
be taken
for teach-
ers.
order that he might be able to train the children of
his countrymen to raise their country to eminence and
distinction, by the application of his profound science
to their modest skill. And so I have seen the trade
of a district revolutionised. I have also seen the other
side of the picture.
A distinguished technical man, in the midst of a
prosperous business, has had to abandon the pursuit
of wealth and professional distinction, and to under-
take the humble duty of teaching his neighbours'
children to become as distinguished as himself. I have
seen the duty with noble self-sacrifice cheerfully
accepted: I have seen the technical man put himself
as a humble pupil to the art of teaching; set himself
down to study over again the fundamental science and
principles from which his teaching must begin; and I
have seen him rewarded by the production of students
coveted in all quarters for their remarkable combi-
nation of theory and practice; and I have myself been
astonished by their fertility of expedient, and their
ready practical solution of unforeseen difficulty.
I will take for granted that we are in earnest in our
wish that the best men of the nation should be selected
to teach our children their duties in life; that the
highest honours we can bestow, social rank and inde-
pendence, shall be theirs; and I will now indicate
shortly the system of teaching which appears to me
most likely to meet the varied wants of our youth,
and qualify them to follow us in life. I have already
said that the whole course of technical teaching must
take a hue of usefulness, and that purpose and appli-
cation must characterise it from the beginning. How
this is to be accomplished, will not seem easy to those
who have never done it, or seen it done; but to me
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
289
it seems not only easy, but the most agreeable and
efficient mode of teaching. For to tell a youth that
to-day's task will one day be useful to him, is to add
value to his day's work; and to show him how a
principle is to be applied, will both give it additional hold
on his memory, and help him to see through its essence
and nature; in short, the use will illustrate the theory.
It is impossible to demonstrate in a short space how
every one of the fifty-six sciences in our table should
be taught to youths destined for technical life; but it
will, perhaps, be enough if I take a single example to
illustrate the whole. I will take for that purpose from tech-
Method of
our univer-
teaching in
sity.
Illustration
metry.
geometry, the science of form. There is no science nic geo-
less practical, or more practical, than geometry, accord-
ing as it is taught. It can be made the least useful
or the most useful of sciences. As commonly taught,
geometry, the geometry of Euclid, is one of two
things a Chinese puzzle, or a gymnastic of sophistry.
Euclid was a master geometer; his book is full of
great truths, and is a masterpiece of logic. His logic
is not always sound; his method is not always direct ;
but no man can master Euclid without being the
stronger and the cleverer for the task. Nevertheless,
to a man whose destiny is practical work, and not mere
logic or pure mathematics, I think it great waste of
time to chop logic with Euclid, or run up and down
stairs after the thread of his argument. Modern
geometry should be more direct, more purpose-like,
more versatile, than Euclid's.
For the students of a technical university, I should
define geometry as the science of form; and I should
include in it the theory of geometry, the application
of geometry, and the arts of geometry. In theoretical
geometry I should include the following subjects :-
U
290
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Arts giving
form to
matter.
1. Elementary Geometry.
2. Analytical Geometry.
3. Quantitative Geometry.
4. Logical Geometry.
5. Higher Geometry.
6. Descriptive Geometry.
7. Graphic Geometry.
8. Perspective Geometry.
9. Constructive Geometry.
All this may, in a certain sense, be called theoretical
geometry; but all the laws, processes, phenomena, and
properties which are thus developed in theory, have
their application in the material world around us. We
may have a geometry of matter as well as of form;
a geometry of force; atomic geometry, and geometry
of combination. We may have a geometry of the
heavens, of the globe, of land and sea, of earth and
rocks. And going on into organised nature, we may
have geometry of vegetable forms, geometry of animal
forms, geometry of growth. Finally, we may have
constructive geometry, geometry of beauty, and geo-
metry of sculpture, architecture, and painting. And
in practical life we have the arts of shaping, or the
arts of formative geometry; arts which consist in
giving form to shapeless matter, or in altering that
form-shaping, casting, moulding, cutting, folding,
flattening, twisting, bending, stretching, squeezing,
tearing, hewing, turning, planing, sawing, drilling,
screwing-all arts of giving shape and form to matter.
I think I have said enough to show what treasures
of useful application to the purposes of life lie hid, and
too often buried, under the word geometry.
How rarely are men found who teach geometry,
giving clear views to their pupils of short and sure
ways to these practical duties of life through the
methods of geometry. Yet such treasures every prac-
tical teacher of geometry ought to have in ready store
for the use of his technical pupils; and he ought to
be able to serve them out in well discriminated
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
291
abundance to each pupil, according to an intelligent
appreciation of the wants of his future life.
mechanism
I will also illustrate by this one science of geometry Material
the material, apparatus, and the practical machinery of teach-
of teaching which I think ought to characterise our
university.
Geometry is generally taught in abstraction; for
our purpose it ought to be taught by pregnant material
illustration. Its forms are usually wide generalities;
for our purpose they ought to be rendered definite,
embodied in matter, fully developed in all their variety,
and thoroughly brought home to the mind in material
shape.
The walls of a geometric hall should be covered
with classified progressive illustrations of all the most
beautiful, curious, and useful forms which human
genius has created, or which the geometer of nature
has embodied in the works of nature, or enveloped in
its laws. The variety of angular form with which
a plain surface may be rendered continuous, various,
and beautiful, is infinite.
The curves which show the development of law,
and embody the most abstract relations of quantity,
and which, therefore, express the working of most
complicated causes in the phenomena of nature, are
so numerous and various, that the walls of the largest
chamber would not more than suffice for their adequate
exhibition.
ing.
geometry.
But the material illustrations of geometry should Museum of
not end here. A plane surface can but show the skin
of matter. Matter itself must be developed in solid
forms, which cannot lie flat, and must be shown in the
round, the projecting, or the three dimensions. The
geometric hall must contain a museum of solid forms.
U 2
292
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The globe must be developed as the geographer
develops his maps, the naval surveyor his charts, and
the astronomer his plans of the heavens. But the
globe and the elements out of which it grows, and
into which it resolves, must be exhibited in the round;
and all that we call spherical trigonometry must be
not merely pictured on the flat, but embodied as it
is in fact. Models of spherical geometry and their
developments would occupy a large portion of such
a museum.
Another round body, the cone, and the whole family
of rectilinear but curved and twisted surfaces, must be
exhibited to the eye in their two or three dimensions, in
every possible variety, combination, and complication.
Next, the infinite variety of solid forms, according
to the model of which every kind of matter in the
earth's substance has been modelled with an exact-
ness, skill, and uniformity, that are startling to the
uninitiated who look on the matter of the earth as
unorganised rubbish, and who do not know that every
grain of sand on the sea-shore is an exquisitely plain
and polished gem; nor that every scrap of a granite
mountain is an exquisitely moulded casting, sharp and
clear as a chiselled bronze of Benvenuto Cellini;-
these infinite varieties of exquisite material forms
must be systematically embodied, not in mere isolated
examples here and there, but systematically grouped
and continuously organised, so as to exhibit the
gradual but clear steps by which each grows into
or parts from the other. And so, alone, will any
man be able to grapple with that infinite variety
of forms in exquisite precision and clearness, which
makes of all nature a school of geometry, a laboratory,
and a workshop.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
293
But for the forms of organised nature another, quite
another, museum is necessary. The living and growing
creation with which the nakedness of a once sterile
globe has now been covered, made graceful, fruitful,
and fertile, abounds in beautiful forms, so fanciful,
complex, and variously organised, that even the genius
of Linnæus was scarcely adequate to the distinction,
enumeration, and classification of the infinite variety
of forms of plant life and beauty.
The leaves of some plants illustrate an infinite
variety of angular form; the roots and fruits of
plants exhibit a marvellous fertility of invention of
every kind of round body, of many-faced angular
solids, and of endless curved surfaces of single or
double curvature. A museum of such forms is that
in which the science of geometry may be said to
terminate, and in which the poetry of geometry most
fitly begins. For in creation the sculptor, the archi-
tect, and all makers of beautiful things, must look for
the principles, models, and laws, which alone can guide
them surely in those works of imagination which, if
they be devoid of reason, method, and order, degenerate
into insanity, puerility, and vulgar imitation. Thus
our museum of the geometry of nature will become
the alphabet of our school of art.
Halls of
illustra-
tion and
museums of
What I have said of the hall of geometry may be
taken to illustrate also the material mechanism by
means of which every other science ought to be made each sci-
to grow into daily familiarity with the mind of the ence.
pupil, by making him pass his hours of leisure or work
amid familiar illustrations, systematically developed
and methodically arranged, so as to speak through his
senses and grow into his mind as familiar objects of
everyday life. Such things are already done in some
294
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Hall of
geometry.
Hall of me-
chanics.
schools, but they are fitfully, fragmentarily, and feebly
done; and just because they are not parts of any
continuous whole, they do not take hold of the mind
and enchain it, but fail in their great object, the
development of systematic thought. What I have
said of geometry must be done with mechanics. The
hall of mechanics must contain a systematic develop-
ment of every kind of tool the human mind has been
able to invent, or that the human hand is able to
wield. Samples of the best work that these tools can
achieve must surround them, and by this means the
student must not only know how to select the best
tools, but must have a high standard before him by
which to pass judgment on his own execution.
The hall of mechanics must next contain those more
complicated means of working matter which are in
effect tools, but which, by means of a complicated
mechanism, perform the multifarious operations which
a human being has to devote all his skill to performing,
and are yet, by their structure, able to do skilled
work without skill. Modern mechanism presents an
enormous field for the study of the student, and no
collection could be more profitable than one which
should unite in the same hall, under the daily notice
of the student, all those thousand ingenious devices by
which, out of a single moving force, an infinite variety
of complicated and intricate movements are simul-
taneously performed. No branch of multifarious
modern invention plays a greater part in civilised
society than the dead mechanism which is continually
performing the work of millions of human hands.
The hall of engines should contain an even more won-
derful and instructive collection than the hall of tools and
machines. Engines do not merely perform the work
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
295
the
of human hands; they create living power out of dead
matter, and relieve men from the degrading task of
being the mere drivers of dead mechanism. Engines
may be said to create living things. An engine of
100 horses' power is an engine able to do the work of
400 living horses, and able to do it not for eight hours
a day only, but for twenty-four, and all the year round.
The future of the world, and of the human race, depends
far more upon the steam-engines and water-engines,
the fire-engines and air-engines, the magnetic engines
and the electric engines yet to be invented and made, than
upon the labour of all the horses and oxen in the world.
All mere bodily drudgery of human beings, all mere
work by the sweat of his brow, will no longer fill up
duties and form the labour of the lifetime of a human
being when all men have been educated to the con-
struction, use, and tending of these helpful children of
man's brain; for all hard work, each man will have his
helpful engine attending on his steps, following his
directions, and working his will. Such a life may be
deemed a life of thoughtful leisure-thoughtful, for
minding his engines will be no sinecure, for this one
will be committing blunders, that will be falling and
hurting itself, and his little flock of workers will be
always in trouble, in which only their master can help
them. Such men will be no more animals, even in the
drudgery of common life. They will form the provi-
dence of little engines, the work of their own hands,
and their functions will be forethought, construction,
and inventive leisure. If, then, this be the good time
coming, how necessary it is that, in his youth, the
student whose life is to be a polytechnichism should
be surrounded in his study with modern engines of
every sort which human calculation may design, or
296
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Hall of
physical
science.
human invention contrive to render the elements of
nature the servants of human will.
The hall of physical science should be a record of
every great discovery—an illustration of every great
law of matter nature. How solids grow liquids, how
liquids grow airs, how airs return to liquid and liquids
again resume the solid form, should be shown not only
in the ordinary solids, liquids, gases, of the actual
world, but also all those solids, liquids, and gases
which nature never made in these forms, but which
man only has, by the powers of science, created and
developed, should be made familiar to the eye of the
student. How many men in the world have seen all
the liquified gases? How many have seen all the
metals ?—and has anyone seen the infinite variety of
strange matters which the combinations of liquified
gases one with another are able to produce? Such
collections have existed, have been seen, but by how
few!-and what pregnant seeds of future discovery
would be the thoughts sown broadcast in the youthful
mind by such sights made familiar. So, also, all the
sights which in the finite depths of the ocean are con-
tinually going on, of matter transformed by enormous
submarine pressure out of ordinary semblance into scarce
conceivable transformations, might be exhibited to the
eye of the student under those intense pressures which
human ingenuity and modern mechanism could substi-
tute in this hall of science for the enormous powers of
nature working in the bottom of the sea. So, likewise,
the phenomena of the air, all that happens in the highest
regions of the atmosphere, the life of air in its undu-
lations, the soul of nature in the vibrations of sound,
the whole language and poetry of thought, is a field,
the illustrations of which would of themselves form a
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
297
course of familiar philosophy more elevating to human
thought, and more helpful to human character, than
the lessons of lawyers or the discourses of dogmatists.
The hall of physical science might thus become a
school of divine culture.
chemistry.
But of the material means of cultivation for fitting Hall of
man's mind for his future work, none should be on a
larger scale, for none can be more useful, than the hall
of the modern magician, the all-powerful alchemist.
The halls of chemistry should be as large and various
as are the functions of chemical research; and the
functions of chemistry are little other than the making
of everything out of everything else, to convert a
metal into an earth, an earth into a water, a water
into a gas, and each gas into several other gases-to
make half-a-dozen substances into one, and one sub-
stance into half-a-dozen substances; to turn a colour-
less liquid into a bright-coloured air, and a colourless
air into a bright-coloured metal. Such are the marvels
of modern chemistry; and if the chemist have not yet
turned anything into gold, it is because he knows how
to make everything else, by some transformation or
other, into something more valuable than gold. Out
of every gross, vulgar, filthy mass of shapeless matter,
your chemist can extract some pure ethereal valuable
essence. His wand is a divining rod, and the chemists'
hall may be called--what, in our school, it ought really
to become--one grand transformation scene. No school
of our university would be more fascinating, or could
be more instructive, than the hall which exhibited the
successive transformation of every known substance in
its passage through the chemist's hand, and an exhi-
bition of the uses to which every portion of transformed
matter has been, is now, or will be put. And in the
298
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Hall of
astronomy
and geo-
logy.
adjacent hall would be the school of the young magi-
cians actually employed in acting these transformations;
and on the other side another hall, where the elder
magicians were busy inventing the transformations of
the future.
Perhaps the grandest hall of all should be the hall
whose transformation scene is the chemistry and
mechanics of the Great Chemist and Mechanic of the
Universe. How He made planets, how He slowly
matured them, how He fitted this our planet for life,
intelligence, and humanity. How He stored up in the
slow progress of ages crop after crop of forest timber,
generation after generation of microscopic shells, mil-
lions on millions of polished crystals, all kinds of metal
and oil, and fuel, and even food. How He engraved
in the bowels of the earth on stone tables the story of
His work for our reading. How He set glaciers to
hollow out valleys and gather together] the slow-
grown soil into fertile heaps in the bottom of our
valleys and along the sides of our streams. How He set
the waters and the lakes to fetch down soil and deposit
vegetable matter on the surface of vast areas of water-
worn gravel; and how, when they had done, the streams
were set to saw out sluices and gates for emptying
these lakes and bringing to light those fields covered
with alluvial deposit; and how upon all this, in the
end, were laid for the human habitation the rich velvet
carpet of green sward, the decorative embroidery of
plants and flowers, and the tasselled fringe of orchards
and forests; and how all this became food, furniture,
and fire for human beings endowed with power to
understand the past, to govern the present, and to
foresee the future-how all this was set about and
done is a story to be told in the enblazoned halls of
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
299
the geologist, and is a tale so long and so eventful,
that no hall of learning could be more eloquent, no
hall of theology more pregnant, than this same school.
of God's work in nature.
nature.
gardens.
Coming down to the world of things that are from Hall of
that of things that have been, the student of the world
of nature as it is, must revel in a garden of living
plants rather than ruminate in a museum of dead Botanical
ones. And though much may be learned of the vege-
table world in a museum, it is plain that the gardens
of Kew are much more nearly the type of our School
of Botany than any museum of dry specimens.
In choosing the site, therefore, of the university,
the possibility of surrounding it with a large, beautiful,
and instructive garden, should not be forgotten.
cal, electric
teorological
An observatory, not only of the heavens, but of Astronomi-
those magnetic and electric phenomena which now and me-
form so large a portion of human knowledge, and even observa-
play an important part in human life, is necessary,
placed in a separate building, and might have a
convenient site in the gardens of the university.
tory.
zoology.
A zoological and anatomical collection, a museum Hall of
illustrating the technical history of mankind, an his-
torical museum of works of art, would also find their
place in the university.
Chemical
and me-
laborato-
It has been a serious question whether actual work-
shops and manufactories of any kind should be at- chanical
tached to technical schools. That is not a matter for ries, draw-
ing schools
dogmatism either way. In a manufacturing country, and work-
surrounded by technical establishments in which stu- shops.
dents might do actual useful work, workshops for the
mimicry of work would be absurd. The method which
I myself prefer for teaching technical students' work
is to place them, for alternate periods of six months,
300
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Experi-
mental
school.
in the university and in the workshop, where each
enhances the value of studying the other. And if the
Government which establishes the university should
happen also to possess establishments in which work is
well done, nothing could be wiser than that the students
of the university should learn their work in establish-
ments which should be made models of perfect design
and execution.
But if good establishments and well-organised work-
shops are not accessible to the students, then common
wisdom dictates that such workshops would be of
special value, and might with advantage be created in
the university itself.
Independent, however, of what may be called work-
shops and manufactories, in the commercial sense of
the term, there can be no doubt that a certain number
of workshops, well supplied with tools, materials, and
models, should be at the disposal of the students for
mechanical work in leisure hours. Moreover, there
are a great number of mathematical and physical
researches which are studied with much greater ad-
vantage in actual work than by abstract illustration. Of
the value of a practical chemical laboratory on a large
scale there is no longer any doubt; but it is equally
certain that sound ideas of physical, mechanical, and
constructive properties of matter can nohow be obtained
so well as by the actual construction and destruction
of material forms of different kinds of substance.
Strength, toughness, elasticity and endurance, adhe-
sion, attraction, friction, and sliding, are all properties
of matter, practical familiarity with which is only to
be obtained by familiar handling. And the phenomena
of tearing and wrenching can only be known to those
who have painfully wrestled with matter and been
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
301
able to force its obedience or endure its successful
resistance. A practical school of mechanical dealing
with matter is, therefore, one of the most important
establishments that can be attached to a practical
school of mechanics, and one that has as yet nowhere
received the full development which it merits.
There is one last institution which our technical School for
original
university might do well to distinguish itself by research.
establishing. It has already been indicated elsewhere,
but has nowhere received adequate development. A
student who has just completed his curriculum at the
university may probably desire to extend his studies.
beyond its limits; he may be a man of leisure or of
genius, possessed with the desire of original and
ulterior scientific or philosophical investigations. It
should be a privilege granted to the students of our
university that they have privileged access to the
workshops, laboratories, halls, museums, and library of
our technical university, for the purposes of continued
education, original study, and investigation. And thẻ
university might even possess pecuniary funds which
it might have the privilege of placing at the disposal
of young investigators of distinguished talent and
knowledge, to aid them in such original investigations.
They might thus assist young men of genius in the
beginning of a brilliant and useful career.
for illus-
tration of
teaching.
In conclusion, among the establishments of the Apparatus
university it has been thought unnecessary to do
more than merely name the existence of an extensive
library of technical books, and an extensive collection
of technical drawings on a large scale, fit for the lucid
illustration of the courses of lectures; as well as of a
large cabinet of special illustration or experiment for
each particular branch of study.
302
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Good
teaching
many me-
thods and
various in-
On the whole subject of methods of teaching, and
will employ of material illustration, I desire to emphasise strongly
the value of education by the eye, and of education by
struments. practical experiment, as the basis of sound scientific
education. Nor need I be accused in so doing of
undervaluing abstract teaching, and pure ideal reason-
ing and calculation. I trust I may be permitted to
insist on the value of all the ways of teaching, by all
the avenues of thought, without being accused of
undervaluing any. What I blame in most of the
institutions I have seen, is the weakness of one-sided-
ness. One university is famous for its pure mathe-
matics, another is famous for its experimental chemical
research. What I want is, that our university should
be famous equally for abstract reasoning and experi-
mental research; equally for teaching the head, the
hands, and the senses; equally for persuading by
reason and by experience. And in regard to the
order of the teaching, I think that the best method
is-first, to teach students what they are to expect;
next, to show them what actually happens in fact,
under their own observation, and by their own experi-
ment; thirdly, to teach them the reasons of that which
they have already found to be the fact; and lastly, to
teach them the methods of predicting that which has
not yet come to pass. It is this union of education in
fact, with education in thought, which gives to the
human mind the empire of matter.
1
CHAPTER XVI.
OUR ENGLISH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-ITS GOVERN-
MENT, WORKING, AND FINANCE.
Knowledge goes from above downwards in society, not upwards.-High
education above must raise education below.-Money value of educa-
tion for a nation.-Past war costs twenty-five millions per annum.—
Coming wars cost twenty-five millions per annum.-What should the
culture of all England cost? five millions ?-A grant for technical
universities of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.-Government
of the technical university.-Table of finance.
above
in society,
wards.
THERE is no truth concerning knowledge less under- Knowledge
stood in England than that knowledge must begin goes from
in the higher regions of society, and descend. Yet, if downwards
we listen to the commonplaces of political economists,
and parliamentary conversations, one might think that
knowledge begins at the bottom of society, and taking
root among the mass, sends its branches upwards into
the regions of high life. "The man who would have
knowledge must first seek it; the parent must see to
the education of his own child." "The poor man must
spare his beer if he would have schooling for his
children." "Those who will not have learning must
take the consequences of going without." Such are
the platitudes which men in legislative assemblies
dignify with the name of common sense.
sense.
Nothing can be more common or more devoid of
It is saying: The ignorant must be wise;
those who know nothing of knowledge must set the
highest value on it. The most ignorant must be most
304
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
ready to make the greatest sacrifices for knowledge
and virtue. The foolish must show an example to
the wise.
That knowledge must proceed from those who know,
civilisation from the civilised, refinement from the
refined, truth from philosophers, technical skill from
the most highly skilled, and learning from the learned,
one would have thought axiomatic; although those
who speak falsely, in the name of common sense, say
otherwise.
In these matters it almost seems as if the generation
before us were wiser than ourselves. Men whom we
call barbarous and unlearned founded free schools,
free colleges, and free universities, empowered by the
sanction of the State, ennobled by privileges, and
endowed with vast wealth, in order that the most
learned and the wise of all England, and the most
distinguished teachers from beyond the seas, might be
planted in England to civilise, educate, and refine the
common English people.
.
Our forefathers thought that the rich and the wise
were able to take care of themselves; that they knew
what learning to choose, and had free choice where to
seek it; that what they could not find at home, they
could send their children to foreign universities and
courts to learn. But they thought it the duty of those
who governed and guided the people to erect free
fountains of truth, knowledge, religion, and refinement,
in, among, and throughout the masses of poor English
folk, and to bring knowledge home to every poor man's
door. That was the practice of poor old England; it
is the contrary of the practice and the preaching of
rich modern England. It is the direct consequence
of such wrong doctrine, that England has fallen behind
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
305
other countries in the condition of its industry-loving,
hard-working people.
cation
raise edu-
Perhaps I am too sanguine when I express the hope High edu-
that there may soon arise in England legislators suffi- above must
ciently raised above mere demagogy on the one hand, cation
and mere condescending aristocracy on the other below.
hand,―legislators taking wider views than the narrow
interests of political party, giving themselves concern
and assuming responsibility for the purpose of elevating
and lastingly benefiting the English people ;-legis-
lators who will esteem mankind more than matter;
who will value cultivated human beings more highly
than cultivated horses, cultivated dogs, or cultivated
vegetables;-men who will consider human souls of
greater weight than cotton bags, or grey shirtings. I
hope such men may soon arise in England, and that
they will not think it beneath the duty of governors
to see that the rising race of English people do not
suffer from their governors the same neglect of culture
which the passing generation of skilled men have had
to endure; and that they will not think it beneath
their dignity to see that the youth of England shall
enjoy at least equally valuable privileges, assisting
them to fulfil their duties in life, as the most favoured
nations abroad. Should this happily be the case, we
might hope to see our technical university founded
on a scale worthy of the dignity and wealth of the
nation.
value of
for
our
nation.
The first question, then, which an English legislator Money
would ask, would be,-How much money ought to be education
voted for the education of the English people, in order
to put England on the same footing as the best educated
nations abroad? To this my answer is easy. I have
before me the national expenditure of Switzerland. On
X
306
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Past war
costs
millions
the same scale the annual vote of England for education
should be more than 5,000,000l. per annum.
When will England be wise enough to save this five
twenty-five millions out of the pauperism and crime which the
per annum. want of it costs her? The contrast between England
and Switzerland is this: that England spends more
than five times as much on pauperism and crime as
she does on education; and that Switzerland spends
seven times as much on education as on pauperism
and crime.
wars cost
per annum.
Whenever I have asked a public minister connected
with education in England, why he would not do more
for the education of the next generation, I have always
been answered that the House of Commons would not
Coming vote the money. That the House of Commons which
twenty-five willingly votes twenty-five millions for past wars,
millions twenty-five millions for coming wars, and seventy
millions in all for what it calls the government of the
country, grudges the one million it already pays for
education, and thereby entails on the people a further
cost of seven or eight millions for pauperism and
crime. What a strange and inconceivably inconsistent
people we must be, or how strangely and inadequately
we must be represented in the House of Commons, if
the education of the whole people for all the duties
of life seems only worth a million a year, and pre-
paring them for war alone seems worth twenty-five
millions a year, and for prisons and poorhouses worth
seven millions a year.
What
should the
I have said that five millions a year, if wisely
culture of expended, would be about the same proportion of its
all England public expenditure in England which the Swiss
Government expends on education, and applying the
same measure, 250,000l. a year would be the sum
cost
five mil-
lions ?
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
307
A grant for
universi-
ties of two
and fifty
pounds.
which the English Government ought to expend on
its technical university. But in this sum I include technical
Ireland and Scotland, and if we say 50,000l. for a
Scottish University, 50,000l. for an Irish Technical hundred
University, there remains 150,000l. a year for the thousand
Metropolitan Technical University. Following out our
Swiss analogy, one-third of the latter sum should be
expended in providing the teachers of the university,
and the remainder on all the material apparatus for
teaching which has been the subject of the last
Chapter.
But I shall be told that the revenues of our
university ought to be in great part drawn from the
pupils. To this my reply is, certainly not. The pupils
are no longer children, but men who might, if they
chose to abandon study, be earning their own bread.
They make sacrifice enough, they and their parents,
in abstaining from work that they may attain to that
superior knowledge which shall enable them to main-
tain England in the front rank of working nations.
The nation should be only too happy to do the rest, as
other nations do.
The students will no doubt contribute something
towards the current expenses of the institution, but
that sum should be comparatively small, and should
be, as in other countries, in addition to the sum con-
tributed by Government. In Switzerland it is only
one-fifth of the total sum.
On this scale, the students' contribution to our
technical university might be 30,000l.; or 10l. a year
cach from 3000 students.
In regard to the expenses of founding this university,
that would have to be done from quite other resources.
But in these resources, England is already sufficiently
X 2
308
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
rich. A useless unoccupied palace with its park could
with little pains and cost be converted to the uses of
our university. Greenwich Hospital, Hampton Court
Palace, Kensington Palace, are each capable of easy
conversion to this use. In my opinion, Greenwich
Hospital presents the greatest number of advantages
for this purpose. There is a large park at hand for
playground and gardens; there is an observatory for
astronomy and meteorology quite close; there is ample
space for healthy lodging on Blackheath Common; and
all round are works and manufactories of the best
character for practical illustration and students' work.
It is also at a convenient and easy distance for pro-
fessors who might choose to reside in London; and it
is now pretty well understood that no greater kindness
could be conferred on its present poor inmates than to
release them from a palatial prison, and send them
to their homes and family firesides. By the adoption
of this measure great present outlay might be spared,
immediate accommodation given, and a change rapidly
effected most beneficial to the community.
Of the expenditure on the Irish and Scotch technical
universities I need say little, for the Universities of
Dublin and of Edinburgh and Glasgow have already
shown willingness to create within themselves tech-
nical divisions of their own universities. They already
possess distinguished technical professors, and are
already renowned for high technical teaching, in a
way which shows their perfect ability to add to their
existing curriculum a complete technical organisation,
provided only the Government is wise enough to give
them their annual grant, and to take measures for the
material organisation of buildings, collections, museums,
and other teaching materials.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
309
ment of the
university.
Having provided university buildings, gardens, esta- Govern-
blishments, and the material organisation of teaching, technical
the next duty would be to provide for the personal
organisation of the university. The selection of a
proper ruling body and a corps of eminent teachers
for the university, is too important to be delegated.
The Government must take the direct responsibility of
naming every professor, and choosing every member
of the governing body. There should be a governing
council of the university, but every member of it should
be named by the Government; and the Minister of
Education himself, or his chief secretary, should be a
constant member of this governing council. The
members of this council should all receive salaries and
do work. It is desirable that the president should be
a man of great administrative ability, rather than a
man of science or a professor. He is to represent the
wants and interests of the country rather than of any
branch of science. He has to communicate with the
Government, and is virtually its representative at the
council. He advises the Government on the selection
of the professors, on grants of money, and on laws for
the government of the college. He should have a
peculiar talent for discovering good teachers, should
be popular with the students, and should possess the
rare tact of dealing with professors and men of science
-a class with whom dealing is in general peculiarly
difficult. Such a man, when found, deserves a salary
of 2500l. a year. He may also name his vice-president
from among the council of the university. A council
of seven is sufficiently large; and one of them should
represent the mechanical professions, another the fine
arts, another the manufacturing, another the mercantile,
the political, the literary, and the philosophical. This
1
310
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
council must not name, but propose professors for the
selection of Government; and it must determine the
special duties of each professor, the amount of his
salary, and the conditions of his promotion or retire-
ment. It must regulate the expenditure of the sums
placed in its hand by Government, and in short, rule
the university.
The Government must take no steps in the affairs
of the university without having first taken the advice
of this council. No subordinate in the department of
the Minister of Education shall have anything to do
with this school; but it is the president of the
governing council of this university who must be
practically its manager.
The direct superintendence
of the whole course of teaching, the organisation of
courses of study-fixing the hours for the different
subjects, organising the curriculum, examinations,
diplomas, and discipline of students, all must be
under the president; and to him every professor is
directly responsible for the performance of his duty.
For this purpose the president must reside on the
spot, and devote his whole time and attention to his
duty.
While finance organisation and police are to be the
special duty of the council, it will be equally necessary
that they abstain from all interference with the teaching
body or professors in the discharge of their special
duties. The teachers must necessarily have an organi-
sation which will enable them to arrange their special
spheres of duty with due reference to each other. There
must therefore be ordinary meetings of professors, to
settle the details of courses of study, hours of lectures,
and subjects of examination.
They must prepare outlines of courses, and arrange
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
311
that what is taught by one professor is not to be taught
by the next, and see that the courses, taken as a whole,
are complete and symmetric. It shall be their duty
to present each year an organised programme of studies
for the approbation of the president and council.
This body of the professors should also select from
among themselves a principal, who should sit at the
governing council to represent their views and feelings.
The same principal should preside at their meetings,
and should be elected bi-annually. The professors
should also be divided according to the subjects they
teach. There might be divisions of the professors into
physical sciences, natural sciences, literature, philo-
sophy, fine arts; and to each of these there should be a
separate vice-principal elected by themselves. It would
be their duty to distribute properly amongst each
other the duties of each special division, and their
principal should be charged with the superintendence
and administration of the teaching and material organi-
sation, establishments and museums, examinations and
examination papers, belonging to that division.
All the duties not provided for in any of these
arrangements should remain as the special duties of
the president of council; and nothing should be con-
cluded in any of these divisions without communication
to, and approbation of, the president, who should be
ex officio a member of every subdivision of the uni-
versity, and attend all their meetings.
The admission of the students, their discipline, the
adjudication of prizes, granting of diplomas and per-
sonal distinctions, should be the immediate duty of
a council composed of the principals of divisions and
the president of the council. These appear to me to
be the principal conditions which experience has shown
312
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
to be necessary for the successful government of such
an institution; and it appears to me that by a fit
selection of the individuals, all the interests of the
country may be represented and brought into har-
monious working. I think it important that all these
governing duties should have salaries attached to
them adequate to confer upon the duty high personal
responsibility.
TABLE OF FINANCE.
INCOME.
Annual grant from the State
£150,000
Annual vote from the city
Students' fees
15,000
25,000
Endowment?
5,000
£195,000
OUTLAY.
Government and staff of the university
Salaries of professors and teachers
Collections, illustrations, materials
£ 15,000
100,000
45,000
Laboratories, workshops, observatories
20,000
Grants to original investigations
15,000*
£195,000
THE
CONNECTION
CHAPTER XVII.
BETWEEN SYSTEMATIC EDUCATION
AND THE TRANSITION PERIOD OF CIVILISED
COUNTRIES.
Changing material conditions.-Changing relations of men and nations—
Require changes in our own culture.-Knowledge which was supplied
for the past worthless for the future.-Training required for the
future.-Foreign tongues wanted for wide world commerce.-Requi-
sites of the rapid revolutions of modern trade.-The universal adoption
of machinery for works of mere routine and brute-force.-Revolution
in sea-faring life.—A revolution in commerce.-Principals and middle-
men.-Loss of value to the public.-Loss of character to the producer.
--Necessity of higher training for the merchant and manufacturer.-
A moral revolution in commerce and trade.—A revolution in mechani-
cal engineering trade and public works.-Revolution in chemical
trades.-Higher morality of an educated and skilled community.
material
THAT "the present" forms a transition period in Changing
European life, who can doubt? We have had revo- conditions.
lutions in science, in politics, in means of intercourse
of nations by sea, in transport of goods and persons
by land, and in the transmission of thought from place
to place with such an annihilation of time as to give
the human being almost the advantage of omni-
presence. Each morning we hear everything that has
happened everywhere yesterday; and we shall soon be
able on every to-morrow to make our wishes and com-
mands known at any centre of action to which an iron
wire can be carried, all round the globe.
relations
How all these changes have altered the relations of Changing
men, communities, nations, to one another, most of us of men and
have had ample opportunity to know; and those who nations;
314
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Require
changes in
our own
culture.
which was
have travelled most know best that every one of these
material revolutions has brought about moral, social,
and political changes. Who that knew Germany
before railways, and since, can fail to have noticed
that it was the railway which first effectually made
the Germans known to one another, and that the
German military system and the needle-gun only
completed that unity which railways had begun.
These revolutions have been brought about mainly
by discoveries in science of the laws and forces of
material nature, and by inventions for rendering these
forces the servants of man. By science, the sphere of
knowledge has been indefinitely increased; by inven-
tion, human power has been indefinitely extended.
But along with this increased power comes the
necessity for increased human capacity, wisdom,
virtue, forethought, and foresight otherwise, the con-
sequences of ignorance and folly will become mag-
nified in as high a proportion as the increase of power
or of means. We of the present day, standing on the
brink of this period of transition, and seeing before us
a world of the future, of which we know at least this
—that it will not resemble the past, have need of all
our sagacity to single out from the future the aims
which are good or bad-the ways which are wise or
foolish, the methods of conducting our affairs which
will benefit our family, our community, our nation ;
and the great question comes home to every one of us
--how shall we train the children who are to succeed
us in this world, changed by science and invention, for
the wide field of responsibility and action which lies
before them?
Knowledge The obvious answer is, that we must use some quite
supplied other method of training than that which we ourselves
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
315
past worth-
less for the
future.
have received. In our youth it sufficed to train a boy for the
to his father's business, that he should inherit his
connection in trade or his skill in craft; that he should
grow up in his counting-house, workshop, farm, or
ship. For the new generation that training not only
is inadequate, but even worse than the want of it.
The aims and methods of the future and of the past
are altogether distinct, and the education of the future
has to be created, not changed.
required
future.
The first condition in the training of a man who is Training
to fight his way in the future, is that he shall be able for the
to understand and make himself understood in any
of the civilised countries of the world. No young
Englishman of the present day knows among whom
his lot may not one day be cast. Is he an agricul-
turist ?—he may have to find his farm in Upper
Canada, and may have to use French as the language
of his daily life. Is he an engineer ?-he may have to
make railways in Italy, Turkey, or Japan. Is he a
merchant ?—the nature of his merchandise will at
once indicate three or four languages, the knowledge
of which may prove the means of his earning or losing
a fortune. It is indispensable to the man of the
future that he should know well, familiarly, conver-
sationally, one or two languages besides his own; and
this is true not of the upper classes only, but of the
skilled craftsman; for the well-trained workman who
knows one foreign language will have an additional
market for his labour. It is this early gift of foreign
tongues which enables the German craftsman to earn
his living here, when he finds himself badly fed or
clothed at home, and the Swiss peasant to find com-
fortable quarters in many lands. The
The Englishman
who would qualify himself for the future, must con-
316
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Foreign
tongues
wanted for
world-wide
sider one or two languages as part of the implements.
of his tool-chest.
To our insular notions such an idea is probably
Utopian, but my answer is, that the English boy is
surely not less competent for this task than the Swiss
or German boy, where every child in his "real"
school learns to speak, read, and write three tongues;
and I would entreat the working community to con-
sider how this acquirement would help them in case
of difficulty regarding wages or employment at home :
the solution is simply to shift himself and his tool-box
abroad, and get employment there until the return of
better times at home. At present, his ignorance of
any tongue but his own renders the experiment nearly
impossible, and the educated foreigner displaces him at
home without risk of reprisal.
To be able thus to shift the place of our occupation,
and find fresh markets for our industry, is not the
commerce. only preliminary to a successful life in the future.
We must be so educated as to be able without great
suffering to change at any moment the whole nature
of our trade, craft, or profession. Are you to-day a
chemical manufacturer, skilled in the production of a
valuable article of commerce? To-morrow a chemical
discovery may annihilate your trade, transfer it into a
new class of substance, or a new locality; and if you
are either obstinate or unprepared-if your knowledge
be scanty, and your views narrow, your business will
pass into abler hands. Are you a manufacturer ?-a
new loom, a new material, a new process, a new
mechanical power, may at once deprive your present
stock-in-trade of its value, and you will have to begin
life again it is probable that twenty-five years
hence neither the implements, processes, nor materials
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
317
of any trade will bear a close resemblance to the
present.
of the
lutions of
trade.
One of the most prosperous mercantile and manu- Requisites
facturing firms known is one which has practised the rapid revo-
doctrine I here preach. Placed in a continental port, modern
which has a world-wide commerce, the heads of the
firm are mainly occupied with the consideration of the
future, while the subordinates are engaged in carrying
out the business through principles already matured,
and with connections already formed. They are pre-
paring to withdraw from any branch of business in
which they see other people beginning to overtrade, or
in which competition seems likely to become excessive;
their time is mainly occupied in searching out the
probable future wants which the increase of commerce
and population, and the spread of civilisation, are
likely to create; and I have known them in the last
twenty-five years enter upon five successive businesses,
having no relation to each other, and in all they have
succeeded, and have realised considerable wealth.
Their method has been not to touch a business until
they had thoroughly mastered its theory, and never
blindly to entrust business to their employés without
first mastering it themselves.
versal
adoption of
machinery
for works
of mere
routine
force.
Following their example, let us study the great The uni-
changes which are about to come over the mercantile
and manufacturing interests of this country, in con-
sequence of the science, discoveries, inventions, and
rapid communication which are going on. No one of and brute-
these changes is more marked than the employment of
machinery instead of manual labour. What will be
the effect of this when it is more fully carried out?
Will human labour be increased in use and remunera-
tion, or diminished? Experience and judgment both
318
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Revolution
in sea-
say that each invention for superseding labour will
change its nature rather than its quantity. When
every man has his machine to do his work, instead of
his horse, his donkey, or his spade, his machine will
do more work than either, but will still want his mind
to think for it, tend it, and see before it; his machine
and he will do more work than before, and earn
more money, but he will want knowledge and skill of
quite a new sort-for he will require to understand
the machine as well as its work, and the consequence
of his neglect will be much more expensive than
before. From the greater quantity of work done,
somebody will reap more profit; whether that in-
creased revenue fill the pocket of the tender of the
machine, its owner, maker, or inventor, is a matter of
uncertain adjustment-but that among them the fund
of joint earning is increased, comes of the nature of
the improvement. More money has been earned by
railways than by all the horses and coaches of the
world put together. Sewing-machines form an ad-
mirable proof that modern invention creates the
necessity for higher education. Women earn more
money by sewing-machines than by their fingers; but
their success is proportioned to their intelligence.
And a superior sort of intelligence is requisite; for
the worker must understand her mechanism, must
keep it in order, must see that it does not injure itself
nor its work, and must be able to remedy slight
derangements in both; and in proportion as the
machine itself becomes more developed, it will require
more thought and higher instruction.
•
A similar revolution, on a great scale, is coming
faring life. over the business of the sailor. Every year steam
ships displace sailing vessels more and more; old
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
319
sailors complain that nautical skill is less and less
required; instead of practical navigation, three kinds
of skill will alone be necessary the skill of the
engineer, for the marine steam-engine; the skill of
the astronomical calculator, for the ship's place and
way; and the skill of the meteorologist, for tide,
wind, and weather. In all these departments higher
skill is required with every improvement and inven-
tion, and in that, as many other branches of mercantile
improvement, the only thing still wanting in order
to render practicable far higher improvements than
have as yet been achieved is, that all the people con-
nected with owning ships and using them should
receive a higher intellectual and moral training than
they now possess. Higher speed and higher economy
are far easier to achieve by invention than they are
to maintain and conduct with security, owing to the
deficiency of high-class men to work them. Character
and skill prescribe much narrower limits to improve-
ment than powers of invention or laws of nature.
tion in
commerce.
But the improvements in communication between A revolu-
distant persons and countries are about to give rise
to indirect and remote consequences far more revolu-
tionary in their nature than their immediate and
direct consequences. It is not many years since the
prompt conveyance of messages was the monopoly
of a few large mercantile firms. The state of the
markets of Europe was conveyed in critical times
to those houses only which could afford to maintain
adequate establishments of carrier pigeons, and there-
fore these houses had a monopoly of profitable ex-
changes. In those days also communications with
important parts of China and the East was the mono-
poly of those who could organise their own convey-
320
SYSTÈMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Principals
and mid-
dle-men.
ance, and thus vast fortunes were accumulated in the
hands of a few large firms. We can all remember
also when the newspapers and the great bankers kept
special steamers on the English Channel, by which
to anticipate and turn to profit every change of mer-
cantile value. All this has gone by. The whole
multitude of mercantile dealers in every market of
the world has now earlier intelligence than was pos-
sessed by the wealthiest monopolist of old; and the
smallest order flies with the same speed as that for
millions. This is on every side a subject for com-
plaint or congratulation-complaint from those who
used to make large fortunes with small merit and
scant knowledge; congratulation from those who
possess skill without large capital.
The young,
skilled, educated houses are now able to make mode-
rate fortunes and retire from business with a youth
still unexpended.
But while this tends to increase the number of
well-to-do firms, and to diminish the magnitude of
fortunes acquired, another change is at work, which
will have a contrary effect, and will throw out of
employment a large class of persons hitherto reckoned
among the mercantile class. The existence of large
monopolists of information and capital had given
birth to a large number of secondary or dependent
occupations, having for their object the distribution
or collection of these large transactions. Between
the great merchant abroad and the great manufac-
turer at home, as also between the producer and the
consumer, had grown up a multitude of middle-men,
not capable of adding anything to the value of the
article produced, or of enhancing the value of that
consumed. These men served, and still serve, an
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
321
important purpose. The man who has too much
to do to attend to his business, they enable to do
it by proxy, and by various contrivances they make
it easier and pleasanter for him to employ them than
to do it himself. By judicious contrivance also they
make it very unpleasant for the man who has once
employed them to dispense with their services; for,
like other trade combinations, they organise them-
selves, and have their black sheep and their white.
Layer upon layer these middle-men are to be found
in every mercantile community, interposing a series
of obstacles to a mutual understanding or community
of interest between producer and consumer.
In pro-
portion as these combinations become powerful and
numerous, they encroach more and more upon the
profits of the producer, for by their extensive rami-
fications they contrive to command the market of
buyers, so that the man who will not sell to them
finds it difficult to sell at all; and, in like manner,
the consumer who wants to buy has immeasurable
difficulties placed between him and the man who
creates the article he wants; so that each hand
through which it has to pass diminishes, by a per-
ceptible quantity, the article which the consumer is
to receive for his money; and thus it has happened
that these middle-men, whose sole art, business, and
craft it was to keep producer and consumer asunder,
had gradually absorbed a greater part of the profits
of both, and when in bad times both were losers, the
middle-men still gained.
So profitable had this business at last become, that
in times not altogether gone by many of the old and
great names that had formerly belonged to our mer-
chant princes, who had prided themselves on owning
Y
Loss of
value to
the public.
322
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Loss of
character
to the
producer.
their fleets of ships, equipped magnificently, com-
manded by captains of skill, navigated by the best
sailors, rarely shipwrecked, and rarely insured-the
buyers of foreign produce in every market of the
world, and the sellers of British manufactures with
a name and character that carried them unquestioned
everywhere—these men at length yielded to the temp-
tation of ceasing to own their own ships, buy their
own manufactures, select their own produce; and,
giving that all up to middle-men, ceased to be any-
thing but drawers of bills and acceptors of accept-
ances. Instead of owning their own ships, they found
middle-men to seem to own them, the real owners
degenerating into mere mortgagees of their value.
The middle-men, to earn their money at once, took
a second-rate captain, a third-rate crew, and a fourth-
rate outfit, and being obliged by their contract to
insure to the full value of the ship in favour of the
mortgagee, the mercantile navy speedily descended
through the middle-men to its present lowered mo-
rality, and unsatisfactory remuneration. Shipwrecks
became common, fraudulent insurances ordinary, and
so our merchant princes ceased to reign; they merely
drew bills and endorsed acceptances.
And here the mischief has not ended, for the
shrewder and younger among those who had been
merchants were not slow to see that what they had
given over to the middle-men had, in fact, become
the profitable part of the business; they determined
to add the respectability of their names to the inferior
business of middle-men, and so firms that had begun
as princely merchants ended as mere firms of huxter-
ing middle-men.
Now, with the progress of personal education, of
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
323
of higher
training for
merchants
and manu-
facturers.
individual skill, of technical knowledge, with the Necessity
extension of the use of foreign languages, and with
thoroughness in business knowledge of all our youth,
there seems a probability that this whole class of
unskilled but voracious middle-men will disappear.
Already we begin to find buyers in the distant markets
of the world making great efforts to discover and get
into closer connection with the trustworthy and skilful
man, who is the true producer of the goods they wish
to buy; and, in like manner, the buyer at home is
beginning to find it his interest to enter into more
close relationship with the foreign merchant from
whom his goods must come; and in every depart-
ment the sense is becoming stronger that the producer
and the consumer would both greatly benefit by taking
direct advantage of the organised methods of speedy
communication, and that the man who knows how to
produce an article, and he who knows how to put it
to use, are the only two persons who have a right to
share the advantage of their exchange.
revolution
merce and
When this conviction becomes general, it will pro- A moral
duce a revolution in all trades; it will require every in com-
man to be a skilled producer or a skilled consumer. trade.
Society is full of indications that this revolution is
nearer than we apprehend; those who look for it will
see indications of it everywhere around them. Almost
while I write this I have been travelling with a young
mercantile man from the City, who volunteered to say
to me that recent keen competition, and the consequent
bad times, have made him look about him in the hope
of bettering himself, and that he finds out that for
years the profits of his trade have gone to persons who
never did anything to earn these profits; that some
middle-man, who happened to have an intimate friend
Y 2
324
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
6
A revolu-
tion in
mechanical
engineer-
ing trade
works.
-a bank director, some bill discounter, who had set
up a dependent of his own in trade, some packer of
goods, or shipping agent, or broker-had come between
him and his principal in all his transactions; that as a
consequence he had been rubbing up his scanty French
he had just made a journey to meet face to face some
foreign correspondents, and that they had mutually
agreed for the future to deal directly with each other,
and emancipate themselves from middle-men; that on
his return home he had found out that great impedi-
ments would be put in his way in every direction by
middle-men and their backers, but that he had deter-
mined to persevere, and that several of his friends
were now following his example. Everywhere around
me I find this under-current, but its expression is
seldom made openly, for fear of present inconvenience.
Having watched the progress of what I consider the
false system of commerce prevalent in England for so
long a period, but during the last ten years pregnant
with so much misery and calamity, I am satisfied that,
for the benefit of society and morality, it should have
a speedy end.
The evil under which society has laboured has been
this that the transactions of mercantile life have
passed out of the hands of educated, skilled, and
and public accomplished men, into those of vulgar, uneducated,
and therefore unscrupulous agents-the tools of men
behind the scenes, who grasp the profits others have
earned. As this system has now tumbled to pieces,
and shown us the national ruin to which it conducts
inevitably, there seems to me a hope that a unanimous
effort will be made to reconstitute every kind of tech-
nical business on a new footing. The basis of this new
footing will have to be extended systems of education,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
325
corresponding to the extended spheres of action of
modern times. The man of skill who creates or dis-
covers that which is valuable to another, will take
pains to put himself in communication with that other
only who has knowledge and skill to make a good and
wise application of it; each will assist the other to
gain the enhanced reputation due to character, respon-
sibility, and skill, and we may return to that high
state of commercial reputation in which the name of
the English maker and the name of the English mer-
chant were a guarantee all the world over. There will
be war between skill, knowledge, meritorious produc-
tion, and judicious selection, against speculation, finance,
irresponsible merchandise, and intermeddling middle-
men.
In machinery and engineering a similar revolution
is at hand. For want of skill in the user, from want
of judgment in the buyer, from ignorance of the true
aims and objects of machinery and of public works,
they, too, have become objects of mere financial mani-
pulation. A railway has ceased to be an achievement
of mechanical skill, in which a path was to be found
for a country, or for adjacent countries, through arduous
difficulties; to be overcome by talent, with economy of
means, and high durability, efficiency, and security.
A national railway has descended into a mere manu-
facture of financial paper-paper to be sold in the
Bourses or betting markets, with value scarcely ever
real, but from the beginning fictitious; having a
capital which is not the true capital of the undertaking,
but a fictitious capital created for quite another pur-
pose; having an engineer who is not an engineer in
the sense of knowledge or skill, but a calculator having
capacity of figures and pliability sufficient to adapt his
326
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Revolution
in chemical
trades.
technical estimates to the fictitious capital of the
undertaking; a railway to be made by a man who
is not a practical constructor, skilled in the economy
of means and labour-knowing how to find, fetch, and
place the materials in the best, most effectual, and
permanent way, but a nominal contractor knowing
how to manipulate, not the materials of construction,
but the fictitious paper of financiers; a man knowing
in the ways by which materials that are cheap shall
play the part of materials that are dear; a man, in
short, who knows how to make a railway that will sell,
but not wear. These are the sort of public works and
the kind of enterprises in which the uneducated and
unscrupulous have engaged the capital and the character
of the British merchant, engineer, contractor. For
them, also, let us hope that a new era now opens. In
that era we may look forward to the time when a
public work will only be undertaken when it is mani-
festly for the public good; that it will be considered
with strict reference to the greatest economy of capital;
and that the wealth of the nation shall be hoarded and
employed with the same scrupulous parsimony which
distinguishes a man in his private affairs. That the
design of the national work will be confided to the
most competent and skilled engineer, and not to the
most pliable and accommodating calculator, and its
execution to the most skilled and thorough workman
instead of the cheapest and most reckless under-
taker.
In the world of chemistry, also, we must prepare for
new times, processes, and trades. Whoever watches
the progress of chemistry sees that nearly everything
is going to be made out of everything else, and that
the manufacturer who is bred to know nothing beyond
SYSTEMATIC TECHNIOAL EDUCATION.
327
that branch of a chemical trade to which his father
has trained him will be nowhere in the race of life. I
find everywhere the educated nations of Europe estab-
lishing outposts far forward in the field of chemical
discovery; large sums are lavished on chemical obser-
vatories, where, from the highest summits of modern
discovery, philosophers are placed on the watch for
symptoms of future discovery, and whence they give
to the workers below early warning of coming change
in the atmospheres of electricity, magnetism, galvanism,
light, or heat, which may cause a revolution in some
department under their charge, in manufactures, in-
dustry, or science. Thus forewarned, these nations are
forearmed.
morality
skilled
nity.
In concluding this review of the prospects of tech- Higher
nical knowledge and skill through the life of the of an edu-
coming generation of Englishmen, we have noticed cated and
merely some of the most prominent and inevitable commu-
social changes which indicate the necessity for better
preparation in our youth to meet the times to come.
In our opinion, the philosophers are far before the
people in foreseeing the times that are coming, and
the people don't take warning, because they are not
educated. Agriculture is in revolution, for agriculture
is becoming chemistry, and husbandry is becoming
machinery; yet our agriculturists have not become
chemists, nor our husbandmen mechanics. In common
trades a revolution is coming; for all that is done
without skill is going to be done by dead machinery,
not by intelligent men; and it is well that it should
be so, for mere routine processes, requiring brute-
strength, without refinement or intelligence, can all be
better done, more evenly, regularly, and unvaryingly,
by dead matter than by living force; and it is, more-
Į
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
328
over, better for the intelligent and moral being that
he should not be degraded to the level of the brute
elements, or lowered to the rank of an unsentient
machine. Why should a human being be doomed to
spend his days in mounting and descending a ladder
with twenty-seven burnt bricks on his shoulder, while,
at one-tenth of the cost, a machine, made of iron, and
fed with coal, will do the work, if he will only under-
take the more intelligent task of tending, feeding,
oiling, and repairing it. This last demands education,
intelligence, conscientious care-all the qualities that
go to make a man a superior, thoughtful being. Who,
then, can regret the time coming when every occupa-
tion which requires no skill, and only brute force, shall
cease to be the daily work of a human being, and when
that being shall be raised to be a maker, worker, or
director of machines?
To that time the working man is rapidly approach-
ing, and for it he must be fitted; but above and over
him will arise the class who, in their turn, are to
instruct, guide, and think for him. However skilled
to work his machine, he will still depend on a su-
perior to invent or make it; on a man who shall
go before him to lay out his work and prepare it; on
a man who shall come after him to complete it. These
are the higher departments which form the higher
ranks of crafts; in short, above the skilled doers, we
must have the skilled thinkers.
In this view of an intelligent, skilled nation, it is
plain that we shall be able to do without the un-
skilled, the unintelligent, and the uneducated. We
shall not merely be able to do without him, but
we shall think it better to be without him. The
law of society will become this-that he who cannot
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
329
create his food shall not eat it, for assuredly in the
time that is coming he will not find in civilised
Europe a place for him; the man of the future must
have one of two qualifications-skill to do, education
to know-or both.
Organisa-
tion of edu-
cation
the busi-
ness of
Govern-
ment.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WAYS, MEANS, AND ORGANISATION FOR THE SYSTEMATIC
TECHNICAL EDUCATION OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.
Organisation of education the business of Government.-Who will under-
take it?—The educated workmen earn double wages.-Increased na-
tional revenue from skilled industry.-Difference in value between
highly manufactured goods and rough raw material.-Wanted, a fit
minister of public education-A competent council of education-
Skilled teachers of technical science.-Duty of Government.-Duty of
local authorities.-Special education for local trades and works.-
Central university.-Local technical colleges.-Country trade schools.
-Cost of these institutions for England.-Table.
THE first question to be settled by the nation is
this:-Whether it thinks the technical education of
the English people a matter sufficiently important to
the whole community to entitle it to be a subject
of imperial interest and Government care; or, whether
it considers the technical education of each man to be
a mere mercantile consideration, personal to himself
only, and technical knowledge a commodity which he
may be left to buy at any shop which best suits his
individual convenience or means? If we choose the
latter alternative-and to this moment it is the one
we have chosen perseveringly—then we must also be
prepared to accept the conclusion that sound technical
national education will not be offered as a commodity
to the English people, nor will the few and excep-
tional shops that have been opened for its sale find
customers.
It would not be worth while to discuss the subject
of technical education, if we had not reason to suppose
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
331
that a systematic technical education for the people is
now a want generally felt, if not yet fully recognised;
that, in national phrase, it has become everybody's
business, and that, in phraseology equally characteristic,
that which is everybody's business is felt to be no-
body's business.
Perhaps it is also true, though in England too little
recognised, that whatever has become a matter of vital
interest to the present and future well-being of the
whole nation and of all its parts, and which, for that
very reason, requires the co-operation of the whole
nation for its success, ought to be matter of imperial
legislation and execution, in order that we may enjoy
the benefit of that large organisation which alone can
reconcile the interest of the many with the desire of
the few-to reap personal advantage at national cost.
How well the system of national organisation has
succeeded, even in England, may be seen in our post-
office system. How ill the want of system has suc-
ceeded, which abandons the organisation of services
common to the good of the whole community to the
disorganisation which leaves private individuals to
further their own interests under pretence of supply-
ing the common wants, may be seen in the present
chaos which the railway enterprises of England now
present to the civilised world--of national interests
destroyed, national reputation lowered, and national
wealth squandered. Who will be found to deny that
a little of the same forethought, the same systematic
balancing of national and local interests, the same wise
parsimony, which have procured for other countries
railway systems adequate to their wants at one-half
or one-third of the cost, and with none of the shame
or humiliation which attends the disclosures of our
332
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Who will
undertake
it ?
mismanagement, could also have procured for us the
supply of a perfect system of railway communication,
as well organised and economically administered as our
post office ;-shall we allow it to be said that we have
a national preference for private adventure and indi-
vidual gain at the expense of the community, to self-
denying organisation, and prudent forethought for the
public welfare?
I find myself betrayed into these painful remarks by
the fact, that the nation is now placed in the critical
position, at the critical moment, when she has to
decide upon the adoption of system, or no system, for
the education of the coming generation of new citizens.
Every one admits that this must now be looked to and
re-constituted, and there is no question but this:-
Shall it be done as railways were, by individuals, at
the cost of the nation? or shall we as a nation see to
it, organise it, and do it?
I will proceed on the assumption that we are agreed
that the education of the nation is the business of the
nation, and that we desire that our executive Govern-
ment shall organise and do it; and if we shall be so
fortunate as to find a minister of State who is willing
and able to undertake the organisation of this education
as a department of State business, then the first point
he will put to us will be-"What value do you put
upon technical education, and what will you be willing
to pay for it?"
I will here venture to state that the answer I have
received from some of those men into whose hands
the administration of part of this education would be
likely to fall if it were carried into effect, is, that the
people are neither ready nor willing to pay for good
education. I have ventured to say directly the con-
•
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
333
trary; and I think I am right when I say that the
tax-payer would rejoice to find that our Government
had the courage to ask an adequate grant for technical
education, and ask for it on the express condition that
the education to be provided for rearing the skilled
workmen of England was to be as thorough, as
universal, and as extensively distributed, as the
technical education given to the working artisans
and skilled men of the best educated country in
Europe. But I am equally satisfied that if the
Government was to try any miserable, tentative,
stingy, inadequate expedients, such as those paltry
gratuities it has hitherto been sparing from the public
purse, as little better than a paltry pretence for doing
nothing-such half measures would prove in the future
the condign and utter failures they have proved in the
past, and excite only the contempt and indignation of
the people whose highest interests they have so long
trifled with or neglected.
If, therefore, the statement were made boldly to the
nation which now grants to the Government more
than sixty millions a year, and which pays, over and
beyond this, for ignorance, improvidence, and crime,
seven millions of rates, whether it would grant a
million per annum for the purpose of giving increased
skill, knowledge, and culture, to training the children
of the industrious, skilled, and inventive classes, whose
united labours produce the whole industrial and
commercial wealth of England ;-I say to train them
to greater skill, ingenuity, and capacity for giving
to her increased wealth;-I will venture this asser-
tion, that the great majority of Englishmen would
reply cheerfully-Ay, the gain is well worth the
outlay.
334
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The edu-
cated
workman
earns
double
wages.
Increased
national
revenue
from
skilled
industry.
What is then the mercantile or monied value of a
well-trained, skilful Englishman, as compared to a
strong able-bodied man who understands no craft,
handiwork, or art? The shop value of the two men
is at once told by the labour market. The one man
can earn for the community 257. a year, the other man
has an average 601., and with superior skill 100%., a
year. Or if we take the three grades of unskilled,
moderately skilled, and highly skilled men, we may
represent their mean values by 25l., 50l., and 757.; in
other words, the highly skilled man is worth three
times the value of the unskilled man.
At the present time there are about a million of
skilled workmen, but there is a million of very
poorly skilled, and two millions of utterly unskilled
men. Supposing that by education we can raise
the million of lower skilled into highly skilled men,
and replace them by one million of unskilled men,
raised by some little education to their rank, we have
by that single act earned for the country 50,000,0007.
a year.
We can now put the question in a new and very
precise form. Is the addition of 50,000,000l. per
annum to the nation's wealth through increased
training, knowledge, and skill, worth the annual
outlay of 1,000,000l. from the nation's budget?
.
It will be objected that this result, even if we
resolve upon the expenditure, is distant; that we
cannot train the nation in a day; and that a large
present expense is incurred for a remote benefit. The
answer is, that the expenditure is also progressive.
We cannot conjure up training schools and technical
colleges in a day. We cannot find masters at hand.
We have to endure the penalty of past negligence,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
335
and work up slowly, painfully, and expensively, that
which we ought to have done in time long gone by.
We cannot easily, and at small cost, have the educa-
tion we have neglected. The mere willingness to buy,
and find the money, will not suddenly give us all the
advantages of foresight, forethought, and methodical
prevision.
There is, however, an important practical question to
be asked. Skill, capacity, and ability, are not in them-
selves wealth, and it may not be clear and obvious how
this additional 50,000,000l. is to be earned without
the addition of a single man to the population. The
manner in which skill creates wealth is not difficult to
understand. Take one million tons of the iron which
we export from this country in little better than the
brute form in which Nature has providently stored
it up for us immediately below the skin of our soil,
and for which we now receive barely 3,000,000l.; let
us suppose that we expend upon that iron a little of
the skill which Mr. Bessemer, the great technical
schoolmaster in steel, can so readily teach us, and let
us convert it into, say, half a million of Bessemer steel
rails, and it will at once have risen to the value of
6,000,000l.—the other half million of tons have gone
to supply the waste and pay the other costs of the
process. In this case skill has earned 3,000,0007.
sterling, in a highly marketable commodity. But we Difference
need not stop here; the steel in these rails may be between
converted by still higher skill into boilers, wheels, nufactured
axles, and parts of locomotive engines; and if the goods and
skilled workmen of our country are
more skilled material.
than those elsewhere, one hundred thousand tons of
that steel may be worked up into two thousand loco-
motive engines and tenders, which will alone be worth
in value
highly ma-
rough raw
336
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
4,000,000l., and thus the value of this portion of the
steel is quadrupled.
It is easy to imagine what may be done with the
remaining 400,000 tons of steel; part of it might be
converted into agricultural steam-engines and steam
ploughs to till every man's fields; and in that shape
the value of each ton might be taken at 50l. a ton, so
that 100,000 tons would become worth 5,000,000l.
Another portion might form the steel of still smaller
tools and implements, which, in proportion to their
smallness and the higher ratio of skill and artifice,
would easily become of double the value, or 10,000,0007.
There can hence be no difficulty in seeing how the
higher skill of the additional million of skilled men,
whom we have raised by education, could be able to
earn their twenty-five additional millions of higher
wages. And, moreover, there can be no difficulty in
seeing how the less skilled million below them could
earn their additional wages as helpers to these, or
as users and employers of the improved tools and
machinery which the others had created.
Nevertheless, it is inevitable that the hard condition
on which alone this stream of gold will flow into the
national wealth, is that we now begin the pains-
taking task of making our labourer the most skilled
and intelligent of craftsmen; otherwise, these things
will be done, not by us, but by the children of some
other soil, whose rulers have been more provident
than ours.
Perhaps this calculation, which is a very small
sample of many that might be adduced from every
branch of skilled industry, may solve any remaining
doubt of exchanging 1,000,000l. of national expen-
diture for 50,000,000l. of return; but the finding of
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
337
the money is only the beginning of the work: the
greatest difficulty will be to find the organisers of the
work, the teachers, and the fit organisation to enable
the teachers to do their work effectually. We must
therefore continue our inquiry under these heads :-
fit minister
1st. How to organise a system of National Tech- Wanted, a
nical Education. Our first great want is a minister of public
of public education, and the fear is that even when education.
we yield to a great public necessity, and appoint him,
we may merely be finding a place for a man, instead
of the man for the place. The right man in the right
place can be nowhere more important than here; and,
unhappily, it is a part of our political system that
fitness for the special duties of the place is reckoned a
minor qualification. The most practical of all people
as we think ourselves, we are continually putting a
minister at the head of that department of government
of which he knows least. We send a man well in
up i
naval affairs to manage the army; an excellent chan-
cellor of the exchequer we make minister for India;
the man best versed in commerce or trade we put in
the Home Office; and an admirable agriculturist and
country gentleman we send to the Board of Trade.
At the head of the education department we usually
put the useful servant of the party, for whom we are
compelled to find some place, and we therefore stow
him in a department where it is supposed he can do
no harm; but even then we are scarcely safe, for he
passes some most inexpedient and unpopular measure
such as "payment by results"-a shopkeeping prin-
ciple utterly inapplicable to the very nature and
essence of education, which is a process of moral
and intellectual culture, and of a nature utterly
foreign to the barter and sale of commodities.
Z
338
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
A compe-
tent council
of educa-
tion.
If, therefore, we are in earnest about sound edu-
cation, our first step is to find a man who, himself
possessing high education, has patriotically devoted
time, thought, and deliberation to the subject; who
would do the duties with sincerity and zeal; and
who, instead of being a violent party man, should
be one whom opposite sects could trust, and with
whom the various ranks of society could freely com-
municate.
The first duty of this minister would be to select as
the members of his council, not political agents, not
official place-men, not men who have nothing better to
do; but to choose from every branch of technical
science and technical profession, the men most dis-
tinguished for the combination of high scientific know-
ledge with extensive practical skill and experience.
His difficulty would be that the men whom he should
most desire to occupy with the discharge of so patriotic
a duty might, and would be in all probability, men
fully engaged in the discharge of responsible duty;
and he would have to determine whether the education
of the nation is a cause worthy of obtaining the
services of the best men, or whether second or third-
rate men would answer the purpose. A nation which
regarded with deep solicitude the interests of its
children, would naturally desire that the men who
trained them to their future life and citizenship should
be men whose high example should fire the youthful
mind to emulate their worth, and whose wisdom
should be able to lead them to the most noble aims
by the surest path. Wherever, therefore, that nation
could find its Socrates or its Aristotle, it would make
them teachers of its youth, and would empower the
minister to honour and remunerate them worthily.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
339
Having selected a fit council of directors, it would
be necessary that they in their turn should exercise
discrimination in selecting to the posts in the technical
universities, colleges, and schools, no mere pedagogues
in book learning, no mere crammers of facts and figures,
no mere repeaters of words and word-knowledge, but
men thorough, sound, and deep-skilled in science they
had themselves helped to discover, in art they had
themselves helped to create, and industries through
which they had themselves worked successfully. In
short, men to teach equally by precept and example.
teachers of
But though the teacher should be no mere word Skilled
pedagogue, it would far from suffice to make him a technical
teacher that he should have mastered his subject: that science.
is a first qualification. The second is that he should
be by nature and affection a teacher. If he love the
profession of instructing, and think it the duty of his
life so to rear youth as to make their generation of
citizens illustrious, he will be sure to teach success-
fully; but the best and most successful way would be
to place him under one who understands the philo-
sophy of teaching-a philosophy which requires little
less than the study of the human mind, and the whole
nature of human thought-so as to show him how the
world of nature and the world of mind fit one another.
He will thus learn that there are ways of putting
things to the scholar which make him drink in know-
ledge as mother's milk, while there are other ways of
putting knowledge that give to it the flavour of gall or
wormwood-only to be swallowed under fear of birch
or cane. It will result from this that a college for
teaching the teachers is one of the first and most
important branches of our national technical establish-
ments, and that success in the selection of the men,
z 2
340
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Duty of
Govern-
ment.
Duty of
local autho
rities.
and in the method of teaching, is the first condition in
the success of the teaching itself.
I have elsewhere considered the different sorts and
natures of university colleges and schools which go to
make a national organisation for technical education, and
it is now only necessary to consider how best to fit these
to the English nation. The share which the nation at
large should take in the establishment and maintenance
of these institutions, the share which each locality
should take in their establishment and maintenance, and
the way in which the pupils should be selected, assisted
or made to contribute to their education, are matters
full of elements of success or failure. To me it seems
the vocation of the central government to decide on
the system of education in each class of institution, to
select the teachers and to pay them their annual
salary, to name the director in chief, or principal, who
would be responsible immediately to them for seeing
the system carried out. To call upon the local autho-
rities to do their part, and to enforce it.
It should be the part of the local authorities to con-
tribute and maintain what we will call the matériel of
the college or school. They must find land, and on it
construct the edifice, all the internal arrangements of
which must satisfy the conditions prescribed by the
central government; and whether the funds thus pro-
cured come from the funds of communities already
wealthy, or have to be raised by rates, the Government
must have power to force their application to a build-
ing which is healthy, convenient, and suitable, and they
must maintain that building, with its playground and
garden, in good order and condition, comfortably fur-
nished, and well warmed and lighted.
It may be matter of doubt whether the central
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
341
government or the local authorities should bear the
cost of the matériel of teaching, of libraries, collections
of instruments, and drawings, patterns, models, and
scientific collections and museums, chemical and me-
chanical materials for experiment and research. I am
strongly of opinion that it should be the duty of the
central government, for by that means alone can a per-
fect and economical system be devised for their supply.
The eccentricities of local management would be in-
tolerable and wasteful.
education
works.
There is, however, one department in which the Special
local authorities should have a due influence. Although for local
they might be no judges of the courses of education trades and
and methods of training, they might be considered
true representatives of the local wants of the district,
and they ought therefore to be represented on the
council of management by one of the local authorities.
having a seat at the board, whose duty it would be to
organise, in addition to the general education, such
special teaching as was most likely to be technically
useful in the district; thus, in an agricultural district,
agricultural classes and museums might be more fully
developed; and in a mineral or manufacturing district,
the class of machinery, mining, or textile fabrics might
predominate. Thus, without hindrance to systematic
organisation, the teaching might be made pliable to
local circumstances.
university.
There need be only one exception to this arrange- Central
ment of expenditure between the central government,
the places of the schools. The great central technical
university ought to be metropolitan, and all its ex-
penses exclusively national. If Greenwich Hospital
be vacated, or the public offices transferred from
Somerset House to Whitehall, there are two buildings,
342
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Local tech-
nical col-
leges.
Country
trade
schools.
each worthy of this great object; but if these cannot
be spared, then it will become the duty of the nation
to erect with all speed a public building, worthy to be
the chief training school of the highest class of men
who are to direct the whole energy of that part of the
nation which is occupied in the creation of public
wealth, and the conversion of the powers of nature to
the advancement of civilisation and culture.
Subordinate to this metropolitan university, these
local technical colleges would be placed in every centre
of local industry. The subjects taught would be
nearly the same as in the university, only the theo-
retical part would not be carried to the same heights
of science, and the technical part would be more fully
carried out into the technical details of the industries
of the neighbourhood. Specially attached also to each
of them would be an extensive collection of models,
examples, materials belonging to the local industries,
and a free technical library, with a comfortable reading
room.
The lower class of institutions would be those which
either form preparatory schools for the technical col-
leges, or finishing technical schools for those who can
go no further; and these should pervade not only the
whole country, but the large towns and the metropolis,
there being one such institution for every 20,000 in-
habitants in town districts, and for every 10,000 in
country districts; and either in the same building or
in a different one there should be technical schools in
the evening, as complete in their course of instruction
for the working men, as in the morning for the youth
of the district; and to these schools should be attached
a library, museum, and reading-room, similar to that of
the colleges, only more elementary, and on a smaller
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
343
scale. It is these local night schools and libraries for
the working men that ought to fulfil the duties in
which our mechanics' institutions have so wofully
failed, and it may in some cases be convenient that
the Government should make use of the building
and organisation of these mechanics' institutes for
these technical evening schools.
The reader who considers that this organisation is the
minimum apparatus by which the technical training of
our million of skilled men, and our three million of half
skilled and unskilled men may be carried parallel with
the advancement of the training of educated Europe,
will see that we can have little difficulty in disposing
advantageously of the 1,000,000l. a year we have ap-
propriated. One technical university will cost-say
180,000l. a year; fifteen colleges, 300,000l. a year; a
thousand schools, 500,000l. a year; museums, libraries,
&c., will dispose of the remainder.
For each large town a suitable building ought to be
erected, if it does not already exist, and 100,000l. is
the least sum that can adequately fulfil the purpose for
a populous, industrious, wealthy town. In like manner,
for the schools, 5000l. is the least sum that can be
expended.
Cost of
1
these insti-
tutes for
England.
344
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
WAYS, MEANS AND ORGANISATION FOR THE TECH-
NICAL EDUCATION OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.*
I.—THE METROPOLITAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY.
150,000l. per annum.
II. THE LOCAL TECHNICAL COLLEGES.
(Fifteen.)
Each, 20,000l. per annum.
Total, 300,000l. per annum.
III.-LOCAL TRADE SCHOOLS.
(One thousand.)
Each, 500l. per annum.
Total, 500,000l. per annum.
TOTAL ANNUAL PARLIAMENTARY VOTE, 1,000,000%.
* Excluding Scotland and Ireland.
THE
CHAPTER XIX.
ORGANISATION OF FIFTEEN LOCAL TECHNICAL
COLLEGES IN THE CHIEF CENTRES OF ARTS,
MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE.
The fifteen local technical colleges-To be organised as preparatory to the
university—And also as finishing-schools for local industry, commerce,
or agriculture. Their science teaching-Their technical teaching—
Its practical nature suited to the wants of the district. The teachers
must teach the practical work of the district.-Agriculture.-Building
trades.—Collection of examples of best designs, materials, and work-
manship.-Mechanical trades, laws of matter and work.—Work in
metals.-Textile workers and works.-Effect of education on taste,
wages, and wealth.-Textile education. Decorative design.— Color-
ing.-Courses of study.-Education of merchants in commercial citics.
-Education of miners in mining districts.-Education of sailors and
ship-builders in sea-port towns.
local tech-
THE organisation of colleges which shall rank The fifteen
immediately below the great technical university nical col-
must be, to some extent, of the same nature as the leges
great central university. It is probable that many
of the students of that university would be men
selected from these colleges, on account of the dis-
tinction they might have attained, or the special
aptitude they might have shown in the college for
higher courses of study. In so far as these colleges,
therefore, are preparatory for the university, the sub-
jects and methods of teaching ought to bear a definite
and clear relation to each other-the relation of pre-
paratory to finishing schools.
In this first capacity these colleges would teach the
mathematical, physical, and chemical sciences taught
To be or
prepara-
ganised as
346
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
university;
tory to the in the university, only in an elementary manner, and
to a limited extent. Natural history would occupy
a prominent place, and especially the natural history
of the raw materials used in the commerce or manu-
facturing industries of the district. Languages also
and literature, both English and foreign, would be so
taught as to prepare for the higher university; and
the training of the students in the use of their senses,
and their limbs, in accuracy of eye, dexterity of hand
and quickness and sureness of action, would prepare
them for the higher duties of the university and the
world.
And also as
finishing
local in-
dustry,
or agricul-
ture.
But there is quite another duty for these local
schools for technical colleges, which is equally wanted with the
preparation of the highest class of professional and
commerce technical men for the central university. These local
colleges will form the culminating point of technical
education to that far larger number of young men
who are destined before they reach their eighteenth
year to abandon the education of the school for that
of the workshop and the office. These men cannot
wait to sow the seed and reap the harvest of university
education; they must abandon the field of knowledge
for that of work. For this large class the local college
is not a preparatory but a finishing school, and in the
organisation of these colleges we must mainly consider
how we can add to so much pure science as their time
can afford, as much science applied to the future of
their lives as their limited time can afford. Adequate
teaching of technical science for them is even more
difficult than for the students for the university,
because while they want it no less, they are less
prepared to receive it than those who have gone
further in pure science. The nature of their tech-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
347
nical education, therefore, demands serious considera-
tion.
science
I will take for granted that during their fifteenth, Their
sixteenth, and seventeenth years in these colleges teaching;
excellent provision is made for a limited portion of
mathematical, physical, and chemical teaching. It is
only necessary that their pure science should be
honestly taught, and that it should in no degree
resemble that catchword kind of science which is
adroitly got up by professional cram for competitive
examinations; on the contrary, it should present the
qualities of truth, depth, and thoroughness, and be
neither superficial nor detailed; but, for this very
reason, the teachers require profounder knowledge,
more skill in teaching, and greater discretion in what
they teach than the teachers of further advanced
pupils. To these youths of limited education the
question what to teach and what not to teach requires
the utmost judgment. Their career of education being
so close to its end, the main object should be to send
them away most completely furnished with that which
will best serve their future needs, disembarrassed of
all that might prove mere lumber.
nical teachi-
But it is the technical application of their pure Their tech-
science knowledge that requires from their teachers ing;
the highest measure of judgment and ability. They
are to be shown how all the abstract science they have
learnt leads up to all the work they are about to do;
and it is necessary not only that they should be told
of how much value their science may be to them, but
they must be shown how to fit the one into the other;
and they must acquire habits of putting their abstract
science into practical shape, and of analysing practical
work into its scientific elements. If, for example,
348
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
suited to
wants of
the district.
they are to be farmers, they must not only be told
that the nature of plants is a branch of natural
history, that the feeding of plants is a branch of
physiology, and that the culture of the soil is a
branch of chemistry, but they must be taught the
actual natural history of all the individual kinds of
Its practi- plants they will have to cultivate; they must learn
cal nature the physiology of all the plants they will have to feed,
and the chemistry of all the soils they will have to
till, and of the kinds of manure they ought to turn
into the ground. Without this technical instruction
the young farmer who has been persuaded to study
natural history, physiology, and chemistry in the belief
that it will help his farming, would find that he had
merely been befooled by his teachers; for it is quite
easy to spend years of one's life in chemistry, natural
history, and physiology without finding a particle of
knowledge useful to a farmer's life. Modern science
is so wide and universal, that a mere elementary
knowledge is for practical use both vague and deceit-
ful; it must either be very wide and profound, and
most skilfully applied, or it may be worse than use-
less; or in such a college the student must be taught
with especial care that part which will be of value to
his narrow vocation, and he must be carefully warned
off that which is speculative and remote from his
work. While, therefore, his pure science should be
as profound as possible, his technical science should
be as precise, exact, and narrowly fitting into his
work as the technical knowledge of his master can
make it.
This technical part of local colleges it will be most
difficult to organise. To a great extent teachers of
pure science are unfamiliar with its technical appli-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
349
cations; and mere technical men are incapable of
teaching the science they scarcely know, and are
wholly unpractised in the difficult art of teaching.
How, then, to get masters of pure science who are
deeply versed in its technical applications is a great
difficulty to be overcome, and which only the national
resources, zeal and will, can by perseverance conquer.
It is hard to say which is to be the more dreaded-
superficial science applied to practical use, or profound
science applied with ignorance of the true aims and
conditions of its application. This divorce of practice
from science has been the great misfortune of our
generation, and we must spare no pains to avert it
from the next.
be
The teach-
teach the
work of the
ers must
practical
district.
Agricul-
To every special trade in the locality where these
colleges are to be planted there must therefore
separate professors of each technical application. It
will not do, for example, to have a professor of agri-
culture, and expect him to teach all agriculture, for ture.
that would be like appointing a professor of all science
-a kind of man who must inevitably be an impostor
or a quack. One man must teach the chemistry of
agriculture, and he must both be a profound chemist
and be familiar with the practical farming of the
district. There must be another teacher for the
natural history and physiology of vegetation
quainted with the nature of cereals, green crops,
fruit-trees, and other products of the vegetable king-
dom. In a breeding district there must, in like man-
ner, be a professor thoroughly master of the anatomy,
physiology, health, and disease of cattle and all farm
animals, and who knows the customs, usages, breeds,
soil, climate, and diseases of the district. In like
manner, the nature of all agricultural buildings,
ac-
350
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Building
trades.
fences, gates, vehicles, implements, machinery, tools,
and mechanical processes employed in agriculture
should be taught by a master of practical and theo-
retical mechanics, who has also mastered all the
processes and wants of the agriculturist in his district.
I have taken as an illustration agriculture alone,
because, wherever these colleges are founded, that is
sure to be one of the important subjects in which
technical education is urgently required; but I might
have taken in like manner all those branches of
industry commonly grouped as building trades; and
as everywhere dwellings are required, so in every local
technical college, means should be provided for teach-
ing the scientific principles of their art to the master
stonemason, master carpenter, master joiner, master
plasterer, and master painter. And not to these future
masters only, but also to all those young men who are
being bred to these trades, in the hope that they may
rise in the future through the grades of skilled foremen
and overseers to be possible masters. Now all these
men, without exception, require: first, to understand
thoroughly all the possible shapes of their work, which
forms the theory of geometry; second, the art of putting
them on paper, called descriptive geometry; and,
third, the art of taking them off the paper plan and
executing them in the stuff they have to deal with,
which I will call constructive geometry. Moreover, all
these men require to possess, not merely the power of
true comprehension and execution, but a knowledge
of the comely, the well-proportioned, and the beautiful;
otherwise they never can imbue their works with the
spirit and feeling which give pleasure to the spectator
of true and graceful work. Therefore the whole class
of men connected with the construction and beautify-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
351
ing of our homes, require an education in the principles
of symmetry, decoration and beauty; and they equally
require education in the cause and nature of ugliness,
in order that the eye may not merely be offended
by distortion or disproportion, but gratified by truth
and beauty of conception and execution. For the
purpose of pleasing an intelligent eye, each work-
man concerned in it must not only know thoroughly
how to do his work, but must show his knowledge in
every bit of it.
of examples
signs, ma-
workman-
For this purpose, the men in the building trades Collection
should be surrounded in their college by samples of best de-
of the best pieces of workmanship in every branch of terials, and
their business: not mere historical examples from ship.
Greek temples or Gothic cathedrals, that may never
again have to be executed, but of real good work,
suited to modern use the cleverest work of the
ablest men of this century, brought from every part
of Europe. If in Italy there are better ornamental
smiths than in England, then the best samples of
Italian smith-work should form a portion of their
collection. If the plasterers of Berlin do much higher
class work than those of London (as I think they do),
the best samples of their work should be placed in
this museum, and so on through all the elements of the
building trade. And this might be carried out through
every detail down to handles of doors, locks, hinges,
self-closing mechanism, ventilation, water supply,
draining, cooking apparatus, and every part of the
furnishing mechanism and economy of a house.
I am
disposed to think that it would be impossible to
train up a single generation of young building trades-
men in this manner, imbued with such principles
and surrounded with such examples, without creating
352
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Mechanical
trades, laws
of matter
and work.
Work in
metals.
a revolution in the appearance of the town in which
the college was placed, and in the domestic habits and
manners of the inhabitants. I can only say, that I
have myself watched sufficiently long the effect of such
a school in Berlin, as to have seen a complete and
beneficial revolution accomplished in the design,
materials, decoration, and comfort of the interior.
Twenty years of education have sufficed to produce
this result.
For all the mechanics engaged in house building, and
for all other mechanics not so engaged, these various
kinds of geometrical and drawing education are indis-
pensable. But for all mechanics there is another branch
of education which is equally important and of the
essence of their trade-the principles and laws of
mechanics must guide and govern every process which
the workman performs on his materials. He cannot
work with any sort of matter in a way contrary to the
laws of that matter, without paying for it in waste
of material or labour. The principles of the construc-
tion of mechanical instruments and the laws of their
use are as well known and clearly defined as any
branch of technical science; and the youth who does
not know the laws of mechanics, can never become an
adroit and expeditious workman. These laws are a
branch of mathematical physical science, and every
man who has to shape matter or move weights skilfully,
should be a master of theoretical mechanics.
Perhaps this is more especially true of all the trades
engaged in the manufacture of metals; in all those
connected with the manufacture of machinery; and
particularly for all who manufacture the tools, imple-
ments, and machines by means of which other tools
and implements are made.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
353
For these classes of artificers more strictly called
mechanical, it seems almost an axiom, that in the local
colleges which are to train their leading men for the
highest degrees of skill, there should be provided an
extensive collection of all the best machines, tools,
and examples of work in the world. British mechanics
once were, and ought in future to be ahead in know-
ledge and skill of all others, for they had the good
fortune to be quietly occupied in learning their trades
while the nations of Europe were engaged in war, and
this gave them a start of all competitors; and they
have ever since enjoyed a profusion of good material,
furnished by nature with an abundance and cheapness
beyond any other country; and therefore, if they had
had the wisdom and self-denial, and if their governors
had had the forethought and providence to do as much
for their education in technical science and technical
art as nature had done in the supply of materials,
they ought at this moment to have been placed above
fear from competition. Let them now be surrounded
with the best examples of work done everywhere, and
let them be instructed in the highest principles of art
and science, applied in the most direct manner to the
knowledge of their various trades; and there is no
reason why the British workman should not hold his
first rank where he has it, and regain it where lost.
workers
There is a large branch of trade and skill in what Textile
are called the textile manufactures. A large propor- and works.
tion of our imports and exports consists of raw mate-
rials imported to form, when manufactured, the cor-
responding exports. The profit the nation gains neither
consists in the quantity of the import nor of the export ;
it consists of a part of the increased value given to the
raw material in the interval between its importation
A A
354
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
and exportation in the shape of goods. A pound of
raw cotton, which costs a shilling, exported as a pound
of cotton goods may cost one shilling and sixpence.
To earn this sixpence, we first clean the raw material,
sort it, and therefore send a quantity to waste; we
then make it into yarn, and weave it into fabric; and
in doing so, we expend the capital in our buildings—
the coal, oil, and waste in our machinery-the lives
and energies and food of our working people; and the
question which remains is, whether all these can be
said to have been employed profitably to the com-
munity at large at the sixpence which forms the whole
difference between what we pay the foreigner for the
cotton and what he has to give us back again for
manufactured goods. There is some reason to suspect
that if the working people were adequately paid for
their daily labour, the inventive minds adequately
paid for their high skill, it would remain a matter of
serious doubt whether the competition and low prices
by which the foreigner is supplied leave to the com-
munity in England an adequate return, and whether
the foreign customer is not luxuriously supplied at the
expense of the poverty and penury of the English
workman.
Now, for this, establishments for skilled education of
all the classes engaged in the great variety of textile
manufactures would furnish a radical cure. If, instead
of sending out a pound of cotton so rudely spun and
coarse as not to fetch more than sixpence beyond the
pound of raw material imported, our manufacturers
were to develop so much skill as to convert that shil-
ling's worth of cotton into fabrics worth two shillings
a pound, and that not by mere brute-labour, but by
the two simple elements of skill and taste, then the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
355
remuneration of all engaged in the manufacture would
at once be doubled.
education
wages, and
But the question arises whether our customers would Effect of
be willing to take and pay for these higher class goods on taste,
rather than the lower? To this I answer, possibly not wealth.
these same customers, but most certainly others; it is
a well-known fact that other nations have taken away
from us, by greater skill and taste, those higher and
more remunerative branches of textile industry, and
have wisely left to us the more coarse, vulgar, and cheap.
Our textile manufactures abroad are now only reputed
for cheapness--or, to use a common phrase, because we
sell them at a sacrifice. Thus, for coarse and cheap
goods, foreign nations send to England; for refined
and costly goods, England has to send to other nations.
To put this in other words, skill and refinement in the
makers of textile goods yield high prices, good remu-
neration, and prosperity; ignorance and want of taste
produce coarse, common, unrefined, and unremunera-
tive manufactures. Therefore, to raise the skill and
refine the taste of textile manufacturers by education,
is the sure way to raise profits and wages.
The things necessary to be taught to a textile manu-
facturer are the nature, history, and sources of his raw
materials; the principles and construction of all the
tools and machines by which they can be manufac-
tured; the organisation, distribution, and economies of
the factories in which they are to be manipulated; the
social condition of the working people; the principles
of beauty and design which are to convert a mere
textile fabric into a thing of beauty and a work of
art. Textile beauty, decorative pattern, and all the
play of form and colour, can only be given by high
mechanics-geometrical design, artistic invention, and
A A 2
356
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Textile
education.
chemical knowledge of harmony of color, and the
mode of producing it. When all these are united in
the fabrics of any district, or in the patterns of any
country, those fabrics carry by storm the minds of the
customers, set the fashion to Europe, and lavishly
remunerate those educated, tasteful, and skilled work-
men who have been able to command this superiority
by technical education and training. Such goods, when
exported, should be able to place all who are concerned
in their production in a superior condition of affluence
and refinement; and the local colleges and schools that
should bring about such results could not fail to be
recognised as inculcating far higher principles than
those of merely buying in the cheapest market and
selling in the dearest, the lowest class of goods which
the lowest class of the population of uncivilised coun-
tries would wear. When the profits of our exports
and imports can be reckoned on the high scale to which
superior skill and taste might raise them, then-but
certainly not now-the largeness of both might be
reckoned as an index of national prosperity, civilisation,
and wealth.
In the textile districts, therefore, the textile division
of the technical college should receive a high develop-
ment. Professors of natural history should teach the
nature of every vegetable and animal product fit for
use, the climates fitted for its favourable growth, and
the conditions suited to its development; for it is
known that a high class of material is necessary to a
high class of goods, and that selection of material is a
first step in skilled work. But these professors in
natural history must be equally skilled in all the
processes of manufacture through which these materials
have to pass, otherwise they will not be able to indicate
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
357
the peculiar points in each kind of substance which in
its growth and preparation render it more or less fitted
for its special use. The technical teacher should show
as much skill in selecting what is to be taught, as the
practical worker in the selection of the material to be
worked, and to this end he must be as completely
master of the use it is to be put to as of the nature
of the substance to be used. In like manner, the pro-
fessor who instructs in textile machinery must be not
only a scientific mechanic and skilled machinist, but
must know the materials to be manufactured, and the
fabrics to be produced.
design.
The professor of art who teaches the principles of Decorative
decorative design, must not merely wield skill in
drawing, and apply refined taste to the selection and
creation of beautiful form, but must understand what
are those forms and those designs which will be suited to
or unsuitable for the geometrical and mechanical struc-
ture of the fabrics in which those designs are meant to
be incorporated, otherwise the most exquisite designs
will fail through impracticability of execution.
In like manner the professor who teaches the prin- Coloring.
ciples of design on which colored fabrics are to be ma-
nufactured, must first be a master of all the physical
principles which produce harmony and discord of
color, as well as of all the laws of chemical construc-
tion by which one color is educed out of another, and
also the processes by which one piece of material is
made to yield up its color, and another is made to
imbibe and retain it. The technical principles of color,
therefore, imply a thorough knowledge of profound
branches of physical science, an equal knowledge of the
doctrines of organic chemistry, an acquaintance with
the whole raw material of manufacture, and familiarity
358
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Courses of
study.
Education
of mer-
chants in
commercial
cities.
with the chemical processes of dyeing, and the mecha-
nical processes of printing.
The education, therefore, of the rising generation of
our textile manufacturers will give ample occupation
to the staff of a large college of highly gifted profes-
sors in each centre of textile industry, and will require
no ordinary sized building for the accommodation of
the many teachers, the large laboratories for practical
experiments, and the extensive collection of samples,
patterns, and models of raw materials, processes and
finished work, among which the student should pass
the three years of his technical education.
There remains another local distinction in the tech-
nical occupations of the people, closely connected with
the preceding, yet entirely distinct from it. The
centres of commerce are very rarely the centres of the
manufactures in which they deal, nevertheless it is
certain that much of the knowledge which the manu-
facturer of goods for exportation must possess, must
also be acquired by him whose business it is to deal in
those goods. The merchant who does not know a
better article from a worse, is quite likely to choose the
cheaper and get the dearer. Moreover, the enterprising
merchant is a man who occupies himself in any part of
the civilised or barbarous world, either in discovering
new wants which the home manufacturer can supply,
or new substances to supply home manufacture. His
knowledge, therefore, of the wants of the one, and of
the nature of the other, ought to be extensive and
exact. In this way the education of the merchant
might advantageously partake of that of the manufac-
turer. But it is also necessary that the merchant
should possess extensive, exclusive knowledge; it is his
business to deal with all nations, and therefore an
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
359-
acquaintance with their character, language, laws, cus-
toms, climates, productions, weights, measures, and
monies, is essential. To a great extent, also, the
British merchant has been, and may still continue a
shipowner; he ought in this case to be a judge of
shipping, and should know the laws, usages, practices,
of seafaring folk. The laws of political economy,
currency, exchange, banking, and insurance, are mixed
up with the merchant's every-day business, and the more
thoroughly he is acquainted with them the better he
will be able to select the wiser course in the conduct of
his world-wide affairs. Even in the humbler walks of
mercantile life, there is so much to be learned and
studied that can be quicker learnt and studied at
school than elsewhere, that no merchant's clerk should
leave off school-life till he can conduct mercantile cor-
respondence in two or three languages, not only intel-
ligibly, but with an exact knowledge of the weights,
measures, coins, and usages of his foreign customers.
No further argument is necessary to show that where
our future technical colleges happen to be placed in the
centre of a commercial district, there are certain de-
partments of knowledge peculiarly suited to the mer-
cantile class, the professorships, museums, and practical
teaching of which ought to be largely developed in that
special direction, and that the professorships of natural
history, physical geography, chemistry, and physics,
should form the foundation merely of an education
which should not cease until it has embraced the whole
field of raw material which the vegetable and animal
products of all climates yield to the enterprise of the
merchant, and until his knowledge of the classes of
men he deals with at home and abroad shall have
embraced their language, customs, and all that portion
360
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Education
of miners in
tricts.
of their technical knowledge and interests which
touches his own.
The technical college in a mercantile town must
give, then, in addition to all that knowledge which
is common to the other classes of the community,
a large preponderance of the kind which is purely
special, and men should be selected as professors for it
who are not merely masters of science and principles,
but who know also mercantile life in its widest develop-
ment, and are thus able to judge what are the portions
of science to which each class of student should most
advantageously devote himself, and how such study
should be conducted, so as to be most useful in active
business.
In a mining district it is obvious that the depart-
mining dis- ments which should take fuller development in the
local technical college, are applications of geology,
mineralogy, and machinery, together with the che-
mistry of the various metallurgic processes.
Education
of sailors
In a seaport town, naval architecture and marine
engineering would naturally occupy most attention.
builders in The education of sailors, mates, and captains, for the
and ship
seaport
towns.
mercantile marine, would require the special develop-
ment of mathematics, physics, and mechanics, into
astronomy, navigation, marine surveying, and sea-
manship.
It would also be probable, that wherever it was
thought worth while to found a technical college, there
would be public works, roads, bridges, harbours, docks,
railways, sufficient to occupy a certain number of en-
gineers, civil and mechanical, and of public buildings,
furnishing employment to architects as well as builders,
and these have a sufficient number of grades, from the
humbler clerk of the works, surveyor, skilled foreman,
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
361
and superintendent, to make it desirable that those who
may not seek or be able to afford technical distinction
in the central university, may find in the local college
the highest training they want, or which their oppor-
tunities require, at the same time, and along with
those who are receiving the preparation for the technic
university.
All these local technical colleges, therefore, in so far
as they are to be preliminary institutions, must be
formed on the type of the technical university, only
more elementary in their teaching of pure science.
But in so far as they are to be the finishing technical
schools for the arts, manufactures, or commerce of their
district, they should be carried out into the utmost
practical completeness and development of detail, in
those technical applications by which each locality is
distinguished.
Systematic Organisation of a Local Technical College.
LOCAL ORGANISATION.
It is not always easy to determine what duties in
the matter of public education are best performed by
local authorities, and what are likely to be better
performed by the central national authority. I have
already said that in the matter of providing land,
buildings, and all the material organisation of our local
technical colleges which comprise both professional and
trade students, local authorities should be called upon
to provide a large park, and a large handsome series
of buildings in that park suited in every respect for
the work, health, and recreation of the students.
362
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
They should be called upon to light, warm, clean,
and ventilate the buildings, and maintain the whole
material organisation in perfect working order. A
wealthy commercial town would not be likely on the
representation of the Government to refuse this portion
of the contribution. They might possibly come to take
pride in the beauty of the buildings, the freshness of
their park, and the reputation of their college, but I
do not think that they would be the best judges of the
organisation of the school-teaching, or of the selection
of the teachers; nor could a local body safely be trusted
with the continually recurring cost of adequate salaries
for a high class of teaching. The central government,
on the other hand, or, as we may hope, a minister of
education, being at the head of the whole education of
the British people, should know infinitely better than
the mere local boards of a town or county, what were
the best systems of education, what men were the
fittest teachers, what were the best ways and means
of teaching, and what was the right and wise distri-
bution of work and money among the teachers.
I would therefore give to the central government the
duty of calling on the local authorities to appropriate
the lands, erect the buildings, furnish and maintain
them. But the plans of park and buildings must be
approved by the central government. The central
government should name a principal, select professors,
organise a governing council.
In that governing council, which should be small,
the professors should have one representative, the local
authorities one. The central government should also
have to establish and largely contribute to the mu-
seums and collections of the school, having the right
to accept or refuse the many local contributions which
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
363
might be offered.
these local contributions have generally little teaching
value.
But it has to be observed that
The locality itself is likely to furnish the best illus-
trations of local industry outside the college; and what
it is most material to exhibit in the technical collec-
tions of the college is, the best examples of the highest
designs, skill, and work of other places, other countries,
other times and races, which are probably unknown to
local people. The Government, therefore, is far more
likely to fill the museums and collections wisely than
the local authorities.
There is, however, one subject on which a permanent
local council, to be called the local trades council, could
be wisely appointed.
This local trades council should be selected from
representative men in the district, and should have
a permanent constitution, to watch over the practical
nature of the education received, to be present at the
examinations of the students, and to report annually
or oftener to the principal of the college their views of
the manner in which the school's teaching is, or fails
to be, efficient for the advancement of the local
industries. The local representative on the council
of the college might be the president of this local
trades' council, and so the council would have a repre-
sentative share, but not a preponderant one, in the
government of the university.
PROFESSORS.
I do not think the number of professors in these
colleges ought to be fewer than twenty, and where the
local technical trades are extensive and varied, so as
364
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
to require great variety of technical application, the
number should be increased to twenty-five or thirty; in
a town of one hundred thousand inhabitants, situated
in a county of perhaps one million of industrious inha-
bitants, I should think the number of students in a
technical college would not be less than three hundred,
and each teacher would probably have from twenty-
five to one hundred students as his pupils. I deem it
of primary importance that each professor should not
teach many hours a week, nor ever allow his teaching
to degenerate into mere routine, a condition to which
all teaching rapidly descends when it is protracted.
Of all the teaching I have seen, that is the best which
occupies the mind of the student intensely for a short
time; but that is also much the most laborious and
exhausting to the teacher, and requires the highest
class of man.
Teachers like Faraday, Herschel, Airy, or Tyndall,
would do more education, and communicate more value
to the mind of the student in an hour, than a slow
commonplace teacher in a week. When I talk of
teaching, I don't mean mere passing the time or occu-
pying an hour—I mean sending away at the end of
the hour each pupil wiser and better than when he
came. That wants distinguished men for teachers;
great leisure for preparation; and such good pay as
to leave them no care or thought about their own
personal or family affairs. If the English people would
have their children well cared for at school, they should
themselves so care for the interests and families of
their children's teachers, as to obtain the best and
wisest men in England for the teachers and patterns
of their youth. Parsimony in the education of your
children is waste of the worst sort.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
365
In our colleges, therefore, we should require the
following professors :—
SCIENCES.
1. Mathematics
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Astronomy and Geography
5. Geology and Mineralogy .
6. Botany
7. Zoology
2 2 2 2 2
2 professors.
""
""
""
""
1 professor.
1
""
PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
2. Geometrical Drawing and Perspective
1. Surveying and Measuring
3. Practical Building
4. Practical Mechanics
5. Practical Chemistry
6. Agriculture
7. Gardening.
8. Gymnastics and Military Drill
9. Special trade of the district
1 professor.
1
""
1
""
1
""
1
""
1
""
1
""
1
""
5 professors.
Thus we have exhausted our number of twenty-five
professors, even without including subjects of which
every one should know something, such as the doc-
trines of religion, the laws of intelligence and the laws
of morality, foreign languages, education of the taste,
and history. Some of these, as religion, may be taught
out of school, others may be assigned to the courses
of education preliminary or subsequent to the college
period of three years.
The college period of three years-from fifteen to
eighteen-is the least that ought to be devoted to
these subjects when the course is used as preliminary
to the university; when employed as a finishing school
a fourth should be added.
366
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
FINANCE.
Of the fifteen great English towns to become sites of
our technical colleges, the population varies from nearly
five hundred thousand inhabitants to one hundred
thousand. The population, moreover, of the districts
around each central city should materially affect the
extent of the college and the nature of its teaching.
Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull, would have a large
portion of their teaching devoted to commerce and
seafaring knowledge; Birmingham and Sheffield to
metallurgy, mineralogy, designs and metal handicrafts.
Manchester, Leeds, and Bradford, would naturally
cultivate the arts of decorative design, the chemistry
of dyeing, the mechanism of spinning, weaving, and
printing, textile materials and fabrics, along with
general commercial and mercantile knowledge. In
other districts, like York or Exeter, the interest of the
counties might be supposed to predominate over and
modify the character of the town college. Agricultural
sciences would form the special courses of the college;
-the chemistry of soils, the geology of the district,
its drainage, its climate, its natural productions, its
breeds of animals, its pastures, its cereals, its tim-
ber; the chemistry of manures; the health and
disease of animals; the constitution of farm-buildings ;
country road making and fencing; architecture of
villages, cottages, and farm-steadings;-these would
form the staple of the technical education of the
county.
It is difficult to embrace the peculiar circumstances
of each of these institutions in any one technical plan
of college. In no point of the constitution of these
technical colleges can more judgment be shown than
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
367
in the perfect adaptation of each to the special wants
and capabilities of its surrounding district.
In so far as each is a preparatory school for the
higher university, the earlier years' courses of study
in the fifteen colleges will be nearly alike; but it
is almost to be desired that in the local adaptations
and the business and trade courses of the district, no
two should be alike.
While, however, the organisation of the colleges
may thus differ, it does not follow that they should
materially differ in extent of organisation, or in cost.
There is practically no difference between the cost of
educating a class of twenty students and a class of
forty. A course of lectures may with equal ease be
delivered to ten students or a hundred, and the
illustrations of a course of lectures on geometry or
mechanics cost just the same sum, whether twenty or
fifty students reside in the district and attend the
lectures. I will take, therefore, the following as a
type of the expenses of the college :-
EXPENDITURE ON BUILDING AND SITE.
Park.
Building
Apparatus of teaching, furniture, and museums
£50,000
150,000
50,000
£250,000
This sum to be supplied jointly by a tax on the counties and by the
government of the town in which the college is placed.
ANNUAL EXPENSES.
Government grant for the salaries of the professors
Local grant for maintenance, warming, lighting, &c.
General management, government, and staff of the in-
stitution
£10,000
1,500
1,500
1,900
100
5,000
Total expenses
•
£20,000
Contributions to the library, museums, and collections
Prizes.
Exhibitions to meritorious students
368
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
These expenses would be provided for according to
the different circumstances of each centre. It must
be remembered that the county or counties would
supply a large number of the students, and there-
fore reap a large proportion of educational benefit.
On the other hand, the shop-keepers of the town
and the owners of houses would derive direct emolu-
ment from the influx of students to the central
town, independently of the superior education which
they could give their own children. Town and
county are therefore equally called upon to make
liberal contributions; and in a short time we
might expect to have some such receipts as the fol-
lowing:-
RECEIPTS.
Government grant for salaries
Annual grant from the town
Annual grant from the county
Fees of the students
Foundations for exhibitions
£10,000
2,000
2,000
1,000.
5,000
£20,000
In conclusion, it must not be forgotten that these
fifteen colleges, well organised and administered, will
exert a powerful influence for good over all the other
educational institutions within their circuit.
All the elementary schools, parish schools, trade
schools, and workmen's schools of the district will
naturally work up towards the great central insti-
tution, and emulate each other in the fitness of their
students to enter the technical college and distinguish
themselves there. Moreover, every young man of
talent will see within his reach the means of increasing
his knowledge, improving his ability, and rising to
superior skill in the practice of his special duties in
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
369
life. In this way, the nation at large will be enabled
to turn to the general benefit of the community a vast
power of native talent, which at present lies fallow
for the want of adequate means of local culture and
development.
B B
Special
nature of
a local
technical
college.
·
CHAPTER XX.
A TECHNICAL COLLEGE ABROAD.
Special nature of a local technical college.-To fit the skilled trades of the
district.—Pattern technical college-Special for the building trades.—
Classes of workmen-Divisions of their education.-Professors and
teachers.-Courses of teaching:-First course.-Second course.- -Third
course.-Fourth course.-
-Fifth course.
WE have already studied the nature of a technical
college in its twofold capacity of finishing the edu-
cation of one class of students and preparing another
for the higher education of the university. In regard
to the latter class of students, the concluding classes of
the college have only to serve as an introduction to the
earlier courses of the university; but the students who
have to complete and end their course of study in the
college require a different though analogous education.
The classes in educated countries abroad to whom
the local technical college forms the completion of
their studies, are those technical men who aim at
occupying the highest positions in technical trades and
occupations in business, which may be said to rank
immediately after and under the technical professions
which are completed in the university. Immediately
after and under the architect, we have in England a
class of men called builders and clerks of works. The
builder is a man who combines the skilled workman with
the man of commerce, who contracts to erect a house
for so much money; and the clerk of works is a skilled
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
371
man set over him by the architect to see that his
works satisfy the architect's design. Under the master-
builder comes his foreman, who must be able to do
the duty of substitute in his absence. The foreman
will have under him leading hands, or men of superior
skill to the others, who watch over particular depart-
ments of work.
Thus there is, in every branch of skilled occupation,
a kind of hierarchy of skill, beginning from a humble
kind of intelligent labour, and rising up to the highest
kind of manual skill in the master-workman, and of
intellectual accomplishment in the professional designer
of work.
dents for
the district.
And it is for this second rank in skilled work that To fit stu-
the highest order of technical education has to be the skilled
provided and completed in these local technical trades of
colleges. But the nature of that education and com-
pletion of education in the local colleges must be
varied with great judgment, and adapted with much
skill, for the purpose of assisting and advancing the
peculiar local trades in the district which contains the
local technical college. If it be a city of large popu-
lation and growing extent, in which much building is
required, it is quite possible that the building trades
might predominate among the skilled crafts of the
district. In a district rich in mining and in minerals,
the skilled metal crafts would predominate, and
smiths, copper-smiths, and tin-smiths, founders, pattern-
makers, and fitters, would predominate as much in
that, as masons, bricklayers, carpenters, and plasterers
would do in the other. In other districts, it might
happen that brewing and distilling were the chief trades;
or it might be a great district for horse-breeding and
cattle-feeding. In a great seaport, on the contrary,
B B 2
372
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Pattern
technical
college-
special for
the build
ing trades.
ship-owning, ship-building, and merchandise, might
form the staple occupations of the town or district.
Thus, in each centre of a district possessing a tech-
nical college, there must be a special local organisation
provided, in addition to and in some degree modifying
the higher technical education, which is to prepare
the more highly educated students for the technical
university. But between those two classes of edu
cation given in the same technical college, there need
be no inconsistency or interference. Up to a certain
point, the theoretical education given in both will be
the same. But in the last years of study there would
probably be this distinction established, that while the
higher class of students go forward in their purely
theoretical and scientific studies, the practical class of
students will stop short in their theory, and devote
their last year of schooling to the more directly
practical subjects of their business in life. Thus there
will be many classes which all the students will attend
together, but there will be others in which they go
different ways.
I have selected as my type of the class of schools
which fulfil my idea of finishing training for the
highest class of practical working men, a college
established for the education of a district where the
building trades were sufficiently predominant to make
that the leading feature of a technical college. The
Building Trades' College at Stuttgardt is, I think, the
best working man's school with which I am acquainted.
It ranks next under their technical university, but it
has been so successful that it has outgrown all the
earlier anticipations of its magnitude and importance;
and there is now preparing for it a building as large,
and an organisation nearly as extensive, as the tech-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
373
nical university. I do not believe, therefore, that I
can better contribute to the establishment of local
practical colleges for high-class master-workmen, than
by giving a somewhat detailed account of this model
working man's college.
I. THE STUDENTS OF THE BUILDING-TRADES'
SCHOOL.
workmen :
The purpose of this school is to give a systematic, Classes of
organised, practical education to the following classes
of technical men in their trades:
1. Future master builders of the trades of builders, stonecutters, carpen-
ters, and joiners.
2. Town-surveyors, inspectors of buildings, officers of health and public
security.
3. Engineers of drains and sewers, and millowners.
4. Surveyors and measurers.
5. Workmen in all the following trades who may be desirous to qualify
themselves to become masters, foremen, or leading men :—
Plasterers, slaters, bricklayers, mechanics, millwrights, locksmiths;
Carpenters, glaziers, turners;
Painters, ornamental carvers, modellers, and moulders;
Engravers, gold and silver workers;
Gardeners and farmers;
Draughtsmen.
II. COURSES OF EDUCATION.
1. Building School.
2. Surveying and Measuring School. Divisions of
3. Water-works and Draining School.
their educa-
tion.
III. THE PROFESSORS.
and teach-
It is to be remarked of this excellent college, that Professors
the teaching staff transcends all our English notions ers.
in eminence and strength.
In this workman's college there are no fewer than
twenty professors, and these professors are not men
374
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
of inferior position and humble social rank, but men
of eminence and distinction. Imagine in London, our
having the courage to propose, or even to dream of
taking our most distinguished architects, engineers,
builders and philosophers, and making them professors
in a workman's college! Some one will say, perhaps,
that in Jermyn Street Museum we do something of the
sort.
men.
I have only to say, with the highest respect for
Jermyn Street, that as a working man's college no
comparison can be instituted that is favourable to
Jermyn Street, excepting in the fact, that some of our
most distinguished men have lectured there, and that
some of the classes are known to be attended by work-
That Jermyn Street Buildings and Jermyn
Street Museum might aptly form the nucleus of a
great college for the building trades of London, I am
perfectly willing to admit, and it would indeed give
me great pleasure to see it become, what the college in
Stuttgardt is, a favorite resort of working men, filled
day and night with teachers enthusiastic, and students
zealous, industrious, and ambitious. I ought not to
begin the list of eminent men who teach in Stuttgardt,
without saying that Oberbaurath Egel, the first on the
list, is the man to whose patriotism and enthusiasm
the existence and maintenance of the school are
mainly owing. He has done for it what Sir Henry
Delabeche did for the school of Jermyn Street. In
regard to the other professors, I call particular`
attention to the fact, that the larger number of them
are technical men, and not merely professors and
teachers.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
357
Principal.
Chief Architect of State
Von Egel.
Vice-Principal.
Professor
Teachers of Building Trades.
Chief Architect
Master Builder
Master Builder
Architect
Architect
Architect
Architect
Master Workman
Häberle.
Von Egel.
Silber.
Stahl.
Beyer.
Wagner.
Riess.
Walter.
Baumgartner.
Teachers of Surveying and Mathematics.
Chief Surveyor·
Foreman Surveyor
Wall.
Remmell.
Teachers in Mathematics and Physics.
Professor.
Professor
Machine Builder
Professor
Häberle.
W. Fischer.
Teichman.
Bopp.
Teachers in Drawing and Ornament.
Sculptor
Plock.
Architect
Grauth.
Teachers in other Departments.
Doctor
Doctor.
Büchchele.
Frauer.
Assistant Teachers.
Häuel, Dewzel, Andelfinger, Scherer, Fischer, Lochman, and
three others.
IV.-CURRICULUM OF EDUCATION.
The curriculum consists of five divisions, the two Courses of
teaching:
first elementary and the three last practical. Each
division is also subdivided into two parallel divisions,
and each division may be taken either as a summer
or a winter course, so that students whose trades pre-
376
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
First class.
dominate in summer or in winter can attend the school
at the least sacrifice. The whole payment for a complete
course in any one of these divisions is 20s., but there
are also many free scholars, and many pupils who have
exhibitions, both from the State, from communities,
and from private foundations. It need hardly be
added, that nearly the entire cost of the maintenance
of the school is provided by the public funds.
Course of Instruction in the College for the Building
Trades.
FIRST CLASS.
Two Parallel Divisions.
Destined for such pupils as have only visited the National school, or
who, having attended a higher school, are not quite up to the mark of
the second class.
LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY.
Eight hours a-week.
Dictation; reading, prose and poetry; explanations and preparations of
the same; exercises; lectures.
FRENCH LANGUAGE.
Four hours a-week.
Exercises in reading, and translation for beginners.
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.
Four hours a-week.
The principal events of ancient and modern times; physical and
political geography.
CALIGRAPHY.
Six hours a-week.
Perfection of handwriting; simple copies.
ARITHMETIC.
Six hours a-week.
Vulgar and decimal fractions; simple and compound addition; interest
and per centage; proportion.
ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY.
Six hours a-week.
Plane geometry, up to trigonometry.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
377
FREE-HAND DRAWING.
Six hours a-week.
Simple lines and combinations; simple leaves and ornaments in outline.
GEOMETRICAL DRAWING.
Six hours a-week.
Geometrical constructions; geometrical proportions and geometrical
ornaments.
SECOND CLASS.
Two Parallel Divisions.
LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY.
Six hours a-week.
Continuation of the subjects of the first class, with an increase in the
exercises on style.
FRENCH LAnguage.
Two hours a-week.
Practice in reading and translation for advanced pupils.
CALIGRAPHY.
Three hours a-week.
Plan.
ALGEBRA.
Eight hours a-week.
Literal calculus, powers, roots, and logarithms; equations of the first
and second degrees.
Geometry, and THE GEOMETRY OF SOLID FORMS.
Eight hours a-week.
Repetition with the pupils of the first class, and completion of the
remaining divisions of plane geometry; geometry of space with regard
to representative geometry; calculation of cubical contents.
BUILDING PLANS.
Eight hours a-week.
Simple foundations; projections and sections; plane projecting and
curved decorations; simple buildings in antique and Gothic styles, after
drawings with measurement and descriptions on the black board.
ORNAMENTAL DRAWING.
Six hours a-week.
Simple ornaments in outline from copies and casts.
Second
class.
378
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Third class.
THIRD CLASS.
Three Parallel Divisions.
PHYSICS.
Six hours a-week.
Balance and motion of solid, fluid, and gaseous bodies; the laws of
heat; on the phenomena of sound, light, magnetism, electricity, and
such parts of chemistry as concern building materials.
REPRESENTATIVE GEOMETRY.
Eight hours a-week.
Descriptive geometry of the highest order, with immediate reference to
its application to the purpose of architectural design and practical
building construction.
TRIGONOMETRY.
Two hours a-week.
The trigonometry of right-angle triangles.
PRACTICAL GEOMETRY.
Six hours a-week.
On surveying, levelling, and map-making by means of planes, reflecting
instruments, and levels.
PLAN DRAWING.
Six hours a-week.
Complicated architectural details; windows, porticoes. Exercises in the
adaptation of the simpler forms of buildings.
ORNAMENTAL DRAWING.
Six hours a-week.
Principally drawings from casts in outline and shading on white and
tinted paper, with pen, pencil, and chalk.
BUILDING ART.
Five hours a-week.
On decorative construction in stone for windows, cornices, doors, &c.
Some of the drawings must be full size.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.
Five hours a-week.
Constructions in stone; partition walls, windows and roofs.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
379
FOURTH CLASS.
Two Parallel Divisions.
MECHANICS.
Three hours a-week. (One professor.)
Examination in the laws of gravity; application to beams, rafters, &c. ;
on stability; machinery, with regard to the uses of workmen.
APPLIED DESCRIPTIVE GEOMETRY.
Six hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Pure descriptive geometry applied to stone carving, light and shade, and
perspective. Drawings from copies.
ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING.
Six hours a-week. (Four professors.)
Drawing of entire façades in outline; large drawings from small copies
in strictly Renaissance style, preparatory to designing.
ORNAMENTAL DRAWING.
Four hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Continuation of the instruction of Class III., with use of the paint-brush.
ARCHITECTURE.
Two hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Decorative forms of timber and woodwork. Lecture and practice in
drawing.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.
Five hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Timber supports, struts, and ties, roof frames, &c.
INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS.
Four hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Instruction for overseers and inspectors of buildings; designs and
other preparations for superintending the erection of a building; rules
for the method of working, &c.
ON WARMING AND VENTILATION OF BUILDINGS.
Six hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Properties and heating power of fuels; temperature of ignition, and
necessary air for heating; draught of chimneys, calculations of their
dimensions and construction; ranges and fireplaces, baking houses, &c.
ON THE VARIOUS STYLES OF ARCHITECTURE.
Four hours a-week. (Four professors.)
Short remarks on the commencement of architecture; account of the
Roman and Greek styles in detail.
This department is specially illustrated by diagrams.
Fourth
class.
380
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Fifth class.
FIFTH CLASS.—(DIVISION A.)
ORNAMENTAL MODELLING.
Four hours a-week. (One professor.)
Modelling in plaster and clay, generally after their own drawings;
plaster castings from clay models.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.
Four hours a-week. (One professor.)
Difficult wooden roofs, suspension roofs, &c. ; various roofs, their
advantages and disadvantages; scaffoldings, ceilings, and roofs with a
partial and entire application of iron; carpenters' and glaziers' work.
DESIGNS FOR BUILDINGS.
9 hours a-week. (One professor.)
Designs for simple town and country houses; simple buildings on a
limited or unlimited space; parsonages, farms, stables, small breweries,
schools and town-halls. The designs are to be made in ground plans,
sections, and elevations, and the façades shaded either with pen or pencil.
There will be a competition during each half-year, when a premium will
be offered and the drawings publicly exhibited.
ARCHITECTURE.
Four hours a-week. (Two professors.)
Early Christian styles; Roman and Greek; Renaissance; lectures and
drawings after special diagrams ; excursions to see different buildings.
CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS AND BRIDGES.
Four hours a-week. (One professor.)
On drawing up contracts for materials and labour, and a detailed account
of costs.
AGRICULTURE.
Three hours a-week. (One professor.)
Designs and contracts for laying out farms, with their buildings and
outhouses and breweries.
MATHEMATICS.
Four hours a-week. (One professor.)
Repetition of elementary mathematics, with fresh exercise.
FIFTH CLASS.-(DIVISION B.)
DESIGNS FOR BUILDINGS.
Development of designs according to programmes for advanced pupils.
Larger schoolhouses and town-halls; hospitals, poor-houses, hotels,
breweries, &c.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
381
SCHOOL OF SURVEYING AND MEASURING.
GEOMETRICAL CONSTRUCTION.
Two hours a-week. (One professor.)
Solutions of geometrical problems; construction of algebraic expressions.
APPLICATION OF ALGEBRA TO GEOMETRY AND STEREOMETRY.
Six hours a-week. (One professor.)
Solution of geometric and stereometric problems by means of calculus.
GERMAN EXERCISES.
Two hours a-week. (One professor.)
SPECIAL CLASSES FOR GEOMETERS.
DESCRIPTIVE GEOMETRY.
Eight hours a-week. (One professor.)
As in the third class of the Building School.
PHYSICS.
Six hours a-week. (One professor.)
As in the third class of the Building School.
TRIGONOMETRY.
Six hours a-week. (One professor.)
Practical trigonometry and polygonometry; transformation of
rectangular co-ordinates.
PLAN DRAWING.
Four hours a-week. (One professor.)
Field and land planning and surveying.
POPULAR BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING DRAWING.
Eight hours a-week. (One professor.)
* Explanations of ordinary building construction with regard to the
measurement of buildings; drawings of simple outlines of buildings.
PRACTICAL GEOMETRY.
From 6th Nov. to 15th March, 6 hours a-week. From 16th March to
1st May, 28 hours a-week. (One professor.)
Lectures and practice; theory of instruments; surveying and dividing
planes by cross-staff and theodolite; distances and sections; surveying
contour lines by the level; graphical trigonometrical and polygonometri-
cal determination of points by measuring table and theodolite; errors
and co-ordinate calculations; trigonometrical measurement of heights.
382
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE.
From 6th Nov. to 15th March, 12 hours a-week. From 16th March to
1st May, 4 hours a-week. (One professor.)
Repetition of algebra, geometry, stereometry, and the solution of
various problems by construction and calculus. Drawings with the
necessary ground plans, sections, and façades. Lesser competition prizes
for the pupils at the beginning and end of each course, and at Christ-
mas. Public distribution of prizes.
DESIGNS FOR BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS.
Six hours a-week. (One professor.)
Construction of designs from prescribed conditions; simple and com-
plicated roofs, staircases, ceilings, &c. The drawings are to be on a large
scale, and the most difficult portions given in great detail.
REPETITION OF MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, AND MECHANICS.
Six hours a-week. (One professor.)
ESSAYS ON BUILDING DESIGNS.
Two hours a-week. (One professor.)
SCHOOL FOR DRAINING AND WATERWORKS ENGINEERS.
This branch is in the course of formation.
MACHINE DRAWING.
Eight hours a-week. (One professor.)
Drawings of wheels and toothed wheels; drawings of parts and wholes
of machines.
In conclusion I may add, that the taste of the
students is cultivated, by placing before them models
of beautiful objects belonging to their trades-museums,
collections, drawing rooms, modelling rooms, work-
shops, are all contained in a large building recently
erected for the purpose. It is palatial in extent and
beauty, and is a monument of the care, forethought,
and patriotism of a small community of German folk,
one-twelfth of the number of our own Anglo-Saxon
community.
CHAPTER XXI.
ON ENGLISH CLASS EDUCATION, OR THE EDUCATION
OF CASTE.
Marked distinctions of caste in English universities.-Teachers of the poor,
and teachers of the rich.-Ought the poor to be ill taught ?—Do not
the difficulties of poor scholars require able teachers?-The poor
scholars' school.-Necessity of refined teaching.--Middle-class teaching
should be also the higher class teaching.-Higher class teaching must
not be lowered.-Middle and lower class teaching must be raised.—
Abolition of class distinctions, its social value.-Are not technical
schools class schools inevitably?-Therefore elementary schools should
be broad, not narrow.
I HAVE elsewhere shown the humanising, refining,
kindly results which grow out of an organised system
of public education, embracing indiscriminately the
children of all citizens. The schoolroom, the church,
and the army, form in some educated countries the
common ground on which all citizens meet, and in
such countries I find, more than elsewhere, that all
citizens are eminently patriots. All classes become
educated, humanised, reconciled—I had almost said
christianised by this mingling with common aims in
common ways. A school is a brotherhood; and a
brotherhood which embraces high and low, rich and
poor, in one common work, with one common feeling,
is a humanising, christianising nursery for men.
The practical effect soon shows itself in the ways,
manners, and bearing of the people.
The poorer
have become gentle and self-respecting; the rich
recognise, respect, and work with the poor.
The
384
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Marked
distinctions
of caste in
English
ties.
public spirit of the village, of the county, of the
county town, becomes a livelier, more pervading,
active impulse, and men deny themselves much and
willingly for the common good and to help each other.
In short, by this community of superior education
every one is raised, no one lowered.
After having contemplated the humanising effect of
a large uniform systematic education for a whole
people, one can scarcely avoid seeing how much in
contrast with that is the whole system of English
education. Perhaps in no country in the world is
class education carried to the extreme it is in Eng-
land. The gentleman commoner at Oxford wears
his gold-laced gown; the peer his distinguishing cap;
the poor scholar his bursar livery. There is one
college reserved for the scholars of this aristocratic
school, and another for that; and if it be true that
thereby the bonds of companionship are drawn close,
and that the friendships of life have first taken root
in the intimate intercourse of the college, it is equally
true that the separations of class first marked out at
school or college continue through life, and only ripen
into stronger sympathy and antipathy by the political,
social, and religious distinctions into which they after-
wards develop themselves. It is true that in the
external observances of society abroad, some distinc-
tions of class are more marked than in England, but
nowhere do they enter so deeply into the heart of social
intercourse, or keep men so wide apart.
But the class distinction in schools which pervades
the highest descends even into the lowest class. The
poor school is an establishment essentially different
from the rich; first, in the rank and payment of its
masters—“ anybody is good enough" to be master of a
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
385
poor school. To teach the poor he is paid less than to
teach the rich; the matter he teaches is only of the
meanest order; and although the ignorant dame school
is nearly abolished, the change of sex has not always
improved the character of the teaching.
Teachers of
and teach-
the poor,
ers of the
poor to be
Is this difference in the nature of the teaching as
against the poor, right or wrong? Is it the ignorant
and helpless who should select their teaching, or should rich.
we who know select it for them? Ought the poorness Ought the
of the teaching to be proportioned to the poorness ill taught?
of the taught? With this view let us ask: Is it not
a more difficult task to teach the poor and the ignorant,
than to teach those prepared pupils, who bring to the
school minds that have had preliminary culture? Are
not the very natures of the poor and ill-bred harder
to deal with? Is not the problem we put to the
teachers of the poor, harder and more arduous than the
problem of teaching the rich? Ought this class of men
then to be inferior, and worse paid?
Do not the
difficulties
of poor
scholars re-
quire able
Moreover, in an unpopulous, remote, or poor district,
are there not other peculiar difficulties which draw upon
the talent, the education, and the moral qualities of the
teacher? Is it not hard for him to bear up against the teachers?
lowering influence of an atmosphere impregnated with
ignorance? Is it not desirable that the indirect effects
of his presence in the district of his school should be
as beneficial to the general, moral, and intellectual
tone, as his direct instruction? If this be so, then our
class idea, that a poor, ignorant, inferior teacher is
good enough for a poor, ignorant, inferior class, must
be abandoned, and for the most arduous work we must
select as able a man as we can find to fill the place.
Having selected for the poor district the able teacher, The poor
we must now help him by the best machinery. The school.
C C
scholars'
386
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
refined
teaching.
home of the very poor has an atmosphere too often
the reverse of all that we should wish his school to
become. The bright, happy home, with cheerful influ-
ence, intelligent conversation, elevating surroundings,
is reserved for the children of the rich, the fortunate,
the educated; crowded cottages, narrow lanes, and a
dingy atmosphere, are unfavourable to home study.
To the poor scholar, the school is, or ought to be, the
bright, clear, pure idea of his life; the interior of the
school should represent the interior of a happy home;
light and a pure atmosphere should fill it; things
of beauty and knowledge should cover the walls; he
should listen to gentle sounds and kind accents; a
pretty garden, full of native flowers, should surround
a tidy schoolroom; and a clean, roomy playground
should be deemed even more essential to the school
of the poor than to that of the rich, who may
find in their own homes all the recreation they may
need.
Besides, in the poor child's school he may have to
receive all the education he is ever to enjoy. The
rich man's child may go from the elementary teacher
through higher and higher grades, ending with the
Necessity of university. It is therefore neither right nor wise that
a worse teacher or school-house should be provided for
one than the other; and for every intermediate class
the same principle must hold good-that if the educa-
tion and the influence of school is to colour the life
and determine the character of the pupil, it follows,
that the more his condition is surrounded with cir-
cumstances adverse to intellectual development, and
affected by influences unfavourable to refinement of
taste and manners, the more necessary it becomes
that his school should furnish the antidote to the
:
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
387
peculiar evils, and supply the characteristic defects
in the life, manners, and habits of his class.
Middle-
ing should
class teach-
be also the
class teach-
If, therefore, it is desirable that the middle class
of Englishmen should possess greater refinement of
taste than now characterises them; if their manners higher
should be softened, their aims elevated, their principles ing
raised, it becomes necessary, that in all their schools the
children should be surrounded, influenced and educated
by such men as possess the manners, ways, habits,
principles, and attainments we desire to bestow upon
them, and that they should retain through life. Need
we call attention to the lamentable fact, that a great
mass of the schools now called middle-class, have an
atmosphere the very reverse of that which is desirable?
-
class
must not be
lowered.
The practical measures to give effect to such views Higher
are of extreme simplicity. We do not desire to see a teaching
finger laid upon the schools or colleges in which the red
rich obtain for their children the association, influence,
and teaching of the most intelligent, accomplished, and
refined scholars and men of science; it is every way
for the good of the community, that those among us
who are of high birth, connection, and occupation,
should be prepared in their youth to show a high
example of refinement, knowledge, and worth, to all
over whom their wide influence will extend. But it is
still more necessary, that those whom birth and fortune
have endowed with fewer privileges should be aided
to supply by their own exertions those deficiencies and
wants which had not been so liberally supplied.
But I shall be asked, whether I mean to carry out
the abolition of invidious class distinctions at school to
such an extent, as to oblige the children of peasant and
peer to sit on the same form in the same village school.
I answer at once, that that would be un-English, and
Middle and
teaching
lower class
must be
raised.
CC 2
388
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Abolition
of class dis-
tinctions ;
its social
value.
that in no organisation for the supply of the public
wants should I think it necessary to compel him who
possesses already his separate fountain of pure water to
come to the public well and drink; and whoever chooses
to provide for his child at home or elsewhere, what he
thinks a better kind of education, or would associate
with his friends to provide a kind of education exclu-
sively for their own children, should have full liberty
to do so; but if the system which I have advocated
be carried out, this will be one of its most pregnant
results-that the class of men who conduct the public
schools, and the course of instruction which is provided
for the whole people, will be of so high a character,
and so perfectly organised for its purpose, that it will
no longer be the interest of any man, in any rank
of life, to have to seclude himself from his fellows, in
order to acquire for his children the advantages of
superior education.
To the privileged classes, therefore, it would be an
advantage that they should avail themselves of the
advantages provided for the community at large, but
no obstacle could lie in the way of their bettering their
own children in their own way.
Thfs abolition of class distinction in the whole
career of school life could not fail to exercise a most
humanising influence, and to draw closer the bonds
which bind men into fraternities, communities, states,
and countries. Not only would all ranks be better
known to each other, but the lines of demarcation in、
after life, instead of being hard, angular, and offensive,
would be of that soft and gentle character which, by
diffusing courtesy, facilitates intercourse and promotes
friendly feeling. Moreover, one of the peculiarities
which is reckoned to give its chief value to our public
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
389
schools, would thus be imparted in a still higher degree
to all our national schools. Our public schools are
eulogised because they typify to boys the public life
of the man, and so fit him for wrestling with the
future. In how much higher a degree would not
public schools, in which all classes received their
training for life together, merit the name of training
schools for the world, and how much better might
the lessons be there inculcated of what we owe to
superiors, equals, inferiors? Our schools then would
become pre-eminently schools of the world.
technical
class
inevitably.
But it may be said that we are now arguing against Are not
the very principle of technical schools. Are not tech- schools
nical schools, above everything else, class schools? schools?-
The nature of society and the purposes for which they
are created demand that they should be so. The
artificial construction of civilised society demands that
each member of the social scale should take on himself
some special sphere of public duty, by which he should
render his time and ability serviceable to the com-
munity of which he is a member; and public well-
being demands that he should serve the community
in the capacity he is best fitted to fill: to do this,
his sphere of action must be narrowed-narrowed to a
degree which, as regards the character and develop-
ment of the individual, is terribly confined. Granting,
then, the inevitability and value of a most narrowly
special and purely technical education in the period of
life which immediately precedes entrance on its prac-
tical duty, does it not follow that in exact proportion
to this inevitable narrowness comes the necessity,
expediency, and high social value of giving in early
years a large, broad, common basis, for the social and
intellectual life of the human being? In short, as the
390
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Therefore
elementary
schools
should be
narrow.
ultimate end of professional life is made narrow and
confined by circumstances, should we not, therefore,
make the beginning of life for the children over whom
we possess absolute control, as wide, genial, humanising,
as possible?
The occupations of life are then inevitably distinct,
and inevitably tend to keep men asunder. What I
broad, not contend against is the artificial aggravation, by means
of schools for the youth of our country, of those
extreme distinctions between rich and poor, refined
and vulgar, polite and rude, which unfortunately have
grown into wider distinctions, and keep the extremes
of society further apart in ours than in more educated
countries. If we admit that example is better than
precept, why should we insist on herding the ragged
together-crowding children into one school, and
bringing them all up with the brand of pauper upon
them?-herding another crowd, whose parents died
in their youth, or were themselves victims of mis-
fortune, and marking out this unhappy crowd in the
degrading livery of charity children? And why,
upward through life, should there be one building-
one school-one seat at college-reserved for the son
of the rich and great, and the poor and humble scholar
of capacity and promise be removed apart into another?
That is the kind of class distinction which we think
the wise legislators of an enlightened country ought to
efface from the programme of the thoughts, ideas, and
habits to be inculcated on Englishmen of the next
generation.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE ORGANISATION OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS, SCIENCE
SCHOOLS, AND TRADE SCHOOLS, THROUGHOUT ENG-
LAND.
Higher technical schools to be placed in centres of twenty thousand in-
habitants.-Education of higher scholars in science and skill.—Ages,
12 to 15.-School in two divisions :-I. Preparatory for the Technical
college-II. Finishing school for skilled trades-III. Night courses
for the extended education of Division II.-List of teachers.-Six
teachers for special local teaching. These will be preparatory schools
for technical colleges and universities.
technical
be placed
of 20,000
In every community of Englishmen where 10,000 Higher
to 20,000 people live together, there are near 2500 schools to
to 5000 men earning the bread of their families by in centres
labour, skill, or learning;-these men must be suc- inhabit-
ceeded and replaced by their children. These children ants.
will require knowledge and skill in a far higher degree
than their parents ever learned in youth, or have
since been able to acquire. Modern civilisation moves
forward so rapidly that an uneducated generation will
in future become degraded or starve. Every com-
munity or aggregate of 20,000 will require a superior,
higher, or high school, for the education of its children
-not in reading, writing, and counting merely, or the
alphabet of knowledge; not in mere elementary know-
ledge of the world we live in, the names of its places,
its peoples, its stories, its men, beasts, trees, and
vegetables, its mountains, climates, and seas merely ;
not, in short, in mere elementary knowledge useful
and indispensable to everybody;-but a higher school
392
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Education
of higher
science and
skill.
for the education of the children who have gone
through the elementary schools-who have learned
there all that every one else has to learn and know-
to teach them all they will have to know, and to know
better than those who went before them, in order to
become useful citizens, and keep their place respectably
in a world which is daily moving forward in know-
ledge and skill.
These higher schools, common to all, must be placed
scholars in conveniently in the midst of those communities; and
when I say one in each community of 20,000 persons,
it must be understood that when the population is
much larger these schools should be multiplied; and
I should prefer to commit the excess of placing too
many schools in less populous districts, rather than the
error of parsimony-for parsimony in education is
waste of the worst kind,-it is waste of human beings.
Ages 12 to
15.
In a district of 20,000 inhabitants, there will always
be 150 pupils from twelve to fifteen years old who
require a superior education, and 150 more who ought
to be prepared for skilled trades. It is for them that
I should propose to have these science schools. The
classes of pupils who should frequent such schools are
tory for the especially two :-those who pass through it as a school
School in
two divi-
sions :
I. Prepara-
technical
college;
of elementary science and knowledge, preparatory to
the technical college, and these are the higher pupils
who will devote most of their time to pure science-
these will form the first division of the school; the
second division of the school will consist of those who
are about to start into active life without further
education, and to these pupils this will be the finishing
school.
The separation between the educational courses of
these students is easily conceived. In the beginning
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
393
both divisions of pupils will have identical studies.
The elements of the pure sciences; ability in pro-
cesses of calculation; knowledge of the nature and
qualities of matter; knowledge of mechanics; book-
keeping; some foreign tongue; ability to write and
speak well in their own tongue. These studies are
common to students of both divisions; but the differ-
ence is, that one division will continue these more
abstract studies longer and further. The second divi-
sion will abandon pure science sooner, and will take at
once to learning the practical applications of theory to
their own business. They will apply their mechanics
and their geometry to duties of life. Skill to handle
instruments; ability to draw by the eye; to draw by
instruments; to measure work, and to plan work;
laying out their own work; selecting their own mate-
rials; the ways of setting out work before it is begun;
of designing; of finding ways and means; of keeping
records of work, and of measuring and valuing it when
done. All that should be thoroughly taught and tho-
roughly learned at those schools.
Hitherto I have spoken without reference to the
specialty which every one of these schools must pos-
sess. It must have a special adaptation of its teaching,
of its masters, of its organisation to the characteristic
trades of the district. This cannot be dictated before-
hand. The district may be agricultural, pastoral,
marine, commercial, mining-may be distinguished by
textile, metallic, chemical, mechanical manufactures.
All its predominating occupations and trades should
find a special provision made for fitting instruction in
these schools.
II. Finish-
ing school
for skilled
trades;
courses for
Each school will thus be double, as it is a prepara- III. Night
tory or a finishing school; but I think that in every extended
394
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
education
of Division
II.
List of
teachers
case a third division should be added. I mean a com-
plete series of evening educational lectures and classes
should be provided, for carrying on and extending the
education of those skilled educated youth who are
unable to continue their day schooling.
This third division (the evening school) must not,
however, be confounded with evening schools for un-
learned, unprepared men. The passing generation may
not be too old to learn, but it must be provided for
elsewhere, because it would only embarrass and retard
the progress of the youth for whose advancement this
school is destined, if it pretended to instruct the unedu-
cated and unprepared. It is not a mere school-it is a
finishing school. From fifteen to eighteen, in these
evening schools, the pupils who had used their time and
opportunities well in the morning school from twelve
to fifteen, would still be able to make progress for three
years more. In these evening courses some would
probably show such talent and proficiency as to make
their further education in college or university a matter
of serious consideration for the authorities of the school
and the community.
The following teachers must be provided in all these
schools :-
1. Teacher of Geometry.
2. Teacher of Calculation.
3. Teacher of Elegant Writing and Printing.
4. Teacher of Drawing Beautiful Forms.
5. Teacher of Colours and Beautiful Colouring.
6. Teacher of Measuring, Surveying, and Drawing by Instruments.
7. Teacher of Mechanical Principles and Powers and Use of Tools.
8. Teacher of Elements of Chemistry.
9. Teacher of Physical and Political Geography.
10. Teacher of Gymnastics, Principles of Health, Strength, Handiness,
Dexterity and Military Drill.
11. Teacher of Reading and Writing well, English, and one more tongue.
12. Teacher of Book-keeping, Accounting, and Valuing.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
395
for local
teaching.
If to this list I add six more teachers for the prac- Six teachers
tical application of science to the special trades and special
occupations of the district, it will appear that for one
school eighteen teachers are required. I do not specify
the peculiar duties of each of these practical technical
teachers, because, as I have said, no two schools ought
to be alike. In each county town, and in each manu-
facturing and commercial town, the special teachers
would devote themselves to supplying the practical
wants of their district. It will require, in the foun-
dation of each school, grave consideration and wise
forethought, in order to obtain the right kind and
number of local trade teachers.
Eighteen teachers is a large, perhaps excessive,
number. I should only propose going to this extent
in centres of population so large as to require and be
able to contribute to the support of a very large school.
It is plain that many towns might come just under the
size of those to which I have allotted technical colleges,
and in these large towns the technical schools would
really be a substitute for a technical college. In such
a case the number of eighteen teachers might not be
excessive. In a town of smaller population the expense
and scale of the school might be easily reduced without
impairing its efficiency by giving to each teacher two
of the separate departments, thus constituting a school
of nine teachers.
The third class of these schools in smaller districts
might be reduced to an establishment of six teachers,
by giving to each the teaching of three subjects; but I
should not be disposed to carry this class of schools
lower. It would be wiser to create lower down a
higher class of upper village schools.
If we now take twenty of these highest class schools
396
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
These will
be prepara-
for the
and allot 5000l. a-year as the salaries of its teachers,
we shall have a Government grant of 100,000l. If we
take 100 of the second-class schools and allow 20007.
a-year each for the salaries of its teachers, we shall
require a Government grant of 200,000l. If of the
third class, with six teachers, we take 180 schools at
1200l. a-year each for the salaries of its teachers, we
shall require a Government grant of 200,000l. Thus
these 300 schools would be maintained by the Govern-
ment grant of 500,000%.
In estimating the value to the community of these
science high schools, it is necessary to keep in view
their relations to the schools under them, and to those
above them. In the national organisation for an
educated community, the mere mechanism of learning,
or "three R's" as we call it, occupies from the sixth to
the ninth year. Elementary knowledge occupies from
the ninth to the twelfth year, and science in its ele-
mentary form only begins in the period from twelve to
fifteen. It is plain that these periods must be strictly
kept, and that the education in each must be strictly
progressive and continuous with that to which it is
contiguous. In this point of view children will leave
the elementary school for the science school at the com-
mencement of their thirteenth year, if they are des-
tined to proceed further; but if their destiny be to
receive no science education, there would have to be
some distinct provision for continuing an elementary
education beyond the age of twelve.
These higher science schools must next be regarded
tory schools as preparatory schools leading up to the technical college
and the technical university. These courses of study
should, therefore, be taught with distinct reference to
the higher courses beyond the schools, so that when
technical
colleges
and uni-
versity.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
397
the pupil who is destined for a higher education leaves
these schools he may find himself just fitted to enter
the career of the college beyond.
One of the great benefits arising from the wide
distribution of these high schools among the mass of
the people would be to discover and select young men
of special talents to become the pupils of the college
and the university. For this purpose it would be
desirable that the communities and counties in which
these schools are placed, should provide exhibitions by
which poor students might be sent forward to the
college and the university; and it seems probable that
the spirit of English liberality which, in old times, has
founded so many charities, would now be ready to
come forward with funds for the endowment of exhi-
bitions for the young men most likely to achieve
future technical distinction, possessing talent without
wealth. In this way these schools would become
invaluable feeders to the colleges and the university.
The Government of these schools must in most
matters follow the example of the technical colleges.
The Government should select and pay the salaries of
teachers. The locality should find the buildings and
maintain them. The Government and the locality
should both contribute to museums, collections and
libraries for the school, and a council composed of a
nominee of the Government, with the assistance of a
representative of the teachers and representatives of
the town and county, should govern the school. The
fees of the students should go partly to the school
funds in payment of teachers, and partly to the in-
crease of the libraries and museums.
In regard to the site of such a school it cannot be
too strongly urged on the inhabitants to provide
398
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
a large and healthy park and grounds; but within the
same park there might be included other buildings for
other schools of the district; and if the whole schools
were in a single group of buildings, two elementary
schools might form the wings, and the science school
the centre building of the
group.
TABLE OF FINANCE.
First Class Schools- 20. Government grant for
Second Class Schools-100.
Third Class Schools-180.
salaries of teachers
Government grant for
salaries of teachers.
Government grant for
salaries of teachers
Total.
•
£100,000
} 200,000
200,000
£500,000
THE
CHAPTER XXIII.
ORGANISATION OF
TECHNICAL
SCHOOLS
FOR
TRAINING SKILLED WORKMEN AND APPRENTICES
THROUGHOUT ENGLAND.
Educated craftsmen only can achieve perfect work.-Educated workmen
do the commonest work better than the uneducated. — Education
teaches quick, easy ways of work.-Ignorant men waste materials,
tools, and time.-Improvements of great value to society are lost from
want of skilled men to use them.-Value of education even for " un-
skilled" occupations. — Education the essence of skilled trades.
Geometry.-Laws of motion, force, and mechanics.—Better schools,
teachers, and teaching.-New laws of apprenticeship.-Short time and
schooling.-Education of apprentices the only way to educate skilled
workmen.-National want of organised village and workmen's schools.
-1. Elementary village school.-2. Upper village school.-3. Town
higher school.-4. Village evening science schools.-Exhibitions for
apprentices.-Table.
.
craftsmen
only can
achieve
work.
It is a grave error to imagine that the details and Educated
execution of important or valuable work, even from
designs of distinguished masters, can be efficiently perfect
done by ignorant, unskilled, mere brute labour. I am
continually asked why a man-whose business it is to
turn a furrow, dig a ditch, wheel a barrow, move
bricks, saw trees, plane boards, quarry stones, get coals,
or hammer hot iron-need know anything more than
how to handle a spade, use his arms, or manipulate his
hammer; and whether more knowledge than that
would not spoil their minds, and set them above their
work.
To this I can answer, that taking the matter on the
very lowest grounds, I never saw any kind of labour
in which the man of greater intelligence could not do
Intelligent
workmen
do the com
monest
work better
400
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
than the
unedu-
cated.
more work in shorter time, to better purpose, and
with less waste, than the mere uneducated savage of
civilised society. I have seen at the plough the clod-
hopper, little more intelligent than the well-fed brutes
in front of him, let his clumsy plough wriggle on with
small care how it went, and little thought as to how
its work were done; and I have seen the skilled
ploughman, with half the number of horses, and with
no greater toil to them, cover double space on the
same kind of land with clean, straight, even, well-
finished work. The one knew all about the draft on
his cattle, the strains on his harness, the adjustment
and action of his plough, and felt at his fingers' ends
(instinct with intelligence) every variation of direction
or force, which indicated whether his own slight
pressure on the plough-stilt should give it bias one
way or another. The one man avoids difficulty,
because he sees it beforehand; the other endures it
because he is in the middle of it before he knows, and
so must go through with it. The intelligent ditcher
who lays out wisely his day's work before he puts a
spade in the soil, has so forecast and arranged it that
every bit of earth is moved out of its old place into its
new the shortest way, over the least distance, with the
least force. The skilled navvy can do double the
work in the day of the equally stout but unskilled
rustic; and if this be the case in the lowest operations
of moving earth, it needs no iteration on my part to
show that in every succeeding stage of work, in
getting stone, or getting coal-even before we come to
materials, shaping, selecting, fitting, fixing, and finishing articles
of workmanship-the more intelligent and better
trained man will use his mind to apply his strength
and wield his tools so as to spare strength, time, and
Education
teaches
easy, quick
ways of
work.
Ignorant
men waste
tools, and
iime.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
401
material, either for himself or his master. Estimated,
therefore, on the lowest scale of social value, education
means economy, profit, absence of waste.
But when we come to the higher considerations
which ought to influence the conduct of the governors,
masters, leaders, teachers of a people; when we
reckon up the value of an educated, disciplined,
refined human soul above a mere tool-using animal;
when we reckon the value of an enlightened citizen
over a mere money-earning machine; when we mul-
tiply the value of such a citizen by the numerical
value which his children, also educated, would
add to the worth of the growing community-then,
indeed; the calculation of our gain from education
infinitely transcends the vulgar mercantile measure
which we were at first compelled to take. There
still remains the higher religious value of an
illuminated soul, when compared with that of a
sensual sot, which cannot be told in gold or any
terrestrial measure.
ments of
to society
from want
them.
But to return to the mere vulgar usefulness of Improve-
educated human beings, I will venture a remark from great value
personal experience in my profession, which I trust are lost
may illustrate the vast importance to us of educating of skilled
not only governors, or masters, but of extending a high men to use
scientific education, and skilled technical training, to
the working men of all skilled occupations. It is this:
The community at large are deprived of the use of
enormous treasures in mechanical invention, and
enormous progress in scientific arts, by the fact of the
general want of education in those who practise them.
It may not be known, but it is yet true, that the
mechanical power employed in all our manufactures is
infinitely more costly than it need be. It is equally
D D
402
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Value of
educa-
tion even
for " un-
skilled
occupa-
tions.
""
true that some skilled men of such professions know
thoroughly how to produce immense economy in the
production and use of mechanical power, but that we
dare not put the means into the hands of the unedu-
cated classes of people who would have to work them,
nor into the hands of the uneducated masters under
whose control they would be applied. I am not now
speaking of a loss of five, ten, twenty, or thirty per
cent. ; I say that we know that we are only utilising
one-tenth to one-twentieth of the power we employ
and waste, and that an economy of 100, 200, 300, and
400 per cent. is quite within our power so soon as a
better informed, higher skilled, more perfectly trained
class of men and masters shall arise, who are fit to be
trusted with the use of instruments and tools at
present utterly beyond their comprehension, control,
or application to use.
Altogether apart, however, from this great and,
unhappily, remote gain from the highest possible
education of our race, there are more moderate gains
within easy reach of better educated, better skilled,
better conditioned working men. Ascending from the
mere labourer to the skilled artisan, I will cite a single
but remarkable example of the great advantage which
education of the general intelligence gives even to
practice of the narrowest calling. We have long been
used to say and think that any ignorant man was
good enough to make a soldier. We have been told
that the mere mechanical drill of the service was
sufficient to make even the best soldier. One might
have been justified in saying that the narrow limits of
walking straight, and shooting straight, and obeying a
word of command, and going through a routine of
formula with a weapon, would be readily acquired with
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
403
the minimum of education, or with none. What does
recent experience teach us, but the contrary of all
this? It comes on us like a modern discovery, that
the most intelligent men make the best soldiers, and
General Hay has made an official report, based on the
widest experience in the English army, that invariably
the progress and perfection of a man's shooting depend
on his previous standard of education, and that where
this is wanting they have to educate the man's brains
first before they can set him to shooting with any
chance of success. And we may add to this testimony
the example of the Prussian army as an army of edu-
cated men. An Englishman who will take the trouble,
as I have done, to inquire among the Prussians them-
selves as to what they think are the secrets of their
success as soldiers, will find that their best officers
attribute it to nothing so much as to the high degree of
intelligence and cultivation of the men of whom they
have to make soldiers, and of whom they do success-
fully make them in incredibly short time.
the essence
trades.
I have taken some illustrations of the value of educa- Education
tion, even in occupations not heretofore classed as of skilled
skilled, for the express purpose of proving the con-
verse of statements continually reiterated to me by
the opponents of the general and high-class education
of working men. When we come to the upper ranks
of skill there can be little doubt of the usefulness of
some degree of knowledge far above our present
standard. Every workman should for the most part
be able to conceive clearly and accurately in his own
mind the shape of everything he may have to make or
work with. This makes it a first condition of skill
that he should master shape in his own mind, and that
mastery requires him to be a geometer. If that were
D D 2
404
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Geometry. true, there would be written over every skilled work-
shop the ancient Greek inscription :-
Laws of mo-
tion, force,
and me-
chanics.
Οὐδεὶς ἀ γεωμέτρητος εἰσίτο ;
No man ignorant of geometry enters here."
But it is not enough that the workman thoroughly
masters the form which his work shall take, he must
also be able to draw what we have called the three
plans of his work on paper. This may be considered
an unnecessary piece of skill for the man who has only
to do the particular work assigned to him, and of which
probably a perfect pattern is put before his eyes to
guide him. But the mere seeing of his pattern is not
adequate to superior execution. Every bit of work
which one man does has to fit into some other bit of
work of some other man's doing. In work there are
degrees, perfect fit and misfit of all grades. To
make his work fit other people's, a man must know,
not merely his own, but that of all about him. Each
man should therefore understand the plans of the com-
plete work on which he and his fellows are engaged in
order to work well to the other's hand. The only way
to get this thorough understanding of plans is to have
learnt to draw them oneself. Complete plan-drawing
applied to his own business is therefore essential to a
good workman.
Knowledge of the laws of mechanics is so obvious
and inevitable a part of a workman's education, that
it would seem unnecessary to say a word on its
value, but for the fact that so many mechanics prac-
tising skilled trades are themselves awkward, clumsy,
and unskilled in the use of their tools, and the ways
in which they set about moving, setting, fixing, and
finishing their work. If mechanical science were pro-
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
405
perly defined to be that which it is the science of
making tools and using them-the science of moving
heavy bodies—of employing and directing force with
economy and advantage-of shaping, uniting, and
arranging materials so as to be strong and enduring;
if mechanics were called the way to do all sorts of
hard work with least expenditure of strength, in
shortest time, and with greatest economy of materials;
and if in schools it were taught so as to be worthy of
the name-then no one would doubt that such schools
should be created for all working men, and that all
workmen should use them.
Unhappily, mechanics, when taught to working men,
is generally either taught superficially, unphilosophi-
cally, or with little or no reference to the business of
their life. Economy of bodily strength, best ways of
handling things, best ways of moving things, best
ways of helping each other, best ways of carrying,
lifting, shifting things, these are seldom taught.
Some foolish algebraical formula, or abstract geo-
metrical diagram, is put before the poor mechanic and
called science. As well call it magic: it is as inap-
plicable and as useless.
schools,
and teach-
ing.
In short, the English workman's great want is :- Better
1. Good schools; 2. Good teachers; 3. Practical teachers,
teachers; 4. Collections of the best examples kept ind
ever before his eyes; 5. Education at convenient
times and places. For him far higher education is
required than has ever entered into the heads of
masters, teachers, or rulers to provide or care for.
New laws of
apprentice-
The workman's technical education must begin with
his apprenticeship to his trade, and continue through- ship.
out its whole period in order to do real good. The
men of skilled trades who admit or reject trade
406
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Short time
and school-
ing.
apprentices would do well to see to the education of
their own craft. They make many rules now-some
of them useless enough-why should they not make
it a "law of apprenticeship" that "Every apprentice
shall prove that he has received a far better education
than his master before he is admitted as apprentice?"
Why should any boy be an apprentice before he is
sixteen? Why should he not enter the technical school
from thirteen to sixteen, and become a clever draughts-
man, a fair geometer, a moderate chemist, a decent
drawer of plans, a tolerable hand at colours, a clever
handler of tools and implements, a well-developed,
adroit, muscular lad? Why should he not be able to
put on paper any shape he sees, shade it as he sees it,
colour it as he sees it, and afterwards be able to model
and cut out all he has drawn? Why should he not
know the difference between an ugly shape and a
comely shape? Why not know the difference of a
clumsy way of doing things and a clever way-a care-
ful way and a wasteful way? All this he can learn in
a good school. All this he will not learn in the shop,
for who is to teach him?
But it may be said
be said: "This school-work is lost time
to his apprenticeship." No! For he will learn his
work in the shop twice as fast, and twice as well, after
this sort of schooling. Besides, what does a boy learn
in the shop in his early years? Little but harm;
nothing that he could not learn twice as well later in
life after complete schooling.
I think, then, that apprentices to skilled trades
should be placed in a technical school to learn science
and skill before they enter on their apprenticeship.
But I don't think schooling should end with the
beginning of apprenticeship. After sixteen years a
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
407
clever, educated boy has still much to learn that might
serve him in after-life. I think, therefore, that all
apprentices should work short hours; and I think that
a portion of their time should be compulsorily spent in
school.
of appren-
only way to
skilled
I dwell on this subject of educated apprentices Education
because I have seen its great practical advantages to tices the
the after-life of skilled men. But I also dwell on it educate
because I fear it is the only way to obtain educated workmen.
working men. I am hopeless in the matter of edu-
cating the "working man" who has grown up into
manhood without education. For the most part such
men are too old to learn. I have never seen, but ex-
ceptionally, much good come of trying to drive figures
and geometrical problems and mechanical theorems and
light and shade into the head of a full-grown work-
man who had failed to get a good education when
young. There have been brilliant exceptions-how
brilliant! how few!
What I beg the skilled workman to do is to press on
technical education for his craft, not for himself—for
his own children, and his friends' children. I entreat
him to forget himself, to pardon those parents and
those rulers who allowed him to grow up uncultivated
and untaught, and to give to those who are to follow
him all that culture and all that science and civilisa-
tion which is indispensable to the maintenance, among
other educated nations, of the character and reputation
of the English craftsman.
National
want of or-
ganised vil-
But I shall be told, and it is true, that "it is not the
fault of the English workman that he, his craft, and
lage and
his children are uneducated. There are no fit schools; workmen's
schools.
there is no Government organisation." The ignorant
cannot see to the teaching of the people. Those who
408
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
1. Elemen-
tary village
school.
are above them, and know and rule and govern-these
are the persons chargeable with the education of
Englishmen. The pilot of a ship has the guiding
of the ship; the sailors only work it and obey their
captain. The captain and the pilot are alone to
blame if the ship is ashore for want of look-out or
from miscalculation of courses or distance. So the
pilot of the State should have foreseen the necessity
of all this technical education, and provided for it
long ago.
All that is so, but now let bygones be bygones. Let
the statesman put education within the reach of every
apprentice. Let him rule that "all apprentices to
skilled crafts shall be technically educated," and then
let us see the skilled workmen, as one man, uniting
for the superior education of their craft and of their
children.
The technical schools required in England for the
training of English workmen are the following
1. The Elementary Village School.-A village
school in an educated country is a very different
thing from a village school in ill-educated England.
Where we have one poor master or mistress, ill-paid,
poorly housed, perhaps also ill-educated, educated
Germany will have two or three schoolmasters to a
single school, salaried by Government, trained and
licensed from Government establishments for the edu-
cation of schoolmasters-schoolmasters who have been
taught not merely the things they have to teach, but
also the principles of teaching and the practice of
teaching, so that the teaching shall do the pupils most
good and stay longest with them. They teach in the
true sense of the word.
Now in these village schools with good trained
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
409
masters, the time of the pupils is not wasted as in
ours on mere reading, writing and counting; they are
taught besides this all the things that reading, writing,
and counting are good for. Reading is useless if the
pupil does not learn by it something useful, interesting,
and worth reading; writing is useless if the pupil
gets no notions into his head worth writing about,
and if he has nothing to say worth saying; arithmetic
is useless if the pupil is taught nothing to use his
figures about, if he has no accurate knowledge given.
to him worth setting down in exact figures, if he
knows nothing of the nature of the things which
have to be put into figures. In good village schools,
supplied with good schoolmasters, every child will
be taught those knowledges that are put into read-
ing, writing, and figures, in addition to the pro-
cesses themselves of reading, writing, and counting.
This, however, requires a reform in village schools,
and with that reform a skilled craftsman would
begin his useful knowledge training in his village
school.
lage school.
2. The Upper Village School.-In educated coun- Upper vil-
tries the upper village school is on a small scale
what in a town would be a high school. It is
a school for teaching elements of science to those
villagers who are destined for skilled trades and occu-
pations requiring intelligence and knowledge. The
head teacher of an upper village school is a man of
considerable education, and has generally one or two
teachers under him. A child who has learned writing,
reading, and counting, in the first school, may be
transferred to the upper at the age of ten or eleven,
if he be qualified; but if not, he should remain longer
below.
410
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
In the upper school the boy improves his hand by
learning ornamental or elegant writing and fancy
printing; he learns reading and repeating aloud in
sounds that fit the sense and meaning; he fits his
figures and reckoning to the facts and uses of life;
he learns to draw from observation, to measure things
about him-he should measure his schoolroom and
draw it on paper-measure his village and draw
it on paper; he learns what things weigh-what
things cost-how much stuff each thing is made of-
how strong or durable it is—what each thing is good
for-how it is made--where it is found or grown or
made; he learns the geography of his country, its
population, its taxes, its government, its laws, its
customs, the history of its people, the nature of its
soil, its productions, its manufactures; he learns not
only the names of all common flowers, plants, and
trees, but their natures, their soils, their rearing, their
uses; he learns something of his own body, the nature
of food, the causes of health and of sickness; he is
taught the uses of his own limbs in a fit and adroit
instead of an awkward and clumsy way; he is taught
to sit, write, read, walk, run, leap, handle tools and
instruments and weapons in a comely, useful, and
dexterous way, instead of an unhealthy, ungainly, un-
seemly way. He may also here learn some geometry,
some chemistry, some physics, some geography and
geology, and a little French or some language other
than his own, enough to let him know how differently
other folks may choose to express the same meaning.
All this a boy may learn in an upper village school,
provided only the schoolmaster knows what to teach,
has properly prepared pupils, has fit apparatus of
teaching, has sufficient help, and has the inevitable
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
411
quality of loving his pupils and getting love from
them.
This upper village school is not a fancy school of
my own imagining, it is such a school as I have seen
successfully working in no very pretentious villages
in foreign lands—where education is provided by
wise governors and
and appreciated by an educated
people.
higher
3. The Third School, for scholars from twelve Town
to sixteen, cannot be a village school—it must be a school.
town school. But such higher schools should be
placed in towns, so distributed as to form centres,
to which clever boys destined for skilled trades
may be sent from the neighbouring villages. It
is, however, chiefly the inhabitants of these towns
themselves whose children will be bred skilled crafts-
men, as it is their wont to congregate (perhaps too
much) in towns, such as those in which high schools
should exist. The technical high school of each town,
if well organised, will give the boy destined to a skilled
trade or profession all the education that can best fit
him for his skilled work. But the village boy who
shows talent of a special kind should be sent out of
his village to the town school, either at the cost of his
parent, of his craft, or at the expense of the village
community. Thus the élite of our country population
would be trained to those occupations which their
natural aptness would enable them to follow out with
most advantage to the community.
evening
schools.
4. What I have said regarding apprenticeships being Village
limited to short hours and supplemented by technical science
schooling, requires that there should be evening special
schools for finishing the education of apprentices. In
a village where there is an upper village school with
412
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
for appren-
tices.
good teachers, there is no difficulty in arranging that
courses of science teaching, of drawing, modelling,
sketching, and colouring, and courses of practical
experimental lectures on physics and chemistry and
mechanics, shall be given; only it is essential that
Government appoint the teachers, pay them, and pro-
vide ample apparatus of teaching, and collections of
examples, models, and books.
Exhibitions 5. In the four preceding ways the young English
workman 'may work his way up in knowledge and
skill; but here he might have to stop, but for the
aids of which Mr. Whitworth has set the pattern.
Exhibitions, by which skilled workmen trained in
science can be helped on their way to eminence in
their business, and a superior education, will, I trust,
soon become common in this country; but for this
end the technical colleges I have described, and the
great technical university, must be established. When
this machinery is in full operation, the poorest man's
son, blessed with heaven-given talent, will find a school
ready to receive him, to nourish his mind with useful
knowledge, and to prepare him for a sphere of higher
usefulness at each successive stage of his youthful
career; and no man will be able to say that the
learned and the governing classes of his country
allowed his youth to pass in the hunger and thirst
of uncared-for ignorance and unchristian neglect.
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
413
THE COURSE OF EDUCATION FOR SKILLED
WORKMEN.
1. The First Village School-7th, 8th, 9th years.
2. The Upper Village School-10th, 11th, 12th years.
*3. The Upper Village Evening School-13th, 14th, 15th years.
4. The Town Higher School-13th, 14th, 15th years.
*5. The Town Evening Science School-16th, 17th, 18th years.
+6. The Technical College-16th, 17th, 18th years.
+7. The Technical University.
* These are finishing schools for those scholars who cannot proceed further.
+ These are only for such scholars of distinguished talent as obtain exhi-
bitions, and are thus enabled to educate themselves for foremen, managers,
and masters.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TECHNICAL EDUCATION OF THE ENGLISHWOMAN.
The English home.-Woman's work, home administration.-Foundation of
home.-Wise spending of husband's earnings.-Value and economy of
fuel.-Wise treatment of fuel.-Value of food:-Money value-Health
value-Strength value.—Cookery :-Waste-Frugality.-Family cloth-
ing:-Choice of materials-Cutting and shaping-Sewing, embroidery,
mending.-Knowledge of laws of health and disease.-Prevention, not
cure.—Religion.-Family education and training is special woman's
work.-Woman's education should consist of that of all her children.—
Virtue of mothers' teaching.—-Seven years of home education.-Seven
years of school helping.-Mothers' help in higher education.—This
high education of special use to the poor man's wife.-An educated
home. The lone woman.-Education the special business of woman.
AN Englishwoman is the head of an English home.
Home is an English word, an English thought, a
peculiarly English feeling, an English institution.
Home is the place of the family; the fireside and the
scene of family life, of family birth, growth, culture.
Life in England is not what it is in other lands, the
life of the forum, the rostrum, the bourse, the salon,
the corso, the café, the spectacle. English life grows
and shines hidden, in the bosom of the family. The
foreigner who has not seen English life in the English
home, knows nothing of England or the English.
When, therefore, I speak of the occupation of a
woman, I speak of her occupation in her sphere of
"home administration." Man does his work abroad,
without, in the world, in the crowd; woman's work is
to organise, regulate, animate, illuminate home. There
is her sphere, and in it she has work, duty, labour to
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
415
do; industry, art, skill to exercise; intelligence, know-
ledge, skill to develop. Education is required, special
in its object; training in arduous work, method in
execution, technical education.
Woman's technical work is the organisation and
fulfilment of the duties of home life; and we must
first examine the nature of these duties, before we can
talk of the education and training they require.
The foundation of the home is marriage; the
husband founds or finds the home; he brings his wife
"home." He provides there shelter and comfort; and
happiness is what he hopes always to find there. She
has to make that. Henceforth his duties lie out of
doors; hers lie indoors. He earns or gains their living
abroad. He brings his earnings home weekly, monthly,
yearly; that is his business. His wife's is, to spend
that money—well, or ill?
spending of
earnings.
The programme then of a woman's technical duty is Wise,
simply this: How shall I spend my husband's earnings husband's
in our joint home, so as to make it yield him and us
the best fruit? How shall I turn these hard-won
earnings to best account?
"How to administer given earnings in the wisest,
homely, household way "—that is a technical question,
wanting some knowledge, teaching, training, education.
The money of a home has to provide for health,
amusement, instruction. It has to provide fire, clothes,
food, drink, music, reading, comeliness, knowledge,
training, refinement.
economy of
1. Fire.-Ought an English wife to know anything Value and
about fuel or not? Should she know that there is fuel.
good and bad coal ?—that what is sold to her as best
coal is oftener bad coal than good?—that bad coal
produces smoke and flame and not heat, and that one
416
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Wise treat-
ment of
fuel.
wastes money and the other uses it? Ought a woman
to know this knowledge, or is it beneath her?
I must answer once for all, that I do not think
any household knowledge of this sort is beneath any
well-bred, well-born woman. When of two things
you have to choose, whether you will do the better
or the worse, it seems to me you have a grave
responsibility. It seems to me, if you choose the
worse, or don't choose, you are to blame. It seems to
me then, that a woman should know good coal from
bad, or she may waste her husband's earnings. But
next, if she buys only the best coal, comes the
question: Is there a right way of using the coal and
a wrong?
Ought an English wife to know how to use good
coal; to use it to the purpose for which it is bought ;
to use it for light, cheerfulness, ventilation, warmth,
cookery, cleanliness; or to use it to waste, smoke,
discomfort? Is any knowledge necessary for that?
Cannot anybody make a good fire ?-keep a good fire,
prevent smoke, maintain cheerful heat, warmth with-
out waste?
Verily, there are few women who know this: the art
to make, to maintain a good fire without excess,
without waste, without smoke. Much science goes to
understand a fire. 1. What is fuel made of? 2. What
feeds the fire? 3. What wastes the fire? 4. What
regulates the fire? 5. What makes flame? 6. What
wastes heat? 7. What preserves and maintains heat?
8. What spreads it equally round a room? 9. What
creates smoke, draughts, rheumatism, and colds?
It is not the work of a moment to understand and
answer all these questions. A wise housekeeper should
have asked them all, and got a good answer to each;
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
417
that is one element of English home, health and
comfort. Can every English housekeeper solve all
this?
food:
Money
value;
2. Food comes after Fire, or with it.—To feed her Value of
household well, agreeably, wholesomely, without stint,
without waste-there is a technical problem of home
life. What does each kind of food cost? What parts
of food are the more wholesome, the more nutritious?
What kinds of food do harm ?-to the young, the
middle-aged, the old? What quantity should be
cooked, so as to give plenty without waste? What is
the real value of each kind of food compared to its
price? What is the price of food bought wholesale
and bought retail? What is the true weight of good
kinds of food? How do I know good food from bad?
How can I tell adulterated food from pure and whole-
some food?
value;
What are the wholesome ways of cookery? What Health
kinds of cooking render wholesome food more or
less nutritious, palatable? What dishes are comely,
elegant, clumsy, gross, vulgar? How can I use the Strength
least sum of my husband's earnings in housekeeping,
and yet never make him feel in want of anything?
value.
Shall I be told that all these things come by Cookery:
intuition, by experience, by practice? That they are
for the servants to study, not for the mistress? That
in every English household they are already perfectly
well done? If I am assured that this is already known
and done, I have only to admit, that no technical educa-
tion in housekeeping is required by Englishwomen.
But I fear the truth is less pleasing; that many an Waste;
Englishwoman sorely feels, that that part of her educa-
tion is at least not perfect. But I fear that many
more Englishwomen and Englishmen do not know
EE
418
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
the truth about cookery and food. English food is
often of the best materials in the world. English fuel
Frugality. is also of the best. English cookery, as a whole, is
wasteful in the extreme, both of food and fuel. It is
the fault of the Englishwoman; her want of technical
education. She neither knows what is right, what is
wrong, nor can she teach her servants what she herself
is so ignorant of-the art of nutritious, wholesome,
elegant, economical cookery.
Family
clothing :
Choice of
materials;
Cutting and
shaping;
broidering,
3. Clothes. Should the mother of a family know
anything about her own clothes-her husband's-her
family's? What sort, quality, price of stuff, they
should be made of? What stuffs wear well? what
wash well? what wash out? Which parts wear out
first? How to make these parts last the longest?
What sewing holds? How many yards of stuff go to
each piece of dress?-how much for lining, how much
for trimming, how much for shaping, how much for
sewing?
Should the head of a household know how to make
anything with her own hands-out of her own head?
to cut out, to shape and fashion, to use a sewing
Sewing,em- machine; to sew, embroider, mend?
to sew, embroider, mend? Should she
mending. know all about children's clothes, or nothing? Perhaps
the Englishwoman we speak of may never want any
of these knowledges; she is born above all these
things. But may I ask: Is it of no use to know
thoroughly the things our servants have to do, or our
shopkeepers? Should we not know when we are well
served? when we are ill served? to distinguish between
those who do well, and those who do ill; teach our
inferiors, if they don't know; criticise their blunders,
detect and correct their faults? Is it beneath the
head of a household, to add to the pride of birth and
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
419
the power of wealth, the excellence of superior intelli-
gence and knowledge? Would it diminish your respect
for a stately dame of a noble house, to know that she
spared her husband's purse, and looked carefully after
her own household? I know of a Queen of ancient
race, who taught her daughters to wash their own lace;
for as she wisely said, "My dears, you never know
what you may come to !" Was she a foolish or a wise
mother?
All about clothes I think woman's work and
woman's duty: price, stuff, shaping, sewing, dura-
bility, washing, ironing, and mending. A woman
who cannot do all these things, and teach them to
servants and daughters by example and precept, has
not to my mind got a good technical education.
of laws of
4. Health. There is no such physician as a wise Knowledge
wife or mother. Not to cure disease: that is a health and
doctor's work but to prevent disease, or to stop it at disease:
starting. What are our gravest illnesses?—neglected not cure.
colds, indigestions, head-aches. Who first finds out
that we are ill? Who knows what has caused our
illness? Who first takes alarm? Why should not
every wife know the early symptoms of disease, the
cause, the cure? There-not by the sick bed, or in
the hospital, but there, by the family fireside, the
kindly mother should wisely watch the first symptoms
of disease, wisely give the early warning, wisely apply
the simple cure. Which is better in the house, a wise
wife, or a perpetual physician? There is no technical
training so valuable to a woman as that which shall
enable her both to keep the doctor out of the house,
and to send for him the moment he is wanted.
Prevention,
5. Religion. The cradle is the altar of the family; Religion.
there the infant hears its first hymn of praise, dreams
EE 2
420
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Family edu-
cation and
special
woman's
work.
its first dream of Paradise, wakes to see an angel face
beaming over it. Our religion is our first mother love,
our Christianity the earliest recollection of our mother
tongue. But on this not a word more. Our mothers,
and sisters, and wives, are all taught their Christianity,
from their youth up. This part of an Englishwoman's
technical education is perfect.
6. The most important part of the Englishwoman's
training is home duty is still to come. The character of the next
generation of Englishmen and Englishwomen is to be
of their mother's forming. Nearly all the education
that forms character is mother's teaching-home edu-
cation, family training. School may modify, but
cannot supersede this first apprenticeship to human
life. The world may cover and obscure the marks of
mother's breeding: that early growth can never be
uprooted!
Woman's
If, then, the mother's teaching founds the future
character, sows the early seeds of feeling, plants the
first roots of principle, settles the tendencies and aims
of life, grounds habits, prunes error, weeds out follies,
checks faults, develops hidden talent, encourages
native energy to steady application, and makes good
the weak places of the young human creature-what
after thought, and pains, and toil, and painful undoing
and still more painful regret, may not a wise mother
spare her children's lives! What glorious privileges
may she not confer on these young human souls,
making of them treasures for their friends, their home,
their country, and their God?
All, then, that a child should learn, its mother
education should know and be able to teach. Not that a child
sist of that should be tied to its mother's apron strings. But it is
should con-
of all her
children. certain that the better the mother is able to teach the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
421
child at home, the better that child will learn at
school, and work in the world.
Perhaps these are axioms and platitudes-I should
be glad if I might call them so. Unhappily, most
mothers know nothing of all the many things children
most want to know in home life. What mother
knows the name of every flower, what it is good for;
what fruit it grows, what it is good for; what it feeds,
what it kills, what soil it loves, when it blows, when
it seeds, how it should be cared for? What child
well trained won't want to know, won't be able to
remember such familiar things? What mother knows
the name of every bird-what tree it builds in, what
sort of nest it builds, how the nest is lined, what
shape, colour, and number of eggs it has; how long it
hatches, at what season, what like the young birds are,
what is their food, when they learn to fly, and when
they leave their home; where they go in winter,
where they find winter food in store, and where they
shelter in rain, and storm, and snow; what language
they use, and what they say to one another? What
child would not delight in such a story; what mother
would not delight to tell it, if only she knew? What
mother knows the names of all the stars, and what
they are, and where they go, and what they do, and
what they are good for? What the sun is good for, and
what it does to the moon, and to the earth, and to the
waters of the sea, and to the air, and to the ground,
and to plants, and to flowers, and to fruits, and to
corn, and wine, and oil?
All nature is a book-a child's book. Its mother Virtue of
is nature's best interpreter, if only she first knew!
A mother's teaching, home education, family training
-what a wide field of mother's work-all a child
mother's
teaching.
422
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Seven years
of home
education.
should know; all that its mother should be able to
teach.
7. I have spoken only of infancy, of the first six or
seven years, when as yet the school is not, and the
pedagogue has not entered on the scene. If the
mother's work must now cease, how glad will she be
if she has done it well, and how grateful her children
ever after. But must it now cease? Can a mother
after seven be of no more help to her boys or girls-
teach them no more? Let the mother herself say:
can she help her boys in the evening, or in the early
morning, with their figures, their reading, their exer-
Seven years cises? Can she help their geography, their geometry,
of school
helping.
Mother's
help in
cation.
their history? Can she hear them their Latin, or
translate their Homer, or recite with them a Greek
play? If so, what a proud mother! Happy boys!
blessed home!
But the girls? For my part, I doubt much if girls
blessed with such a mother need ever go to school, or
could ever better themselves by it. I am quite sure
that a man would far rather marry such a mother's
girls than the best boarding-school miss of the most
fashionable girls' school.
8. But even if mothers do not or cannot teach
higher edu- all their children all they should know, of how
great advantage to initiate, to choose, to watch the
education. What teachers would grow up under
the inspection of well-taught mothers for the edu-
cation of their well-prepared children! Thus every
knowledge of the mother proves a treasure to her
child.
This high
education
of special
use to the
In all this education for women, in what I have
called a woman's technical occupation, I may seem
to have forgotten two things:-the education of the
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
423
wife of a common peasant or workman, and that of poor man's
the lone woman who must choose a trade. I have not
wife.
cated home.
forgotten the working man's wife. It is for the
woman whose husband works hard to earn money that
I propose this special and superior education to enable
her to spare and spend his money as well and wisely as
he earns it. It is most necessary for the poor man's An edu-
wife to know the value of money and the nature of
money's worth. The cost, value, and wise way of using
fuel is to her and hers a first need; the first principles
of cookery are to her vital conditions of existence. She,
above all, should know how to select good food, to cook
it wholesomely and nutritiously, to mix good drinks,
to buy cheaply, and to get good measure and exact
quantities of all she wants; to make all her markets
wisely and well; to buy all of the best, and all at a
moderate price—that is her special wisdom. How to
clothe her children, her husband, and herself with good
lasting warm stuffs; to select them herself, to cut them
herself, to sew them herself, there is occupation,
enjoyment, virtuous work. Then to be able to teach
her children all she knows; to be able to train them
to be wise, virtuous, and useful like herself,—there is
work and also happiness; and then to be able to receive
from them grateful help in return,-there is reward.
Then look at the poor man's leisure in a home illu-
minated by such an educated woman. Look at an
evening fireside, where books can be interestingly and
well read aloud; where songs can be sung correctly
and well in parts in which all can join; where stories
can be well told and games of intelligence played, and
where each can benefit by another's knowledge. See
how the evils and gloom of a humble lot vanish
before the sunshine of an educated mother's home-
424
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The lone
woman,
Education
the special
women.
organisation. It is to the poor man that the educated
wife is the great prize of life.
But the woman who has no husband and no home-
what has she to do? That is the remaining question
which I have not touched. I do not propose to enter
at all upon the wide question-Shall women learn
men's trades, and practise them as men do? The life
of man is a hard struggle with dead matter, with
rude elements, with rough men, with a hard world.
Women's sphere is home: I have shown how home-
work is enough for all a woman's time and all her
faculties; but there is technical work still for lone
women to do which is fit for them, and for which they
are apt or apter than men. First, there is work to be
done by a lone woman in helping a mother who has
many children, and too much to do; this vocation of
helping is the nearest and best to having one's own.
Next, I consider the business of education a special
woman's business. Dame-schools are out of fashion in
England, because they were in fashion when women
were uneducated; but now, if women were well edu-
cated, the great burden of juvenile education might
rest with them: women have eminently the faculty of
teaching children; if they do not know, and, therefore,
cannot teach well, that is our fault, because we with-
held education from them. I earnestly commend as
technical occupation for women the profession of school-
mistress, and for it women's training must be identical
with men's.
But although the trades of men may, in many
business of instances, be better done by women, I do not propose
to enter into that question; to me, women's work is
home work. I have shown how technical it is; how
valuable and extensive, and what a wide technical
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
425
education it requires. I practically desire that the
same education which is given to boys to the age of
fifteen shall be given to girls. When boys go to tech-
nical schools or colleges I would also send women to
technical schools and colleges, and there I should teach
them all the varied knowledge which would enable a
mother to do wisely and well all the duties which I
have enumerated as going to make a good administrator
of a home and a competent teacher of a family, and an
able and wise spender and hoarder of her husband's
earnings.
There is, perhaps, one more vocation in which a
woman might use some technical knowledge: she
might help her husband in his business. To do so she
would have to receive a similar education and training
to himself. I do not think this can be made the sub-
ject of special women's training; the woman who has
received the education I have sketched will be so well
prepared for the work of life, that it will be easy for
her husband to give her such further special teaching
as will enable a willing heart to lend a helping hand
to lighten the burden of a husband's work.
;
i
?
?
CHAPTER XXV.
WILL ENGLAND CHOOSE TO BE EDUCATED ?
What are the chances for England's becoming educated?-Why should
another country be better educated than England ?-Education in
other countries one generation ahead of England.-The time for the
education of one generation is past and lost.-Whose fault was it ?—
Look to the future.-I. Find a fit Minister of Public Education.-Many
difficulties obstruct him.-English prejudice and apathy.— Will the
aristocracy take an earnest lead?—Why they should.-Difficulties in
Commons. The opponents of education.-A high class of teachers
indispensable.-Distinguished men can be obtained.-The rank and
condition of professors, teachers, and schoolmasters must be raised.—
Working men will not accept inferior teachers.-The organisation of
teaching must be complete and systematic. The succession of tech-
nical schools, colleges, and universities must form a continuous series.-
Success and failure depend entirely on finding a fit man to be Minister
of Education, and making him strong.
:
AFTER all that I have said, thought, and written on
the nature, value, ways, means, and mechanism for
educating the people of England for their future work
and well-being, I cannot refrain from asking myself
again and again this great vital question :-
What hope is there that the English people will
become an educated nation ?
Will English statesmen give this education?
Will the English aristocracy lead the people towards
the bright future of an educated people?
Will English commoners, merchants, shopkeepers,
and manufacturers vote public funds adequate for
public education?
Will learned, scientific, experienced technical men
undertake the teaching of the people?
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
427
Will the people of England accept systematic,
organised higher education, culture and training?
I frankly admit that I have often had to answer
these questions to myself in doubt, and even despair.
When I first saw an educated nation, my impulse was
to rush home and say to my friends,-Let us, too,
become an educated nation. Alas! how few re-
Nevertheless time
sponded-Let us go and do it!
and the tide of human progress, rushing past the
shores of our island, have moved a few among us to
thought, hope and a little action; but so little !-so
feeble !-so few!
in some
tries is one
generation
England.
England, standing by idle, has allowed the educa- Education
tion of one whole generation on the Continent to pass other coun-
her unheeded. Seven years are enough for the largest
technical education; seven more years are enough for ahead of
apprenticeship and practical training. The whole
generation of younger men on the Continent, who are
exercising their skilled crafts, trades, and professions
in educated countries, have received a high education
and training from the organised schools of their Go-
These young men, now between the
ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, are distinguishing
themselves and their countries by the excellence of
their work, the higher quality of their manufactured
materials, the economy of their execution, the beauti-
fulness of their designs. Ask these men whether they
think they and their country have benefited by sys-
tematic technic education, and you will get for answer
-that to it they owe all their success.
vernments.
Poor England, standing by idle, is too late! Her
working men, foremen, and masters, grown up unedu-
cated, cannot now become educated, we are too old
to learn! We have lost a generation! Whose was
The time
cation of
tion is past
for the edu-
one genera-
and lost.
428
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Whose fault
was it?
Look to the
future!
I. Find a
fit Minister
of Public
Education.
the fault-whose is the blame? Why did not our
statesmen foresee this? Why did not our aristocracy,
already provided with special universities and schools
for their own training, take care that we should have
our technical universities and trades schools for teach-
ing us our business?
Why did not our Legislature provide as liberally for
our education as other legislators for theirs? Why
was the vote for education not increased, even at the
cost of income-tax or by the sparing from wars? Why
did not our masters and manufacturers foresee that
our trade was going away to more skilled nations, and
warn us in time? Why did not the learned warn
the unlearned and teach them? Why did not wiser
men teach and lead the people?
All these and such questions might have been wise
and timely; they are now too late, and now it is
much better to deal with the future than to recri-
minate on the past. We have all been wrong; let all
help to mend our ways. We have neglected one
generation, let us at once set about the next.
The first question then is-What chance is there
that England will find a statesman sufficiently large-
minded, large-hearted, able and willing to undertake
the education of the English people? He must first be
a patriot, for the task is neither easy nor pleasant. To
tell people they are ill-educated, that they are no
judges of what good education is to tell them to
submit themselves humbly to the schoolmaster, is a
very unpopular task. We English have an instinctive
hatred of schoolmasters, pedagogues, and professors,
and he must love the people better than to care about
their opinions who undertakes the office of national
pedagogue. Besides, he must know the matters with
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION
429
which he has to deal. Such a patriot statesman it
will be hard to find. I know only one or two such
men, and I much doubt if the nation would accept
them and give them the full powers necessary to
success. Prussia had a Humboldt, or she might
never have had a national education. Who will be our
first Minister of Public Instruction, and go through
with it, and get it done thoroughly and earnestly?
He who does will earn and receive the reprobation of
this generation and the gratitude of the next.
Many diffi-
culties ob-
struct him.
prejudice
I am anxious not to conceal the difficulties of the
undertaking before us. The English mind is not pre-
pared for systematic organised education, and no other
is worth having. We have good fragments in England
of education, but it is a chaos of mere fragments with-
out organisation. We want a good paved road to English
knowledge, and we have only remains of a great and apathy.
Roman road, impeded rather than paved with occa-
sional fragmentary blocks. These we are so used to,
that although we would scorn to take a beast of burden
over a Roman road, and though we provide county
roads and parish roads for the ease of our horses, and
though we provide railroads for the transport of our
bodies and goods, we leave the minds of our country-
men to struggle without help over antiquated paths in
search of mental food and mental wealth. I have just
read in Motley's "History of the United Netherlands "
a passage which admirably describes our state :-
"Meantime there was apathy where there should
have been enthusiasm ; parsimony and cowardice where
generous and combined effort were more necessary
than ever; sloth without security.'
""
When I am asked whether the aristocracy will head
the people, and lead them to the bright future of an
Will the
aristocracy
take an
430
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
earnest
lead?
should.
educated nation, I am almost disposed to think they
might, as I am firmly convinced they should. 1. Most
of our good English families have themselves received
a good education, the best England has to give, and
for that reason, knowing the value of knowledge, and
that it is a treasure that grows by giving, I think the
Lords might take the lead in the people's education.
Why they Next, I think it would be both generous and comely
in them to do so, for it is the land which has in past
time borne the burden of teaching the people, and it
will probably be the land which will still bear the
burden. The Lords are still the great occupiers of the
lands of England, and it would be comely, gracious,
liberal, and possibly prudent in them to court the
burden of educating the people, and to assume the
lead and direction of so agreeable, so grateful a duty
as to unite their own children and the next generation
of the people in such a bond of brotherhood. Could
young England have a more useful duty, a more
agreeable occupation of the leisure they inherit, than
the culture and training of an improved race of Eng-
lishmen? I offer the matter to their consideration. I
think it would be a noble thing to become the aris-
tocracy of a cultivated, refined, Christian nation! A
noble boast to say we have made England the best
educated nation in Europe! Better even to be able
to boast of a matchless breed of men than of race-
horses, bullocks, or hounds.
Difficulties
in the Com-
mons.
What will the English Commons do is a still more
difficult question than the Lords. They are a mixed
body, of whom prediction is hard. I have heard an
English statesman say that they are incapable both of
organising methodically any public interest themselves
and of letting some one else do it for them. Our
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
431
Post Office is an organised public service, but what
difficulty to get it done! How well it works-how ill
we receive and requite its services! Then how many
of our rich commoners are ignorant, unrefined men,
who have made wealth by quite other means than per-
sonal qualities, abilities, culture, refinement, who are
quite innocent of science, philosophy, and all the
"ologies!" If you ask these men whether they don't
think their workmen worth better culture, they frankly
tell you no! They don't want education to enable
themselves to make money-why should their people
have better education than their masters? You ask
another distinguished citizen manufacturer if he does
not think a little technical education would help the
English workman to compete better with educated
nations abroad; he answers, with a laugh, that as long
as our stores of cheap coal and cheap iron last, none
need fear foreign competition! That man is a respected
representative of a chief manufacturing city, and that
is a true measure of the state of mind of many of our
manufacturing and trading magnates. Judge then of
the help they are like to give to the cause of working
men's education, culture, and refinement. Go to the
office of the Council of Education, and ask whether
they mean to initiate a measure of public education, or
organise systematic technical universities, colleges, and
schools; they will tell you that it is for the people who
want these things to initiate them, and then come to
the Government; or they will tell you that the Com-
mons so begrudge the present estimates that they dare
not double them. Or the minister will tell you that
for this year at least there can be no increased expen-
diture on education on a large scale, as they are busily
engaged in cutting down the estimates, or are fully
432
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
The oppo-
nents of
education.
A high class
of teachers
indispens-
able.
occupied in paying for that great national undertaking,
the Abyssinian war.
If
It wants then an able, wise, patriotic minister, strong
in power, to carry the education of the people against
ignorance, parsimony, and fear of unpopularity.
the aristocracy help him they may do much good, for
we continue to vaunt our democracy and to be the
most aristocracy-loving and fearing people in the
world. I don't think the commercial, trading, shop-
keeping, financing representatives of the people are in
favour of a high education for their constituents. Edu-
cated constituents might choose other sorts of repre-
sentatives. To that I agree; they probably would.
But there are, happily, in the House of Commons,
educated and refined men, who value the culture they
possess, and who can foresee the blessings which an
educated nation would enjoy, especially a nation con-
sisting of so fine a race as the English people. The
nature of the very highest sort is theirs. But the cul-
ture to make that nature noble we have withheld.
There are many cultivated men who feel all this as
strongly as I do, and will stoutly stand by the able
minister who undertakes the work.
Whether the work of teaching the English nation
can be got done by men of a high class in character,
condition, ability, culture, science, and refinement, is
a matter of first importance but of serious difficulty.
Pedagogy is an unpopular profession. Gentlemen
don't like to turn schoolmasters. Schoolmasters are
ill-received in English society;-I much doubt if their
wives are received at Court. I fear they are set down
as of the trading class who open shops for selling
lessons. I have spoken with excellent schoolmasters
on their social condition; I think their social condition
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
433
is quite unworthy of the English nation. We deem
the teachers of our children lower than shopkeepers,-
we rank them as menials merely; I have known the
parish schoolmaster rebuked by the parish parson
because he rode on horseback for exercise instead of
going afoot. If we don't change our opinions and our
ways about the condition and value of a schoolmaster,
our teaching will not thrive.
Distinguished and learned men have been and are
schoolmasters. The aristocracy, who are themselves
educated men, know that none but superior men can
give to their sons superior training; they therefore
take for the masters of their boys eminent men.
And how do they obtain them? They reward them
with social rank, good emolument, church preferment,
and deaneries and bishoprics. That is fit and right;-
a good pedagogue is like to make a good parson.
What then could be wiser than to follow, in the
national education of the English people, the pattern
set by the flower of the land? Let eminent and
educated and refined men be made the teachers of
the people; let them be well housed, well paid, well
rewarded, well promoted; let us take care of their
children, and we may expect them to take good care
of ours.
Our schoolmasters should be pattern men,
and we should show our children our profound respect
for the men whose teaching we wish them to value.
Distin-
men can be
guished
obtained.
The rank
and condi-
tion of pro-
fessors,
and school-
masters
The rank of the schoolmaster must therefore be
raised before we can raise the education of our children,
and the same condition is essential to the people's teachers,
willing acceptance of the education we offer. The
working people of England are not satisfied that the must be
teaching we give their children is likely to be of use
to them in practical life; mere reading, writing, and
F F
raised.
434
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Working
men will
inferior
teachers.
counting, are not useful to the working man;—it is
waste of time to read that for which you don't care,
to learn writing when you have nothing to write, and
to learn counting and have no accounts to keep.
Workmen's schools at present do little for workmen's
children. But if technical schools for workmen's
apprentices be once instituted which teach them the
principles, instruments, methods, and economy of their
business, all the aspect of education will change.
When learning makes a good workman and man of
business, all will be willing and ready to learn. They
will willingly learn to read, write, and count, if these
three things be the conditions of being afterwards and
thereby initiated into all the higher branches of the
knowledge of their craft and trade.
But it will never do to let the teachers of workmen's
not accept technical schools be inferior, half-taught, or ill-taught
men themselves. They ought to know thoroughly and
profoundly the sciences they profess, and they must
also know thoroughly the various businesses to which
their pupils will have to apply their knowledge. The
teachers must therefore be superior men, who are
practical men themselves and have mastered science,
or who are scientific men, and have taken the trouble
to make a careful practical study of the uses to which
their science has to be put. Without the teaching be
of this sort, I venture to say that the working men
and men of business will not have it; and these schools
ill-taught will fail, and deserve the failure. The trial
has often been made, and has always failed, so far as
my own observation extends.
The organi-
sation of
teaching
must be
complete
There is another obstacle in the way of success
likely enough to cause failure if not foreseen and fore-
thought. If the work be begun on a small scale, it
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION,
435
and sys-
will probably fail; if on a large scale, it may equally tematic.
fail, and the difficulty is to ensure success. The
scale, however, for organising education is a critical
point. If you establish single isolated schools, or a
single isolated college, or if you try a bit of a technical
university, it will probably fail, and deserve failure.
Indeed, the result of trials of this sort of experiment
on human beings is, and ought to be, exemplary failure.
The education of the nation is either worthy of being
so done as to command success, or it is not worthy of
any experiment. Other countries have paid for the
lesson and learned it. We have made the failures and
not learned any lesson. A technical university created
in its completeness cannot fail to be a glorious success.
But its success depends entirely on its completeness;
it is only as a whole that it can work. It is a com-
plicated engine, but the bits of it taken separately will
not work at all. The whole engine must be set agoing,
and must be kept going until it has worked out its
own success.
The suc-
technical
cession of
schools, col-
leges, and
must form a
series.
When our university is started it must from the
first appear to be a failure. We have none of the
machinery for preparing work for it to do. We have
not the technical schools nor the technical colleges all university
through England which are required in order to continuous
prepare fit pupils for it. It will not do to send
ignorant, unprepared students to such an university.
Long systematic training is necessary even to enter
there. Only the élite and talent which have sprung
out of the lower schools can enter there. Never-
theless the university must spring into existence
complete, for we want our superior teachers, our
technical masters, to have there a complete training
to fit them for training the scholars of the schools
436
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Success or
failure de-
pends en-
tirely on
man for
Minister of
and making
and colleges. To do this the courses of the univer-
sity must be complete and perfect, not partial nor
fragmentary.
On the other hand, the technical colleges and tech-
nical schools which train students for the technical
university, cannot exist efficiently without the simul-
taneous existence over them of that university for
which their highest and best pupils are to be prepared,
and where these students are to find the highest
reward and appreciation and consummation of their
studies. Where they leave off, the university begins.
Where the technical schools leave off, the technical
colleges begin. Thus the whole national teaching must
be one complete organised whole, or it will prove waste
and failure.
What then is wanted is a powerful statesman; a
strong will; a complete and organised plan of a
people's teaching; a determination that, at whatever
cost, the English people shall become in one genera-
tion the best educated nation in Europe,-and it will
be done. Short of this is failure.
The conclusion, then, to which I am driven, is that
the one thing we want is the right man fit to be
finding a fit Minister of Public Education;—that man to be made
minister. The nation is, by its various representatives,
Education, to say England shall be a highly educated nation;
him strong. the aristocracy to lead the van in education; the
Commons to vote funds for cultivating our own nation,
which shall bear some fair proportion to the sums
voted for killing people of other nations. The educa-
tion of the nation to be placed in the hands of able,
distinguished, refined, and practical men, and the
chaos of existing education to be rendered orderly,
organised, and systematic. All this to be done by
SYSTEMATIC TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
437
that one man—and that man to be sought for and
found. It will not be done by a council of mediocrities,
nor will it be done by a council of professors. One
man must do it. Let us all agree to look for him
give him the work-and wish him good speed!
THE END.
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