DISCUSSIONS
ON
TECHNICAL EDUCATION,
AT THE WASHINGTON MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS,
FEBRUARY 22d and 23d, 1876,
AND
AT A JOINT MEETING
OF THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS,
AND THE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS,
AT PHILADELPHIA, ON JUNE 19th and 20th, 1876.
NEW  YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF
CIVIL ENGINEERS.
1876.




P H ILA DE L P HII A.
SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS.




INTRODUCTION.
AT a time when the minds of engineers were ripe for the discussion of Technical Education, it needed but a presentation of the
case before some prominent association of engineers, to call out a
filll and free expression of opinion regarding the defects of existing
systems and the principles and methods of improvement.
At the Washington meeting of the American Institute of Mining
Engineers, in February last, the President's opening address presented the subject in certain aspects, which had the effect of stimulating discussion from the " practical" side and from the scholastic
side of the profession. An interesting debate sprang up, but, as the
prescribed business of the meeting did not permit time nor preparation for the suitable consideration of the subject, the Council of the
Institute, upon motion of Mr. Eckley B. Coxe, appointed a committee to confer with the American Society of Civil Engineers, for
the purpose of arranging a joint discussion on Technical Education,
by members of both societies, during the period of their summer
meetings in Philadelphia. The Board of Direction of the American
Society of Civil Engineers at once appointed a similar committee.
JOINT COMMITTEE.
HENRY R. WORTHINGTON, Prest., Member Am. Soc. C. E.
THOMAS C. CLARKE, Member Am. Soc. C. E.
CHARLES BENDER, Member Am. Soc. C. E. and Inst. M. E.
ECKLEY B. COXE, Member Inst. M. E.
ROSSITER W. RAYMOND, Member Inst. M. E.
ALEXANDER L. HOLLEY, Sec., Member Inst. M. E. and Am.
Soc. C. E.




4                      INTRODUCTION.
The Joint Committee issued the following circular:
"At a meeting of the Joint Committee of the AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF CIVII, ENGINEERS and the AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING
ENGINEERS on TECHNICAL EDUCATION, held in New York on
March 17th, 1876, it was'Resolved, That the Secretary of the Joint Committee be authorized to transmit the following request to such members of the two
societies represented, and to such foreign engineers as the Committee
may designate:'You are hereby requested by the Joint Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Mining Engineers
on Technical Education, to discuss this subject at a joint meeting of
the two societies, to be held on June 20th, during their Philadelphia
meetings, the discussion to be chiefly upon the following questions:'I. Should a course of instruction in works precede, accompany,
or follow that in the technical school?'II. Is it practicable to organize practical schools, under the
direction and discipline of experts, in engineering works?'For the purpose of explaining more fully the nature and scope
of these questions, an abstract of the remarks made on the subject
at the February meeting of the Institute of Mining Engineers is
herewith sent you.'As it is believed that a number of foreign engineers, as well as
many of our own experts, will wish to take part in this discussion,
the time of each speaker will be limited to ten minutes, until after
all on the list have spoken, but any reports or considerations on
Technical Education which may be presented to the meeting in
writing will be printed with the proceedings.'Please give early notice if you will take part in the discussion.' A. L. HOLLEY,
Secretary.'"
This circular was sent to several prominent engineers, foreign and
resident, who were not members of either society, and to a number
of such members of the two societies as would probably represent




INTRODUCTION.                        5
the widest range of experience and opinion.  Of these, nearly all
expressed a desire, and the greater part an intention, to join in the
discussion; of the latter, some were finally prevented, by various
causes, from carrying out this intention. A few gentlemen took no
notice of the invitation.  More than half those applied to, took part
in the debate or they furnished papers.
The Joint Committee direct that the address of the President of
the Mining Engineers, and the debate thereon at Washington, which
are in fact a part of the same discussion, shall be affixed to the record
of the joint discussion, so that the whole matter may be presented
consecutively and in order.
A. L. HOLLEY,
Secretary of the Joint Comnmittee.
NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 1876.








ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT A. L. HOLLEY,
BEFORE THE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS, AT
WASHING TON, FEB. 22d, 1876,
ON THE
INADEQUATE UNION OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE
AND ART.
THE application of scientific methods to the investigation of natural laws and to the conduct of the useful arts which are founded upon
them, is year by year mitigating the asperity and enlarging the outcome of human endeavor. More notably, perhaps, are these the facts
in that system of productive and constructive arts of which engineering is the general name. In metallurgical engineering especially,
within the period of our own recollection, how rapid has been the
rate and how wide the scope of progress: the scientific discovery and
mining of metalliferous veins; the economical separation and reduction of ores of every grade; the production and regulation of high
temperatures; the varied improvements in the manufacture of iron,
in saved heat and work, in uniformity and range of products; and,
most important of all, the creation and the utilization, to be counted
by the million tons a year, of the cheap constructive steels.
Wonderful as this range and degree of development may appear
to the public eye, the close and thoughtful observer must, nevertheless, conclude that neither the profession nor the craft of engineering
may congratulate themselves too complaisantly, but that they should
rather acknowledge to each other the embarrassing incompleteness
of the union between engineering science and art.
There is a small school of philosophers whom we may designate as
original investigators, men who come close to nature, who search into
first principles, and who follow that scientific and therefore fruitful
method by which the relations of matter and force are discovered,
classified, and brought within the reach of practice. These wonderful
men do not indeed create the laws of nature, as they sometimes almost
seem to, but they go up into the trembling mountain and the thick
darkness and bring down the tables upon which they are written.




8                  THE INADEQUATE UNION
There is a larger class of men whom we may designate as the
schoolmen; they are learned in the researches and conclusions of
others, and skilled in reasoning or speculating from these or from
abstract data upon the certain or probable results of physical and
chemical combinations.
And there is the great army of practicians, almost infinite in its
degrees of quality, ranging from the mere human mechanism by
which mind lays hold of matter and force, through all the grades
of practical judgment and power.
Let us first consider the matter from the " practical" man's standpoint. Every day's experience teaches him that the men who speculate, from secondhand data, upon the probable results of combinations
of forces and materials, are not the men who can best make these
combinations in practice, who intuitively know all the concealed pitfalls, such as friction, that trick of nature which like the thousandth
part of phosphorus, alters all the conditions of use in iron; nor are
they the men who can determine the completeness of these combinations, or read the record of their results, as in the character of a
flame, in the feeling of a refractory mixture, in the behavior of a
metal under treatment; nor are they the men who, by familiarity
with objects and phenomena, are best fitted to pursue that original
investigation which is the foundation of even theoretical progress.
The expert who delights to call himself "practical," is honestly
amazed at the attempts of experts by school graduation, who have
not been graduated in works, to solve the engineering problems of
the day. And from his standpoint there are numerous and conspicuous illustrations. While metallurgists are still disputing over
the nature and sequence of reactions in combustion and reduction,
the practical ironsmelter has felt his way from the barbarous practice
of a century ago, to the vast and economical production of to-day.
The attainment of powerful and sufficiently hot blast by means of
waste heat, the adaptation of shape and proportion of stack to different fuels and ores, labor-saving appliances and arrangements,all these have grown out of the constant handling, not of books, but
of furnaces.
Proceeding upon a chemical knowledge little superior to that of
the average schoolboy, Bessemer developed his revolutionary process.
Not knowing for years that the combustion of silicon or of manganese are the chief sources of the necessary heat; ignoring the fact
that not alone the reaction but the presence of manganese is a cause
of soundness and malleability in steel; magnifying the hypothesis




OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.                9
that silicon should promote soundness; instructing his licensees to
avoid all irons containing above 0.02 per cent. of phosphorus; and
sharing the ignorance of the whole metallurgical profession as to the
sequence of reactions in the converter and the probability of changing their character, Bessemer and his followers, during the first fifteen
years of their practice, nevertheless brought this difficult art, which
the metallurgical schools call a chemical art, to a high degree of
commercial success, and this in the absence of any metallurgical
change or chemical improvement whatever, in the treatment of the
metal. During all this time, there was almost no literature of the
Bessemer manufacture, and no instructor save that grim sphinx the
converter and the well-nigh inscrutable process. It was a hand-tohand fight, involving mechanical details, refractory linings, celerity
of operations, regularity of melting and conversion and economy of
labor. With every fact written in his book, the closeted scientist
could no more adequately prescribe the practical conditions of improvement, than could the student in optics specify in words and
formulae the glory of an Italian sunset.
Here is a cupola-furnace, an old and exceedingly simple device; but
one may know all the iaws of combustion and fluxing that are written
in the cyclopedias, and yet fail to change its working at will, or fail
to detect the coming change, until by long familiarity, the phenomena reveal themselves as it were instinctively. One may have learned
every law of the reactions of oxides and fluxes upon a refractory
material, yet until his practiced hand and eye and ear can nicely
detect its physical qualities and measure the results of new ingredients and temperatures, he may wander for years in a maze of uncertainties. Notwithstanding all our previous knowledge about the
inevitable.combustion of carbon and oxygen in the presence of heat
enough to ignite them, the Siemens-Martin process, both in its
calorific and in its metallurgical aspects, was as purely unpractical
as the direct utilization of sun-heat is to-day, until after years of
patient observation, not chiefly by scientists but by men unacquainted
with books and knowing nothing at second-hand, innumerable small
increments of improvement at last produced a sufficient temperature
in a durable furnace.
In the development of machinery, the same history is repeated.
The proportions of parts, in fact, the modern formulae themselves,
are derived from the study of innumerable experiments. The adaptation of machinery can only be perfected by him who, as it were,
enters into it, making it an incarnation of himself. This enlarge



10                THE INADEQUATE UNION
ment of a man's organism is most strikingly illustrated in the locomotive. Oliver Wendell Holmes has happily described this putting
of his life into his "shell" boat, his every volition extending as perfectly into his oars as if his spinal cord ran down the centre of its
keel, and the nerves of his arms tingling in the oar-blades. The
thoughtful locomotive-driver is clothed upon, not with the mere
machinery of a larger organism, but with all the attributes of a
power superior to his own, except volition. Every faculty is stimulated and every sense exalted. An unusual sound amid the roaring
exhaust and the clattering wheels tells him instantly the place and
degree of danger, as would a pain in his own flesh. The consciousness of a certain jarring of the foot-plate, a chattering of a valvestem, a halt in the exhaust, a peculiar smell of burning, a sudden
pounding of the piston, an ominous wheeze of the blast, a hissing of
a water-gauge-warning him respectively of a broken spring-hanger,
a cutting valve, a slipped eccentric, a hot journal, the priming of the
boiler, high water, low water, or failing steam-these sensations, as
it were, of his outer body, become so intermingled with the sensations of his inner body, that this wheeled and fire-feeding man feels
rather than perceives the varying stresses upon his mighty organism.
Mere familiarity with steam-engines is not, indeed, a cause of
improved steam-engineering, but it is a condition. The mechanical
laws of heat were not developed in an engine-house, yet without the
mechanism which the knowledge derived through this familiarity has
~created and adapted, the study of heat would have been an ornamental rather than a useful pursuit. So in other departments.
When one can feel the completion of a Bessemer "blow" without
looking at the flame, or number the remaining minutes of a Martin
steel charge from the bubbling of the bath, or foretell the changes
in the working of a blast-furnace by watching the colors and structure of the slag, or note the carburization of steel by examining its
fracture, or say what an ore will yield from its appearance and
weight in the hand, or predict the lifetime of a machine by feeling
its pulse; when one in any art can make a diagnosis by looking the
patient in the face rather than by reading about similar cases in a
book, then only may he hope to practically apply such improvements
as theory may suggest, or to lead in those original investigations
upon which successful theories shall be founded.
These are the conclusions of the "practical" man, and they are
none the less true because they are not the whole truth. That they




OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.               11
are too little considered by the schoolmen and the graduates of schools
is also true, but happily, less conspicuously so as the years advance.
The evil consequences of this mistake develop themselves in various ways. The recent graduates of schools do not, indeed, expect
immediate positions of responsibility'and authority, but they often
demand them after too short a term of object-teaching. Perhaps the
greatest advantage of their scientific training is that they can learn
from objects and phenomena faster than can the mere workman, who,
although full of the elements of new and useful conclusions, lacks,
if I may so say, the scientific reagent which precipitates the rubbish
and leaves a clear solution of the problem. It is however true-in
the iron manufacture, perhaps, especially true-that men of wide
learning and of great mental dexterity, unless they have studied at
least as many years in the works as they have in the school, do not
successfully compete for the desirable places with the men who have
come up from the ranks. Narrow, unsystematic, and fruitless of
new results as his knowledge may be, he who has grown up steadily
from the position even of puddler's helper, will be selected to take
the manager's post in preference to him whose reputation is founded
solely on the school.
Nor does this prove, as the schoolmen too often believe, that the
owners and directors of metallurgical enterprises are generally unappreciative of scientific culture. It rather proves that the lowest functions, as in the case of poor humanity, must first be considered; that
the conditions of maintenance and regular working, which constant
familiarity with objects and phenomena alone can provide, are earliest
in order. Conservation first and improvement afterwards.
Another consideration in this connection is that scientific aid
appears to be more readily provided for the "practical " man than
practical aid for the "scientific" man. The trained scholar can the
more readily adapt himself to the situation. He should suggest
many more improvements than would ever crystallize in an equally
good but undisciplined mind. Yet his attempt, with mere scholastic
aids, to carry these improvements out, might disorganize a whole
establishment. As there must be one final authority, judgment
founded on experience almost universally ranks the wider and more
fruitful culture of the school. And if we ask those great masters
whose experimental knowledge is as wide as their scientific culture,
they will tell us, that as the inert and clumsy flywheel, that typical
conservator, is more helpful to a steam-engine in the long run, than
a valve-gear so highly organized that it seems to know what it ought to




12                THE INADEQUATE UNION
do, so in their own undertakings, plodding, practical economics must
sit in judgment upon theory and limit the reaches of imagination.
Another evil growing out of the inadequate regard of mere schoolmen for practice, is the frequent failure of their works or their inability to complete them. Inventions and constructions, designed after
a scientific method and under the light of organized facts and detailed
history as laid down in books, may fail simply in default of a practical knowledge of how far the capital at hand will reach, or what
the means at hand will do, or what the materials at hand will stand,
or what the labor and assistance at hand can be relied on to accomplish. A vast number of facts about the operation of forces
in materials are so subtle, or so incompletely disentangled from
groups of phenomena, that they cannot be defined in words, nor understood if they could be formulated. But after long familiarity with
the general behavior of materials under stress, a practical expert can,
by a process more like instinct than reason, judge how far and in
what directions he may safely push his new combinations. Thus
while the unschooled practician so usually wastes his energies in
unscientific methods and on impossible combinations, but generally
carries into successful use his comparatively few well-founded attempts, the student merely of principles and abstract facts so usually
originates the ideas upon which progress is founded, and so rarely
clothes them with practical bodies. In this chasm between science
and art, how much effort and treasure, and even life, are swallowed
up year by year.
These are not theoretical considerations. The blast-furnace, the
converter, and the open-hearth have already been referred to; let us
observe some other illustrations. A bridge-builder will tell us that
few structures in his department of engineering fail by reason of
mistakes in calculating the strain-sheet, but that the majority of
failures arise from vibrations, buckling, rapid wear of important
parts, shapes that weaken the material, inequalities in the material,
and similar causes which are not stated in books, which assume
different aspects under every change of proportions and dimensions,
and which can only be inferred by means of a long familiarity with
the behavior of similar structures during varying periods of service,
and with the processes by which materials and members are fabricated. The builder of a machine like a marine engine, or a locomotive, or a roll-train, or a steam-hammer, will tell us that, in
designing new adaptations, after every stress that can be distinctly
analyzed is provided for, mass to resist vibration, changes of shape




OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.               13
to insure sound casting, and various modifications which cannot be
formulated for the want of even approximately complete knowledge
of their conditions, must still be supplied, simply by judgment
founded on long observation of phenomena under similar conditions.
And he will thus explain nine-tenths of the failures. Who can
imagine the volume of a book, or of an author, which should adequately teach the principles of construction as affected by the chiefest
of all practical considerations-the economies of the foundry, the
forge, and the machine-shop? With the tools and facilities at hand,
what divisions of a particular structure, what shapes and sizes and
methods of joining can be made cheaply as well as strong and efficient, in all the infinite forms of mechanism? Obtaining such facts
from any other source than personal practice, would be like an oarsman studying a book to know when and how in the race he must
husband his power, or like a wrestler looking out in a cyclopedia the
probable feints of his antagonist. The successful constructor will
assure us that no possible training in the school, nor any genius in
invention can build economically without such a knowledge of the
shop as the athlete has of the possibilities of muscular strength and
agility.
These arts have been selected as examples, not because they chiefly
depend on skill, but because they so largely involve the highest
formulated mathematical knowledge. How much more important,
then, is practical training in those departments where physical laws
are very incompletely understood and formulated. How far short
of practical success will abstract science stop in sinking pneumatic
piles through wrecks and boulders, in tunnelling rocks traversed by
subterranean streams and beds of quicksand, in cheaply applying
hoisting, ventilating and draining machinery to mines where the
scene and conditions of operation are constantly shifting, in firmly
founding heavy and vibrating machinery on treacherous ground, in
handling and casting melted steel, in constructing refractory metallurgical vessels, in delivering bars red-hot and crooked in infinite
directions to a roll train, in fabricating durable breech-loading
cannon, in building boilers that shall provide for vaporization, circulation, separation, cleaning and durability, in designing enginery
like the horseshoe machine to shape metals, in proportioning gasfurnaces, in submarine warfare, in aerial navigation, in machine
tools, in traction engines, in scaffolding and erection, in railway
running-gear, in forming artificial stone under water, in permanent
way, in coal-cutting, in dredging machinery, in moulding and casting,




14                 THE INADEQUATE UNION
in brick machinery, in tube-drawing, in coal-burning, in pavements?
Limited or impossible as would be the progress of engineering arts
in the absence of that knowledge and those methods which are imparted in schools, delay and failure would hardly be less conspicuous
if the schoolmen should stay in the schools and thence attempt the
application of abstract science, or expect mere workmen to apply it
by hearkening to their directions.
I hope it may not seem that the dignity of abstract scientific investigation is undervalued by the utilizers of nature's powers and
materials, or that any considerations of profit obscure, even in the
average commercial mind, the splendor of those achievements made
in the mere love of truth, with thought of neither commercial application nor pecuniary reward-achievements which distinguish such
names as Faraday, Bunsen, Leverrier, Mayer, Joule, Henry, Darwin,
and Tyndall. Do not their successes rather encourage us, in our
lower sphere, to more persistently pursue the method of these great
discoverers-the original investigation of Nature's truths? Not less
literally than in the poet's fancy,' To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language."
To the skilled artisan she reveals herself as truly though not as
widely as to the philosopher. In the aphorism of Goethe, " Mankind
dwell in her and she in them. With all men she plays a game for
love, and rejoices the more they win."
But the undervaluation of the study of objects and phenomena
by schoolmen, is not the principal hindrance to the complete union of
science and art. A greater obstacle is the combined misapprehension
and ignorance on the part of a large class of "practical" men, of
what they are pleased to call "theory," meaning by theory, something which is likely to be discordant with fact —or possibly with
the interests of the craft. We can hardly complain that their obiection is ill-grounded, as far as it is grounded upon the practice
of theoretical men; but the world has a right to complain of their
narrowness of observation, of their stolid incomprehension of the
results of science, of that pride of ignorance, of that bigotry, of that
positive fear of the diffusion of knowledge, which is the normal condition of those who range only within the sphere of their own
practice, and to whom analysis and generalization, in their business
affairs, as well as in morals and politics, are an unknown thing. It
is unfortunately true that a large number of managers in metallur



OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.              15
gical enterprises-men who are deemed indispensable, and who
probably, are indispensable, in the average state of practical science,
are thus not incorrectly characterized. Conscious of their power as
conservators, ignorant of the elements of improvement, and not unfrequently jealous and blindly fearful for the interests of their craft,
they sit triumphant on an eminence (the steady undermining of
which they cannot observe), and sneer at the too frequently condescending magniloquence of recent graduates and book men. The
best of this class are the workful and painstaking men who come up
from the ranks-men who are plucky ill emergencies and regulative
of labor-men whose unconscious reasoning or intuition covers the
ordinary exigencies, and who, perhaps for this very reason, never
inform themselves outside of their own range of observation, nor
observe in a methodical or fruitful manner.
There is also a class of practicians who do secretly and abstractly
respect the labors of the scientific investigator, and are unwillingly
governed, more or less, by his conclusions; but their minds are so
barren of general facts and so untrained in the scientific methods of
utilizing facts, and hence so distrustful of any ideas which reach
beyond their own practice, that they also are impediments rather
than helpers in the union of science and art.
It is often said, I am aware, that there is never any real antagonism between science and art, and that all men respect, even if they
do not promote, the efforts of both scientists and practicians to forward the useful arts. What then shall we say of that phase of
trades-unionism, which not only tends to repress improvement, but
which often violently defeats the works of progressive thinkers and
sometimes destroys their authors? Let us also observe an extreme,
but not isolated case of the executive treatment of science. Long
before the professional career of most of us began, the Erie Railway
Company commenced a series of experiments in civil and mechanical
engineering, sometimes elaborate, like those of Zerah Colburn on
traction, and always useful; many of them incorporated with and
improving the practice of the road for a quarter of a century. The
voluminous drawings and records of this experimental practice,
always preserved by the engineers of the road, were just beginning
to be remembered by young and inquiring engineers, as a mine of
professional information, when it was discovered-you will hardly
believe me-that the engineer of the Erie road having been turned
out, the whole of this priceless accumulation of reports and drawings was dragged off by the cartload to a paper mill, and destroyed.




16                THE INADEQUATE UNION
by James Fisk, Jr. In reviewing the railway history of the country,
many of you will remember that this act of vandalism has been by
no means the worst blow which engineering has received from socalled " practical" men.
I have referred to these exceptional cases, merely to correct a
modern idea that engineering progress, especially by scientific
methods, is as yet, the creature of popular favor. It is refreshing
to turn from such considerations to the still exceptional but happily
growing appreciation and helpful respect of practitioners and scientists for each other, as sometimes exemplified in the various departments of mining engineering. When we see recent graduates
patiently leading the untrained, confused, but determined mind of
the workman, painfully wrestling with hard names and occult processes, into methodical habits of thought and the rudiments of
organized knowledge; when we see the grimy workman, not stand.ing aloof for fear of his craft or of his trades-master, but dragging
the recent graduate into mines and furnaces, and patiently teaching
him how to recognize that matter, in mass and under mighty forces,
which he had heretofore contemplated in cabinet specimens; and
chiefly in ideas; when we see the commercial manager of metallurgical enterprises opening his works to the graduates of schools, and
giving them a chance, not only to complete their education, but, by
judicious application of their efforts, to earn a living meanwhile;
when we see such things, as happily we may, here and there in
metallurgical works, we may assure ourselves that one way has been
discovered to promote the union of science and art.
In the enlargement of this method of mutual respect and instruction, to a certain extent lies the solution of the problem under
consideration; but it is a complex method, only actively operative
under several important conditions, such as:
1. A public opinion among schoolmen that a course of object and
phenomena study in works is to be reckoned, not as a matter of mere
business sequence, but as a large and equal feature of that curriculum
which is essential to a degree of professional graduation.
2. A diffusion, among the class which we have termed the " practical" class, of a real appreciation of an organized system of information and of the scientific method of making this information
useful to all classes of men and noxious or unimportant to none;
such a general explanation to that vast, preponderating class of
workmen and of foremen and managers, who are foremen and
managers simply because they have been efficient workmen, as will




OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.              17
ever prevent their indiscriminate and contemptuous application of
the term "theory" to whatever a schoolman proposes.
3. An understanding among the owners, directors and commercial
managers of engineering enterprises, that it is not a matter of favor,
but a matter of as much interest to themselves as to any class, that
young men of suitable ability and of suitable preliminary culture,
however acquired, should have opportunity and encouragement to
master the practical features of technical education in works, not as
mere apprentices, but under reasonable facilities for economy of time
and completeness of research.
But these conditions do not largely exist, and are only growing
with general civilization. They must be hastened and magnified
by some better means than merely stating the case again and again,
as some of us, I confess, are too fond of doing; than perpetually
repeating, in a manner more sentimental than efficient, that scientists should appreciate practice, and practicians should appreciate
science, and capital should join the hands of science and practice,
saying: " Bless you, my children," in the expectation that this will
prove a fruitful union. Let us rather inquire if some new order
of procedure in technical education, some revolutionary innovation,
if need be, will not put the coming race of engineers on a plane
which is lifted above the embarrassments from which we are slowly
emerging.
1st. In order that the technical school should be in the highest
degree useful, fruitful, and economical, it must instruct, not men
of good general education, but artisans of good general education.
The art must precede the science.  The man must first feel the
necessity, and know the directions of a larger knowledge, and then
he will master it through and through. Mark how rapidly the more
capable and ambitious of practical men advance in knowledge derivable from books, as compared with the progress of bookmen, either
in books or in practice. Many men have acquired a more useful
knowledge of chemistry, in the spare evenings of a year, than the
average graduate has compassed during his whole course. These
men realized that success was hanging on their better knowledge.
Familiar with every changing look of objects and phenomena, they
detected the constant play of the unknown forces which underlie
them, and longed for a guide to their operation, as a mariner longs
for a beacon light. This practical familiarity and judgment at once
revealed the importance of scientific facts and methods, promoted
their acquisition, and guided their application. Under what com



18                THE INADEQUATE UNION
parative facilities does the mere recitation-room student, or even the
mere analyst of the hundred bottles, study applied chemistry? It
is to these a matter of routine duty, without a soul; they are neither
stimulated nor directed by a previously created want. Beginning
with theoretical and abstract knowledge, is no less an inverted process in the useful arts than in the fine arts; as it would be to take a
course of Ruskin within brick walls, as preparatory to opening a
studio, and then climbing the mountains to square nature with the
book.
Undoubtedly there may be extremes in any form of educational
method. For a youth to begin the special business of technical education by any method, prlactical or otherwise, before he has acquired
not only a common school education, but, at least such a knowledge
of polite literature and general science, including of course mathematics, as would fit him to enter one of the classical colleges, should
be strongly discouraged, for various reasons. It is useless to disguise the fact that the want, not of high scholarship, but of liberal
and general education, is to-day the greatest of all the embarrassments which the majority of engineering experts and managers
encounter. This statement cannot be deemed uncomplimentary to
the class, seeing that they have risen to power despite the embarrassment. At the present day, the high-school systems founded by
States and by private enterprise, bring such an education within the
reach of every one; and it seems of the first importance to promote,
if not almost to create, a public opinion, that liberal and general
culture is as high an element of success in engineering as it is in any
profession or calling.
But this is not all. Professional and business success are not,
even in America, the chief end of life. All the social and political
relations, and even personal happiness, are governed, not by the
specialties, but by the balance of mental culture. What, then, shall
we say of the policy of wealthy parents-not indeed general, but too
frequent-of placing an uncultured boy in a technical school and
then in works and business, without giving him one chance to
acquire a general and polite culture?
Many young men display a liking, and others a marked talent,
in some special direction. There is no danger that these will be
crowded out of existence by the culture necessary to make a wellbalanced mind; and the nearer the talent approaches genius, the less
imminent will be any such danger.
The proposition then is, not that mere common school-boys shall




OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.               19
go into works and then into technical schools, but that young men
of more advanced general culture, when they do begin the business
of technical education, shall apply to Nature first and to the schoolmaster afterwards.
It may be urged in favor of beginning in the technical school,
rather than in the works, that mental capacity for the after acquisition and application of facts and principles is thus developed. But
mental training is not the product of the technical school alone.
Habits of logical thinking and power of analysis and generalization
may be acquired in any school. And a positive objection to beginning with the technical school is, that it cannot stop at logical
methods and sciences which are essentially abstract. It also attempts
to teach about objects and phenomena, the first knowledge of which,
if it is to be broad and genuine, must come from the fountain-head.
These considerations may be farther illustrated by the course of
the inexpert graduate when he enters works as a matter of business
or of study. We have seen that the practical man can, at least, keep
the wheels running and the fires burning, and that when he is of a
certain grade of ability and ambition, he will most rapidly acquire
the scientific knowledge and culture which, joined to his practical
judgment, make him a master. The unpracticed graduate, however,
can keep neither wheels turning nor fires burning; he has not even
the capacity of a conservator. Nor can he for a long time recognize,
in the whirl and heat of full-sized practice, the course and movement
of those forces about which his abstract knowledge may be profound.
The youngest apprentices are more useful in an emergency. He must
begin with the lowest manual processes, not indeed to become simply
dexterous, but, as it were, to learn the alphabet of a new language.
He has started in the middle of his course instead of at the beginning. He must go back before he can advance, while the practician
goes straight on. The knowledge of the schoolman about physical
science, however often he may have visited works and mines and
engines during school excursions, is essentially abstract; it no more
stimulates desire and power of practical research than the calculus
creates a passion or a capacity for studying the actual work of steam
in an engine, or the actual endurance of a truss in a bridge.
The disappointment of inexpert graduates at finding themselves
so far from being experts, their inability ofttimes to pay for farther
schooling, the necessity that they should now begin to earn money,
as they had persuaded themselves they could so readily do upon
graduation, discourage many from pursuing engineering, and, what




20                THE INADEQUATE UNION
is worse, send many out into practice who never do complete their
technical education, but who, by the character of their work, lower
the professional standard.
It can hardly be urged against the precedence of practical culture,
that the student will get " out of practice " while he is in the school.
He may, indeed, lose dexterity, but not the better fruits of experience. In fact, those who begin as practicians, almost instinctively
keep up their intimacy with the current practice.
A most signal advantage of beginning technical education in the
works is, that the mind is brought into early and intimate consideration of those great elements of success which cannot be imparted
in any other way,-the management of labor and the general principles of economy in construction, maintenance, and working. An
early knowledge of these subjects moulds the whole character of subsequent education and practice. There seems to be no corresponding
advantage in beginning with the technical school. The fundamental
mathematics and general information on physical science may be
acquired in the preliminary school.
There is little doubt that the managers of technical schools will
favor this order of study. They want to graduate, not half-educated
men, but experts. They desire, of all qualifications in the student,
that enthusiasm which can only spring from a well-defined want of
specific knowledge.
2d. But the order of education is not the only desirable change.
Whether before or after their course in the school, the hundreds of
young men who are every year entering engineering pursuits, are
wasting their time in bad methods of practical study, or, if after the
school course, they are more frequently doing bad work as engineers,
when they should still be only students. Hardly two engineers
acquire any part of their practical knowledge in the same curriculum. They pick it up as best they may, usually in a manner that
is wasteful of time or damaging to the public. While the teaching
of general facts and principles and of scientific method is highly
developed, there is no organized system for guiding students to direct
knowledge of objects and phenomena. This statement requires two
explanations: I. Apprenticeship is a school of skill in a specialty
rather than a school of liberal art. It is intended for a class of men
who propose to remain mere workmen, and not for the class who
intend to improve and direct engineering enterprises. It imparts a
degree of dexterity far beyond the requirements of the general expert, while it would hardly impart in a lifetime his required range




OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.              21
of practical knowledge. II. A school of engineering practice, such
as that of research in zoology which was established by Agassiz,
would be wholly impracticable, because it could be nothing less than
a vast and successful establishment for construction and operation in
nearly all the departments of engineering. If such a school were
not commercially successful, and if its range were not comprehensive,
it would be unsuitable and inadequate.
Now, if there can be a system of instruction in the one school, there
can be in the other. The same discipline and responsibility, the same
guidance as to precedence of study, quality of evidence, and correctness of conclusion, should hold good in both cases. To say otherwise would be to say that all knowledge should come from unaided
original research, and that every investigator should begin, not where
a former investigator left off, but where he began.  It therefore
appears that there can be a school of practical engineering, but that
it cannot be mere apprenticeship in engineering practice, nor a system of engineering construction and operation, maintained merely
for the purposes of a school.
The only alternative is to establish organized schools in the various existing engineering works. At first, this idea would seem subversive of all discipline and economy, but I am assured by experts
in several branches of engineering, that such would not be the case.
Let us take, for example, a Bessemer works. A score of students
under the discipline, as well as under the technical guidance of a
master, could be distributed among its various departments, not only
without detriment, but with some immediate advantage to the owner,
for while receiving no pay, they would become skilful, at least as
soon as the common laborers who form the usual reinforcements.
Students should, of course, be expected, not to work when and in
what manner they might choose, but to do good and full work during specific hours. This responsibility as workmen, would rapidly
impart not only the knowledge sought in the works, but a desire for
higher knowledge and culture.
These considerations are not merely theoretical. Several students
at a time, subjected to no discipline, sometimes working hard, and
sometimes not at all, may often be found in a Bessemer works, and
I have yet to hear of their embarrassing the management in any way.
The laborer has no cause for interference, as the Students are not
under pay, and whatever they accomplish is clear gain to the three
parties concerned,-the owner, the student, and the operative. A
large number of young men may be found studying in machine




22                THE INADEQUATE UNION
shops, and sometimes earning. small pay, besides having opportunity
to work in all departments.
The proposition is to enlarge and systematize the existing desultory study in works-to increase its usefulness to the student, and,
at the same time, to make the granting of such facilities to students
an object, immediately, as well as remotely, to the owners of works.
To this end, the schoolmaster should be not only well read in the
professional literature, but a practical expert who could take charge
of the works himself, so that whilst best aiding the students, he
could prevent their interference with the regular and economical
operations. His functions would be, not those of an instructor, nor,
to any great extent, of a clinical lecturer, but those of a disciplinarian.
The students should acquire skill, in order that they might acquire
judgment of skill and original knowledge of materials and forces,
and the master should see that they did acquire them all. He might
do some service by stated examination and current criticism and suggestion, but his chief office would be to promote honest work, and
to provide opportunity for work in all departments with reference
to the economy of the student's time and to the owner's interests.
It should thus appear that these somewhat radical changes in the
curriculum of engineering study-first, a hand-to-hand knowledge,
acquired not desultorily, but by an organized system, and afterwards
the investigation of abstract and general facts and their relations,
would largely economize the student's time and better the quality
of his knowledge. The novice is nearly as valuable a student in
works as the graduate, but he is a vastly less apt scholar in the
school. My own belief, founded on the study of many typical cases,
is, that this order of procedure would produce a better class of experts in little more than half the time required by the reverse order;
that it would always make experts; that it would discourage none
from finishing an engineering education which would be complete
in its parts, even if insufficient time were taken to fully develop it.
A well-balanced culture will naturally grow in scope and in fruitfulness.
In this connection it seems proper to say a word about the royal
road to learning, which a few ill-advised students attempt to pursue
I do not refer to their availing themselves of professional data
and drawings on file in engineering offices, but I do refer to their
asking engineers and managers to furnish them special reports on
subjects regarding which their own observation would be vastly
more useful to the applicants, and quite as convenient to the respon



OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ART.               23
dents-reports on the number and duties of workmen in each department, and the particulars of operation and relative cost, which
can only be profitably investigated by a student, when not only the
facts but the reasons are ferretted out by himself, rather than transmitted to the academic grove through the post office.
In conclusion, if it should appear upon larger observation, to the
profession in general, as it does appear to many of its members, that
this want of coalescence, ranging from indifference to antagonism
between its scientific and practical branches, is a real and substantial
fact, a larger effort would undoubtedly be made to change a condition so damaging to the profession and to the public. This inappreciation of one department by the other is not unnatural-neither
side has taken sufficient pains to observe what the other side has
done. The mere scientist instinctively believes that the achievements of the profession are so far due to the deductions of scientists
that all other causes fade into insignificance; and the practician
knows that just as far as animal life is from the disembodied spirit,
so far is utilization of nature from the formulae of heat, chemical
affinity and mathematics itself.
The first step is to recognize the fact, and I beg engineers, especially those who from their scholastic habits, see least of the everyday embarrassments which are encountered by the executive departments of the profession, to take into account, not only the pride
of class power, which the artisan feels as keenly as the scientist, but
those baser elements of disunion, ranging from trades-unionism to
counting-room dictation in technical affairs.
Having recognized the grave and comprehensive character of the
evil, the next step should be, not I think, to attempt any violent
alteration in the existing conduct of engineering by the men who
are now in active service, but to change, if I may so say, the environment of the young men who are so soon to take our places, in
order that their development may be larger, higher and in better
balance. Two co-operative methods have been suggested-reversing the order of study, and organizing the practical school.
Whatever the course of improvement may be, it becomes us to
leave some heritage of unity to the coming race. How shall we
more fitly crown a century of engineering-a century in which our
noble profession has risen from comparative potentiality to living
energy? And as its force is multiplied by the general advance of
science) it becomes the momentum which evermore shall actuate the
enginery of civilization.




24                     DISCUSSIONS ON
DISCUSSION ON PRESIDENT HOLLEY'S ADDRESS.
PROF. T. EGLESTON.-The subject of the President's address is
one of very great importance to the profession. There is, as is evident to all, a want of concord between the schoolmen and the manufacturers, but the want is all on the part of the manufacturers.
The President has shown us where the knot is, but has not cut it
himself nor helped us to cut it. The unwillingness of some manufacturers to allow the student or professional man facilities, not for
seeing the secrets of the trade, but the every-day manipulation,
amounts sometimes to almost an obstruction to education. It is certain that this unwillingness arises in most cases, either from misapprehension of the object, or from want of tact on the part of the
student.  It may arise, also, from a well-grounded fear that the
information asked for is to be used for direct competition, in which
ease it is well founded, and an act of self-protection. There are
those, however, who are always willing to afford opportunity and
facility for acquiring knowledge, to the student, and who do not
acknowledge, either in word or deed, that any antagonism exists.
To their kindness and consideration, many of us are greatly indebted for substantial aid in solving some of the difficult problems.
Some generous-minded men carry the desire to aid further than is
wise. We, of the schools, send students to the works to acquire
knowledge which will be of use to them in solving problems given
them to call both their knowledge and judgment into play, not to
acquire information which is acquired to-day and forgotten tomorrow. Some of our friends furnish sehedules, complete estimates,
and lists of prices, in the most friendly manner, thinking to do a
service. The result is, that the ease with which the information is
acquired, leads the indolent, indifferent man to copy them verbatim,
without any attempt at the very exercise of judgment, which is our
principal object. The incipient engineer must decline to use such
information, as his conditions are not the same; but the temptation
to consider such a division of labor as legitimate, is, nevertheless,
very strong. What was intended as a kindness is often no help to
the investigating student, and a weight which helps to drag down
the man who is willing to copy; such co-operation is not what is
needed, and is no real kindness.  When the School of Mines in New
York was first started, it was stated, that for students who wished it,




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    25
application would be made for permission to work in mining and
metallurgical establishments as the highest reward of engineering
scholarship which the faculty could offer; but we were soon obliged
to withdraw the promise, since the manufacturers would not grant
the permission. Yet it is easily to be seen that out of such men,
working for a given time without wages, the manufacturer might
make, if he would, men of a high order of engineering ability. The
difficulty is to make the manufacturer see that it is for his interest
to have men trained to think and then to see. The day I graduated
from college I left the machine shop in which I had been working,
to take my diploma, and went back again to the shop, and after
nearly a year's work went to a technical school. For the first year
and a half that I was in the profession, though in charge of very
large mines, not a single important question, involving mining,
arose, but there were constant questions of pumps, engines, etc., and
I was led at first to think little of mly technical education until it
became evident that the power to use the knowledge gained in the
machine shop was the result of the technical training. It is plain to
any one who gives the matter a moment's thought, that no amount
of learning, which can be acquired in a technical school, can give
the eye-education acquired by long practice in the works, and which
makes every good workman an artist. A thorough education will,
however, enable one to learn the nice distinctions, which are the basis
of a correct judgment, in a comparatively short time. It seems to
me very doubtful whether the ability to do the manual work is desirable in the engineer. The schoolman must have experience, just
as the ordinary workman, but he acquires it in a much shorter time.
Success in this, as in other things, is more or less the record of
failures. As a general thing, the man who has never failed has
never tried. The failures of the ordinary workman, looking over
long periods of years before they become skilled, are not noticed or
forgotten, but the failures of the schoolmen are more prominent, because so much, that is not fairly reasonable, is expected of them.
It is evident that the young engineer must supplement his.education
at the school by training at the works, and if his failures in properly
directed efforts are compared with those resulting from the efforts of
men who have not studied abstract science, it is certain that they
will be found the least expensive. What the President has laid out
as a practical course means that men would not get into their profession until they were thirty years of age, which, in a certain point
of view, is an advantage, but could not be carried into effect in this




26                     DISCUSSIONS ON
country, where men must begin to earn their own livings about the
time they are twenty-one. What is needed is to increase the requirements and advance the age of admission to our technical schools,
and then to overcome the antagonism of the manufacturers, and induce them to allow the graduates to continue their study with them
until they could learn enough of the professional work they must do,
to feel and hear, almost by instinct, as the President has so forcibly
said, what they were to do. Such a system would soon train a class
of engineers not to be had now. It is easy for the schools to give
men the theory, but where are they to get the practice, if the
manufacturer, miner, and metallurgist is to stand by them and say,
yes, you ought to swim, you must swim, but we cannot by any means
allow you to go into the water until you have learned how to swim.
Mr. JOSEPH D. WEEKS.-I cannot agree with the last speaker, that
there is always this want of concord, this disinclination on the part
of manufacturers to allow scientific investigations to be made at their
works, or if such a want or disinclination does exist, that it is entirely on the part of the manufacturers, or without reason. So far
as my experience has gone, I have found the iron manufacturers of
my own city, Pittsburgh, very ready to grant facilities for investigation, and work in perfect harmony with me in making experiments.
At the works of Messrs. Rogers & Burchfield I spent many days
experimenting on the use of natural. gas in the puddling furnace,
being at liberty to make any change in furnaces or their working I
chose. At Messrs. Spang, Chalfant & Co., so far as I am aware,
there has been every facility granted. But a week ago two gentlemen connected with the State Geological Survey were at these works
making some very thorough experiments, and I know that a young
gentleman, a graduate of the Professor's own school (the School of
Mines), has been at these works for weeks.
PROF. R. W. RAYMOND thought the question of fuirnishing information to visiting students was chiefly one of courtesy and of
present policy, while the question of giving a practical knowledge to
students, or those who were to become such, was a much deeper one,
bearing upon all the fuiture. He thought that in many cases the
questions asked of managers by students who called upon them were
of a kind to embarrass one party without really benefiting the
other. With regard to the suggestion of the President, that there
are many considerations of practice which cannot be formulated, Mr.
Raymond thought a large part of this imagined inability would disappear when greater culture was introduced among practitioners. A




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   27
mind trained to think and to express thought would deal promptly
with many of the customs and rules of practice, discarding one-half
as superstitions or survivals from necessities now obsolete —like the
rudimentary organs of Darwinism —and classifying, explaining, and
formulating the rest. The speaker did not believe much in rules or
practices which could not be formulated. The trouble was the inability or disinclination of practitioners to state the facts.  The
President's recommendations would abate this evil. With regard to
the combination of technical instruction with practice, perhaps the
Steigerschulem, of Germany, are a good example. They have furnished some excellent mining engineers and metallurgists. He
thought the introduction of a preliminary course of practical training
before the scholastic training would be a great benefit to the schools
themselves. It would weed out the hopelessly stupid, or lazy, or
otherwise unfitted, and bring to the schools a class of young men
who already knew what they wanted and really wanted it. The
great difficulty with the schools to-day was to recommend themselves
to the public-to parents. This could be done by the original investigations and publications of the professors, and still more by the
practical achievements and business success of the graduates. Anything which tended to increase the chances of graduates to obtain
opportunity of advancement, and to acquit themselves creditably
therein, would benefit the schools. On the part of parents, the trouble is that they are in too great a hurry, and it is imperative that we
should prove to them that a more thorough and prolonged training
pays. Too many educators are at present engaged in the ridiculous
attempt to adopt from the German system of university education
everything except the time it takes. We keep on taking out a little
more classics, and pushing in a little more science in our curricula
of education, leaving the whole thing to be crammed in the same
space as before. The speaker thought the only solution was to give
more time, and most heartily agreed with the President that lack of
general culture-of the knack of study, the power of statement, the
sense of order and logic-was one of the greatest defects and drawbacks to the engineer. No illiterate man (using the term  in a
broader sense than that of inability to read and write) could become
a distinguished engineer; or, at least, the most able engineer, if deficient in the culture which gives men power over their fellows,
would be the first to recognize the lack, and lament the cause that
had so crippled his usefulness and stopped him almost at the summit
of that fame which could be completely climbed only by complete




28                     DISCUSSIONS ON
men. One of the members of the Institute, a gentleman of high
reputation as a manager of mines and works, had recently said to
the speaker that he had concluded, after much observation, that a
regular collegiate education was the best preparation for a technical
one, and that the time so spent was well spent, and showed its benefit surely at the other end of the student's career.
MR. E. C. PECHIN.-All are agreed as to the desirability of closing the gap betwveen theory and practice, and the future will, undoubtedly, develop the plan by which this can be accomplished;
but the important present consideration is, if we cannot close the
gap, may we not make it narrower. The plan suggested by President Hollev is an admirable one all will admit, but its development will necessarily be slow because so radical. There ought,
however, to be no real difficulty in the way of graduates of the
schools becoming thoroughly versed in all matters of practice.
There is an apparent obstacle, in the reluctance of the graduate to
accept the prospect of a year or two of real hard work. I have had
a number of applications from educated and competent young men,
for positions, but in a majority of cases they wanted a good salary
to begin with, and the nature of their duties must be rather genteel
than otherwise. What they should say is, "I have had a thorough
technical education, but I want a position for a year or two, where I
can become thoroughly familiarized with practice. I only ask such
compensation as will reasonably support me, and to labor for a given
time in the various departments of your business."
There are very few masters who would not recognize the merit of
such an application, and gladly assist so laudable a desire.
Several years ago, I accepted the services of a young gentleman,
who had just finished a thorough course in the German schools.
First acquainting himself with the nature of our materials, he then
practically became a workingman.  Whenever and wherever his
services were required, he offered them, day or night, in the stockhouse, or at the front. He carefully noted difficulties as they presented themselves in practice, and how they were met. The result
was, that in one to two years he had mastered his business in both
its aspects, and he is now, though still quite a young man, in my
opinion, one of the foremost furnacemen in this country. Now, this
would be my plan for making scientific practicians.
If our graduates would only cultivate that very un-American
characteristic, patience-learn to labor and wait-their success would
come sooner, and be more assured. The man who learns the art of




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   29
managing men, and to this adds a knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy, may become a giant, but with all possible learning, and
wanting the ability to handle labor, which can only come by the
knowledge of what is required of labor, he cannot hope for any large
success.
This plan embraces another important point. Laboring men, as
a class, are suspicious and unsympathetic, so far as their employer is
concerned.  By having associated with them, one becomes acquainted with their peculiarities, appreciates the difficulties they
encounter, learns how to gain their good will, and this once gained,
is enduring; and when the timne comes for him to control, his power
is well-nigh absolute, for he has learned when to watch, or relax,
when to exact or indulge, when to be liberal or when unsparing.
His knowledge obtained from books and in the schools, tell him
what ought to be done; his practical experience shows him how
it can be done, efficiently and economically.
PROF. R. H. THURSTON. —I listened to the opening address of our
President last evening with very great interest, and should have liked
to have taken an opportunity to indorse the general accuracy and
practical promise of his views, and his plan of securing a more complete and thorough technical education and training last night, but
that I presumed that an hour would be set apart, for the consi(leration of the more novel and more important of the propositions,
which were then made. I have been asked to open the discussion
this morning, and have gladly promised to do so.
I know of no subject which has more direct bearing upon the
prosperity of the profession than this, and there is certainly not one
which has a greater interest for me, personally.
As a mechanic and a practitioner, I recognize the correctness of
much that has been said of the " schoolmen."  As one who has been
accused-but I am afraid unjustly-of being one of those schoolmen, I agree in what was said of the so-called "practical" men.
Undoubtedly, both classes can do more to make our methods of
technical education and subsequent training satisfactorily effective.
Each must, however, help the other, and the best work will be done
when they work earnestly, persistently, and patiently, hand in hand,
with a common and well-understood aim, and by well-settled plans,
each helping the other by every means that thought, observation,
and experience can suggest.
The questions how, when, and where the requisite combination of
theoretical and empirical knowledge of the principles of professional




30                     DISCUSSIONS ON
practice, and the experience needed to make that knowledge most
readily and fully available, are to be obtained by the aspirant, have
been present in the minds of all thinking members of the profession,
from the time of that great engineer, the Marquis of Worcester, who,
two hundred years ago, proposed the establishment of technical
schools.
It has appeared to me that we may pursue either of three distinct
courses, in the attempt to effect this generally admitted essential
combination. I say generally admitted, because there are members
of acknowledged high standing in the profession, who assert that,
however desirable in itself the education of the schools may be, no
man can afford to give the necessary time to its acquisition. I am
told by a friend, for whose views I have great respect-a gentleman
who is justly distinguished as an engineer-that no man can attain
full success in business, who has not gone into the business at so
early a period in his life, that it is physically impossible to preface
entrance upon his life-work by more than the rudiments of a common-school education. He insisted that only the man who began
his actual practice of the profession, at an age at which his powers of
observation and his ability to acquire by memorizing and by tactual
experience are most fully available, can succeed.
While acknowledging that these views have much truth underlying them, I presume that very few would agree to the final deduction made from them. We may find a great difference of opinion,
as to how much time the young man can spare to the pursuit of
scientific professional knowledge, but we shall rarely find an advocate of its complete abnegation. The question to be discussed here
is certainly not whether the young engineer shall have a technical
training, but whether he shall secure it in one way or another of
several proposed methods.  We are not asked whether he shall
have such an education and training, but how shall we give it, and
when should he seek it, and where.
I have said that I would specify three courses, either of which
may, perhaps, accomplish the desired result. These are:
First. That method which is most usually adopted, in which the
student is given his education, and is then sent into business.
Secondly. That which gives the boy a common-school education,
then sends him into the office, or the field, or the workshop, to acquire a certain amount of practical experience, business knowledge,
and general development, and finally places him  in the technical
school, to obtain the professional education and scientific basis for a




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    31
sound reputation, which can there be best and most readily given
him.
Thirdly. The course which, although usually most difficult to
pursue, is, if I may judge from observation and experience with a
considerable number of instances, the most perfectly and economically successful. That is, a mixed course of study and practice, extending throughout the early life of the man up to his final and
complete immersion in the practice of his profession.
It is possible that I may be influenced by that prejudice, which
most men have in favor of a course which has answered its purpose
more or less fully in their own cases, or in cases which have appeared to them illustrations of great or of even moderate success;
but I believe that the boy who, with natural predisposition toward
a certain branch of engineering, spends his weekly holidays and his
vacations playing about the workshop, growing up in contact with the
workmen, and witnessing continually all those operations which, as
he becomes old enough, he learns to conduct himself, imbibing, with
that wonderful accuracy and rapidity for which boys are remarkable, all the traditions and recognized principles of shop practice,
learning the construction and use of tools, and now and then acquiring the art of manipulating a machine or handling a tool, I believe that this boy will most easily and perfectly secure the technics
of his profession.*
The course adopted generally in this and in all countries is the
first of those specified. The boy is sent to school, and is given the
usual common-school education. Upon concluding this course of
study, he is sent to the college, or the technical school, and a four
years' course of higher education having been completed, he is sent
into business at the age of twenty or thereabouts.
He has then been engaged in the work of the student all his life;
habits of study have been formed, and usually he has become, to a
certain extent, unfitted for the vastly different kind of occupation
which is now to be taken up. He has acquired habits of study, a
good memory, and the ability to utilize it thoroughly, and has
learned to make logically correct deductions from properly grouped
facts. He lacks usually, however, the power of quickly perceiving
and promptly acting upon such perception. He probably lacks decision, has lost some of that strength of character which may have
been his by inheritance, and he has none of that experience which
* See note on page 40.




32                     DISCUSSIONS ON
is essential as character and knowledge to success in business. He
may possess a great store of learning, both general and professional,
a well-trainied mind, a sound judgment, and all that scholastic
habits and training can give him, but he lacks the no less essential
knowledge of men and of things which he can only obtain by a personal contact. He cannot manage his employ6s without either making
unreasonable demands upon them or yielding to them more than is
just. He knows nothing of methods of conducting business, and
cannot have become accustomed to the hard rubs which so seriously
disturb the tyro, and which so often discourage him at the outset.
Habits acquired in youth are always difficult to modify in later
years. His habits are those of the student, and he must inevitably
find it a seriously difficult matter to acquire the peculiar and distinctive habits of the business man. Once succeeding, however, he will
rarely fail of full success.
The exceptional course in this country, and I presume in Europe,
is the second of those outlined.  The boy goes to the shop, or the
office, immediately after completing his grammar or high school
course, and learns the trade which leads most directly toward the
profession which he proposes to enter; or, under the tuition of some
practitioner, he acquires a knowledge of the ordinary routine of
work and some idea of the character of the greater problem which
he may expect to be confronted with in later years.
Arriving at the age of twenty, he sees the advantage of the possession of a knowledge of the science of his profession, and he leaves
his practice for a time and devotes himself to study in some technical
school.
His difficulty now is to acquire habits of study and the student's
power of making his own that knowledge which he finds in books,
and of grasping experimental data and of collating essential facts
and grouping themn systematically, and of deducing from them general laws of precise definition, and of well-determined range of application. He has to reacquire the mathematician's power of basing
upon a statement of accurately defined conditions generalizations
which find practical application in every department of human
knowledge. He has to regain that fondness for research and study
of which his business life has done so much to deprive him.
On the other hand, he has learned by experience to prize knowledge, both for its own sake and for what it will enable him to accomplish. He has learned in what direction he is to expect most
aid from literary attainments and scientific knowledge. He can, to




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    8,3
a certain extent, distinguish between those branches of study which
give only a mental gymnastic training and those which enable him
to accomplish two objects simultaneously,-to acquire a store of valuable knowledge and, at the same time, to profit by a no less useful
mental fulness of stature; becoming more of a sage and more of a
man at the same time.
On the whole, I suspect that the advantages of this method more
than counterbalance the disadvantages, and I have no doubt that,
could this course be generally adopted, it would be seen to have an
importance in the acceleration of professional progress which we
probably hardly realize to-day.
Two great obstacles intervene to prevent the general adoption of
this plan. The first is that conservatism which always retards the
introduction of anything new, and which usually makes it necessary
to agitate for at least a generation before a really great change can
be brought about. Even when all are agreed on the question of the
propriety of a step such as this, it is usually a long time before the
public inertia is fully overcome. This is well illustrated by the fact
that the necessity of technical education itself-proposed two centuries ago, and fairly inaugurated a century ago by Vaucanson, the
father of the great Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris-is
only just now beginning to be universally acknowledged by even
those who are not hampered by a traditional proclivity in favor of
the old Greek non-utilitarian idea of a purely gymnastic system of
education.
The second great obstacle is the natural, and almost universally
observed, reluctance of the young man, who has once become fairly
inducted into business, and who sees opportunities opening to him
in the immediate future, to give up all and to return to the school
to secure advantages which his reason tells him are still more important, but which he, nevertheless, cannot fully realize, looking
upon them as he does from a standpoint which does not permit him
to see them as distinctly as he may in after life, when experience has
confirmed the previous judgment. An active, energetic, and ambitious young man can rarely bring himself to the point of going
back to the school after having once tasted the pleasures of success in
business. Where this has been done, however, it has been almost
invariably the fact, if I may judge from my own observation of quite
a number of cases, the result is a most encouraging one. Could
this plan be generally adopted, it would not only be decidedly better
3




34                     DISCUSSIONS ON
for the young man himself, but it would prove vastly better for the
schools.
The greatest difficulty met with in carrying out a satisfactory
course of technical instruction in the schools, is that of finding students who have sufficient ripeness of intellect and of judgment, and
sufficient physical strength to comprehend readily, grasp fully, and
retain perfectly, the principles which are presented to them. Boys
are sent to technical schools without well-developed habits of study,
with insufficient and superficial preparation, with minds unripe and
with bodies still taxing their systems by the drain of that vital
power needed in carrying on the operations of physical development.
Were the last-considered plan adopted, they would come to this
work, which demands all the powers of maturity, with body and
mind fully developed, and with an understanding of the extent, difficulty, and importance of the work to be done which would insure
vastly better performance, and the accomplishment of vastly more
in the time assigned to the course. The work of the instructor
would be rendered more easy and more satisfactory to both himself
and his pupil. The time would be far better utilized, and the
greatest good would be accomplished in the given time and by the
expenditure of the given amount of time and funds.
It is in this direction, I am pleased to find, that our President is
looking for higher efficiency in technical training. If the plan
which he proposes, of making our larger manufacturing establishments advanced technical schools can be carried out, it will prove,
I am sure, a long step in the right direction. The final portion:of the work of education would be done at a time when the student has attained sufficient maturity to appreciate it, and in the
midst of such influences as will most effectually impress its value
upon him. I sincerely hope that a way may be found of initiating
this method of tuition, and that we may soon learn just what we are
to expect from it. Difficulties will undoubtedly arise, but with the
exercise of care in the choice, from among the many of the few who
are adapted by nature and inclination to the pursuit of the profession,
and with tact on the part of the instructor and a hearty good will
on the side of the manager of the works, both, hand in hand, working for the accomplishment of an object the importance of which
both appreciate, there can arise no insurmountable obstacle to final
and complete success. When the schoolmen and the business men
of the country put their heads together in the earnest desire to ac



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   35
complish such an object, their united efforts will vanquish apparent
impossibilities. I think that I can see this good time coming.
MIR. E. B. CoxE.-I, to a certain extent, had a practical education before going to the technical schools of Paris and Freiberg.
During a portion of my youth I lived in the Lehigh coalfield of
Pennsylvania, and having a liking for such things, spent a great
deal of time in the mines, machine shops, foundries, etc., of that
region, and made and assisted in making surveys both above and
below ground. I found this practical education of immense importance to me in my technical education, enabling me to understand the details of mining, etc., when listening to lectures by the
professors and studying the subject in books. There is another point
to which I would refer. The mechanics we have at present are
often men who do not serve regular apprenticeships, or if they do,
work only at one or two nearly perfect machines; the amount of
skilled labor in the large shops is being reduced to a minimum; one
man works almost all his life at one machine instead of at all sorts
of jobs. A carpenter, to-day, gets almost all his work from the
mills, and is more of a fitter or joiner than a carpenter, and few carpenters work more than a year or two as an apprentice. Years ago
a carpenter or machinist had to learn his trade thoroughly, and
hence he was more familiar with the details of his business, and
would not require foremen of such ability as at present. A mechanical engineer should therefore be acquainted with details of work,
so as to be able to utilize these imperfect mechanics. A machinist
must now go to a country shop, where the machinery is imperfect,
in order to become a thorough workman in all the branches of his
trade. I feel it would have been of great assistance to me in my
education if, before going into the technical schools, I had worked
practically in a machine shop and foundry for a year or two.
In the paper under discussion, there is one point which seems to
me to be worthy of more consideration, that is, what Darwin terms
the survival of the fittest. We always hear of the one man who,
from a common miner, becomes a coal operator, but of the 150,000
other miners who do not we never hear anything. One thing that
cannot be learned in the school, and which an engineer should know,
is how to deal with men, how to make them work in accordance
with his ideas. You may make a perfect plan, and have a complete drawing, but if you cannot impress your master carpenter, machinist or blacksmith with the idea that you understand it, and that




36                     DISCUSSIONS ON
it is a good thing, it will probably not work.  They will get a bolt
or something else wrong somewhere.
Another trouble is the difficulty of graduates in understanding
that they are not civil engineers or mining engineers, but only fitted
to study the practice of those professions. The word engineer has
become mixed in its meaning. I had, some years ago, a cart driver.
After awhile I employed him to look after a small stationary engine. Now he is an engineer. I knew a slate-picker boy some
years ago. After awhile he went with an engineer corps to carry
stakes. He then became a chain man, then backsight man, and
he got to use the transit instrument. Now he is an engineer. If
business should grow slack, they go back to driving carts and picking slate, so that many people imagine an engineer to be a person
who drives a cart, runs a transit, picks slate, or tends a stationary
engine according as trade is good or not, and the popular idea of
what is the proper pay of an engineer is too often based upon such
conceptions of what an engineer is. Graduates should at first be
satisfied if they can make their board. They will generally make
mistakes enough to cover what they think their wages should be.
MR. OSWALD J. HEINRICH. —I have listened with great pleasure
to the remarks made by Prof. Thurston, and I am extremely glad
to perceive that he fully recognizes the principles indispensable for
a thoroughly practical and theoretical education of young men desirous of adopting any of the technical professions for their future
careers. I rise as a strong advocate of his last proposed course,
which is, according to my judgment, based on a long experience in
many different positions, the only thorough plan for ultimate success. The questions involved in this controversy are of such importance, that one interested in this subject as much as I have been,
for more than thirty years, may be tempted to talk beyond the limited time which can be devoted to this subject now. Permit me,
however, to make a few remarks, taken mostly from my own experience during business life, which has been based upon the courses
pursued in my native country.
There cannot be the least doubt, that at no time in the past has a
partial education and training been sufficient for a man to fill, creditably, any position of importance in the various callings of the technical profession, and we need not expect that it will be different in
the future. While partial experience alone, after perhaps a lifetime
spent in a particular calling, may fit a man for a specific purpose,
facts are not wanting to show that even such a man may commit




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    37
great errors, or even blunders, in disregarding well-known principles which would be thoroughly understood by one of far less practical experience, but possessing a school education. It is true, a
really good practical man, with indomitable energy, may succeed
ultimately, but probably only after dearly-bought experience, which
otherwise could have been avoided, and wasted time and money
saved. This being the era when the state of cultivation of a nation
is measured, to a great extent, by the most thorough use made of
waste material, we may just as well say, also, that this should be
extended to the imponderable items of time and brain. On the
other hand, a young man of a thorough theoretical education may
deliver a lecture before a set of practical men which would fill them
with admiration and awe, and yet he might be puzzled by the same
set of men if called on to show how to do some simple practical
operation. But the result may be, that other practical men may
exult over the apparent superiority of the "indomitable " spirit of
the practical man (probably themselves too ignorant to judge of the
cost of his experience), and sneer at the failure of the scholar, and
thus bring discredit on the attempts at liberal education of mankind. A long life in various practical callings may fit a man to fill
even eminent positions, and, by being cautious, he may avoid such
losses as have been enumerated, while, on the contrary, the unpractical scholar, possessed, as it is frequently the case, of too much selfreliance and mere book experience, may waste time and money to
overcome practical difficulties. It is therefore not surprising to see
the scale often over-weighted on the practical side.
It follows naturally, particularly in this country, that preference is given to the practical man. Unfortunately, for want of
thorough understanding of the subject, the choice often falls upon a
so-called practical man, and educational training has fallen into disrepute. The great drawback to obtaining a thorough, practical, and
theoretical education in this country, will probably be less found in
the means offered, than in the unwillingness to spend the time and
money necessary to obtain it.
The order of the day in this country, "to make money," and, to
a great extent, judging the capacity of a man according to the
amount of money he has, or is earning, will unquestionably be a
great drawback yet awhile. On the other hand, it is also impossible to obtain sufficient knowledge and experience during a few years
of training, and in one particular course of instruction.
Taking my own experience, I had the good luck, from my early




38                     DISCUSSIONS ON
boyhood until I had arrived beyond the years of maturity, to be alternately occupied in practical pursuits, and in receiving educational
training, at schools of various grades. Until I had arrived at the
age of twenty-three years I had never earned money worth speaking of, but spent my time from my fifteenth year in apprenticeships
and going to various technical schools and public works. In my
country, boys intending to devote themselves to technical occupations generally pursue the following plan, partially even regulated
by law. After passing through the higher grades of the common
school (hihere Biirgerschule or realsehidle) up to fifteen or sixteen
years of age, where even, to some extent, Latin and Greek, but particularly modern languages, and the elements of mathematics and
natural sciences form a part of the system of instruction, they are
regularly apprenticed to the particular branch of business they
intend to take up afterwards. As apprentices, they pass their regular
time as carpenters, masons, pattern-makers, moulders, machinists at
mines or furnaces, etc. Generally night schools, or schools during
part of the winter (handwerkerschulen) — industrial schools —are
visited during their time of apprenticeship, the time so spent being
allowed as regular apprenticeship. They receive little or no pay
during this time, according to choice and circumstances.  After
spending several years in this way, they enter the higher grades
of the technical schools or colleges, to pass through a thorough
course of scientific training, at the same time, in various ways,
being constantly reminded of the practical duties necessary to be
performed by them hereafter, by making excursions during the
period of lectures, and during vacation visiting the public works
and shops of the country. After graduating at these schools, they
enter again for a time as volunteers at the different public works or
private establishments, and are glad to be taken as such, without
receiving any compensation, sometimes even paying for the privilege. After such a course, and proper examinations, they are only
considered, -even at private works, to be fit to take a subordinate
position, and are often only too glad to get it.
I consider a good general education more than desirable before
entering practical life for various reasons. The principal reason is,
that the mind of the boy is more susceptible to mental training and
exercise. During his apprenticeship, or attention to practical work,
he will find out the great help he may derive from educational training. This is kept up by attending the night or industrial schools
during that time. These preliminary studies, connected with prac



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    39
tical exercise, will balance mind and body, both essential for a
young man in those years of life. He will be by far a more attentive
scholar at the higher grade schools, at least so far as my experience has
gone, and will profit more by attending such schools than generally
is the case with those who have first passed through the entire collegiate or classical course of studies. I consider this a very natural
consequence of the necessary course of studies in industrial schools,
they being better designed to prepare for subsequent training than
the old faculty studies of law, medicine, theology, etc.
I can only say this much from my own experience, if I had not
been trained and educated in such a manner as described above, it
would have been impossible for me to fight misfortunes and ignorance which are necessarily encountered everywhere,-in a foreign
country particularly-such as it existed in former years even in this
country, and to a great extent even now.
A man who has charge of a work may be as wise as Solomon, but
if he cannot show that he can lay the hand on the wheel himself,
his subordinates will not confide in him. And this is particularly
necessary in times of danger andl difficulties, which may arise at
any work. Association during his early days with the different
classes of workmen, will make him more familiar with their notions,
customs, and even their tricks, besides giving him at least some
mechanical ability. Even if his constitution is not sufficiently strong
to do a full day's work of a laborer, he may be fully able to say
wlen a man has performed a full and good day's labor.
It is easy enough for men to manage a business where they are
surrounded by good, able, and skilful men, or can get them at a
moment's notice, as is generally the case in the old country, but it
is absolutely necessary, in a partially settled country like this, for
a man in such a position, to be in every respect capable of not only
ordering a thing to be done, but also, if need be, to be able to roll
up his shirt-sleeves, and show how it should be done. Men educated in such a manner may even aid the working classes, who
cannot devote their time to hard study, by giving them useful instruction during their daily vacations as well as during evening lectures, and I have had opportunity to test this matter to my great
satisfaction, finding our mechanics here willing enough to receive
instruction when opportunity is offered.
I will, in conclusion, only say to our young men, study hard,
and as long as you can, but be also not afraid, if you can improve
yourself by it, to soil your fingers or your coat, even if it is at a




40                     DISCUSSIONS ON
more moderate compensation than that of a first class superintendent.
NOTE BY PROFESSOR THURSTON.-The course of instruction in
which workshop and laboratory practice is given simultaneously with
tuition, in the several branches of study considered essential to the
proper preparation of the student for professional work is becoming
well recognized in this country as the most promising of good results, and a few institutions are endeavoring to give their students
such a curriculum. A number of new technical schools are about
to be organized, also, in which the same course will be attempted.
Yale, Cornell, and Columbia, and the colleges at Bethlehem and
Easton, and others, are pursuing such methods to some extent. The
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy set a good example of truly
practical technical education many years ago, and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology is working in some departments on a similar
plan. The Stevens Institute of Technology has been instituted, in
deference to the character and wishes of the great engineer who
founded and endowed it, as a School of Mechanical Engineering.
In the Department of Mechanical Engineering of that school, over
which I have the honor to preside, I have endeavored to make the
combination of theoretical, empirical, and practical instruction, to
which I have referred as the third possible course, as complete as it
could well be done within the walls of the college, and have complemented this tuition by as much instruction among the workshops
and other establishments in the neighborhood of New York as opportunity can be found for. It would be premature to report definitely upon the result of this plan to-day. Several years must elapse
before the real value of a method which aspires to make young men
capable of going from the college into business and soon becoming
efficient aids to older practitioners can be fully judged. I can only
say that I originally allowed myself five years to determine whether
it would be for my own interest to continue in a work which then
seemed to me one of the noblest enterprises in which a member of
the profession could engage, and that period having nearly expired,
I am not inclined to feel less faith than I had at first in its success,
and have not lost any of the enthusiasm with which I took upon
myself that task. With less kindly, persistent, and cheerful support
and example than I find in the presence of my colleagues and of all
the officers of the institution, I may have had a different feeling;




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    41
but where all are working together in such a cause, discouragement
should be impossible.
The student at the Stevens Institute of Technology enters after
very much such an examination as is prescribed in all colleges of
standing, and studies four years, at the end of which time he receives
a diplonma, which is to be taken as evidence that he has pursued with
credit a course of study which is intended to be a suitable preparation
for the commencement of actual work, and for beginning to learn
the business of construction. He is called a mechanical engineer,
which is to be interpreted as meaning that he is considered to be well
fitted to become a good engineer. The first two years of his course
are preparative, and during that time he is acquiring a good knowledge of the ordinary college courses in literature, mathematics, and
the physical sciences, somewhat amplified and modified in directions
which tend toward future practical applications. The next two years
are devoted principally to professional studies, and to the application, in the laboratories and shops, of the scientific knowledge previously acquired. The student works in the chemical laboratory,
on analyses of ores, metals, and the materials which he expects to
make use of in his future life. He spends a considerable amount of
time in the physical laboratory, making experiments upon whatever
has a bearing upon his professional work, and learning the methods
and the use of apparatus which are needed in all work of precise
measurement, and he there becomes thoroughly and intimately familiar with all that the college student usually only knows by hearsay
and by eyesight in the auditorium. Here his hands become expert
in manipulation, and he feels and realizes all that we, who were less
fortunate in our college days, barely comprehended, and never fully
appreciated.
It is only here, and by these means, and with such actual tactual
practice, that the student can be taught habits of accuracy, and an
understanding of the difficulty which attends the acquisition of valuable experimental data. His mental training here is by no means
the least important part of the work. In mathematics he pursues
the higher branches, and devotes much time to applications throughout these two years. His instruction in the drawing-room extends
throughout the full course. The earlier portion of this time makes
him familiar with the use of instruments, and he gives much time
to the graphics of descriptive geometry, and the studies to which
that forms the introductory. During the final portion of his course
in that department, if he has any inventive power or ability to de



42                     DISCUSSIONS ON
sign, he makes original designs of machinery and apparatus. The
machines for testing metals, and for testing lubricants made in the
mechanical laboratory, were designed more or less entirely by students.
In the department of engineering he devotes two years to the
study of mechanical science, and to obtaining a knowledge of his
materials of construction. He studies the construction of typical
machines, and the form, as well as the theory, of the prime movers.
He goes into the workshop two days in the week, and there learns
the construction, the use, and the manipulation of machine tools. He
acquires a little of the mechanic's "knack;" if he has a natural
sleight, he gets a good deal of it. He there sees work going on in
the hands of more experienced mechanics, and gradually acquires
that kind of familiarity with such matters which is so essential to
his future success. He goes into the little foundry and sees the
moulder at work, and soon knows the technic of that business. More
or less work in pattern-making, and the other subsidiary trades is
usually going on, and he picks up enough in the shop, and from the
lectures on the trades, to be able to advance rapidly when he finally
goes out into real work.
The mechanical laboratory, which has been founded during the
past year, is doing a considerable amount of work for private individuals, railroads, and other large corporations, and has done much
experimental work for the neighboring municipal, State, and United
States governments. This has been of immense value in giving the
students an opportunity to witness, and frequently to take part in,
experimental determinations of important facts and data.
They use daily the apparatus of the engineer in the lecture-room,
and become familiar with the forms of the machines for determining
the tensile, torsional, and transverse strength of materials, the steamengine, indicator, etc., and occasionally have an opportunity to take
part in the experimental work which is every day in progress.
Students have taken part in tests of all kinds of materials of construction, of steam-engines and boilers, pumps, and other machinery,
and have used the dynamometer, the pyrometer, and all the instruments used by the mechanical engineer in his professional work.
They have taken part in some very important investigations and in
some valuable original scientific researches. The exceptionally complete outfit of this mechanical laboratory, and the wide range of work
obtained by it in doing its work, as a matter of business for all kinds
of business men, gives opportunities which, confident as I was of its




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    43
ultimate success, did not, when I first attempted its organization,
even imagine. It gives all these advantages, and, what is hardly
less important, it pays its own expenses.
Viewing this experiment as a whole, from our present position, I
can say that I see no reason to doubt that it is destined to prove
itself as complete a success as its most enthusiastic friends have even
hoped.
I have given this somewhat full account of the way in which this
problem of technical education is taken up at the Stevens Institute
of Technology, partly as an illustration of an actual and earnest
attempt to carry out the method which I have referred to in my
remarks, and partly for the purpose of giving those members who
asked for more information a concise answer to their questions. I
hope that I may have succeeded in interesting still more those who
have exhibited a desire to see our methods of technical education
perfected, and a high " modulus" of efficiency attained.




44                    DISCUSSIONS ON
THE JOINT DISCUSSION
OF THE AMLIERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
AND  THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF
MIINING ENGINEERS,
AT THE IHALL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA,
JUNE 19TH, 1876.
MR. A. L. HOLLEY, Member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers and of the American Institute of Mlining Engineers, called
the meeting to order, and said:
GENTLEMEN: The members of the Joint Committee of the Civil
Engineers and the Mining Engineers, to whom was given in charge
the arrangement of this series of meetings, had proposed to nominate
its Chairman as President of this meeting, Mr. Henry R. Worthington, who is, as you are aware, a thorough scholar in the principles
of the profession, as well as a successful practician of wide reputation in various branches of engineering. As Mr. Worthington has
been to-day most unfortunately prostrated by illness, I will nominate, confident of your approval, a member of the committee who is
thoroughly conversant with its deliberations, and peculiarly competent to preside at this meeting, Dr. R. W. Raymond, of New York.
DR. R. W. RAYMOND, Member of the American Institute of Mining
Engineers, upon unanimous election to the chair, said:
GENTLEMEN: The formal title of President, which Mr. Holley
has conferred upon the position of Chairman of this meeting, has
struck me with a little dismay, for it was my idea that this would be
an informal conference rather than an organized, deliberative, and
legislative assembly, but since there is to be a machinery, and a
President, I think we cannot do better than go a little further. I
would like to return the favor to Mr. Holley by nominating him as
Secretary of the meetings.
(Mr. Holley was unanimously elected Secretary.)




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    45
Now, gentlemen, a word or two may be well in introducing the
subject of the evening's discussion, particularly as many who are
present to-night may not be so well informed concerning the antecedents of this discussion as are those of us members of the Institute
of Mining Engineers who were present at Washington on the occasion which gave rise to it, namely, the address delivered by Mr.
Holley, President of the Institute of Mining Engineers, at that
meeting, on the subject of Technical Education. Portions of that
address, and of the debate that followed it, have been sent to many
of you by the Joint Committee. I have myself been requested by
the Chairman of the Joint Committee to hold myself in readiness,
in common with many other gentlemen who were expected to express their views on particular branches of the question, but the
unexpected duty of opening the whole subject seems to call for a
more general statement, of an introductory character.  I cannot
hope to make it altogether comprehensive, certainly not so comprehensive as I should have prepared to do had I anticipated that I
should be called to this position, and not left to make my individual
contribution merely to the drift of the discussion.
The question of technical education, as a whole, seems to me to
have two principal bearings, the first being the technical education
of the working-man, and the second, the training which should be
given to those young men before, during, or after their school course,
who pass through our technical schools in the hope of making for
themselves a successful career in the profession of mining, mechanical, or civil engineering. And the problem presented by the first
of these aspects, if once successfully solved, will perhaps throw a
great deal of light on the solution of the second. I mean to say, if
we could successfully solve the question of the ordinary education,
preparation, and elevation of the working-man, in our industrial
trades, we should thereby gain a great advance in regard to the
education of the superintendents, managers, and overseers.
It has been found that a technical education, and special preparation
of the working-man, in the trades represented by our profession, are
absolutely necessary to him, to take the place of that system of apprenticeship which is now passing away, and to relieve the workingman from the restrictive influence of the new principles that have
succeeded apprenticeships, and guilds, and caste, and paternal government, and official direction in every form. I speak particularly
of our own land, where these old artificial restrictions have been
removed, and we stand in danger of another class of tyrannies oper



46                     DISCUSSIONS ON
ating upon the working-men.  One of these is the tyranny of the
worst phase of trade-unionism, occasionally known among us, and
another is the division of labor. Trade-unions are by no means an
unmitigated evil, but all will admit that they may be carried to such
extremes, and be so misdirected by ignorance or malice, as to become
an overshadowing and stifling curse upon the community.
It has been observed by all those who have had to do with laborers in masses, that trade-unions cannot become thus powerful for
harm, among men who are themselves so educated, and so emancipated, that they have individual and personal ambitions. In all
thisform of trade-unionism —and I am sorry I have no better name
for it; I do not mean to stigmatize the whole system-we have a
despotism, the shackles of which hang like a millstone upon the
limbs of the working-man. Good and bad workmen are put upon
one level. Attempts to earn by extra work, to save, to study, to
compete, to rise, are discouraged or forbidden. Against such a dead
weight, crushing labor to a uniformity of despair or sullen indifference, the only available and effective lifting force is the intelligent
ambition of the individual laborer.
The great extension in modern times of the principle of the division of labor is another source of difficulty, demanding the same
remedy. It is not an easy thing to deal with a division of labor, by
which the workman is becoming a specialist, and narrowed down to
the doing of one thing which he can do, and do well, and which he
is made to do all his life, if he is willing to do it. He becomes
almost a part of some particular tool or process, unless he is possessed of a fundamental education that will help him to turn his
hand to other things. This evil is not yet, perhaps, so deeply felt
among us as abroad. Our American mechanics and laborers have
a certain readiness, superficial perhaps, but still qualifying them to
do in tolerable fashion, upon short notice,, many things, and turn
from one thing to another. This readiness, as Mr. Coxe remarked
on a former occasion, can be got, not in a large shop, but in a small
one, where there are fewer workmen, and greater variety of work to
be done. In large establishments, you know when a man gets to do
one thing well, he is often obliged to stay at it. He is so skilful
and valuable a workman in the spot where he stands, that it is to
the interest of the employer to keep him there. But education,
awakening and arming ambition, stimulating thought, and developing ingenuity, affords an antidote to this evil. Technical education
of workmen may become necessary, then, to remove the restrictive




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                     47
influences which I have named, and to give to them the Open Sesame
so that they will have the possibility, if they have the ambition, to
rise.
The effect of such training of workmen must be studied chiefly,
I am sorry to say, in foreign countries, our own being in this respect
lamentably deficient. I cannot pause, in the brief period allotted to
me, to discuss this portion of the subject; but I beg to refer those
Americans who take an interest in it, to a suggestive summary of
foreign experience, contained in a little book on Technical Education, by Charles B. Stetson, published in 1874 by Osgood & Co.,
of Boston. That account is far from complete. It does not make
mention, for example, of the Steigerschulen of Germany and Austria,
for the instruction of working miners and metallurgists, which are
among the oldest and most successful efforts in this direction. But,
not to dwell upon these details, I wish to point out that such primary culture of the working-men renders possible the system of
promotion from their ranks, without which they are driven to the
worst style of trade-unionism in self-defence, but with which they
are inspired at once by a laudable, honorable, and practicable ambition. These effects can be observed in the operations of the Cooper
Union in New York-an institution which I need not pause to explain, still less to praise-almost alone in this country as a successful apparatus for the technical instruction of the laboring class. If
the masses of our artisans, miners, and mechanics were possessed of
such preparation in mathematics, drawing, and language as the
Cooper Union schools bestow on their 1500 pupils, then there would
be less difficulty in selecting from the bench, the lathe, the engine,
the stope, and the furnace, men capable of rising to the intelligent
control of great establishments.
But, it may be said, how will this help the case of those who, after
years of study in colleges and scientific schools, find it impossible to
gain entrance into practice? If even now, when nine workmen out
of ten are mere drudges at a specialty, and incapable of promotion,
our school graduates find it hard to get places, what will they do
when workmen are educated? I reply, that they will be forced,
probably, to begin as workmen, but that such an apprenticeship will
be far less difficult than now, because it will be served among comrades who have learned the meaning and value of science, and who
will gladly co-operate in the exchange of ideas and experience. This
is not a mere Utopian dream. The fellowship of knowledge is a reality, and comes to pass whenever the vulgar scorn which the ignorant




48                     DISCUSSIONS ON
feel for learning, and the vulgar scorn which the indolent feel for
labor, have been swept away by the simple expedient of making the
worker study and the student work. You might as well tell me
that if I were hungry, but had plenty of water, and should meet a
thirsty man with plenty of bread, we could not come to an understanding and an equitable exchange, as to tell me that theoretical
and practical knowledge cannot complement each other under such
circu mstances.
But the present practical difficulty still remains, how to give to
students, either before, during, or after their course of technical
study, a knowledge of practice, such as will qualify them for positions at least of subordinate responsibility, and put them in the line
of promotion. In the admirable address of President Holley at the
Washington meeting of the Institute of Mining Engineers, a plan
was suggested which merits not merely discussion but trial. It
proposes a period of practical instruction in the shop or works, after
the student has received a good degree of preliminary culture, but
before he has begun his strictly technical studies. I shall say a few
words on this plan as applicable to metallurgical industry, for it will
not have escaped the attention of those who heard or who have since
read Mr. Holley's address, that its suggestions more particularly concerned the mechanical engineer; and the question at once arises
whether his plan is necessary, feasible, and advantageous to the metallurgist.
1. In the first place, it must be recognized that metallurgical processes involve more and more the arts of civil and mechanical engineering. They are carried on upon a larger scale than ever before,
and hence they require heavy constructions and complicated machinery. For a great part, perhaps the greatest part, of the duties of
the metallurgical manager, whatever is necessary to the training of a
mechanical engineer is necessary to him.
2. It is more easily practicable for the student to gain a general
acquaintance with many mechanical tools and processes in metallurgical works than in the machine shops themselves. For the repairs
and alterations of machinery around such works give a variety of
illustrations which the original construction in large establishments,
where labor is rigidly divided, does not offer to the student or apprentice in any one department. But, on the other hand, the actual
elementary knowledge is perhaps more difficult to obtain, because
the operations at metallurgical works require, but do not train,
skilled mechanics.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    49
3. As to the manual part of construction-the masonry of furnaces, for instance-it can be readily learned at the works, where
constructions are almost always in progress in some form or other.
But I think that if the student has had beforehand sufficient training to understand the use of working drawings, and to be able to make
such drawings, he will profit better by this practical experience.
4. As to the purely metallurgical portion of the work, the charging and operations of mills and furnaces, the sorting and testing of
ores, the manipulation of products, etc., there is no doubt that a
practical familiarity with the facts as they exist will facilitate the
comprehension of theories and general rules. But the student cannot go far, and ought not to go far, without the aid of chemistry;
and I am inclined to think that a general knowledge of that science,
and some experience as an assayer, will prove most useful preliminaries.
5. Is it feasible to introduce young men into metallurgical works
on the footing of favored employ6s, that is, employ6s who are not
to be kept indefinitely at a single branch of the work, but who are
to be passed from one department to another, until they shall have
acquired familiarity with all, as a preparation for thorough study of
the sciences underlying them? I think it is feasible in some kinds
of works, and scarcely so in others. In gold and silver stamp-mills,
for instance, the formal arrangement contemplated by Mr. Holley is
not necessary. A young man of intelligence, activity, and trustworthy character, has only to make himself useful in any capacity, as
laborer, bookkeeper, or assayer, around such an establishment, to
gain the entr&e to all its mysteries.  And permit me to say here,
that in small mining and metallurgical enterprises generally, I
think the bookkeeper stands the best chance of promotion to the
manager's place, when it becomes vacant, if he is ambitious, and
makes good use of the opportunities to gain a knowledge of the
whole business, which no other position offers in equal measure.
This is of course not always the case. In very large establishments
the bookkeeper may be closely confined by the mere clerical
drudgery of his place.
In conclusion, I wish to emphasize what I remarked on a former
occasion, that whether technical instruction be preceded or followed
by manual practice, one thing must precede both, to insure the
highest success in any profession, and that is general culture. For
success is a social matter; it depends upon a man's influence over
men. Knowledge of facts and laws in nature will not achieve it.
4




50                     DISCUSSIONS ON
The most thorough metallurgist or engineer needs to be able to
make other men recognize his ability. Nay, long before he can acquire thoroughness, he is dependent upon other men for every chance
of practice. A liberal education gives power over men; and the
technical education which gives power over matter will be twice as
easily gained, and twice- as effective when gained,; if it is grounded
upon the mental discipline and the moral strength of a culture wider
than its own.
The more one observes the careers of men about him, and the
more one wrestles with, difficulties of one's own, the more profound
becomes the conviction that a young man makes a great mistake,
who, because he is going to take a technical education in engineering, deliberately decides that he will not have any general culture
to begin on. I am not speaking of the men who, struggling against
cruel necessity, make their way honorably and effectually, in spite
of early disadvantages. Such often win a place among the greatest
names. But the reason is very simple. It is just the same reason
as makes the Indian a hardy son of the forest. Excessive exposure, hardship, insufficient food and clothing, do not make men
hardy; they merely kill off the men who are not hardy, and those
who survive must be the vigorous ones. Poverty, ignorance, isolation, difficulty, are not elements of strength; they are obstacles
over which strength, and strength only, can triumph. Infinitely
better they are than the luxury that drowns ambition and breeds
swamp-gases of indolence and vice; but in themselves they are hindrances. A man who is truly a man will not be enervated, but
enlarged and stimulated by liberal culture.
I would appeal to no one sooner than to our self-made men for a
hearty recognition of the value of such preparation. They have felt
the lack of it too keenly not to wish for their children a better
chance. Now, with due caution against the waste of time, I cannot doubt that a general culture, though it may not be the quickest
preparation, will lead to the best results. I remember the remark
of a man of great success and quick observation, who assured me
that if his son would become a metallurgical engineer, he would put
him through college first, and let him begin his special studies afterwards. I am not prepared to say that an entire college course is
necessary, or that it is the best preliminary course, though I have a
high opinion of it, but something equivalent to it, or to a part of it,
that is, what our German cousins give to their young men in the
Gymnasium. They give to them a liberal culture in the beginning;




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    51
and it is a very remarkable thing, that amongst the many skilful
metallurgists and mining engineers from  Germany with whom I
have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted, I have found a large
proportion who had learned Greek and Latin, could perhaps even
play on some musical instrument, and were widely acquainted with
literature.
Finally, we must recognize the fact that individual character is,
after all, the decisive element in success. We may devise plans
without end to facilitate the manufacture of skilful engineers, but
the men who have fidelity, honor, virtue, courage, and that genius
which has been well defined as the power of application, will make
their way surely to the top, either by the help of our arrangements,
or in spite of them all; and of these born and bred leaders of the
profession, those who have the broadest culture, other things being
equal, will stand easily first.
I will now call upon Mr. Thomas C. Clarke, of the American
Society of Civil Engineers.
MR. THOMAS C. CLARKE, Member of the British Institution of
Civil Engineers, member of the Society of Civil Engineers, and of the
Institute of AMining Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: All will admit that education by books and
education- by practice are both necessary to a perfect system. The
practical question that we have to discuss is, " What or how much
shall be taught from books, and what or how much by practice?"
Let us once satisfactorily answer this, and the rest is easy. The time
to be occupied in each and the order of study is of minor importance.
Civil engineering is what is generally termed one of the practical
sciences. A practical science is the application of scientific laws in
various departments to serve practical ends which govern their selection and application.
Thus civil engineering being the art of scientific construction (of
construction in accordance with the laws of nature, and not in ignorance of or against them), selects from the abstract sciences mathematics, and applies its branches of geometry and algebra to surveying and measuring. It selects from physics, chemistry, geology,
mineralogy, etc., whatever is necessary for its purpose, and cares for
nothing else. The pursuit of abstract science meets with its respect,
but does not command its attention.
The study of the abstract sciences should be thoroughly pursued
before we begin to practice, for that is the only time that we can




52                      DISCUSSIONS ON
properly give to it. The application of these abstract sciences should
be left until we come into practice, because men engaged in practice
are best able to judge properly how that application should be made.
Practice is constantly changing, and the applications of science have
to be modified daily.
Moreover, the power of observation will not be thoroughly acquired until the student goes into active practice, while in the
schools he deals with the symbols of things, and often does not
recognize the thing itself when he sees it.
The schools should confine themselves to teaching principles only.
That moment they attempt to teach the application of these principles to practice, and endeavor to teach their students how to design
cars, engines, and other machines, permanent way, bridges, roofs,
dams, and such pieces of construction, they either are ten to twenty
years behind the age, or else they incur the ridicule of practical men
by teaching how to make something of no use.
I have already expressed my views before the American Society
of Civil Engineers as to the order of study that I would recommend.
This, however, is of minor importance as compared with the previous
question of what to study.
I would recommend that the engineering pupil get as sound a
general education as possible, including the principles of the sciences.
Let his early education be rather that of general culture, developing
his mind, strengthening his powers of observation and judgment,
teaching him to generalize. This course he should, if possible, pursue up to the age of eighteen or twenty. Before that age the mind
and body are not generally sufficiently developed to endure the
physical hardships of engineering. Then let him spend several years
in practice in the machine shops, in the field, in the drafting-room,
and in the office. Let him learn to deal with men and things, and
to understand the conduct of affairs. Whether he will return to his
books again depends upon what sort of a man he is.
I believe that all men, or nearly all men, from the natural constitution of their minds, fall into one of two classes.
They are either the men of executive ability, the practical men,
par excellence, those who have a natural talent for affairs, the organization of labor, and the direction of men; or else they are the men
of science, the investigators, the men who are hungry for knowledge,
and will learn the reason why. Very rarely one man unites both
qualifications.  James Watt did, and so did Professor Morse, but
such men are rare.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    53
If the young engineer belongs to the executive class, having once
plunged into practice, he will probably never go back to his books.
But the other kind of man will do so, either by himself or in the
schools. When he will have found out exactly what his deficiencies
are, and he will be able to judge (much better in most cases than his
professor can) what it is desirable for him to learn, you may be
sure of one thing, he will study the principles of science, and pay
very little attention to their application as taught in the schools.
He will not spend his time over the pages of Rankine, learning how
English permanent way was made twenty years ago, before Mr.
Bessemer was heard of. Whatever he studies will be of value to
him, and no one can judge of that better than he can.
One thought more and I have done. To all classes of engineering
students let me point out the immense value of acquiring and fully
understanding the scientific method.
This is, first, the art (for it does not come by nature) of observing
facts and acquiring data; second, of observing the relations of phenomena and of drawing conclusions therefrom'; third, of verifying
those conclusions by observation and experiment.
Robert Stephenson, in alluding once to the vast progress of modern engineering, in which he himself had borne so distinguished a
part, said: "We found it a craft, and we have left it a profession."
That is to say, it had been put on a scientific basis, and by the use
of the scientific method. This, after having been applied to the
construction of railways, is now beginning to be applied to their
management, and the results are remarkable, and promise to be
more so.
To give an instance. The invention of the recording dynamometer, by Mr. Dudley, enables us to determine the resistance of trains
at different rates of speed, and consequently of the number of foot
pounds of energy required to move them, which is only another
name for cost.
It was formerly the opinion of practical men that ten miles per
hour was the most economical speed for freight trains. The instrumental observation shows that eighteen miles per hour is really the
most economical speed. Perhaps ten miles was right in the days of
iron rails, but now with steel rails and better rolling stock eighteen
miles is the proper rate.
But how long would it have taken the man who was not possessed
of the' scientific method to find this out?  And consider the value
of the information thus obtained. It means postponing the cost of




54                     DISCUSSIONS ON
constructing additional freight tracks, until the freight business has
reached a point nearly double that which it was supposed would require them.
Other instances might be given of the value of the scientific
method, but this is enough.
CAPTAIN DOUGLAS GALTON, F.R.S., of London.
Mn. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: I have so little knowledge
of the American system of education for engineers, that I fear I
may add very little to your information on this subject, except by
perhaps giving a short account of the arrangements which have been
made by our Indian government for the purpose of endeavoring to
create a department of civil engineers for India. The Indian government has recently, that is to say, within the last three years, undertaken the construction and supervision of a much larger share of the
public works than it had previously done. It decided to make new
railways under its owvn officers; therefore it required the assistance
of a large bbdy of engineers, The first idea was to obtain the assistance from the civil engineers of England, and to induce young
men of that class to go out and accept service under the Indian government as civil engineers; but the civil engineer is, as you are well
aware, a very expensive creature, if he is trained sufficiently in practical skill to be of real value.
The government of India were not disposed to pay for the article
the amount which was required to purchase it. After the failure of
that experiment, in consequence of the inadequacy of the terms
offered, the Indian government determined to create a school of their
own, and they have established, at a place called Cooper's Hill, near
London, a college of civil engineering.  The pupils for this are
selected by competitive examination, and they are then subjected to
a course of technical education. This course is admirable as a theoretical course; the young men are taughllt, as far as possible, a certain amount of each branch of engineering. This is the theory, but
the real difficulty lies in giving a practical education to young men
in the schools or in colleges. You may teach them by models the
art of bridge building, or the principles involved in the construction
of revetement walls; or you may cause various sorts of work, as a
plaything, to be executed by or under the eye of the student; but
it is perfectly impossible that those difficulties of engineering which
are of daily occurrence in actual works, and which are the things




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    55
that give the engineer his real practical knowledge and education, I
say it is impossible that these can be taught in any schools. The
young men, when they leave Cooper's Hill, proceed to India, and
are placed under government engineers. It is almost too soon to
say what the result of this will be, but I think it is not difficult to
predict that it cannot have so favorable a result for the government
as the result would have been if they would have been willing to pay
for students who had been educated under our leading civil engineers, the price which would have attracted them, and it was not
a very large price that would have attracted them.
There are two causes which militate strongly against the success
of such a system.
First, the career of these young men depends upon their being
regarded with a friendly eye by their superiors; that is to say, that
promotion more or less depends on favoritism.
Secondly, government service is antagonistic to inventive genius;
its leading principle is that the younger men should conform to the
precedents established by their superiors.  No encouragement is
given to the development of new ideas.
Of all professions the civil engineer's is the one of which new
ideas are the life's blood; it is, therefore, the one which should be
least trammelled by being made a government department.
It is noteworthy that the colonial office, which has jurisdiction
over certain of our colonies, and is independent of the Indian office,
has recently generally selected the civil engineers for service in the
colonies from the civil engineers of England, and this plan has proved
very successful at no inordinate cost.
In some of these colonies where considerable works go on, as railways and roads, they have an organized service of civil engineers,
which has been selected from pupils of the civil engineers in England, and their chief advisers in the selection have been our leading
civil engineers. Moreover, the system at Cooper's Hill is very similar
to that which had long prevailed in India, namely, that of employing the officers of the Indian engineers on public works. These
officers used to have the same sort of theoretical education as the
Cooper's Hill students-perhaps not quite such a high one-they had
not the opportunity of getting that practical knowledge which is
necessary to an engineer, and they therefore had to acquire the practical knowledge at the expense of the government, and many serious
errors were made in construction from that cause.
It is a far more expensive thing to pay for the education of engi



56                     DISCUSSIONS ON
neers by means of their failures, than it is to purchase the educated,
practical engineer, at the highest price in the market. I was not
aware that the question to-night was to embrace so large a field as
the President shadowed forth, or I should have taken more pains to
give you further information on another branch of technical education, namely, that of the technical education of working-men, because in England we have a recent example of the efforts made to
improve the technical education of the artisan, by that eminent scientific machinist, Sir Joseph Woodworth, who has put in trust a sum
of two hundred thousand pounds for scholarships, to be given to the
working-men who will distinguish themselves in a technical examination, and these scholarships are for the purpose of allowing a certain
sum yearly to students for a limited number of years, to enable them
to have an opportunity to improve themselves in their education.
I will briefly lay before you a few points as to the sort of education civil engineers receive in England. First they receive a liberal
education at some school or college, and then the rule is that they
go as regular or apprenticed pupils to a leading civil engineer for a
specified time, and they pass from that state of pupilage into assistants, and finally they settle themselves on their own basis. Mechanical engineers invariably serve as pupils in the shops of some of
our leading machinists, and they, as a rule, pass through all the
mechanical processes in these shops in detail, as well as through the
drawing office, and the model-room, as a part of the course.
Mr. Robert Stephenson once said to me that he considered that he
owed a great part of his success in life to his father, old George
Stephenson, having insisted upon his working in the model-room of
the foundry for a whole year, or two years, before he would allow
him to proceed to other classes of work. He said that gave him
such a power of judging of the forms of things, that it was of immense benefit to him. I would only add, in conclusion, that however much education you may give a young man, you can at most
only teach him how to learn. The real education is what he gives
himself after he leaves his instructors. It will always depend upon
the young man himself whether he makes an engineer or not.
MR. COLEMAN SELLERS, Member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers and President of the Franklin Institute.
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: Mr. Holley some time ago,
inclosing a copy of a circular which I hold in my hand, asked if I




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   57
would speak on the subject of the Technical Education of Engineers,
as such education relates to machine shops and foundries. In preparing mentally what I should say this evening, I naturally thought
only in relation to the question here asked, "Shall a course of instruction in works precede, accompany, or follow that of the technical school?" but so much has been said to-night about the technical education of workmen, that I can hardly avoid saying a few
words on that subject.
More than fifty years ago, a few earnest mechanics of the city of
Philadelphia met together, and feeling that they needed some means
of instruction not obtainable in the ordinary course of their lives,
founded what they called the Franklin Institute of the State of
Pennsylvania, and in time came to occupy the building in which we
are now holding this meeting. Almost the first act of their existence was the foundation of a school for teaching drawing. For very
many years there were no schools in Philadelphia to teach mechanical drawing, other than the one existing in this building.
From the Franklin Institute drawing school sprang the Women's
School of Design, which has since grown in usefulness, but if at the
present time you examine into the free school system of Philadelphia, and I imagine of some other cities, too, you will find that it is
with the utmost difficulty that the teaching of drawing has been introduced. It has been declared by the authorities in some instances
that there shall be drawing taught, but practicably there is none,
even with such a rule existing. Now, Mr. President, I hold that the
very foundation of all engineering practice is the knowledge of that
language which is the universal language of the world, the language
of the pencil, a language expressing in form what we desire to explain.
If this language of the pencil could be taught to all children,
even if they did not get quite so much grammar and quite so much
of some other branches in the schools, they would be better fitted to
be workmen, and would make better workmen, too, but, unfortunately, everybody has not the same idea. The tendency of the
school system of the city of Philadelphia tends directly towards
making young men accountants or traders, or, it may he, giving
them an idea that they are to be doctors, or lawyers; and not one
word is taught them in the direction of the industrial arts. They do
not have a chance to learn the meaning of the commonest terms of
the machine shop or the foundry, or of any of the trades. Now the
want of this system in the public schools underlies the whole trouble




58                     DISCUSSIONS ON
of technical education in America. We do not in the common
schools impress children with the desirability of earning their living
by handicraft, nor do we train their minds to fit them to direct the
hands of others in the industrial arts. Least of all do we give them
any hint of what they want if they are to be engineers. Some
technical education is needed to prepare them for a higher practical
capacity on leaving the schools. The high schools now, it is true,
teach many things that are very useful for them to learn, and too
much cannot be said in praise of what is really the People's College
of Philadelphia.
Now, in regard to the question of what shall be done with our sons,
assuming that we would like them to be engineers, to follow in our
footsteps. I am sure there is no father who listens to me now, who
has not had this subject very seriously brought to his attention.
For my part, I speak feelingly and from my heart, when I say
that it is a question which cannot be always satisfactorily answered.
I considered it gravely for a long time before I concluded what was
the best thing to do with my own sons, and I may say what I have
done with them is what I think is right for others to do with theirs
under similar circumstances. I cannot but indorse Mr. Clarke's advice to secure for our boys in their education, as broad a foundation
to stand upon as possible. I am sure this cannot be done by sending them to a public school only; they should have some college education; colleges properly organized will grow into favor as training
schools for engineers. I am not sure that the ordinary university
course of Latin and Greek is the best, but even this has its advantages,
provided the young man can spare time enough before entering upon
his life work to obtain some scientific training besides. I really think
it would be a good thing for our young men to go through a thorough
collegiate course, and then take something of a scientific course. But
the end seems to be more nearly met by establishing in all our universities, scientific schools.  Where such schools are founded, the
student will enter college, and may work for two years with those who
are studying a regular classical course. They will learn much that
will be of great use to them in after life; they will master language
so as to obtain the power of intelligent expression of their thoughts;
they will understand the use of words better than those of us who
have not had these early school advantages. The ability to tell other
people precisely what they think, and what they want to impress
upon them, is in itself a power. Their minds will be expanded, and
in the course of two years, they probably may have found out what




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   59
they want to do in the future, though I do not think that any boy,
and when I speak of a boy, I speak of one under the age of eighteen or nineteen, can possibly tell what will be the proper place for
him to occupy in this world.
There is a place, I presume, for everybody, and each will after
awhile drift into his proper place, and may become distinguished in
that place if he can fill it properly. In illustration of this drifting
into place, I would add, that if you will go upstairs, and look over
the roll of members of the Franklin Institute, through its fifty years
of existence, you will find names of members there, with their occupations opposite to their names as they wrote them at the time they
signed. You will find one name there that I well remember, and
opposite that name you will read the word " bricklayer." He is now
a very celebrated architect. And so with the name of another member of the Franklin Institute, who is really a very able mechanical
engineer, and quite a good constructive engineer. Had he signed
his name to that constitution, when he was some years younger, you
would have found opposite that name the word "shoemaker." Now,
that mian at that time, I have no doubt, was an excellent shoemaker,
but he had in him the making of an excellent constructive mnechanician. Since then he has found his proper place. If we could determine exactly what our boys are likely to be, what would be the
best for them to do, then we could look over the course beforehand;
but as we cannot do that, I think the position held by MIr. Clarke
is exactly the one that should be pursued, and that is, to give them
as broad an education as possible, but in giving them this education,
I would like to have one idea pretty well emphasized, and that is,
that a college will not teach them anything at all of practice, but
that it will teach them what they want very much to know, and that
is, how to study. They will surely learn methods, the methods of
thought; they will by application study lessons, obtain a correct
knowledge of the habits of thought, and methods of scientific investigation. Thus they will learn that they must never try two experiments at the same time, if they want to arrive at the bottom of any
matter. They will realize the advantage of making one experiment
at a time, and, eliminating all the errors, finally come down to the
hard facts which they are seeking for. This is one thing they learn
to do.:NNow it makes no difference if they cannot see how they are
going to apply this when they come into the workshop. My word
for it, they will see its value when they are once at work, and engaged
in digging their own way through sometimes very rough experience.




60                     DISCUSSIONS ON
Then it is they will turn back to the knowledge stored in their minds
at college, and readily apply it to their work. But to reap the full
advantage of all this, they must come out of college feeling that they
are technically, perfectly ignorant; they must be willing to learn of
practical men what constitutes the practice in machine making. If
a young man can have a proper education in that way, and he induced afterwards to enter the shops and work his way up, beginning at the very bottom, and never shirking any work because it is
dirty or disagreeable, you may depend upon it, the young man will
grow up to make his mark in the world. These qualities obtained
by education may be developed into administrative ability, and show
their usefulness in making the boy a mall capable of leading men.
The trouble with most young men who have gone through their technical course is, that they feel they have spent a great deal of time
in acquiring knowledge that should make them full-fledged mechanical engineers at once. They enter the shops, and feel sadly
disappointed at meeting the young men who have no education, and
are vastly their superiors in mechanical skill. This position, however, holds with them only for a very few months, because their
habits of thought make them consider the reason why this or that
thing is done, and when they have special training they rapidly go
beyond those who have not had the same advantages. It is safe to
say, that a young man, after passing through college properly, and
having a good sound education, who deter.mines to succeed in the
workshops at any hazard, will in two years make himself so valuable in the position that he occupies, as to be elevated by his employer into something higher.
Now I say that I thought of this very deeply in the case of my
own sons, and I did precisely, and I am doing precisely what I
have just told you. I was not at all surprised, when I found my
eldest son, after leaving the university, accepting a position in the
workshop a little better than a common laborer. He commenced
by chipping the scale out of the boiler. I tell you it was the best
thing for him, because he made a beginning at the bottom, and did
not shirk his work; it was as much as to say that he was willing to
learn all that could be taught him in the shop, and he rapidly rose
to a position higher than many who had been longer at work, but
who had less book learning to back them.
It is impossible to make engineers out of pupils who have not
engineering ability. There must be something in them that will
compel them to take it up as a profession, and succeed in it. I am




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    61
now clearly of the opinion that as it is not in the power of most
young men to take the college course, and then afterward to take
the technical course; that it is far better for them to obtain what
scientific knowledge they can in a good college, or in a technical college where something else is taught besides the exact sciences, where
they can be taught the languages, not the dead languages but the
modern languages, and taught at the same time rhetoric, composition, and all that will enable them to express themselves; and by all
means let them have a good sound basis of mathematics before they
venture their education in the workshops. Then when they have
entered the workshops there will be time to acquire technical education without schools. I have no doubt that many who have been
liberally educated, have, after entering the shop, felt the want of
some technical education, and have broken away from the shop, and
gone into schools to learn. They felt the need of obtaining more
knowledge, and that the time they spent in the college or school
was not sufficient.
I do not think it advisable as a rule, however, to take the boy
from the workbench and send him to school a second time. I have
in some instances noted the effect of such a course upon young men
to be disadvantageous. If the boy has left school too soon, and
feels afterwards the want of more knowledge, it is well enough, if
he can, to return to his studies, but such return makes sometimes a
disadvantageous break in his habits. I look upon it rather as a
means of mending a defect in education rather than a course to be
pursued as prearranged with an object. By not attempting to teach
too much "practice" in the schools, time is left to give a good
grounding in generalities, which cannot fail to be of use in any walk
of life, and which can be better acquired when one is young. The
practicing engineer has not only to master his profession, but he must
learn how to place himself and his works before men so as to be seen
of them and appreciated by them. He requires a very extended
knowledge; all learning will at one time or another be of use to him;
and habits of study, which will enable him to continue a student to
the end of his days, will the more readily fit him to rise in his profession, and make him a leader among men.
THE CHAIRMAN.-What Mr. Sellers has so well said with regard to the ability of trained men, possessed of liberal education
for mastering new problems or new branches in applied science, is
very admirably illustrated in the case of a gentleman upon whom I




62                     DISCUSSIONS ON
shall now call, a fellow-laborer of mine, and one of the old members of the Institute of Mining Engineers, who was once a very
good lawyer, but who made up his mind, when necessity called upon
him, that what anybody else could learn, a lawyer should be able to
learn, and who took off his coat and went to work at his own blastfurnace, and became an excellent blast-furnace manager.
I call upon Mr. E. C. Pechin, of the Dunbar Iron Works.
MR. E. C. PECHIN, Member of the Institute of Mining Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: In being called upon to
speak at this point in the proceedings, I feel very much like a
Lazarus sitting at Dives' gate.
After the admirable addresses of the chairman and of the gentlemen who followed him, so little'remains to be said that I feel as if
my part must consist in simply picking up the crumbs that have
fallen from richer tables.
I can only discuss the question from one standpoint, that of a
blast-furnace manager, as I am not sufficiently familiar with other
branches to give an opinion of any particular value.
I cannot too heartily indorse the remarks of the gentleman who
has immediately preceded me as to the vital importance of a liberal
education as the groundwork of a professional career. ifodesty is
one of the most charming and valuable of human characteristics.
As a young man lays broad and deep the groundwork of knowledge,
as he enlarges the range of his acquirements, as he gathers information from varied sources, as his mind becomes widened, broadened,
and liberalized, so does he feel his own insignificance, and how little
he knows compared with the illimitable and exhaustless fields of the
unknown lying before him.
The most unbearable of creatures is the youth who, thinking he
knows everything, practically knows nothing; and if, by a liberal
education, we can help to secure modesty, certainly a vast deal has
been done, not only for the individual, but for those with whom he
is to be brought in contact. With a liberal education as the groundwork, a subsequent technical education becomes an element of great
power.
As far as regards blast-furnace management, the schools call
effectively precede actual practice. A young man who looks forward
to the position of manager of blast-furnaces of the present day cannot have too thorough a technical education, as his duties will be of
the most varied character. Heretofore very many establishments




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   63
have been content to make iron out of purchased materials, but the
tendency now is to concentrate the mining of ores and coal and the
making of coke and iron all under one general management, greatly
increasing the duties and responsibilities of the manager, and demanding of him a larger knowledge.
Though he may have efficient subordinates in various departments,
he must be able to understand and check their work, and he will
find it extremely useful to be something of a mason, bricklayer, and
carpenter, largely a surveyor, engineer, and mechanic, and well up in
the general principles of chemistry and metallurgy.
Hence it follows that the course in the technical schools cannot be
too varied, and the best plan for an earnest student to pursue, while
thoroughly mastering the particular branch selected as a specialty,
is to get the groundwork of as many collateral branches as possible,
as he will find in his after-life that nothing will pay him a larger
dividend than varied knowledge.
After the schools, practice-not the practice that many of our scientific fledglings expect-a good salary and comfortable quarters,
strictly business hours and social enjoyments-but earnest, hard, often
disagreeable, and, it may be, poorly paid work, commencing at the
bottom and going resolutely through, until all the details of his
business are familiar to him. All the knowledge of chemistry and
formulae in the world won't help a furnaceman if his scales are out
of order, if the furnace has slipped, or water is going into his crucible. The most perfect furnace and the best stock can come to grief
if the materials are not properly filled at the tunnel-head.
I would start the graduate in the office, to become familiar with
the method of keeping accounts. Many a hardworking iron-man
has been insensibly ruined by faulty bookkeeping. Thence to the
weighing department, to find out how to receive supplies and ship
products. Defective scales or false weighing may knock the bottom
out of an otherwise fair balance-sheet. Thence into the labor gang
of the furnace, helping, filling, firing, keeping, until he is acquainted
with every-day furnace life, the petty mishaps, and the more serious
complications. From his fellow-workmen he can learn a vast deal
that will be immensely useful in his after career. He will discover
how many work intelligently, how many work honestly but ignorantly, and how many stupidly or wilfully shirk. At any rate
he can find out the peculiarities of the average working-man, how
distrustful and unreasonable at one time, and how generous and confiding at another. He ought to learn how to win the working-man




64                      DISCUSSIONS ON
to his future support, and if he does this he will possess the power
to snatch many a victory from the jaws of apparent defeat.
To sum up, first college, then the technical schools, then thorough
practice, to make a good iron-master, provided always that the subject has the right stuff to. start with. As Mr. Sellers's remarks have
suggested, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." If a
youngster has shown himself a good student, practice will soon Drove
whether he will make a good manager. If the necessary qualifications are wanting, he will so-on find his true level, but if they are
present he will, by adopting the course suggested, rise surely and
rapidly.
Quite apart from the financial and commercial results which will
inevitably follow, his life will prove a success to himself. The habits
of the student will cling to him through the busiest practical life;
his desire for knowledge will never slacken; the scientific research
of the world will become his property; and he can appreciate and
practically apply what others have done and are doing; he can understandingly avoid the blunders, and intelligently appropriate the
discoveries of his fellow-men, and possibly and probably will in turn
benefit others by the results arising from the combination of a constantly ripening intellect and an ever enlarging practical experience.
Thus we shall have a thoroughly skilled mechanic, and at the
same time, what is quite as important in my estimation, a broadminded, intelligent gentleman, equally at home in his overalls among
his men, or in his dress-suit in the society of the cultivated, refined,
and intellectual.
COL. W. MILN-OR ROBERTS, Vice-President of the American Society
of Civil Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: " The Joint Committee of the American Society
of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Mining Engineers
on Technical Education " having requested me to join in the discussion, I cheerfully accede to the request, the discussion to be chiefly
upon the following questions:
"I. Should a course of instruction in works precede, accompany,
or follow that in the technical school?
"II. Is it practicable to organize practical schools, under the direction and discipline of experts, in engineering works?"
Being less familiar than many of my brother engineers with the
details of modern technical teaching, my best excuse for entering at
all upon such a discussion may be found in my acceptance of the
proposition, that " in a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom."




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    65
I look back over my own experience, beginning many years ago,
in the practice of engineering, when there was no such thing in
this country as a technical school in any branch of engineering-in
fact, before engineering could be considered established as a profession. There were engineering works here long before that, and, of
course, engineers, but the time had not yet arrived when engineers
were in sufficient numbers, or in sufficient demand, to support regular schools of technology. On this very site where we are now assembled, and in the old Carpenters' Hall, back of Chestnut Street,
about fifty years ago, I was taught in a night school, architectural
drawing (under the auspices of this same Franklin Institute) by the
late John Haviland, an eminent architect of that day. This, combined with mathematical training (in the daytime) in the school of
Joseph Roberts, then the best mathematician of Philadelphia, aided
by his interesting weekly experiments in chemistry and philosophy,
was the germ of the technical education of the tim&. It was prior
to the era of railroads; hydraulic works, canals, etc., constituted the
chief engineering employment of the few engineers then in the
United States.
If I am not in error, this very society, the Franklin Institute
(which has so kindly tendered us the use of its halls and library,
and the most liberal personal attentions to both of our societies), was
the first substantial practical movement in the direction of technical
education, though beginning in a comparatively crude manner. Yet
I am well satisfied that the lectures that I heard in the rooms of the
Franklin Institute, which I always attended when I could, laid a
good foundation, which no length of time could impair. The respected
professors and teachers of that day have most of them long since
finished their labors in this world, and may be laboring, for aught
that we know, in another and more refined sphere of action. They
have gone, but their works live after them. In weakness and inexperience they laid the foundation walls of the Franklin Institute, a
little more than fifty years ago, and now nearly all its early members have departed, but the Institute has thriven and grown to
man's estate, and it would be very difficult to estimate its real value
as a factor in the technical education of the American engineering
mind. Certainly it has been very great, partly in its preliminary
training of youth, partly in its valuable practical lectures to young
and old, partly through its numerous important scientific committees, and largely through its monthly publications, which permanently embody a large amount of technical knowledge, valuable not
5




66                     DISCUSSIONS ON
only to the student, but to professional men of every grade of experience. I have, on the spur of the moment, interjected these reminiscences, in the hope that they will not be deemed entirely irrelevant to the subject in hand.
In regard to the training of young men of the present day for the
profession of engineering, there are some preliminary considerations
which it appears to me have not yet received quite as much attention as they seem to deserve, and they are becoming more important
every day. It is but a few years since engineering in general took
rank as a profession, and we look back to a yet shorter period when
schools of any kind undertook to teach engineering as a specialty in
any of its present branches, military, civil, mechanical, and mining;
but modern progress has been so rapid, and operations demanding
skilful engineering experience have so increased in number and
magnitude, that already these several branches have become in themselves sciences, requiring for their proper development and treatment appropriate, distinct schools. All of these branches of engineering have assumed definite shape during the present century, and
chiefly during the last fifty years. Not that there was no military,
civil, mechanical, and mining engineering prior to this century, but
that the business and wants of mankind had not yet advanced sufficiently to necessitate the formal organization of such professions.
Since the introduction of the railroad and telegraph, with steam as
the great motor for all kinds of machinery and transportation, an
almost unnatural impetus has been given to all branches of engineering, and now we have schools and colleges specially devoted to the
teaching of our youth, not merely in the preliminary or elemental parts,
but in the more advanced and practical portions of these sciences,
and annually there are now numbers of young men, who have passed
through the prescribed course in their respective institutions with
sufficient credit to entitle them to their diplomas, sent forth to take
their chances for employment in some one or several of the branches
of engineering.
Under such a comparatively indiscriminate system, two results
follow, one, the spoiling of intellects which might be much more
advantageously employed in some other business of life; the other,
the general public loss from incompetent engineering service. It
may be said that the professions of divinity, law, and medicine are
exposed to similar mistakes and similar consequent unfortunate results. This is probably true, and perhaps the same general remedy
may be applicable to all. It is certainly true that all the students




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    67
in any profession cannot arrive at the head. Some must be lower
in the class than others, and some must be near or at the foot.
Shakspeare says, "some men are born to greatness, and some
achieve it;" it may be added now, " by diligent labor and untiring
perseverance." Hence a course that may be appropriate and advisable for one student, may not be so for another.
Aptitude for a particular profession, and even for a particular
branch of it, if it be engineering, has not yet been adequately
studied or cared for by parents and guardians of children. The
idiosyncrasy of every being is his own, and it is unchangeable, and
it is possible, with proper care and judgment on the part of the
parent or guardian, to learn its nature in their children or wards,
before determining the particular plan of their education. There
are undoubtedly legal, medical, theological, architectural, mechanical,
and engineering minds, which, if properly trained in their natural
channels, may become not only usefill, but distinguished, and which,
if directed and persistently held in the wrong channel, may prove
to be abortions.
Regard being had to the aptitude of the individual, the particular
course which may be advisable in his special case, should depend
measurably, and perhaps considerably, upon the branch of engineering which seems to be best suited to his idiosyncrasy, whether military, civil, mechanical, mining, etc. While there may be a few
instances of men whose minds and pursuits enable them to shine
and to be more or less successful engineers in most of these branches,
as a rule, those who attempt to figure in many will be likely to fail
in some, if not in all. At the same time, an engineer in any department should of course be more or less familiar with the leading
principles of all the cognate branches. Yet, with every year's augmenting experience in the world, the necessity for these separate
branches will become more apparent, and a larger share of attention and time will be demanded in the individual pursuit of each.
Science grows with the growth of the world.
It may be necessary, or at least advisable, when considering the
subject of the proper method of training the young engineer, to
have special reference to.the particular branch of engineering he intends to follow. For any branch there must of course be a proper
foundation, to the extent of a good English education (if German
and French are added, it would be decidedly advantageous), and
a ready use of figures, and of mathematical principles, to precede
both technical engineering study, and practice-this in any branch.




68                      DISCUSSIONS ON
In mining engineering particularly, the student to be reasonably
accomplished, should also understand chemistry, as well as geology
and mineralogy.  In the other branches of engineering, chemistry
may not be so necessary or important, although it is a kind of
knowledge which is useful to all engineers. An accomplished civil
engineer should be familiar with mechanical engineering, and not
ignorant of mining engineering, though he need not, necessarily, be
an expert therein; it could hardly be expected of him. His chief
or highest duties are not embraced in either of those branches, and
his principal requisite is ready, sound judgment, and the more this
is strengthened and confirmed by experience, the better for his employers as well as for himself. Sound judgment can never be wholly
the result of education, either technically in the schools, or in engineering practice, because it does not always accompany knowledge
or even experience. For civil engineering, the teaching and training
in those higher schools, where this department, with the use of instruments, is a regular course, the student can learn all that it is necessary for him to know, before taking a very subordinate position in
a regular engineer corps in the field, where he would still have much,
very much, to learn, which cannot be conveyed to him thoroughly
in any other than this final school. One who would be a first-class
mechanical engineer, as soon as he has the proper foundation of
schooling already mentioned, should get at once among mechanics
and mechanical practice, joining to his practice an intelligent study
of principles, and gathering to himself the technicalities as he advances. Something, too, depends upon the special branch of mechanical engineering he may wish to follow. Mining engineering
during the present century, and especially during the last forty or
fifty years, has become a highly important branch of modern engineering, and only in technical schools of mines, or among mines, can
it be thoroughly learned. The proper foundation referred to above
is, of course, essential to the satisfactory advance of the student. In
addition to this a taste for the profession, as well as the talent to enable
him properly to exercise it, are indispensable to distinguished success.
I am less familiar with modern mining engineering as a science,
than with any of the branches of engineering, and do not therefore
feel competent to advise mining engineers as such, but from the
drift of my remarks it will be observed that in a general way my
experience would seem to favor first, the laying of a good foundation-a sound preliminary education, and secondly, going to work
upon it as soon as possible thereafter, in the particular branch of




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    69
engineering the student intends to pursue. If that preliminary
education could have the great advantage of such schooling as the
President of the Mining Engineers, Mr. Holley, has indicated among
actual works, it would surely be the very perfection of a foundation.
After all, however, those who would be engineers, or their parents
or guardians for them, should have some reliable assurance that some
kind of engineering, as a profession, is likely to be the best for the
particular individual, and then, the kind of engineering should be
determined upon and constantly kept in view during the preliminary
or preparatory education.
I can speak freely in regard to civil engineering, from long experience, that in the United States at least, it has become of a very mixed
nature, and that of those who have latterly entered into it, many have
been sadly disappointed and very few quite satisfied. Many who
without due consideration have rushed into the profession, would have
done better for themselves in almost any other business or profession.
Civil engineering has been largely overdone. Perhaps the same
general remark may be more or less applicable to the other professions, although circumstances peculiarly favored a large accession to
the ranks of civil engineers.
Since, however, the profession of engineering in its several branches
may now be regarded as established, and as special professorships
and special training in those branches respectively, in schools, must
materially conduce to the permanent benefit of the pupils, and consequently of the profession, it would appear particularly in mining
engineering, that a course of instruction in works should accompany
that in the technical school. In mechanical engineering very much
the same system would seem to be highly desirable.
In military engineering, in the national school at West Point, this
is precisely what is'done. Practice, so far as may be, goes hand in
hand with technical teaching. In civil engineering it is practicable,
only to a certain limited extent, when compared with the wider field
which must at a later period be occupied.
It may not be equally practicable to organize "practical schools
under the direction and discipline of experts in engineering works,"
in all of the branches of engineering, but in mining and metallurgical
engineering it seems to me to be quite practicable and desirable,
likewise in mechanical engineering. In civil engineering the real
school is largely in the field, beginning with the rapid preliminary
explorations of lines of canals, or railroads, or projections of waterworks, etc., extending through the processes of provisional and final




70                      DISCUSSIONS ON
locations, up to the planning and construction of the various works
and structures appropriate to the particular improvement. Those
who by great experience become experts in civil engineering, are
usually too closely occupied in the professional conduct of works to
take an active or controlling part in the business of educating
younger members, excepting as above indicated, by having them in
their corps on active duty of some kind. The day may come in this
country when civil engineering may assume a somewhat different
shape, lut at present it appears to me that the polytechnic schools
in our country, in which civil engineering is a leading feature, furnish adequate training for young men desirous of becoming civil
engineers. Of course the more thoroughly the teachers are themselves grounded in the practice as well as the principles of civil engineering, the better it is for the pupils, though it may be well to
consider that the most expert, and the most experienced in practical
engineering; are not necessarily the best teachers. There are men
peculiarly well adapted to shine and succeed as teachers of young
engineers, who would not be selected to take the responsible practical management in particular lines of civil engineering, while there
are many instances of good practical engineers who would be likely
to do no honor to a technical professorship.
MR. ASHBEL WELCH, Member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I suppose all agree that the future engineer
should remain in the school or college till he is eighteen or twenty
years old, and should get all the general education he can, up to that
time, before he begins his professional education.
But experience shows that a long course of technical study, preceding and unaccompanied by professional practice, is highly inexpedient. I propose to glance at some reasons why it is so.
The object of the philosopher is to attain scientific results; the
object of the engineer is to attain directly beneficial ends by using
those results. One gets up the tools, the other works with them.
Engineering education should therefore aim at readiness and skill in
the application of science, rather than at scientific investigation or
accumulation. The habit of mind good for one, is, when carried
far, bad for the other. Too long study of science without applying
it in practice, induces a habit of allowing knowledge to lie dormant
in the mind, of regarding it as end, not as means, and to a greater or
less extent, produces incapacity for applying it.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   71
Many years ago, a foreigner was found on a work under my
charge, plying the shovel and wheelbarrow, -who had acquired a
large amount of knowledge by years of study at a continental university. But though he knew so much, and. was so expert in abstract science, he was unable to make any earthly use of it. He
could not be taught to apply it to anything.  In learning a giant,
he was a child in everything else. This may be an extreme case,
but it illustrates the tendency of all study and no practice.
On the other hand, practice keeps one on the qui vive to-know the
reasons for doing things, and the laws that operate. Old George
Stephenson, for example, picked up a great amount of knowledge,
because his practice made him hungry for it, and enabled himn to
assimilate it. Men of practice came to know, by what looks like intuition, things that science teaches other men only by a long course
of reasoning. The habit of applying knowledge is more influential
in inducing men to acquire it, than the possession of it is in inducing
them to apply it.
A habit acquired in the practice of turning knowledge to account,
is more valuable than a large amount of knowledge. In Franklin's
time, myriads of men had much more knowledge than he had, but
his habit of applying it made his little more valuable than their
much.'
Of course a man must have some science before he can apply it.
But this he can get at school, or college, or in a short course at a
technical school, while his mind is yet flexible. But a long course,
reaching to a more mature period of life, fixes in the now rigid mind,
a habit unfavorable to engineering success.
It can hardly be doubted that instruction in works should, when
possible, accompany that in the technical school; just as the young
lawyer or doctor learns to practice while studying.
Too much time spent on scientific abstractions and refinements
(however useful such things may be to the philosopher), is more than
wasted by the engineer; it unfits him for practical usefulness. Napoleon said La Place was good for nothing for business; he was
always dealing with infinitesimal quantities.
A general ought to have been a captain in his younger days, but
if a man continues to perform captain's duty up to the age of fifty, he
is not likely to make much of a general. So an engineer should begin low down. But the student should not be kept long in acquiring
mere manual skill. What he wants is mental skill. He should be




72                     DISCUSSIONS ON
practically familiar with iron, but it would do him little good to be
expert in making horseshoes.
It is only early practice that can teach the self-reliance, energy, and
enterprise so essential to an engineer's success.
The engineer has to do with cases where the laws of nature act in
different directions. Science alone cannot often give the exact resultant of those forces, sometimes unknown, often separately incapable of measurement. Experience must give the habit of estimating
what allowances should be made for unknown actions and unknown
quantities.  Men of science once told the engineers to Make fishbellied rails, so that they should not break in the middle. The
foundry laborers that broke up pig-iron could have told them
that the rails would break close by the supports. Science teaches
that with perfectly elastic bodies the angle of reflection is equal to
the angle of incidence; practice teaches that with material bodies as
they are, it never is. Time was, when for such reasons, there was
some truth in the saying, that the stability of a structure was inversely as the science of the builder.
The best engineering is that which in the long run accomplishes
the purpose at the least cost. The engineer should not be a mere
engineer, looking only at engineering results, for then he will lose
sight of their subordination to economic results. In this way so
many parties have been ruined by splendid engineering. Actual
practice, where money is scarce, is the best way to impress this on the
young engineer. He should learn not to do, propose, or advocate
anything that will not pay.
The engineering books in our schools often contain rules deduced
from the experience of other countries that are wrong here. For
instance, we were erroneously taught by English practice that fishplates for rails should be only fourteen inches long, and that they
should be of iron because steel would break. A young graduate
once made a road for temporary use, and made the drains of cut
stone, because his French text-book said that was the way to make
them. It reminded me of what a man breaking stone once said:
" For making roads I'd rather have one good broad-backed turnpiker than. all the engineers this side  " (Sandy Hook). Early
practice can alone prevent these errors from taking too deep root.
Leaving this part of the subject, I now propose to call attention
to another and very important part of an engineer's education,
using that word in its widest sense. I mean to inculcate as an
essential feature of an engineer's character the strictest integrity.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    73
One-eighth of all the wealth in the United States is railroad property. It is controlled by a few hundred men. Of these many are,
or were, engineers. They were selected partly because their training
fitted them for railroad management, and partly because they had
a reputation for integrity. It is of the highest importance to shareholders and bondholders to find men perfectly trustworthy. No sane
person will confide his property to a man of whose honesty he has not
some assurance.  Many a share would to-day bring ten or twenty per
cent. more than it does, if it was certain that the management of the
property it represents was, and would continue to be, perfectly honest. It is probable that character for integrity will soon be a much
more influential element than heretofore in securing good positions
and good salaries. The insurance the shareholder gets by the employment of a man of known integrity is worth many times his
salary.
It is therefore, to say nothing of higher reasons, of the greatest importance to an engineer, to have a reputation for honesty. It is a
very essential part of his capital.
But only a few individuals can be very widely known. Most
men are therefore judged, not so much by what is known of them
personally, as by the character of the class to which they belong.
Hence it is of the greatest importance that engineers, as a class,
should have a character for stern integrity. One of the aims of
these societies, and of the schools for the education of engineers, and
of the individuals interested, should be to secure this character for
those whom they recognize as engineers. To have the reputation
they must have the thing itself; and they must keep out, and when
it becomes necessary, weed out, those that are found not to have it.
That this is practicable appears from what has been already
effected. I will say nothing of our societies, though I think it is
safe to assert that to be a member of either is prima facie evidence
of integrity. I prefer a reference to the graduates of West Point,
whose high tone has, with a few melancholy exceptions, carried
them with unsullied reputations through temptations to dishonesty
by which most other men have been overcome.
Whether or not this end can be fully attained, or whatever should
be the exact steps towards it, it should always be kept distinctly in
view. One uppermost thought may here be presented, not suggesting any action by these societies, for that would be outside of their
province, but for the consideration of each individual member.
Most of us doubtless agree with the solemnly expressed opinion of




74                     DISCUSSIONS ON
our own venerated Washington, that the only sure foundation of
morality, and of course of the high-toned integrity that is so essential, is the Christian religion.
PROF. FAIRMAN ROGERS, JIember of the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I shall naturally be disposed to treat the subject under discussion from the point of view of an instructor. Formerly Professor of Engineering in the University of Pennsylvania,
and subsequently taking an active interest in that particular department of the University, the consideration of the subject has necessarily been constantly forced upon me. I have given it much attention, with the result, that apparently a great many of us have reached,
that it is a very difficult question, and that it is almost impossible to
come to a positive decision upon many of the points which present
themselves.
We all so far seem to agree upon one point, however, and I most
heartily indorse the expression that has been given to the opinion,
that a broad, strong basis of cultivation is necessary to enable the
average man to obtain a reasonably high position in the profession.
We must leave out of consideration those men who, by wonderful
genius and energy, or by extraordinary advantages of connection,
attain a position which is not within the reach of the ordinary man.
In technical schools, such as the Towne Scientific School of the
University of Pennsylvania, we should aim at teaching the underlying principles of science generally, and the application of special
sciences to that branch of practice to which the student is directing
his attention, with the greatest possible thoroughness. There is in
my opinion a disposition in all our schools and colleges to teach too
many subjects, and an attempt to spread the time and effort of the
student over too wide a range.
That cannot be attended with satisfactory results, and I believe
that we shall do best by adopting a small number of studies, very
carefully taught, and reiterated in such a way, that the fundamental
principles which underlie all the arts and sciences shall be thoroughly
understood by the student, and shall have become an integral part
of what we might call his mental life.
In my opinion the time at the disposal of the student, before he
enters upon the actual practice of his profession, can be best employed
in the schools, without practical work, further than the small amount
which may be necessary to fix in his mind the theoretical principles




TECHNICAL EDUCATIOlN.                  75
which have been presented to him, provision for which can be made
by very simple workshops and laboratories under the control of the
professors. Beyond that, I doubt very much whether the attempt to
combine practical with theoretical instruction gives an equivalent
for the time spent, and I believe that the interruption of the course
by a year or two years of practical work in a shop or in the field
would not in the main be attended with any satisfactory result.
Habits of continuous study are formed with difficulty, and should
not be broken in upon until the time arrives for them to be exchanged
for habits of work.
The industrious student may, with undoubted advantage, spend
his vacations in each year of his study in such observations of practical matters as h, may have opportunities for, a course which will
result in fixing in his mind very strongly the principles presented
to hint by his text-books and his instructors.
There are so many things that can be taught properly only in the
regular progressive methods of the schools, such as pure and applied
mathematics, and mechanics, and the like, that there seems to be
every reason for embracing the opportunity which can never occur
again, and requiring the student to devote his time exclusively to
such subjects.
Once launched into the hurry and excitement of practice, the
young man finds the systematic pursuit of such knowledge difficult,
if not almost impossible.
Other subjects in the same category are those based upon the digested experience of many investigators, which, though to a certain
extent empirical, and wanting the logical completeness of mathematical investigations, must be adopted as embodying the principles
which underlie practice.
Belonging to this class are the laws of the regimen of rivers, the
action of currents, and the flow of tidal streams, or the various matters of shop or constructive practice which a man must know thoroughly at the very outset of his career, and which have been reduced
to form by the labor of hundreds of individuals.
We may be assured that the young man who goes out into the
world with an entirely thorough theoretical education properly given
to him by competent, progressive, live instructors, will be in a position in which he cannot make serious mistakes, and from which he
will surely in the long run distance those competitors who are less
thoroughly prepared.
The absence of an exact knowledge of the principles which un



76                     DISCUSSIONS ON
derlie practice is, I think, painfully apparent in the larger number
of so-called practical men, and while we constantly hear the practical man regretting that he has not had the opportunity of obtaining that theoretical knowledge which appears to him to be so desirable, we rarely hear the man whose theory has preceded his practice
complain in the opposite direction.
In a case that came under my notice some years ago, a portion of
a new building was covered with a half-span, lean-to, iron roof, from
which was suspended a light ceiling which hid the framing from
view. With the first heavy fall of snow of the succeeding winter
the roof fell in, and the removal of the ceiling disclosed a curious
condition of affairs which accounted sufficiently for the accident.
The contractor being sent for, expressed unbounded surprise, and
insisted that, as he had put up several whole-span roofs, from the
same drawing, of eighty feet span, this half-span roof of only forty
feet ought to have been unnecessarily strong, and it was difficult to
explain to him that, by cutting his drawing in two, he had converted an inch and a half round iron tension rod, which was amply
strong, into a compression piece which was useless. In my opinion
no properly educated graduate of an engineering school, in his first
year of practice, could possibly make that mistake, and yet I am
certain that similar things, coming out of well-known workshops,
will present themselves to the minds of many of my hearers.
A similar case is stated to have occurred in England, where some
wise individual attempted to give additional support to a whole-span
iron roof which was thought to be rather light, by inserting a row
of columns under the centres of the principal rafters, with the same
satisfactory result.
In individual cases the precise method of education may be modified by the peculiar connections of the student giving him extraordinary facilities in certain directions, but I would sum up my remarks
by saying that the best time for a young man to acquire a systematic
knowledge of the fundamental principles of his science is while he is
in the school, and while he is attending to what is usually called his
education, and we may feel assured that he will rapidly overcome
whatever temporary disadvantages he may labor under in the outset
of his career for want of practical knowledge, and in a thorough and
scientific manner apply those unchanging principles which have sunk
into his mind and become a part of his professional nature.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    77
THE CHAIRMAN: Gentlemen, I think it is only fair that the
individual who caused all this trouble by his words, and set the
two societies by the ears, and brought all of us together here to
debate and discuss, and shed various lights on the subject that he has
made prominent, should have a chance along with the rest of us, in
the general fray, and therefore I shall presently call upon Mr.
Holley to make his contribution. I ought to announce, that after Mr.
Holley's remarks we shall adjourn, to meet again in this place at 10
o'clock to-morrow morning; and before he begins, I must assume the
chairman's privilege of speaking without leave, more than his share,
in order to emphasize one or two things which this whole discussion
has brought out. It has been a very remarkable discussion in some
respects. The unanimity of feeling in one particular has been manifest, namely, as to the value of broad and general culture. This is
very agreeable, because it shows that all the engineers are in favor
of that thing; yet I may say that the parents in this country as a
class are just the other way.  When an American father talks of
putting his son into any special profession he says, " I am not going
to send my son to college, because he is going to be an engineer. I
will take him out of college."  He says, " My son is going to be a
merchant; I will take him out of college;" and parents are all the
time pulling their sons out of college because they are going to go
into some special line. As I say, the tendency on the part of fathers
is exactly contrary to the tendency on the part of experts. WIhen a
man happens to be both an expert and a father, like my friend, Mr.
Sellers, then the boy gets a wise preliminary training. But he
has put his boy into his own line, and he understands what is
necessary in that line. It is not difficult for a hen to brine up her
chickens; it is when the hen hatches a duck that the trouble comes
in; and it is the fathers who are ministers, doctors, and lawyers,
who have seen some young men rise to wealth perhaps in engineering, and have got a vague notion that it would be a good thing
to make engineers out of their sons, it is such fathers who are
apt to think they must take off a portion of the general culture,
because they fancy it does not require so much general knowledge
to enter the engineering profession. They may be the soundest men
on other subjects, but they know nothing about engineering. This
subject has been condensed by my friend, Dr. Wedding, in a single phrase which was carelessly thrown out in his remarks, and
which, perhaps, he did not consider specially significant to us: but
it was very much so. When sketching the career of a young man




78                     DISCUSSIONS ON
coming into life he said, "Well, then, at about twenty-five or twentysix years of age, it is about time to begin to look about for some
means of supporting himself, so that, when he gets to be thirty years
of age, he has a place in the world."  We would think it was too
much to expect a young man to wait until twenty-five or twenty-six
before he actually cuts loose from the parental hearth. It is to the
other extreme that we go, and the young men of this country set
out in life with too hasty a preparation-crammed, instead of trained
at a much earlier age.
One word more in regard to the suggestion of Mr. Welch concerning the value of general practice and general acquaintance with all
the branches of practice on the part of the engineer. Everybody
knows how hard it is to keep up in all branches and be master of
all the branches. It used to be possible years ago, but it is not possible now. No one can do anything like keeping up with the progress of the science of the present day. Humboldt was, perhaps,
the last living man who kept pace with science in his race. It is
not because we have not men of great mental power at the present
day, but because the circle of knowledge has grown beyond the capacity of the single mind. Yet there is always a certain ability of
comprehension in a man who has become a master in one department. At the same time he may keep up a general acquaintance
with other departments, and be an appreciative listener and helper
to the specialties in other lines. I only mention this because it is
worth emphasizing that our technical societies are admirable agencies
for maintaining this general acquaintance by agreeable social methods.
As to the matter of integrity, spoken of by Mr. Welch, I would suggest that it ought to include more than financial integrity. Of those
who are employed in a subordinate as well as in leading engineering positions, the fewest number have to handle funds without any
possibility of control. Where you trust a man with a dollar once,
or a hundred dollars once, you trust him one hundred times with
some duty, the conscientious discharge of which involves really a
larger amount. We as engineers should have that peculiar variety
of integrity which consists in strict military obedience. If this
is wanting at the scales and at the tunnel head, we shall not know
what is going into the furnace, and all our science elsewhere will be
in vain.
I now call upon Mr. Holley to close this session.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   79
MR. A. L. HOLLEY, Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of MJining Engineers.
MR. PRESIDENT: I shall refer only to one of the topics mentioned
in the circular, and I shall endeavor to maintain the proposition that
technical education in works should precede technical education in
the school.
Let us first clearly appreciate the proposition, and in so doing,
answer the first and hastily considered objection that is often made
to it. The proposition is not to send the uncultured youth into the
works and then into the school, for the uncultured youth is fit for
neither the works nor the school; but it is to send the graduate of
the high-school, the young man of good general culture, well founded
in mathematics and in the principles of physical science, first into
works, that he may there learn from nature and from the actual possibilities of labor and cost, the farther value and direction of technical
studies. What we are so often told, that the mere common-school boy,
or the machinists' apprentice, or the average mechanic in any department, will stick to his low place and in his narrow circle-that he
would neither seek the technical school nor utilize its advantages if
he did seek it, may be perfectly true, but it does not affect the system
under consideration. In this system there are three distinct elements;
if one is wanting the whole fails.
1st. The high-school, the liberal general culture to acquaint the
mind with the history of human endeavor, and more important still,
to discipline it in the methods and habits of scientific thought. Without this fundamental culture, the average man-I beg of you not to
keep calling up in your minds the exceptional cases-without this
culture, the average man will always keep in his low plane and his
narrow circle, whatever his occupation. To him, practice will
teach nothing but skill, and the strictly technical school will be as
an unknown tongue. I presume this much will be universally admitted, certainly it cannot be doubted, when we see the thousands
and tens of thousands of young men, who never rise above the
lowest stratum of mediocrity, not for the want of average ability,
but for the want of that ambition which general culture inspires,
and for the want of scientific methods, without which high achievement is but the exceptional prerogative of genius.
This much being admitted, the second element of our system, is
practice in works or in the field. At this point, two diametrically
opposite courses are advocated. We hold that practice is now necessary to fit a man for the strictly technical school. Our opponents




80                     DISCUSSIONS ON
hold that the strictly technical school is necessary to fit him for a
course of instruction in works. In order that there may be no misapprehension of our position in this matter, I take the broad ground,
and I call upon the majority of men who have made engineering
what it is in this centennial year, to bear me out in the assertion,
that at this stage of a young man's culture, the strictly technical
curriculum of books, is not only useless, but positively noxious. I
do not mean mildly wasteful of time, but positively disseminative of
error, the marks of which can never be effaced. Let it not be supposed that we undervalue the technical school, on the contrary, if
time permitted, we would quite as strongly oppose the equally absurd
practice of neglecting at the proper time, the abstract principles, the
formulated results and the refined methods, which can only be acquired in the school, and which can only be acquired in a manner
helpful to practice and to progress, when a touch of nature has revealed their significance.
To illustrate the noxious effects of beginning a technical course
with abstract principles and with whatever is formulated in books:
It will not, I think, be questioned by experts, that the grand elements of success in the management, for instance, of metallurgical
manufactures, of machine building, of steam propulsion, of constructive engineering-elements far exceeding in importance the mere
calculation of strains or the mere analysis of materials, both of which
can be bought like the materials themselves-that the grand elements
of success in making all these engineering enterprises pay, are an
intimate knowledge; 1st, of what, and how fast, and how long, and
at what cost, the tools and implements and processes at hand will
do what they are set to do; 2d, of what iron, and steel, and brass,
and materials in general may be relied on to stand, not under uniform stress as laid down in the tables, but under friction and heat
and vibration and multiform stresses, and all the variations of quality
due to imperfections of manufacture; 3d, of cost as modified by all
the risks of waste and loss by varying refractory materials, by
breakdowns, by facilities of transportation; 4th, of economy as promoted by keeping all departments of manufacture and construction in
harmonious operation; 5th, and most important of all, of the management of labor, founded on the knowledge of what labor may be
expected to do under all the influences of trades-unionism and bonuses
and lockouts. These are things which the young man who proposes
to educate himself for leadership in engineering may not indeed
know at once, with that nearness of knowledge which makes the




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                     81
expert, but unless at the very outset of his technical course, in the
novice's first period of susceptibility, his mind is moulded to grasp
the great facts of his profession in the concrete, as existing in the
subject itself, then the abstract as imparted in the schools will acquire
a precedence in all his mental processes, from which he can never be
emancipated.  This is the reason why the men who actually manage
engineering works to-day, are so largely sprung from the ranks, despite their want of scientific training, while so much noble culture is
year after year following after the phantom of abstract principles as
dissociated from the subtle and ever-changing aspects of nature.
I would further express the belief, contrary to the opinion of an
expert with whom it is almost presumptuous to differ, that this concrete knowledge of the profession cannot be formulated any more
than-if I must use a strong illustration-than Ovid could adequately
formulate the art of love. No book can impart it, no formula can
give it vitality; nature with all her subtle processes must prepare the
ground, and then the schoolman may plant his seed with hope of
harvest. Shall the average student satisfy the conditions of progress
with the book, when Tyndall and Henry, Faraday and Agassiz, threw
away the book and penetrated the inmost tabernacles of nature?
The student may indeed study in works, after he has completed
his course in the school, bhut his mind has then been so saturated
withl general principles and theories, that he is positively unfitted
to appreciate the great considerations of cost and policy.  Let me
repeat this fundamental truth-the first impressions received by a
mind virgin to technical training, especially the impressions ingrained by a course of books, will' inevitably mould its whole
future,  If a man at first imbibes, for instance, the idea that certain
formulhe of strength cover all cases of engineering construction, or
that the known principles of chemical affinity will give him working conditions under all changes of temperature, then he comes to
regard this teaching as the law, and all variations from it fill him
with doubt, perplexity, and discouragement; while if he first learns
from practice, that the complete law is as yet unwritten and unknown, that the first principle of success is to lie close to nature as she
reveals herself both in inanimate. materials and forces, and in the developments of humanity, he will not be baffled and disappointed at
apparent exceptions to general laws; he will rather be stimulated to
search the books, in order to draw conclusions from wider ranges of
facts, and to avail himself of the methods and conclusions of other
observers.
6




82                     DISCUSSIONS ON
The teaching of books, however important at the proper time, is
nevertheless one-sided, partial, and incomplete; the teaching of objects and phenomena can impart no error, but it reveals all those
conditions under which theory and general conclusions must at last
be tested.
That men of general culture who have been trained in practice,
do not only seek the school, but hunger and thirst after the wider
facts and formulated results laid down in books, is a notorious fact,
and the reason is that such men alone can appreciate and utilize the
school.
This bring us to the third element of our system; the technical
school after some practical training has opened the mind to its advantages, and protected it against misconceptions. This subject has
already been discussed.
To sum up the whole matter, let the student first survey the
ground, and then plan his structure; let him first observe that all socalled laws in physical and natural science are in constant process
of modification, as nature gradually reveals herself, and then he will
spare himself the mortification, and he will spare the public the damage, of trying to square nature to the book.
TUESDAY, JUNE 20TH.
THE PRESIDENT, DR. RAYMOND, called the meeting to order,
and introduced Mr. Boller.
MR. A. P. BOLLER, Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: The mere fact of our meeting here on this occasion, as practicing engineers, to discuss, out of our experience and
observation, the subject of " Technical Education," is sufficient evidence that technical schools fall short of accomplishing the objects
for which they have been instituted. Before giving, however, my
views upon the specific topics named for the discussion, I am constrained to state briefly my conceptions of the principles of education,
and in a measure the conditions limiting their application.
Education, in general terms, aims to discipline the mind in correct
methods of thought, through the study of the best fruits of human
experience and knowledge, and so to better fit the recipient for taking
part in the general struggle for existence. It has two principal divisions, viz., liberal education, or the education of culture, and spe



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                     83
cial education, which undertakes to select some one branch of knowledge, and pursuing that to the exclusion of all others, to make the
student valuable to that portion of society having need of such
special knowledge.  The former is preparatory, while the latter is
the culmination of educational training. In the one, knowledge is
secondary to mental discipline; in the other, mental discipline is
secondary to knowledge.
The " technical school" is a special school of comparatively recent
establishment, growing out of the demands of a peculiarly commercial
civilization, and is valuable to the community just in proportion to
the degree to which its graduates have mastered the facts and bearings of scientific observations, with their application to useful ends.
Thus far those under whom technical schools have been developed
have been to a great extent theorists in educational matters, and so
keeping their minds fixed on the abstract side of the question, have
lost sight of the realities of every-day life, and the limits imposed
by a very complex state of society.
An unquestioned difficulty in blocking out a satisfactory method
of technical study is the absence of any national system of progressive education, by means of which students may be brought to the
same plane of preparation for entrance to the technical schools —a
deficiency which will probably always exist in this country, owing to
the peculiar nature of our political institutions, and which must be
faced in any remodelling of methods that may be undertaken hereafter.
Theoretically, the technical school is highly practical; practically,
it is highly theoretical. A strong infusion of practical knowledge,
that is, the knowledge derived from observation and experiment,
with a corresponding reduction of pure theory, would serve the end
to be attained by a technical education much better than as now
conducted. It must ever be borne in mind that the office of the
technical school is not to produce scholars, professors, or mlathemlaticians. Beyond a certain point, theory, for the mass of students, is a
waste of precious time (particularly that region of theory built up
without fact or experiment), the limit being defined by the requirements of actual practice. Some few, and only a few, are capable of
absorbing the highest developments of mathematics or physics, and
such will follow the bent of their genius, curriculum or no curriculum. It is notorious, that as a rule, the tone of mind of that class
of students is such that they are illy fitted for business relations,
their natural calling being in the purely intellectual field of original




84                      DISCUSSIONS ON
research; and in this place they have a very important niche to fill
in the economy of divided labor.
The principle of divided labor in the operations of society is of
increasing importance yearly, and no technical scheme of education
can meet the wants it aspires to fill, without giving full weight to
this law.  There is, in these later days, too much to know in any one
branch of knowledge, for one mind to compass it wholly. There can
be no more Humboldts, and the day has long passed since the engineer was supposed to be equally capable in all departments of the
profession. Any one department is more than a life's study for the
best of us, and while it is right and proper to have a certain amount
of generalized information, eminence is attainable in only one or two
directions. It is as an expert in some one subdivision of professional
knowledge that the modern engineer makes his mark, whether as a
hydraulician, mechanician, a manager of mines or of railways.  In
the enthusiasm  of scientific devotees they are too apt to base all
methods and systems of instruction on the idea that the mass of students will pursue science for the sake of science. They forget that
the profession of the engineer partakes more of a business character
than any other, that it is anything else than an ornamental calling,
and that the civilization which has developed it is one of gain and
personal advancement.
There are almost insurmountable difficulties, such as attend no
other branch of special education, which present themselves when we
attempt to outline a complete system of technical education based
on practice or experimental research.  There is no way by means of
which students can be graduated engineers, in the same sense, for
example, that schools of medicine or of theology can graduate doctors
or parsons. The former have the adjuncts of the hospital and dissecting-room, while the latter, being schools simply of opinion and
dogma, require nothing beyond the teaching of men trained to transmit these special opinions and dogmas. To graduate technical students on relatively the same plane as is done by the schools of law,
medicine, and theology, has thus far been the ambition of the theorists who are responsible for the present system of technical education. This is shown by giving degrees instead of certificates at
graduation. It is not theory that, makes the engineer, but practice,
in the shop, in the field, or in the mine, and the difficulty of incorporating such practice in the curriculum of instruction appears to be
insurmountable, except, possibly, in some minor divisions of engineering study, such as surveying and minor geodetical operations.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    85
It has been suggested that the "shop" should in some way be
added to the regular course of instruction, either preliminary to, or
succeeding, the theoretical training, and Mr. Holley has even proposed, with some degree of enthusiasm, "to establish organized
schools in the various existing works." I have very little faith in
the accomplishment of such an adjunet, desirable though it be, at
least in any systematic manner.'There is no doubt that many
students, if so recommended, will avail themselves of opportunities
to enter the " shop" in an individual capacity as apprentices, but to
expect that any scheme can be devised to incorporate as a system,
the workshop idea in the curriculum of a technical school is, to my
mind, utterly out of the question.  Mr. Holley's recommendation,
persuasively as he puts it, is too dependent upon mercantile philanthropy, and involves a harmony of action between the schools and
the owners or managers of works hardly to be expected this side of
Utopia. There are two ways, however, in which the essential benefit
of shop association can be had by the schools, and they are either
to make a certain preliminary artisan or field training essential to
matriculation, or to require a certain amount of such experience after
graduation, as essential to a degree. The former course would seem
the natural inductive method, as the student would commence by
observing facts and phenomena, not only of material objects, but
regarding the methods and habits of men with whom he will have
so much to do. To a mind filled with the facts of nature, theories
founded thereon have a value of application and a depth of meaning
impossible to one who is purely book-prepared.  To observe first
and generalize afterward is the philosophy of modern progress and
discovery, and it would seem to be simply following that inductive
system in giving an affirmative answer to the first part of the first
proposition of Mr. Holley's circular.  There is, however, a serious
objection to such preliminary practical training in the mechanical
branches of engineering, and that is the moral effect upon youths at
probably their most impressionable age, associated as they must
more or less be with the rough working-man and mechanic. The
injury done to their character might outweigh any benefit they derived from the opportunity of practical observation.  If this objection is regarded of too serious a character to be overlooked, the
only alternative is a post-graduate practical course, for I throw out
of consideration the toy workshops of the schools themselves.  Mr.
HIolley is quite right when he says that a school of engineering practice, based upon faculty control, "can be nothing less than a vast




86                      DISCUSSIONS ON
and successful establishment for construction and operation in nearly
all the departments of engineering." That, of course, is impossible.
Many young men do substantially take a post-graduate course,
which might be made almost compulsory on all students, and thus
indirectly part of the school system, if degrees were withheld until
the student gave proof that his post-graduate experience was such as
to entitle him to be ranked as ani engineer. The present method of
graduating young men as full-fledged engineers is not only a perfect
farce, but it also gives the graduate a very erroneous idea of the profession he is about entering. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon
that the school cannot make an engineer, even if it crams him with
all the book learning of technics.  It can with perfect propriety give
a young man a certificate that he has had a certain training, but he
is entitled only to the term engineer when he has enough experience
in manufactures, mines, or public works to qualify him at least as
a capable assistant. The post-graduate system commends itself to
my judgment as the wisest one, not only on account of moral maturity of character that a student of the average graduating age is
expected to have, but also because the effect of a year or two of preliminary shop practice on the general run of boys would be fatal to
habits of study. The exceptionally bright and ambitious youth would
no doubt derive the immense advantage of the inductive system before referred to, and enter the school from the shop with a mind singularly well prepared for grasping the laws of scientific relations, but
the average boy is not inclined to study, is not particularly ambitious, and in all probability would not reach the school at all. Once
in the shop, he will in all probability conclude that he can get there
all he wants to carry him through the world, he gradually ceases to
study after hours, and so losing the habit, is satisfied, after his apprenticeship is finished, to take his stand in the broad phalanx of
the rule-of-thumb members of the profession; or, what is quite likely,
avenues of earning wages will be opened to him, and he may deem
it too much of a sacrifice to sever himself from such attractions.
Upon the second topic presented for our consideration, viz., the
connection of experts with technical schools, I have long held positive views. It seems to me an anomaly in technical education to
abandon its methods and direction to those who have either had no
experience in technics, or experience in a very limited degree. If
engineering is anything, it is a practical science; it is the " art of directing the forces of nature to the service of man," and being such,
it is the business of the schools undertaking to teach it, to show as




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                     87
far as possible how those forces are really controlled and applied, as
well as their nature and laws of operation. This last the mathematical and physical professors can do very well, but the former can
only be properly taught by the expert, familiar not only with principles but practice. If schools of law or of medicine cull their lecturers and teachers from those most skilled in the practice of their
respective specialties, how much more ought our engineering schools
to select for their chairs of applied science, men who have had experience as practicing engineers?
There are things, little things, perhaps, in themselves, but often
keynotes to the comprehension of a subject, that the books" cannot
treat of, and the professor who depends upon what the books say for
his practical teaching cannot appreciate their importance.  The
proper and feasible way, in my judgment, to incorporate the expert
idea in any technical systems, is in the form of lectures as part of any
given course, such lectures being confined purely to the engineering practice of, or the specialty of the lecturer, the lecturers not
to be part of the resident faculty, but practicing engineers, able to
devote a week or two in each term to an exposition of the methods
and operations of practical engineering. This can be done, too,
without trespassing upon all that is valuable in the theoretical portion of the technical course.'As now administered too much time
is given to abstract mathematics, and in some of the schools it is
carried to such an extent, that the student, if he is not utterly
befogged, becomes saturated with the idea that mathematics is the
Alpha and Omega of the engineer's profession, and that he is the best
engineer who is most expert in devising intricate formulne and mathematical transformations.  This is the natural result of what may be
called the engineering of the schoolmaster, who tells us that the
mental discipline and logical methods engendered by extreme theory
are of immense importance to a young mall desirous of practicing the
profession of the engineer, and that the mathematical pathway is the
surest road to eminence and success. Now, regarding the first claim,
it elevates discipline at the expense of knowledge; as to the second,
it is so far from being a sure road to engineering success as to be
almost an educator of blunders, by giving a fictitious importance to
the value of purely theoretical deductions.  Engineering, having to
do with natural facts and phenomena of ever-changing characters,
must generalize knowledge from experiment and from the laboratory, and not from the hypothesis of mathematics. I do not wish
to be understood as despising theory, but the conditions of practical




88                     DISCUSSIONS ON
life are such that to the average student, beyond a certain training
in elementary principles, theoretical discipline is a waste of valuable
time that could serviceably be spent in the accumulation of practical
experiences and the observation of phenomena. In my preceding
remarks I have not touched upon the matter of general culture,
which I hold to be important to the success of the. engineer, and I
heartily indorse all that Professor Raymond has said upon the subject. I would say, in conclusion, that I look for any modification of
the present system of technical education in the direction of a reduction of the amount of theoretical instruction, the introduction of a
system of expert lecturers, a systematic study of experiments and
their bearings, and the withholding of degrees until a student has
qualified himself by a course of post-graduate experience. As to
general culture, it should form part of the matriculation requirements,
and not be attempted directly in the technical curriculum. The extent of this culture is to be as broad as possible, equal to that of the
average college or high-school graduate.
Beyond the directions here indicated, I do not believe that the
technical schools of the country will find it practicable to modify
their systems and courses of instruction.
THE CHAIRMAN.-A gentleman, who I am sorry to say has been
obliged to leave us to-day, Prof. Cook, the State Geologist of New
Jersey, and the head of a very efficient though not very extensive
school in Rutgers College, who began life as a practical engineer,
and has been more or less in that work ever since, mentioned to me
before leaving, his regret that he had not spoken last night, for the
sake of bringing forward something that had engaged his attention
for twenty years, and that seemed to me, as to him, to be one of the
most immediately practical steps towards a needed reform. If Prof.
Cook had remained, he would have been pleased to find in the paper
just read, a forcible presentation of the point in which he was so
much interested, that is, that the granting of degrees to civil and
mining engineers should be made to depend upon their post-graduate
course, and that the degree upon graduation from the school should
be simply that of Bachelor of Science. That is almost exactly the
idea Mr. Boller has brought forward. I will now call upon Mr.
Coxe, of Drifton, Pa.
MR. ECKLEY B. COXE, Member of the American Institute of Mlining Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I have been asked to give my views upon the




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    89
subject of Technical Education with special reference to mining, and
although a member of the committee who prepared the programme
for the speakers, I think I shall follow the very sensible course of
most of the gentlemen who have preceded me, and ignore the aforesaid programme altogether.
One of the first questions that suggests itself when we begin to
reflect upon this subject is (as I stated at the Washington meeting
of the American Institute of Mining Engineers), "What is an engineer?" or "What do we wish to produce" when we submlit a boy
to the best system of technical education we are acquainted with?
The tendency to-day is to make the ordinary workman a specialist,
to teach him to do one thing well, or to work on one machine well,
and then to keep him at that for the rest of his life. In old times
a machinist, for example, worked at all sorts of jobs, and with every
tool in the shop, and thus became practically familiar with all the
details of the trade, and if he was a man of more than ordinary
ability and industry, he might rise to be foreman, and afterwards
director or engineer of the works.  But a man who works all
his life at one machine only, will undoubtedly become very skilful
at that sort of labor, but will not be likely to acquire such knowledge as would fit him for the position of foreman. The fact that all
the workmen are specialists, requires a higher grade of instruction
and intelligence in the foreman. The workmen do not and cannot
think for themselves; they must do exactly what is set before them,
without any regard to what is to become of the work when done.
Now the foreman should be a man well up in the theory and practice of the construction of machines, and he should have first-class
theoretical training, and also first-class shop training upon all the
machines and at all kinds of work; in other words, he should be an
engineer, a man who understands theoretically and practically the
laying out and carrying on of work; one who, when he has made
the plan of a machine, a bridge, a furnace or a breaker, knows if it
can be built or not, and how to direct the men who do the work.
To obtain such men shop training is necessary, and the number that
will be wanted is increasing. It seems to me that the standard of
work is higher than formerly. Then the only requisite for a bridge
or machine was, that it should be strong enough to do the work required, or to resist the strain to which it was to be subjected; now it
must be constructed not only with a view to proper strength, and
distribution of material, and adaptability to the work it is to per



90                     DISCUSSIONS ON
form, but also with due regard to its appearance. Great ugly masses
of iron without architectural effect are no longer tolerated.
This requires a certain amount of esthetic culture in the engineer; for that reason I fully concur in the opinions which have been
expressed as to the importance of giving a liberal education to the
student of engineering before he commences his technical studies.
We all agree that a thorough general education should be given to
a young man before he enters the shop, and the only question is,
should shop work precede, accompany, or follow the theoretical
studies?
My own opinion is, that a year's training in a machine shop, previous to entering upon his purely technical studies, is of the first
importance to any young man about entering any branch of the
engineering profession, provided he has had drilled into him, in his
liberal education, enough of the fundamental laws of nature to prevent him from being affected by the shop superstitions, as I may
call them; in other words, he should know that there is no effect
without a cause-that when a man tells him (in referring, for example, to a machine) "she works badly," "she takes fits of working," etc.,
he must understand by it that some part of the machine is out of
order, or not properly constructed. If the machine does not work
right, it is because some man has not done or is not doing right.
I remember when I was about twelve or thirteen years old I tried
to construct perpetual motion. It was very simple. I made a small
water-wheel, and attached a very primitive pump to it. The pump
was to raise the water to run the wheel. I was totally ignorant of
the principle of the conservation of energy; if I had not been, I
should not, of course, have attempted any such absurdity. Had I
entered a shop in my state of mind at that time, I should have imbibed false ideas which it would have been difficult for me to free
myself from afterwards. These remarks apply with more force to
such complicated structures as furnaces. They are generally thought
of and spoken of by the workmen as living beings, subjected to fits
of good and ill-humor, instead of being simply large chemical apparatus.
I think it important for a young man to be thoroughly grounded
in the principles of mechanics, physics, chemistry, and mathematics,
so as to know what is possible, as well as what is impossible, before
beginning practical work. I find in the practice of my profession
that in many cases it is of very great use to me, to be able to say
decidedly, " It is no use to try to do that; it is physically and math



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    91
ematically impossible," and every engineer has suggestions made
to him which are physically and mathematically impossible. I do
not believe that the success of some of the most distinguished engineers can be adduced as a proof that one method of training is better
than another because they were trained in a certain way. What we
want is the best method for the greatest number of average minds.
We all know that such men as Watt and Stephenson would become
able engineers under any system of training.
There are others again of whom no system of education would
ever make engineers. The point is, to produce the best marketable
product with the available material. One of the gentlemen who
preceded me said that a boy when he went into a shop might like
the work, and prefer to remain and get good wages instead of going
back to school. No doubt we will often meet with such cases, but
I think the best thing that boy could do would be to stay in the
shop, for by taking him away we might make a poor engineer and
lose a good mechanic. I do not think the objects of our schools
should be to turn out the greatest quantity of engineers.
I now come to the point upon which I was requested to speak,
and I shall be brief: If a young man wants to study mining engineering, he can easily get a place about a mine where he call learn
much that will be of use to him afterwards, without interfering in
any way with the running of the works. Where there are corps
engaged in surveying the mines, if he is willing to work day or
night, where it is clean or where it is dirty, he will always be able
to get employment as a chain carrier, etc., for there are always in
the mining corps one or more men who are simple laborers, and a
willing young man of intelligence could always take the place of
such a person, and learn a very great deal, not only about the
methods of surveying, but also about the way in which the works are
laid out and carried on. If the young man has a certain amount of
knowledge of drafting, trigonometry, etc., he can also make himself
useful in plotting and calculating the surveys, and he would, of
course, learn much more himself.
I think, however, as I said before, that at least a year's training
in a machine shop is of the first importance for all students of engineering, mining engineering included. A thorough knowledge of
machinery is of the greatest use to the mining engineer, whether he
be located near to or far from machine shops.
I have always regretted that I did not work longer myself in a




92                     DISCUSSIONS ON
machine shop. There is no trade requiring such familiarity with
accuracy of measurement. The intimate contact with the workmen
gives the student a knowledge of their ideas, feelings, and ways of
thinking, which will be of great benefit to him when he conies to
have men under him.
If I were asked to advise a young man wvho had received a liberal
education, and who wished to make himself as useful a mining engineer as possible, as to his course of study, I would tell himn:
1st. Work a year in the machine shop, foundry, drawing-room,
or blacksmith shop of a small shop doing general work in the milling region, before beginning your technical studies.
2d. While at the shop try to learn something about the mines in
the neighborhood.
3d. During your time of study see such shops and works as you
can, and spend one or two of your vacations in the corps of some
mining engineer who makes surveys and does other mining engineering work.
4th. Study bookkeeping, and try to learn while in the corps, how
the books and accounts are kept at the mines.
5th. When you graduate from the technical school, get a place, no
matter what, at some mine, and if you are of the right kind of stuff,
you will soon rise to be a really USEFUL mining engineer.
6th. Never despise theory or practice; both are equally important.
Always try to know how to do a thing, and WHY.
7th. Try to make engineering a profession, not a trade-a thing
to live for, as well as by-and do not let yourself get rusty even in
those branches which do not seem to be of use to you in your
business.
MR. WILLIAM P. SHINN, Member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers and of the American Institute of Mlining Engineers.
MIR. CHAIRMAN: The special requisites in the education of the
engineer, to which I shall refer, may not be considered "technical"
by many, but their importance has been demonstrated to my mind
in the course of my experience, and I call attention to them because
they do not appear to be considered by professional educators as
among the requisites, and because while other parts of this discussion will be committed to or assumed by persons far abler than
myself, these particular branches of education are not so likely to
receive the attention whiclh, in my opinion, they merit.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                     93
I refer to, 1st, the science of accounts, and 2d, business forms and
principles.
"Accounts" are, or should be, to the engineer, what history is to
the statesman, the record of progress in a financial sense as history
is in a political sense; and in many cases the chart indicating the
shoals and quicksands to be avoided, the channels and roads to be
followed.
" Business forms and principles" are as necessary to be understood
by the engineer as by the lawyer, although they are not considered
as forming part of the "technical" education of either.
Many engineers, civil engineers in particular, are so situated when
in charge of important works as to be obliged to exercise functions
both executive and administrative, and even sometimes and in some
sense judicial. Like the captain of a ship, the engineer has frequently to be "a law unto himself."
Lack of knowledge of these forms and principles lead to many
embarrassments and frequently to pecuniary losses. I have known
an engineer of sufficient experience to have had charge of construction of an important division of railroad twenty or more miles in
length, who, when the railroad company failed to pay its contractors and men, gave and accepted orders in favor of merchants, of
which he kept no record, so that when the men, who were settled
with before the merchants, got their pay, they were paid in several
cases without deduction of the amounts of their orders, which orders
having been accepted by an authorized agent of the company had
to be recognized and settled, the amounts being a loss to the company.
The forms and general principles governing the law of contracts,
ought to be understood in at least a general way by every engineer.
His business is largely carried on through the medium of contracts,
and the loose manner as to form, and indefiniteness as to understanding, in which agreements are often made by engineers, are the
causes of many losses to, and much litigation with, their employers.
" We will make it right," is an expression very frequently used
by engineers towards contractors in relation to claims for "extras,"
or alterations in plans, but with no definition of what is " right," it
is scarcely to be wondered at that after the work is done, the parties
can seldom agree as to the compensation.  Such expressions are not
businesslike; much less are they professional. Engineers should be
men of precision; their technical education all teaches the value, nay,
the necessity, of precision in measurements and in calculations, and it




94                      DISCUSSIONS ON
should alike extend to their commercial transactions, to their business expressions.
But it is in the matter of "accounts" that many engineers fail
most completely. More engineering works are financial titan physical
failures. How rarely is it that the cost of a work of any magnitude
falls within, or even approximates, the estimate made before it was
commenced. A notable instance to the contrary was the Croton
aqueduct in its original construction, the cost of which (approximating ten millions of dollars), fell within less than one per cent. of Mr.
Jervis's original estimate. How frequently, on the other hand, could
the projectors know the actual cost in advance, would they have declined to make the investment.  So universal is this experience that
it has brought actual and merited discredit upon the name of " engineer." Why is this the fact? Partly because engineers are not
precise, but mainly because they do not keep "accounts" worthy of
the name. If they and their predecessors had kept strict and rigid
accounts, properly classified, of all expenditures upon similar works,
they would have had records which would have been a guide for
estimating the cost of future undertakings of the same character.
But the so-called "science of accounts" (for it is after all only a
pseudo science) appears to be a "bugbear" to engineers generally,
and yet nothing is more easily understood if the engineer will only
bestow upon it that attention and give its principles that analysis
which he so constantly is compelled to use in the line of his profession.
Early in my professional experience I heard an eminent civil
engineer, then in charge of the construction of an important railway, say with satisfaction, if not with pride, "I have nothing to do
with the finances or accounts." Yet he was the only man in the
general management with any experience or technical education in
regard to railroads. What wonder, then, that the road, estimated
to cost about two million dollars, cost between four and five millions; or, that its accounts intrusted to unprofessional hands and
without intelligent supervision, fell into confusion, and that the company after paying dividends for four or five years defaulted in its
bonds in the next two years and had to be "reorganized?"
Another eminent railroad man, himself a graduate of West Point,
used to declare that " accounts are an invention of the devil to cheat
people with!"
The principle governing " bookkeeping," as it is technically called,
is as simple as it is universal, and every engineer can and should




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    95
understand it thoroughly. But accounts in general are not bookkeeping in form, but rather in the form of records or abstracts, and
it is in this form that they are most valuable to the engineer. In
this form records can be kept which are not only valuable as showing where the money went, but they serve as beacons to warn the
capitalist from too costly undertakings, and as guides to the engineer
for estimating and constructing, and to some extent thus enable him to
get at a measure of economy in the prosecution of his works. Such
records, it is almost needless to say, are rare in this country. In an
experience of over twenty-five years with public and private works,
and an observation extending over many enterprises in the management of which I had no part, I have found such records to be the
rarest exception.
Until this is reversed, until engineers are taught that they are
responsible for economy in cost of construction, that economy cannot be attained without rigid accountability, that responsibility
cannot be located without adequate accounts and records, and that
it is the engineer's business to direct and supervise their keepinguntil this condition of things is reached, we shall look in vain for
that confidence in engineers' estimates and in the economy with which
works have been constructed, to which the profession should be
entitled.
PROF. THOMAS EGLESTON, Member of the American Institute of
Mining Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: It is certainly remarkable that among all speakers on the subject of Technical Education, there should have been
but one opinion with regard to the necessity of previous culture
before entering a technical school. It is all the more remarkable
that the idea should be so prominent in the minds of so many engineers, when the practice seems to be to introduce young men to professional schools as rapidly as possible, without much previous culture. The highest possible previous culture seems to me to be an
indispensable requisite. In the technical school the student has very
little time to acquire anything but what strictly belongs to his education there. It is true that the amount of discipline which he
gains from thorough training in the different branches of engineering will be of service to him, but he needs culture before he enters,
for culture implies habits of thought, and no person needs these
habits more than the student in the technical school. We are all of
us creatures of habit, and it is therefore necessary that we should




96                      DISCUSSIONS ON
not only form habits of doing right, but also of thinking right.
Such habits as these must be acquired before the profession is entered, and should be before the technical education is commenced.
Once in practice, there is no profession in which the necessity to
have a correct judgment, and to act on it quickly, to think, and to
think rapidly, is more imperative. Accidents are constantly occurring about the mines and furnaces which require instantaneous decision, and therefore the exercise of immediate judgment. If the early
habits have been right, the engineer will think right from habit. If
he has been accurate as a student, he will probably be accurate as a
man, and for that reason he should have not only the highest possible preliminary education before he enters the technical school, but
the very best after he enters it, and this education should include
the higher mathematics, as being one of the essential means of learning to think accurately. I have been censured in my professional
chair for demanding and exacting of the student the attainment
of a thorough knowledge of the higher mathematics, but I have
done so on the ground, not that he will in ordinary cases be called
upon in practice to work out difficult problems, but that the mental
discipline and the correct methods of reasoning which are given by
thorough familiarity with mathernatics, imply the likelihood of correct methods of reasoning and accurate judgment in other things.
We are very apt to think that the man who has learned the most
is therefore the best educated and most learned man. It is sometimes sai(l of men that they have forgotten more than their neighbors ever knew, as if this was a credit to the one or a discredit to
the other. The best educated man is not necessarily the one who
has learned the most, but the one who has his knowledge thoroughly
classified, not overcharged with detail, but the detail so arranged
that he knowvs where to find it when he wants it. The study of
mathematics, when properly pursued, with other branches, gives
such power of classification, that, even though it was to be little used
as a sign language, it would be a valuable part of technical education
for this reason alone.
Besides mathematics he should be able to use with a certain
degree of facility at least two modern languages besides his own.
If he can learn but one, it should be German, as being the one
in which the greatest number of engineering works are now published by men willing to devote their lives to specialties, and in
which an inexhaustible fund of information exists. If he can learn




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    97
two, the second should be French, as being the key to what.w-as formerly done, and to what will probably be done again in engineering
science. The acquisition of at least one modern language is almost
an indispensable requisite to success. More important than either
of these is the sign language, drawing. He should become as far as
possible an artist in both fiee-hand and mechanical drawing, for, as
a master of his pencil, he will be able to communicate his own ideas
with his fingers, and to understand those of others which could not
perhaps be readily expressed in words. I do not think that sufficient importance has been given to drawing as a means of expressing thought in our system of education. There is too much drawing
done from models which is absolutely necessary to the beginner,
but we do not require the student often enough to express his own
thoughts by a drawing, just as he would be called on to express them
in words. This could be accomplished in the same time that is now
devoted to it, but would require a different system of instruction.
Dr. Raymond remarked at the Washington meeting that we had
taken from the German university system everything except the
time it takes, which is lamentably true. In this age and in this
exciting climate we live in a hurry, we work in a hurry, and die in
a hurry. We commence too young, enter our preparatory schools
and colleges with too little preliminary training, and before we are
physically and mentally able to comprehend what we are taught.
Our high standard then, if premature, becomes simply a forcing system, and until we can -do away with it, we make engineers on the
principle of the survival of the fittest. It is no wonder that so
many young men give out before they leave the intellectual hothouse, or occupy a medium position after they have left it.
It is undoubtedly true that all our technical schools would be in a
much better condition if a part of the school course was thrown into
the requirements for admission, and the age required for entrance
advanced. I think that every faculty would be unanimous in this
respect, and would consider that there would be a great gain in
detaching from the course proper all of what must be considered
purely preparatory work, and supplement it with advanced studies.
This would have the effect to diminish the number of students, but
to raise the grade of instruction. The opposition to this course
would come neither from the young men nor the parents, but from the
boards of trustees, who are apt to consider that the number of students in an institution is the chief if not the only real criterion of its
success, while those of us who are engaged in education know per7




98                     DISCUSSIONS ON
fectly well that numbers, instead of being necessarily a sign of power,
may be a decided indication of weakness, though not necessarily so.
Every faculty would agree with me, I think, in saying that it is far
better to graduate one first-class man a year, than to graduate twenty
indifferent ones. Unfortunately, there are but few institutions with
endowments sufficient to feel justified in pursuing such a method,
and fewer still who could divest themselves of the idea that numbers
are in some way the best evidence of success. There may be no lack
of ability, but to make up the average we often dilute that of a high
order in order to keep up the lower grade. It is no just criterion to
look at the expense per capita if five men of a high order were turned
out where fifty of a lower grade might be. As a matter of arithmetic
the expense is greater for the five, but as a matter of political economy
it is really less.
The training of the schools should be such as to teach the young
engineer how to acquire not only judgment, but as far as possible an
independent one. This I believe to be one of the distinguishing
characteristics of American technical education, while in some countries in Europe exactly the contrary is true, and the best reason that
a young engineer can give is, frequently, " My chief told me so."
No profession requires more judgment than that of a mining engineer. We have constantly something to do, and that something involves either life, present or future safety, present or future capital.
The same problem rarely ever presents itself twice in the same way,
and if the preliminary training has been such that we have acquired
correct habits of thought, we probably shall carry the same into our
profession, or at least be able to find out and correct errors before
they have done harm. Mere facts are of very little use to the engineer of mines. We want not so much the facts, as the conclusions
which are to be drawn from them, and since the data are rarely ever
the same, we must act upon conclusions.
Dr. Wedding has hit the keynote of the whole subject. He wants
his students to be able to settle at about thirty, and our students
want to settle at about twenty-two. It is very true that, according
to the old proverb, late marriages make early orphans, but it is also
true that the average man has not acquired, or cannot have acquired,
at the age of twenty-two or three, judgment or experience sufficient
to justify capitalists in putting him in such positions as would enable him to settle and marry.
Many young men are in a hurry to complete their education,
owing to lack of necessary means to prolong it, and the necessity




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   99
of commencing or being compelled to earn their living in some
other way than the occupation of their choice, is often the reason
why they commence prematurely. They feel, and with some show
of right, that, in order to be established in their profession by
middle-life, they must commence early. While this desire to hurry
has been in some respects a disadvantage, it has been in others a real
benefit to us. As a nation we are now just one hundred years old.
The political necessities of the case demanded that our organization as
a nation should be made in a hurry, and since we started in that hurry,
what have we accomplished? There are but few nations in Europe
who have as much to show in the same period. We have had no
time to deliberate, for in many cases if we had taken time to deliberate, we should have taken still further time, and not made a move.
Ten years ago we crossed this continent in stage coaches, a trip
which cost three months after leaving the rail. We have recently
accomplished that same distance by rail in eighty-eight hours. I
had the good fortune to be present at the commencement of that
road, and to see the first laying of one mile of track in a day.
They were indeed in a hurry, but it was an organized and therefore a successful hurry. I think it may be said that where we fail,
it is for the want of organization of this hurry. It may be said
that, as a result of this method, many things that we have accomplished could have been better done, to which we may reply, that
the necessities of the case have almost always been such, that, if
what has been done had not been accomplished in this way, it
would never have been accomplished at all, and therefore, even by
imperfectly doing what might have been better done, if the element
of time had not been that of which we had the least, we have not
only benefited the present but the future.
It has been urged by many persons as a reason why the student
should enter early upon his professional career, that education unfits
a man for work if continued after a certain period of time, to which
we can only reply that any system of education which unfits a man
for work, or leads a man to despise or even to look down upon it, is
a system which is fundamentally wrong. Labor is one bf the best
gifts of God. The man who is afraid to dirty his hands has mistaken his profession, and should be made to feel that he is out
of his place and mistaken his calling. I had an apt illustration
of this in my early professional experience, when four persons
were selected from a prize examination to enter upon some difficult work requiring ability, judgment, and some little dirty work.




100                     DISCUSSIONS ON
Their expenses were to be paid, but there was no other pecuniary reward; the honor of solving, or being selected to solve, the
problem being considered by us all as a sufficient reward. Their
intellectual merit was about equal; but when it came to the question
of dirtying their hands, one of them presented himself in gloves,
patent-leather shoes, and declined to put his hands into the dirt. As
I look back after ten years upon the course of these men, I find that
the one who was afraid to dirty his hands became disappointed, and
left the profession shortly after he entered it, as it was evident that
he had mistaken his vocation. The other three occupy distinguished
positions in the profession.
One serious difficulty with students or young graduates is that
when they enter the works they feel themselves to be the superiors
of the workmen, and they are apt to patronize them, which the
workmen resent. No one knows better than the workman that the
student directly from the technical school, though he has the title,
is rarely ever an engineer. He has simply acquired the a b c, and
is ready to commence to learn to be an engineer. IIe has to learn
what the workman is doing, and why he does it. The intellectual,
and perhaps the social, superiority, the workman might be willing
to admit, but he knows that the young man is entirely incapable
of doing what he can do with ease, and therefore feels himself
his superior, and he is right.  We never cease to admire the skill
of a good workman. He is a real artist who has learned from
long experience to seize with the nicety of exactness the instant
both of the commencement and end of reactions and changes which
are entirely inappreciable to any but his educated eye. He has
learned this from years of toil, and labor, and though lie might
not be able to explain them, he can always perform them with precision, while the student, if he has learned the reasons, is not able
either to do the manual work or to (listinguish between the different
parts of a process. Any yolung man fresh from the schools who
looks down on the working-man has a totally false idea of his own
and the working-man's place. The two occupy a totally different
position. The student can learn, and learn rapidly, all that the
workman knows, and when this has been done, no one is more ready
than the workmen themselves to acknowledge his superiority, and
to sit at the feet of the very man whom but a short time before they
looked down upon as an inferior. It is therefore a serious mistake
for young men who wish to study to place such an antagonism between themselves and their teachers for the time being, as to prevent




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   101
their acquiring the information by placing an unnecessary barrier
between the workmen and themselves.
There is one thing which it seems to me eminently desirable that
we should introduce into our instruction, and that is the economics
of the profession. It has been my own habit ever since I first commenced to teach to consider the cost of a process as the subject about
which the most detail should be given, and to which the greater
part of the instruction should be devoted. I have therefore made
this the framework of my instruction, and have considered the theory
of the process as the means of illustrating why the cost should be
in certain cases greater or less. It has been my habit to define metallurgy as the art of making money out of ores, and to announce
at the very outset of the course, that an ore was a material sufficiently pure and rich to allow of the metal being extracted from it with
profit. By insisting that an ore is not an abstract thing, but that it
represents labor and the value of the material used to get it, it becomes in the minds of the young men a concrete thing. They see
at once that its value depends upon its being worth more than is
spent upon it, and that if it is only worth what it costs to get it,
there is no profit in working it. By introducing at every step the
cost of that part of the process in labor, materials, tools, wear and
tear, interest on capital, etc., and by familiarizing them with samples
of schedules for keeping tally, and account books for keeping the
costs, they become thoroughly familiarized with the idea that a process is good or bad according as the balance is on the right or wrong
side of the ledger, no matter how tempting it may look on paper.
They thus learn that an engineer who neglects to know how and
when he is gaining or losing money is to be blamed. In order to
still further keep the commercial bearing before them, as well as
the theoretical, and to teach them how to distinguish between the
right and wrong side of the ledger, they are required before they
graduate to execute a project which is given them in a strictly
commercial sense, and which they must execute in both a theoretical
and a commercial manner, by giving the theoretical reasons for its
adoption, and estimates giving the cost in detail not only of the constructions, machines, etc., but of every step of the work in detail. It
is a very rare thing that such a project worked out by a student can
be executed, but this is not the design. The object is to keep them
familiar in every stage with the fact that no work can be done, no
time or labor employed, and no material used, without involving
capital and the interest upon it, wear and tear of machinery and




102                    DISCUSSIONS ON
tools, and that they are, therefore, to look upon the scientific exposition of their profession not as a mere matter of theory alone, but as
the combination of both theory and practice, which requires the scientific union of both, which can only be had in men educated
in this way. Men so trained, brought into metallurgical works,
have proved themselves to be worth a salary as they enter, and have
shown themselves capable of rising in their profession with a minimum amount of cost to their employers.
In this age every man expects and is expected to make money.
Every young man commencing has always in view a fortune, more
or less large, amassed in a time more or less short. The first question of the father when he chooses an employment for his son, or
his son selects one for himself, is, Will this or that profession enable
him to become a rich man?  No man expects to be one of the thousands of the unsuccessful, yet there are times in life, and there are
commercial conditions, when losses are inevitable, and by making
these losses an object of thought, and keeping them in the minds of
young men, teaching them that certain processes and principles, if
placed in practice under certain conditions, must inevitably bring
about a loss when under different conditions they might yield a
profit, I think we shall have accomplished an important point, by
familiarizing men with the idea of loss. If the incipient engineer is
taught that there are times, like the present, for instance, when the
dominant question is, not how much profit we can make, but how
little loss, we shall get rid to some extent of this idea of gain, and
add an impediment to the idea being received that the generality of
mankind can make money by other means than by working for it,
and not always then.
The graduate must also enter the profession thoroughly convinced
that he is not an engineer, though he may have the title, but that
he has in his education the means of becoming one.
Above all things his education should teach the young engineer
that honesty is not only the best policy, but an absolutely indispensable criterion to success. Every young man gains his experience more or less at the expense of his employer. What is produced
is in his charge. It represents in a great many cases, besides the
capital engaged in it, the wear and tear of human life. If he is
strictly honest with himself he will understand that upon his endeavors are based the happiness and prosperity, and in some cases
even the lives, of many a family, and often the interests and fortunes of his employers. It requires in a great many cases more




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                  103
than ordinary courage to say he does not know the answer to a question, but will study it, and not try to improvise, when he should say
that he requires to study. It is one of the mistakes of both employers and engineers to think that, because a man has a diploma, he
must therefore be an encyclopedia, and the anomaly of the thing is,
that this knowledge is demanded only of young men just entering
the profession. No man would ask a distinguished engineer long in
practice to solve a difficult problem on the spur of the moment. The
engineer needs time to study and consider, and the employer demands
that he shall take that time, but although in the case of the student
the same interests are not involved in so great a degree, they are in
a less, and the rule in a great many cases is not made to apply, but
the young men are asked and expected to answer questions at once
which can only be answered conscientiously after a more or less long
study.
Every man who is an earnest worker makes mistakes. The man
who makes no mistakes is free from them because he does no work.
The wise engineer will always endeavor to find out what these mistakes are, and correct them before they have done any harm.
There can be no doubt that theory and practice should go
hand in hand. It seems to me, judging from my own experience,
and that of a large number of engineers, both in this country and
abroad, with whose experience I am familiar, that the practical
course, which we all consider to be absolutely indispensable, should
follow the theory, that while the theory is being acquired, the student should see, as far as possible, the processes or machines which
are being described, and the theory of which he is learning developed in practice, so that he may have some idea of what the process
or machine is, without perhaps being familiar with it in all its details, then when the theoretical knowledge and the power to think
correctly has been acquired, the practical course should commence.
I do not understand by this practical course that the student should
undertake, or should be expected to undertake, the work of a full
shift. Very few students have the physique to do it, but they can
work a turn, or a part of a turn, a phase, or a part of a phase, of an
operation or process, so that with three or two, or perhaps no hours
at all of manual labor a day, they may in a time more or less short
become perfectly familiar with what they have learned theoretically.
If there is not sufficient physique, a great deal can be accomplished
by watching the workmen, and hearing them discuss, and learning
to sift what is really good from what is useless in their conversation.




104                    DISCUSSIONS ON
More is often learned in this way by observation than by actual
work, and though there is no doubt a great influence to be gained
over him by the muscular power of doing all that the workman
does, and in setting him right when he exerts that power to bad
advantage, it is doubtful whether the result is really worth the time
which the young engineer must take to achieve it. We should not
lose sight of the fact that what is needed in this case is not brute
force to work, but the acquisition of a correct judgment, which is
gained mostly by ear and eye education. Theory, without this ear,
eye, and perhaps hand practice, except in cases of real genius, can
never be expected to produce good results, and practice without
theory is very much like endeavoring to do good work with poor
tools. An artist can do it, and none but an artist can, but the world
at large cannot depend upon artists, for genius is apt to be erratic
and unpractical, and while it is undoubtedly true that the larger
part of the workmen who execute the very intricate and elaborate
practice of our best engineering and metallurgical works have very
little idea of the theory of the process upon which their practice is
based, it is also true that many of them have become practical artists, and have almost made their trade a profession, but they have
taken years to learn by routine what an educated man will acquire
in a short time. No one knows better than a man of education that
he cannot always believe what he sees. He has learned it in physics, from the phenomena of persistent vision, and no one knows
better than he does that he must learn to distinguish between what
really is and what he thinks he sees, while an uneducated man
thinks that if he cannot believe his eyes there is nothing to be
believed..
There is a phase of technical education which I have never seen
carried out anywhere except in Krupp's works, but which I believe
to be practiced in some of the large works of France, and which applies only to those works where there are a large number of engineers associated together. At these works a council of all the engineers of the establishment under the president, Mr. Krupp, is held
at stated times. The problems to be worked out are there discussed,
and the executive officers for their solution appointed. Besides this
the younger members of the corps meet frequently to discuss problemns. Whenever anything new comes up which requires experiment, a certain amount of funds is devoted to that purpose by the
works, and the experiments are made under the immediate supervision of those whose business it is to carry them out, but with the




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   105
active co-operation of all the engineers of the works. It is not
wonderful that with such a technical school as this, established in
the works, the works themselves and their proprietors have achieved
such a reputation. I consider this establishment a permanent and
irrefutable argument against the opposition of owners of works in
general to allow young men to take practical courses in their works.
We have besides in our own midst another answer to it, which is the
general practice of the Bessemer steel works of this country. I am
quite certain that but for this wise policy the American Bessemer
plant could never have increased its product to such an extraordinary
extent. I can understand perfectly that owners of works should
object, and I should object as well as they, to young men standing
idle round the works, often in the way of the workmen, asking questions that cannot be answered, or that would require long study to
answer, with no intention of making any use of it except to perhaps
retail the information at secondhand; but this is not the case we
have in view.
One of the objects of this discussion is to ascertain whether in the
minds of experts a practical course before or after graduation is desirable, and whether in the interests of the owners of works it is practicable. My own opinion, based upon nearly twenty years' experience, is
that it is more desirable afterwards, and that it is really the interest of
the works to have such a course carried on; but carried on in such a
way that the young men shall study, and be required to show some
fruits of their study, instead of being allowed to go around in the
works at their will, and ply the engineers or workmen with questions.
Such a practical course as this could be carried on with no trouble to
the works under the supervision of the engineers, and I can readily
conceive might become a source of real pleasure to the engineers in
charge, and of profit to the works, for no student not anxious to learn
would ever think of undergoing such fatigue and labor as would be
necessary to gain the information sought. The engineer in charge
would be surrounded by young men eager to learn, and ready to attempt the solution of any problem presented. The only inconvenience
I can conceive would be that the engineers in charge of the young men,
would be obliged to be extra-cautious in advancing theories or in making statements. It is certain that such a system, if adopted, would very
soon train a class of engineers which are not now to be had, except
in some few rare instances, like that of our honored President, who,
by practice, has become so familiar with his profession as to feel in
his own body when anything was wrong, or likely to be wrong.  I




106                    DISCUSSIONS ON
am quite certain that if the managers of works can be brought to see
how much for their interest it is to have educated young men, eager
to learn, around their works, we should soon have upon the stage a
class of engineers who would, by careful study of theory and practice, in the course of a short time suggest such changes as would not
only diminish the cost of production, but increase the product. If
such places were made the reward for high attainments in the technical schools, and were coupled with a system resembling that of
the English university fellowship, we should soon have young men
studying in the works at home and abroad, all those intricate problems
which the necessities of the case force individual countries to develop.
It would not be a great many years before the reflex action of such
study would be felt by the manufacturers themselves. There is
a groping more or less in the dark for such a system in literature,
and to a very limited extent in science, in some of our colleges; but
it fails of any great influence because as yet it is aimless, beyond the
attainment of a certain amount of information, and because the
privileges of the provision last too short a time. I have been
endeavoring to introduce it into professional engineering for some
years with great success, but without much financial support. Some
few able young men of wealthy parents have followed it under my
direction most successfully, but no system can be regarded as a real
benefit where the application of it is based on the accident of wealth.
We need endowed positions like the fellowships in the English
universities, which will allow the student who has won the position
to pursue, either at home or abroad, a system of post-graduate study
of those branches which the circumstances of the case has made
specialties in certain countries, or to undertake under competent
direction, investigations which require time, and which could not
ordinarily be undertaken except under some such conditions. There
are multitudes of such investigations in the profession which are waiting, because the necessity of making them now is not apparent to
the manufacturer, or because no one works could undertake the expense. In support of the proposition I can point not only to what
the English fellowship system has done for literature, theology, and
philosophy, but also to what the Swedish iron comptoir has done for
metallurgical science, not only for Sweden but for the world. It is
very doubtful whether but for this institution the Bessemer and
many other processes would not have been declared failures. It has
supported and maintained investigation, theoretical and practical,




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   107
which never could have been commenced but for the intelligent foresight of the managers of that body.
In this country it could not be expected that any such endowment
as that of the Swedish institution could be accumulated in a short
time, but our technical schools might easily establish a post-graduate
fellowship system, and it would not be very long under this influence before we should cease to hear of what cannot be done, and
regard every question as a problem to be solved, with, for the time
being, a plus or minus sign, which is susceptible of change under
varying commercial conditions.
MR. ROBERT W. HUNT, Member of the American Institute of
Mining Engineers.
1\R. CHAIRMAN: As has been observed by so many of the gentlemen who have preceded me, there has been a striking unanimity
of opinion as to the necessity of a good general culture, as well as a
practical education. All have seemed to agree on these two points.
The only difference of opinion so far in this discussion, as I understand it, is as to when that practical education should be obtained.
I think we are all governed in our judgments by personal experience, and it is, perhaps, for this reason that I have a strong predilection for placing the practical education before the thoroughly scientific one. Granting decidedly that, first of all, general culture is
very necessary, I believe that, so far as metallurgical engineering is
concerned, after the general culture should come the practical, then
the purely technical education. I cannot judge for the other branches
of the profession; I only speak of that of which I have some knowledge, and in which I have obtained some experience. I spent some
four or five years in practical iron manufacture before entering the
laboratory for a technical course, and the practical knowledge thereby
acquired gave me a standing in advance of other students.  I knew
what it was that I was seeking to investigate, and it seemed to me
that I arrived at some points quicker than other young gentlemen
around me who were possessed of larger natural ability. When it
devolved upon me to assume active duties and responsibilities, I
certainly was better qualified than if my ideas had first been moulded
by theory.
I agree'with Prof. Egleston, that a boy cannot be expected to work
as hard and produce the same results as a person of mature years"cannot be expected to work a full shift in any branch of labor."
It would be wrong for him to try to do so, for were he to exert him



108                    DISCUSSIONS ON
self to the full extent of his physical powers, his mind would not be
in a state to investigate the theory of what he had been doing.
But there is one point which we seem to be overlooking.  WVhere
is the student to find these practical schools, whether they come
before or after the technical schools? I freely confess that, as a
rule, proprietors of manufacturing establishments do not like to
have students in their works. While I believe this to be a mistake
in other branches, I know it is a mistake so far'as Bessemer works
are concerned. If the plan suggested during the first discussion of
this subject is to be carried out, that is, if the students are placed in
charge of a competent teacher, who is responsible to the manager of
the works, the establishment will be benefited. Owners will, I think,
soon begin to realize this, and thus schools will be furnished. I
hold that, as the student will report to his teacher what he sees and
hears, coming to him for explanation; and that, as the teacher reports to the manager, the works will have just that many more overseers. The workmen will realize this, and so fewer departures from
the desired practice will occur. The teacher will fully understand
the policy of the management. He will, so far as necessary, explain
this to his pupils, as well as the details of the works. While working with the men, students will observe all that occurs, and will ask
and answer questions, and, while they act as a kind of moral check
on the men, the men will be induced to think, and as soon as a man
gets to thinking he is started in the right direction. Then, on the
other hand, while the student is learning how to use his own hands,
he also learns how much one pair of hands can do, thus laying one
of the strongest foundations of success as a manager, viz., an accurate knowledge of how much to expect from  labor; and his own
physical man will be developed far better than by boating or other
such exercises.
If this practical study is left until after the young man finishes
his technical course, the danger is that neither he nor his parents
will be willing in most cases that further time shall be spent on his
education. The feeling will be, "Oh, the practice will come." So
it will, but at whose expense? And it will not come in time to guide
his theoretical studies.
No manufacturing process has made such wonderful progress as
the Bessemer, and its gigantic strides in this country have come from
breaking loose from old practices. This result has been to a large
extent brought about by introducing educated rmen into the works,
thereby creating an atmosphere of progress, a willingness and ability




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   109
to get out of the old ruts. They are men who possess, beside a general knowledge of metallurgy, a thorough knowledge of the special
branch; and they also have around them intelligent workmen.
I will cite the case of one Bessemer works, the one that is now
turning out the largest product in the world. Their manager is a
graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before assuming
any responsibilities after his graduation, he entered upon a regular
routine of work of some years' duration at the Troy Steel Works.
After this experience he entered upon the management of the works
with which he is now connected, and his career has been singularly
successful. I doubt if this result would have been reached if he
had taken a department even, of the management, immediately upon
leaving the scientific school, as so many graduates have attempted
or desired to do. So, while preferring that the practical course should
precede graduation, we find good results from the other plan. As
to the importance of both the practical and the theoretical education
before the student ventures to practice, we all seem to agree.
PROF. C. O. THOMPSON, Member qf the American Institute of
Mining Engineers.
Mn. PRESIDENT: I deem it a considerable privilege that the first
time I have the honor of addressing the members of this Institute,
the subject should be Education. For many years it has seemed to
me that the future of all the industrial arts is conditioned upon the
careful and philosophical unfolding of a system of technical education. What little I may contribute to this discussion, which has been
so ably maintained, shall be to this precise point. And perhaps it
will be useful to relate as briefly as possible, the results of an eight
years' experiment in technical education in the city of Worcester,
Massachusetts.  In this school the different ideas which have been
broached during this meeting have been subjected to a practical test,
and a recital of the results will accord with the spirit of this discussion.
It is somewhat natural that a school of technology should be established in the county of Worcester.  More than two hundred
years ago the first school of this sort in England was founded by the
Marquis of old Worcester. The population of its modern namesake
is one-half of one per cent. of the population of the United States,
while one per cent. of all inventions made in the United States is
accredited to citizens of this county.
It is an interesting fact also, that a citizen of Massachusetts, Dr.
Bigelow, is entitled to the honor of introducing the word technology;




110                    DISCUSSIONS ON
at least no earlier reference to its use is made in Worcester's Dictionary. Indeed the geographical position of Massachusetts, and her
dependence upon the prosperity of her varied arts and industries,
renders technology, in its broader and its narrower import, a subject
of great interest to her citizens.
Eight years ago I began to study this subject and to incorporate
the results in an actual course of training for boys who are to be engineers. In organizing this school we had little light to steer by.
All experiments hitherto made in this country, at least to combine
manual labor in any form, have not been largely successful. Hence
we have been compelled to move very slowly.
The Free Institute was founded by John Boynton, of Templeton,
a tinsmith, who desired that apprentices in the mechanic arts should
have a more intelligent preparation for their business. This endowment was largely increased by Stephen Salisbury, of Worcester,
a Harvard alumnus, who desired that theory and practice should go
hand in hand, and by Ichabod Washburn, founder of the Washburn
and Moen Manufacturing Company, who merged in this scheme a
cherished plan of his own for the education of mechanics' apprentices. Citizens of Worcester contributed money for the buildings and
the State made a grant of $50,000. The whole amount of the plant
is $600,000; the available annual income $25,000. The school is
free to Worcester County, substantially so to the State of Massachusetts, and open to all qualified applicants.
The theory of the Institute is that boys who have the best training afforded by our common schools may enter, not younger than
sixteen, upon a course of study which shall give them a good education based upon the mathematics, modern languages, and physical
sciences, and such a knowledge of some form of handicraft or industrial art as will enable them to earn a livelihood immediately after
graduating. The conditions of admission are fixed by the actual results of common school instruction rather than upon what ought to
be expected of it. For instance, we find few boys who really understand algebra well enough to use it as an instrument of research.
Many have been "through it," as the phrase is, but hesitate before
an__ n
such problems as, given,required to show that a perfect din  a required to show the sigifivision is possible, or given t =-., required to show the significance of each possible value of t, and how its value is affected by
changes in the other term. We find that the only sure and safe way




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                  111
is to teach algebra from the beginning. A knowledge of arithmetic, geography, history, and English grammar we take for
granted after examination. The course of study for all students
then proceeds, for forty-two weeks in a year, for three years, in mathematics, through geometry, general and descriptive geometry, and the
calculus, and blends with the course in physics and elementary mechanics, the careful reading of Rankine's Applied Mlechanics. Synchronous with this is a course of free-hand drawing, mechanical drawing, physics and chemistry, and language-the English and either
French or German. Lectures in geology are given, and the course
in chemistry includes determinative mineralogy. So much is taught
to every student in a three years' course.
iNow ten hours a week, and eight hours a day for the month of
July, each student practices according as he is to be a mechanic, a
civil engineer, a chemist, or a designer in the workshop, the field,
the laboratory or the drawing-room. But since the last named forms
of practice do not differ essentially from the same work elsewhere, I
will confine my remarks to the first.
The Washburn machine shop, part of the Institute, is a thoroughly
equipped manufacturing establishment. Boys who have had no mechanical training enter it in February and spend most of their time
there as apprentices till July, so that our mechanics' course is a half
year longer than the others, for absolute beginners. There are five
principles embodied in this shop:
1. Construction must vitalize and guide all Instruction in practical
mechanism. If a boy turns a wooden rod it must form part of some
structure, and if not found good enough, must be reproduced till it
is good enough. Whenever two pieces of wood or of iron are joined,
the resulting piece must be subjected to the absolute test of accuracy
which is imposed by the highest standards of manufactures. In this
particular our plan differs from that of the admirable schools at
Moscow and St. Petersburg, where separate attention is paid to construction; but for American boys I am sure there is good reason for
us to adhere, for the present at least, to the synthetic method. I was
unable to get access to these Russian schools in 1868, when examining European methods, and could take advantage of their interesting results only at the Vienna Exposition. Hence the methods are
fairly and simultaneously under experiment.
2. Practice must form a part of every week's work, in two periods
of five hours each.
3. Students must be taught by the most expert mechanics, and




112                    DISCUSSIONS ON
use the best possible tools and machinery. Nothing is too good for
a boy.
4. Students must not expect nor receive any immediate pecuniary
return for their work. It is impossible that the best men shall be
employed as instructors, the best machinery made and used, all subjected to business conditions, and a large number of apprentices
taught in small divisions, with any other return to the student than
the advantage of learning.
5. Since instruction and not construction is the main motive, each
student is advanced in the grade and quality of his work as fast as
his attainment permits.
The shop is thoroughly equipped with tools and machinery for
working wood and iron. The apprentices, that is, those who enter
in February, work wholly in the wood-room during shop hours,
and have training in drawing tell hours.a week. From the beginning of the junior year the students practice in the iron-room, learn
the management of the engine, and make working drawings of machines for use in the shop. We often receive at the beginning of
junior years young men who have already worked in a machineshop one, two, and even six years. These students are always numerous enough to enable us to compare the relative advantage to a
student of preliminary shop practice.
The shop is under the direction of a superintendent, a graduate of
the Chandler school, with six years of shop practice behind it, and two
foremen, one in wood work and one in iron. The force of journeymen varies from six to twenty according to the condition of business.  Certain standard machinists' tools are manufactured, viz.:
An engine lathe (described by Prof. Thurston in Johnson's Cyclopedia, vol. 2, Art. Lathe), a speed lathe and an emery grinder.  We
also make a draughtsman's stand and sets of models used in teaching drawing. These we have brought here to the Exhibition and
offer for examination in Machinery Hall, in order that you may see
that this Institute is not a school with a shop attachment. We
wish to find out in this most desirable and satisfying way, whether we
are really giving our students the best models of workmanship, and
illustrating the best American practice. I may also say here that
the whole scheme and plan of the Free Institute are on exhibition
in' the east gallery of the Main Building, and the valuable examination and criticism of the members of these Institutes of Engineers
are much desired.
To return a moment to the shop. It must be stated that in addi



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   113
tion to its standard manufactures, contract work is done, such as the
erection of hydraulic elevators, etc., with the intent to give increased
variety to the work. Some of the more palpable difficulties in the
business management of the shop are met by considering that the
whole plant is a gift and free from taxation; that the early work of
beginners does not involve a great waste of stock, and that, although students enjoy the advantage of doing all kinds of work
which are done in the shop, whatever is actually sold must satisfy a
rigid standard of excellence. I suppose we sell about $18,000 worth
annually. The profit on these sales together with the income of
the shop endowment fund of $50,000, enables us to meet all expenses. Or, if the total annual expenditure ill the shop be divided
by the number of students who work in it, the per capita is about
$120 a year.
LNow, I hope I have sufficiently emphasized the point that everything a boy makes in our shop is done with reference to some use.
He does not make joints merely as such, or file away a piece of iron
merely to learn the use of the file. He learns to make neat joints,
but they are parts of a box or of a model. He learns to file, but the
piece he files must fit into its place in the machine. So we try to
make construction direct, and to temper and strengthen instruction.
There is a certain proper and logical order of parts in the training
of a mechanic, and this is not lost sight of. In short, the graduate
of our school, with the practice I have outlined, we believe to be
able to hold his own in open competition with the apprentice who
has worked, under ordinary circumstances of apprenticeships, three
full years; experience so far confirms this view. Here, as always
when speaking of results, I desire to speak with great diffidence.
The results are those of six classes and eight years. They are alluded
to as grounds of our willingness to proceed with further experiments
in the same direction.
Mr. President, I have gone on in this rambling way talking of
our work, and I fear the story is wearisome. [Cries of, " Go on."] It
seems to me that there are three elements in all sound technological
training,-handicraft, technical training, and culture.  There has
been a surprising and gratifying unanimity of opinion on this point
among the gentlemen who have spoken. The only question is how
these elements shall be combined.
What is the object of technological schools? It is to produce the
best possible raw material for skilled workmen. No school canl
8




114                     DISCUSSIONS ON
impart the skill and good judgment which come alone from experience, and without which no man is a competent engineer.
Another question with which a school has little to do is whether
a youth shall be a superintendent or not. I take it that the Almighty makes superintendents. The precise kind of talent which
enter into their characters is strictly an endowment.
In this discussion some have held that the order should be handicraft, technics, culture; others culture, technics, handicraft; and
others would arrange in other ways. But there is one objection to
all these sandwiching methods.  Practically we cannot hold our
young men in training till twenty-five.  They will go at twenty-one
or twenty-two. The period of sharp acquisitiveness, the most precious
part of school life, lies between sixteen and twenty-one. Now, whichever part of a boy's triune discipline for an engineering life is allowed
to usurp that period to the exclusion of the others, that will be the
dominant force in his after-life. If culture, then practice will suffer;
if practice, culture will suffer.  Either part will be, as it were,
attached to, or subordinated to, the one which "rules the favored
hour."  Hence it seems to me that all possible culture should be
secured before a student begins his technological course, and that it
should be looked to ever after. It must not be forgotten that culture is a result, or rather a growth. All we can do is to prepare the
soil. The plant will assuredly grow. Perhaps, too, the best and
only useful culture is to be looked for in the life for which any
school training prepares a man; for I take it, we are not now speaking merely of the cultivation of the vesthetic part of man, but of that
discipline of the judgment, awakening of the imagination, sharpening of perception, repression of conceit, and elevation of motive,
which constitute a serviceable and efficient man of refined taste and
unquestionable integrity and courage.
Let us secure as large a foundation as possible in general knowledge before the beginning of the technical course, and not lose sight
of the bearing and relations of all knowledge during this course.
But let us blend technics and handicraft in the technological course.
The drift of this discussion has been unmistakably towards the
affirmation that the technologist of the future is to be the educated
workman. It is to the man whose own hands can execute, if need
be, the behests of his brain, that the great engineering works of the
future are to be intrusted. Engineering, so happily defined by the
retiring President as " the arts of production and construction," including mechanical, civil, mining, and chemical branches, more and




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   115
more condenses into mechanics. Indeed, all branches of engineering
seem to react upon mechanics, forming compounds like different acids
upon a common base. We are coming to think that, if a man is to
be a civil engineer, he had better begin by being a mechanic. If he
is to be a mining engineer, he had better begin by being a mechanic.
If he is to be a chemical engineer, he had better begin by being a
mechanic. This is true, at least, of all study of applied science.
Now, as to the amount of preliminary culture, it is desirable that
at least what is included in fitting for college should be secured. I
do not think graduates of college in general will be drawn to technical pursuits. The whole drift of the college is averse to them.
Few boys are so powerfully polarized as the sons of the honored
member who spoke last evening. What might be very easy for Mr.
Sellers would be very difficult for a father in other walks. In short,
it seems to be the best available method for the average boy to fit
him for college, then send him through a technical course in which
handicraft shall find a place; then let him enter some manufacturing
or engineering works, and see what it all means.
There are a few other points in the course at Worcester which I
will mention, as throwing light upon some parts of this discussion.
Whoever takes pains to read the examination papers, and consult
the returns on them in the Exhibition, will see that the standard of
scholarship is not suffered to fall. It is no part of our plan that the
workshop instruction shall invade the province of intellectual preparation for an active life. If our graduates suffer in consequence
of any lack in the essentials of an engineer's training, the fact has
not come to our knowledge. The exhibit in the east gallery is
designed to show that the Institute is not a shop with a school
attachment.
The graduate receives the degree of Bachelor of Science in course.
This is a short way of saying that he has had a mark of at least
60 at each semi-annual examination, and has completed the course.
Then we offer a degree which shall recognize professional success, to
every graduate who in actual life achieves that success.
By the blending of school and handicraft we secure an equality
of social regard, which is a matter of great importance. There is
no chance for the scholar to discriminate against the workman, nor
for the reverse. There has never been any caste feeling in the
Institute.
The only electives are courses rather than studies. A boy may
elect his course, but cannot elect his studies. We deem it to be




116                    DISCUSSIONS ON
wholly for the youth's advantage that men who have experience and
knowledge should devise the means and method of his training,
rather than these should be remanded to his own unenlightened
tastes.
What the graduates have done will be seen by examining the
catalogue. Some teach, some become draughtsmlen; many become
journeymen. The chief peril they encounter lies in the temptation
to devote themselves to earning the immediate dollar rather than the
remoter fortune. Many a good man has been drawn into the office as
a draughtsman, from the bench, where a true conception of his own
highest interest would have kept him. But all these difficulties time
will remove. Success somewhere ought to be assured to graduates
in the act of graduation, provided always success is sought with
clean hands and a pure heart; but success in becoming superintendents and foremen cannot be insured. Ml5any a youth errs greatly
in fixing his eyes upon this as the only success, forgetting that it is
not what a man does, but how lie does his work, that is the crux of a
successful life.
It seems to me that this question of technical education is of sufficiently serious import to warrant the attention given to it by this
body of engineers. Educators will read and ponder your remarks
and suggestions with extraordinary interest; one of them, at least,
with gratitude, for it is a matter of no ordinary moment to take into
one's hands an intelligent, enthusiastic youth, and to so direct as to
practically control his future.
THE CHAIRMAN: We have but a little time before we must adjourn, and you will regret with me that the discussion which has
become more and more interesting, will have to close so soon.
Out of a number of gentlemen who agreed to take part in our proceedings, some were absent last night, or their names would have
been called; and some are still absent. Several have furnished in
writing the remarks which they would have made, and I earnestly
hope that those gentlemen who are obliged to leave to-day, before
they get opportunity to speak, will take the same course. It is the
intention of the joint committee to publish these proceedings.
Every gentleman who takes a part in this discussion will have the
opportunity to revise his remarks before final publication. Those
who for any reason do not speak, are requested to send to Mr.
Holley, the secretary of the committee, their views written out for
publication.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   117
MIR. P. H. DUDLEY, Member of the Institute of Mining Engineers.
MR. CHAIRrMAN: Having been asked to discuss this subject with
reference to railway engineering, I shall assume it to be granted that
thorough technical culture and training are necessary in all departments of this branch of industry, and I shall consider the question —
how and when can such education be best imparted?
Technical education implies in its fullest sense a thorough knowledge of scientific principles, and their application in practice. In
the question under consideration, by what is really a misunderstanding, we are apt to consider, especially in our youthful days, the two
great means of education, viz., our schools and the railways themselves, as having a repulsion instead of an attractive affinity, whereas,
in fact, the practice of the railways is but the higher development of
the, school,-the utilization of the principles taught in the school; so
that the want of harmony between them is more imaginary than
real. Railway work has such a broad and comprehensive meaning
that it includes in its detail more or less of all the distinctive departments of engineering; also, general science, law, finance, and not
least, a knowledge of the condition of the people. It is a recognized
fact, that the men who have the best understanding of all these, and
the nerve and ability to execute, are the most successful railway
managers. It is true that railway work is conducted under separate
departments, yet the man in general control should have such a
technical knowledge of the respective details that he can detect an
error in administration, and give general directions for its correction.
I need not tell you that this knowledge of details, and ability to
execute, can only be acquired by practice; it cannot possibly be acquired from theory alone.
Our limited time of ten minutes will not permit us to go into the
details of all the departments of railway work, yet from a few explanations it will be readily seen that some branches of the necessary
education can be more easily imparted in the school than othersfrom the fact that it is within their scope to combine the theory with
the practice —such as chemical analysis, testing the strength of small
materials, etc. But when we come to the erection of great structures,
preparing the foundations, executing engineering works, and conducting their operations, we pass away beyond the scope and ability
of any school to furnish the means for such experience as the engineer must have. No matter how well he may be versed in theory,
his faculties must be so well trained by the discipline of experience
that in an emergency he can intelligently and calmly command him



118                    DISCUSSIONS ON
self and others. No matter how well the plans may be prepared for
a particular foundation, something often occurs entirely unexpected,
requiring quick and decisive action, which is only possible to the
practical man. It is in theory very simple to make a reconnaissance for a railway, but it takes long practice and education of the
eye to enable one to judge correctly of the many lines before him,
retaining their features in his mind so that he can recall and pass
them in review for comparison with other lines.
In construction one can acquire in theory but a small part of
the knowledge which is necessary for successful practice.  Timber
and other material is not usually found the same as described in
books, yet the best effect must be produced which the circumstances
allow. The faculties must be so educated by long familiarity that
one can take in the situation at once, and decide upon the fitness of
his material by intuition as it were, and not be obliged to spend days
to test every unimportant piece of his structure.
In public works, the frequent want of honor, on the part of persons connected therewith, increases the difficulties of construction to
an alarming extent, requiring much practical experience to judge of
the quality of work and to oppose the guiles and flatteries of those
who are interested therein.  Questions are constantly arising which
were not even treated in books-the solution of which not only involves principles of construction, but those of honor and reputation,
requiring the engineer to act as an impartial judge between parties.
Is it to be expected that men will be put in charge of'such works
without experience in such matters?  In railway operations especially, those who conduct them must have experience-must be so
trained and disciplined in the very work they are doing that they are
masters of the situation. Accidents from the elements and from
human weakness, carelessness, ignorance, stubbornness, and malice
are liable to occur at any moment.  In view of all these constant
dangers to life and property, railway managers feel their responsibility, and they do not call men to fill such places until they have
been tried and tested, in the progressive school of experience and
practice, and found not wanting.
Besides knowing the principles from a study of theory, it is necessary to educate the faculties, so that impressions will be distinctly
seen and properly comprehended. There must be such broadness of
view that superficial conclusions may be avoided. One must have
such training as will correct the ordinary aberrations of unskilled
sight; the touch must have its sensibilities increased, the ear must be




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   119
trained —in short, all the faculties must be on the alert to properly
direct engineering work. This can only be acquired by practice
and experience, the length of time depending upon the ability of the
subject.
It is a delusion to hold up to young men the idea that, as soon as
they have completed their theoretical education, and become conversant with the principles of science, they will be called to places
of responsibility. Such men are only partially educated.
On many railways they have a system of promotion, advancing
men as they acquire experience to higher positions, but, in every instance, to manage departments with success, the man must have
also the technical education, and if he has not acquired it in the
hllumbler situation, the railway company will be taxed to pay for it.
Take the car builder, for instance. If he does not know how to
construct his cars with the least amount of friction, the companies
pay for his want of knowledge in the increased cost of running his
cars. If he increases the dead weight unnecessarily, the company
pays for moving it, as well as the increased cost of construction.
Take the master mechanic. If he has not brought his motive power
up to its highest standard, the company pays for the want of his
education in the ilacreased cost of doing their business. If the civil
engineer has not adopted the most judicious grades, and the shortest
line, the company pays for his want of education in the increased
cost of operating their road. It does not matter what officer it may
be, if he does not recognize and follow out correct principles, some
one must pay for his want of education.  Principles of science are
not invented; they exist in conformity with unchangeable laws, and
are not subject to the dictation of any man, however high in authority.  It is true that art has preceded science in all cases, but its development is in the ratio of the knowledge and application of scientific principles.
It is less than half a century since our vast railway system was
inaugurated, and from the constant improvements which are being
daily made, no one presumes that it is near perfection, therefore we
must not expect that the science has been fully elucidated, and its
principles pointed out.  The art was practiced long before any
systematic inquiry was made into principles. To determine these
requires the collection of facts pertaining to all the operations of
conducting railways, and arranging and tabulating the results.
Now, while a vast amount of information can be obtained, much
that is needed is not even kept by railway companies, and what is




120                    DISCUSSIONS ON
kept is merely approximate, from which correct conclusions cannot
be drawn. If railway companies, who have the facilities for collecting correct data, so as to profit in the greatest degree by their
own experience, fail to do so, is it just to expect that our schools,
without facilities, can collect this data, and formulate the results for
railway men?  One great reason why theories of railway operations
oftentimes prove so futile, is, that the conclusions were formed simply from a mass of error filrnished by the railway men. Are the
school men responsible for this? To educate men who are to control railway affairs, it is clearly the province of the schools to furnish them such a training that they may know how to think upon
a broad, theoretical basis. The schools must develop the powers of
thought so that principles can be recognized, and a stillbhigher discipline will show how to discover principles. It is clearly the province of the railways to teach adaptation and utilization.
The same considerations are equally true in regard to the subordinate men who form a part, as it were, of our railways. It is only
within a few years that any theoretical education was considered
necessary for the ordinary railway man, but now that it is, employes,
encouraged to some extent, have formed organizations to assist themselves in gaining the theoretical knowledge. Railway companies to
some extent give premiums for the most efficient services, and find
that such investments pay well.
We must not underrate the great and noble work our schools have
accomplished in liberalizing thought and advancing civilization, and
in thus indirectly promoting the development of engineering. It is
only important for teachers and students to remember that the graduate is but half educated, and it is equally important for all the
workers, however high or low their position, to remember that but
half the elements of professional progress can be derived from unaided practice.
PROF. J. B. DAVIS, Junior of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: It is with great diffidence that I rise here, a
mere boy, to speak to this audience. Those who have preceded me
have anticipated already what I had intended to say. I must beg
leave to call your attention more to my manner of looking into the
subject, than to anything new I may present that bears upon it.
It seems to me that we labor under difficulties, in the matter of
technical education, precisely similar to those that are of a funda



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    121
mental character in education in the schools in general.  We are in
danger of doing, indeed, we have been doing, the same things that
are and have ever been done by educators since schools were. There
has been a world-wide attempt for centuries, to substitute the training of the intellect for the complete training of the whole individual.
Let us for a moment consider how many there are of the millions
that throng the earth, that, being called upon in the daily affairs of
life to take action upon any matter, will act from previous intellectual training. Certain it is that their training in this respect does
assist many in forming their opinions or in conducting their operations, but this is only an item in the great mass of activity.  Consider the myriads of little deeds, if I may call them so, that go to fill
up the sum of the work of each one of us, and to really make our
lives what they are. Does intellectual training furnish the mainspring of effort here? Certainly not. We do what seems to us to
be best at the moment, according to the way in which we are affected
emotionally, and not intellectually. I think we may well ask this
broad question concerning all our usual schooling: Is the most
necessary part of our education attended to?  If we do not usually
act from the motives furnished by our intellectual training, are we
wise to devote our whole energies to the training of this kind, to the
almost total neglect of that part of ourselves from which the real
motives of action arise?  There will be much said during this year
of grand celebrations and general congratulations upon the comnpleteness, worth, and high character of our well-nigh universal school
system.  I am one of those, too, who are ready to regard the results
attained with great general satisfaction. There has been an immense
and valuable work done, but it seems to me to be a matter of the
greatest consequence and significance that so much has remained
undone, even almost untouched.
Now, as regards technical education, for I cannot dwell longer on
the interesting considerations hinted at above, we are doing in a measure a similar misapplied and defective work.  Each one here knows
of many instances in which young men ostensibly prepared for some
department of practical life in the schools have failed partly or entirely owing to improper training. Indeed, the general expression
of opinion here given has been one of distrust of a simply schooleducated young engineer. Now what is the trouble, and wherein do
we find the difficulty?  The trouble is in seeking to make one kind
of training answer for another, or in exclusively training one set of
faculties when another should be trained. The difficulty lies in copy



122                    DISCUSSIONS ON
ing too closely the theories and methods of the schools in general.
It is a well-established fact, that a technically educated person must
possess judgment in the line of his work. This has been repeated
and reiterated here. Who supposes that he will possess that jud(gment if he never has a chance to exercise it? If I stand over my
boys and tell them here, do this, or here, do that, they will never be
judges of their work. They must be set by themselves to execute
plans alone. Another attribute of a good engineer, if I may refer
to him as one of the technical class, and one which I have not
heard as much as I wish about, is that of resources.  He must be a
man of resources, of invention, of ready expedients. Can a man
hardly be an engineer at all without this invention? This thing has
been incidentally referred to in many of the communications, but I
wish to emphasize it. The engineer must be a man ready to act
whenever he is called upon within his field, in all emergencies, and
on all occasions.  The young men are to fit themselves for emergencies, for ready, reliable act'on on short notice, or under difficult
conditions. Who supposes for a moment that a man will possess
resources without ever having faced a difficulty? These two illustrations indicate in a way, the nature of my theory of the training
a technical man should have, which is this: Consider well what
characteristics he should possess, and then seek to develop them in
him if he has the basis. If not, tell him so, and not prepare him
for the great disappointment of losing his years of study and work
in a great failure. As to how this result is to be reached, I will say
this: At the University of Michigan we have met the difficulties
alluded to, that is, a disposition to follow old methods and theories
of intellectual training. It was supposed that an engineer must
be well developed intellectually in certain directions. Therefore
certain studies of the older courses were retained and advanced, and
others added to give him what was deemed a desirable power in
these directions. Much was done of a practical kind, so called.
For years they have been feeling their way along at this institution,
seeking by thought and experiment what was best. And in my
own experience I will say that I have been satisfied with the result
of my teaching about in proportion as I was able to realize the conditions of actual practice in my instruction. Personally, I think
the same is true of the whole work of the engineering department,
except I will add that these conditions were supplemented by good
class-room instruction in theory. And as to the manner of combining
theory and practice, I have but this to say, although much has been




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   123
said upon this head; I think the more intimately they are combined
daily, the better.
As to mathematics, which have been mentioned, we think, at this
school, that there is such a thing as enough mathematics for civil
engineering students. The conclusion has been reached that there is
a point where the course in these studies should stop. Perhaps our
conditions are somewhat different from those of the gentlemen who
have preceded me. A certain amount of mathematics well mastered
is what we desire. A limit has been reached with us for our undergraduates.
I would like to say a few words about the study of drawing.  Instruction in drawing should not be postponed, as is frequently the
case, till the student enters college. It should not begin in the highscllool, nor even in the grammar-school, for this reason: it is, crudely,
to be sure, a more natural mode of expression than writing or even
talking, yet this method is left to be taught long after these others
have been acquired. But I shall be told that the others are absolutely
necessary in the common affairs of life, and must be learned. True,
yet how many educators have considered the relations and mutual
helps which exist amongst the different methods? The absolute
" bread and butter " importance of drawing is just being felt and realized. It is a matter of common occurrence to see two persons conversing, and what one cannot make clear to the other by words he
will seek to mark out, it may be with a stick in the dirt. How
readily do we all seek this method of expression. Much more can
be said about its natural relation to its. It certainly seems that the
child should begin drawing soon after learning to read easy words.
The Kindergarteners begin it really before this.
As to the young men having command of their knowledge, which
the gentleman from Worcester referred to. When the engineering
students reach their junior year with us, it happens that I teach
some little things then calculated to open their eyes to the fact that
there is quite a difference between learning a thing well enough to
make a recitation upon it, and mastering it so they can use it. Sometimes it takes the third trial to get a good recitation at this point in
their course, and they generally have quite an experience during
those three days. The lessons are long and the parts so similar that
memorizing is a hopeless task. They must master the work in order
to recite. The test applied at this institution to find out whether a
man knows a thing is, can he do it?  So far as possible this is




124                    DISCUSSIONS ON
everywhere carried out. It is not enough that he can converse
about it. Can he do it?
One word upon the item of integrity, and I am done. The only
thing I will say is to relate a short anecdote. I once had an assistant whilst continuing some railroad work from previous surveys by
another man. This assistant had been upon the work before I was,
and had worked upon the preliminary lines. He was the leveller.
I was locating over his preliminaries. As we worked along, a number of errors were detected in our levels. These kept accumulating.
Upon investigation I found that this assistant, mwho was still running the level, had made an error of twenty feet upon his previous
work. This he had nicely distributed through his notes, so that it
did not at once appear. This was far away in the woods of Northern Michigan, where it was impossible to obtain a man for this kind
of work. The way we prevented him from doing more mischief
was to set the rodmanr to watch him. Each kept a separate set of
complete notes. They were not allowed to show their notes to each
other till the day's work was done. Then they were obliged to go
through them all in the evening, and compare them carefully.  In
this way we fixed our leveller so as to keep him honest till we arrived where we could get rid of him. I think I tried hard enough to
teach that man the error of his ways. Some years after, I received
a letter, to my entire surprise, from my delinquent assistant. He
was then a resident engineer in charge of 600 miles of line in Minnesota, and he said, " I owe to you, Mr. Davis, my position, because
you taught me by your severe treatment," in the case referred to,
"the value of integrity."  He further said, "After I left you I
went West, and went into an engineer's office as a draughtsman at
a dollar and a half a day, and in these few years I have come to
be in charge of 600 miles of line." Let the story carry its own
moral.
MR. FREDERICK J. SLADE, Member of the American Institute of
Mining Engineers.
MR. CHAIRMAN: If it were certain that all the young men who
enter our technical schools had the natural qualifications necessary
to be engineers, then the problem, of what the course in such schools
should consist, would be materially simplified. But when we remember that it is impossible at the early age at which young men
enter on such a course, to determine accurately the natural bent of
their minds, the necessity of first imparting a liberal general educa



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   125
tion is apparent, so that those unfit for engineering pursuits may
have other fields opened to their view, and may be drawn away from
a profession for which they have no fitness. I therefore agree with
the remark that has already been made, that if it were necessary to
choose between a strictly technical education and a more general
course, the latter would be the more desirable.
I believe further, that not only is it desirable on account of the
various types of mind to be found in a body of undeveloped young
mnen, that education should be general rather than special, in order
that none may be graduated without having received a training
which shall be of service in his particular case, but that even were
the classes composed of none but those qualified to become engineers,
it would be much better that the instruction should be confined
mainly to the theoretical part of the profession, leaving the practical
deIfails to be learned afterward, in that school of actual practice from
which the engineer never graduates. I know that this would require
some of our schools to give up some of the very things that they
most pride themselves upon, yet I believe the effect in the end would
be good.
I think it has very generally come within our experience, that
those engineers who have received that very elaborate education in
foreign schools, of which so much has been said, do not make the
most rapid progress in the practice of their profession. The effect
of their study seems to have been to give them a disproportionate
confidence in the sufficiency of the formulae and text-books of the
school, to solve every problem that arises in practice, and the faculty
of judgment so necessary as a check upon theoretical deductions becomes dwarfed by disuse. It sometimes seems even to be the case,
that those who have received this training refuse to admit the necessity of correcting their theory by facts, and hence shut themselves
out from the greatest of all schools.
It has been remarked with force by Prof. Thompson, that the acquisitive powers act with greatest vigor before the age of twenty;
and he argues that on this account both theoretical and practical
education should be crowded into this period.  While it is no doubt
true that the mind is at this age better able to receive scientific education, and to be moulded by it to correct methods of thought, it
may be doubted whether the ability to weigh the value of practical
expedients is as much a characteristic of a young as of a more experienced mind. It would, therefore, appear to be wiser that the
period of life in which the mind is best adapted to receive that sci



126                    DISCUSSIONS ON
entific training which is to shape all its future action, should be devoted to the study of science, rather than wasted in the vain attempt
to acquire an incomplete and delusive acquaintance with practice.
One very important result of this would be, that the young graduate
could not by any possibility imagine himself an engineer, and would
thus be ready to commence at the bottom, and on a. true foundation
lay up in intelligence and order, that experience which is the capital
of the engineer.
It may be asked, why should not the teaching of practice with
theoiy have the same effect in establishing a proper balance as when
acquired subsequently? To which it may perhaps be answered, that
the conditions under which the practical matters are presented are
in the two cases widely different. In the school they are presented
as problems solved, in actual practice as problems to be solved; and
the fact of the solution being at hand in the former case gives a false
idea of complete mastery of the profession, the precise reverse of that
modesty which is forced upon one, in the latter case, by the uncertainty whether he shall be able at all to reach a solution.
As to the proposition that the student should in the midst of his
theoretical course, take up the study of practice as presented in the
workshop, I think it is a question whether the time so spent would
not be spent wastefully. It is indeed highly desirable that the young
man while pursuing scientific studies, should be sufficiently familiar
with at least the surface facts of practice to give life and meaning
to the abstract truths which he is studying. But this acquaintance
he can acquire in those afternoon visits which every young man,
having a taste for engineering, is sure to make to such works as are
within his reach (and in these days there are a multitude in all
places), while he could acquire but little more by a constant attendance in the shop, unless in actual employ and with a weight of responsibility resting upon him. It is only when the sweat comes out over
a man in those emergencies, when he knows that something must be
done, and done quickly, that he begins to lay up valuable experience.
Now, it would be impracticable to provide such employment for
students; and I think it may also be said that in nine cases out of
ten, where it could be provided, the young man would never return
to school, because the ties that would bind him to his actual work
would be too strong to be severed.
In a word, then, let the schools give a liberal and scientific education; let the student give concrete form to abstract principles as he
may from visits to such works as are within reach, and by the read



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   127
ing of current engineering literature, and let the acquisition of practical knowledge begin and go on without interruption after the school
course has ended.
MR. ASHBEL WELCH, Jfember of the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
AMR. CHAIRIMAN: I move that the Joint Committee be requested
to take into consideration how to put a stop to the practice of the
technical schools giving the young men who have just graduated the
title of civil engineers.
In the first part of my remarks last night I had this paragraph:
"The young man that graduates from a technical school is no more
a civil engineer than a young man who has never been at sea, but
who has studied navigation at school, is a sailor."  The same thing
has been better expressed by Mr. Coxe, that a graduate is excellent
raw material to make an engineer of, but he is not an engineer.
Now you confer this title when these young men graduate, and what
is the result?  Why, they think that they are engineers, and the
consequence is that in nine cases out of ten they will never learn to
be engineers.
Another thing is, that to those that really are entitled to that
name, the title of civil engineer itself becomes meaningless, from
the fact that one of these boys that are called civil engineers is put
upon a par with the man who has been in the profession thirty or
forty years, and that title is of no use to him.  Whether it is practicable to stop it I do not know, but the sooner it is stopped the
easier it is stopped. When we have gone on for four or five years in
doing this thing, it is very difficult to stop it, more so than if it had
only gone on four or five months.
A MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS:
I would second that motion. I come from an institution that does
that thing, and I wish it could be abolished.
THE CHAIRMAN: The chair is in doubt as to the legitimacy of
the motion. At present the chair decides that it is not in order.
This meeting is a meeting held by the two societies jointly for a
special purpose. In order to arrange for it, a joint committee
has been appointed. The chair is of opinion that this meeting as
such, cannot perpetuate that committee nor direct it to consider
any subject.  Each of the societies must act for itself on such a
question, and, if a joint committee is advisable, then it must be
created by the separate action of the two societies, each according to




128                    DISCUSSIONS ON
its own rules. But this decision of the chair need not detract from
the moral effect of the excellent suggestion made in several speeches
and by Mr. Welch, and by the seconder of his motion, in which I
heartily concur. I should be glad to see the granting of degrees
restricted in accordance with the suggestion.  Meanwhile, unless
some gentleman desires to appeal from the decision of the chair-a
step which will be welcome, as relieving the chair from responsibility in the matter-this motion is ruled out of order.
Gentlemen, in concluding this most interesting and timely debate,
permit me to call your attention to what may be called its net result. Several things seem to have been settled by it, besides the
innumerable things which have been thrown out to stimulate further
inquiry and debate.
We have settled upon the necessity of a wide education, if we wish
to raise a high standard. We have settled upon the necessity of practical training, somewhere in the outset of the work of the young engineer. How shall we get both of these things? W5e have got to learn
more than our fathers, and yet not live longer. As Prof. Thompson
has forcibly shown, the period of study is limited by nature. The
necessary time and efficiency is not going to be gained by taking the
old curriculum and shifting from one thing to another, by giving up
the old-fashioned studies and putting in a little of the new-fashioned
studies. Change in methods, not merely subjects of instruction, will
help us much. I am satisfied that there is an immense amount of
useless labor put upon boys, under the name of mental discipline.
Take the study of Latin and Greek, for instance. Two-thirds of
the time employed in getting the lesson every day is spent in the
turning over of the leaves of a dictionary-mere mechanical exercise.
Yet it is thought dishonorable to have a "pony," or translation,
which is nothing in the world but a dictionary so arranged that you
don't have to work your elbow to find words, that is all. The
method of teaching modern languages is much better, and it ought
to be applied to ancient languages. We must teach them quicker
or give them up. Similar reform can be carried even into exact
science. Take, for instance, Professor Thompson's remarks in respect to algebra, which are exactly in point.
Another matter of great importance has been suggested and universally admitted, namely, the difficulty of knowing beforehand
whether young men are fitted for what they are going into. /Nothing is more difficult than this. Life is full of men who have mistaken their vocations. One of the best things about a preliminary




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   129
course of practice for engineers would be, I think, that men naturally unsuited for engineers would be sifted out before it became
too late for them to change their plans and preparations for life.
Now what is the testimony of this debate as to the actual result
of the experiment of preliminary practical training, so far as it has
anywhere been tried?
When men like Professor Thurston and Professor Thompson, who
have distinct plans, and are engaged in really scientific experimenting in the matter, come forward with their results, they are entitled
to great respect. They tell us just what we want to know. Professor Thompson's testimony as to the relative progress of those who
came to the Worcester Free Institute after an apprenticeship in ordinary shops, and those who came without any apprenticeship, and
took the course in the workshop of the Institute, is, I venture to say,
the hardest blow that Mr. Holley's plan has yet received from any
objector.  The opinion of other instructors on the same point would
be valuable. But it is only fair to say that Mr. Holley looks to
something more than an ordinary apprenticeship; and so the comparison drawn from experience at Worcester is not wholly fair to
him. It should also be remembered that the establishment of such
training-shops as those at Worcester, and Hoboken, and Ithaca, and
some other places, requires money endowments of no mean extent,
while Mr. Holley's scheme can be tried, where it is applicable at all,
in commercial establishments already existing.
The meeting was then adjourned sine die.




130                    DISCUSSIONS ON
COMMUNICATIONS.
THE following papers, intended to form a part of this discussion, were received
before or during the meetings. They are appended in alphabetical order.
PROF. RICHARD AKERAIAN, of Sweden.
In Sweden all education is free, all the teachers being paid by the
government. Some of the technical schools, however, were originally founded by private means, in consequence of which their
teachers get their pay partly from the government and partly from
the income of private donations. According to the different degrees
of knowledge required for admission, the technological schools in
Sweden are divided into three kinds.
For admission to the schools of art, the lowest of the three, no
more knowledge is wanted than what is acquired in the ordinary
public schools. The most prominent of the above named, the School
of Art in Stockholm, has about 1700 male and 800 female pupils.
Between the schools of art and the Technological Institute in
Stockholm, which is the highest technical school of Sweden, there
is an intermediate kind of technical schools, which have more moderate terms of admission than those of the Technological Institute,
but much higher than those of the schools of art.
For admission to the Technological Institute, in which the School
of Mines is incorporated, the amount of knowledge required is as
follows: two grades of algebra, trigonometry, stereometry, geometry,
and the elements of chemistry and physics. In general knowledge,
the absolutely necessary requirements are very insignificant, as it is
not important to have more than a passable knowledge of the history
of Sweden, and except the Swedish, of one other living language,
usually the German. Nowadays, however, by far the greatest part
of the pupils have passed the high schools, and therefore have a
thoroughly good general knowledge. The number of pupils at the
Technological Institute is about 270. The course has been, and is
still, three years, but last winter it was decided to make it four years,
this to commence from the beginning of next year.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   131
The last year of the course especially, has a practical tendency, the
teaching being altogether in applying, and the reason for the abovenamed decision, to make the term hereafter four years long, is to be
sought for in the circumstance that two years have been found insufficient for acquiring a thorough knowledge of mathematics and
the natural sciences, which form the foundation of the technical education, and also proper skilfulness in drawing and constructions.
When, as mentioned before, the teaching during the last year is
exclusively in applied sciences, the natural consequence is, that it
mlust be essentially diverse, depending upon the branch of engineering the youths are going to embrace, viz.,.civil, mechanical,
architectural, mining and metallurgical, or chemistry. As, however, different degrees of knowledge of the natural sciences are required for different branches of engineering, the teaching, with due
regard to this, is alike for all the pupils, only during the first year,
and at the beginning of the second year, they must make up their
minds to what branch they intend to devote themselves.
The School of Mines is exclusively a school of applied science for
those who desire to make mining or metallurgy their special study.
The teaching in this school, therefore, corresponds with the last year
in the Technological Institute, and the requirement for admission
consists of that particular knowledge acquired by those who at the
Technological Institute have devoted themselves to mining or metallurgical engineering.
By far the greatest number of ordinary pupils in the School of
Mines have therefore finished their preliminary studies at the Technological Institute, but those also who have passed through lower
technical schools, and therefore have not taken such extensive preliminary studies, are allowed to enjoy the same teaching as extra
pupils, though they are not allowed to pass any examination, and do
not get any certificates.
Besides the preliminary theoretical studies, it is stipulated as a
condition for admission to the School of Mines, that the candidate
for at least two months shall have lived at some mines and ironworks, and during this time shall have tried to the best of his ability
to understand the different processes and work there going on. For
this purpose the time from the end of the term at the Technological
Institute (12th of June), and the beginning at the School of Mines
(8th of September), is used; but nearly every year there are several
pupils of the School of Mines, who, after they have finished their




132                   DISCUSSIONS ON
terms at the Technological Institute, have taken during several following years situations at mines and iron-works, and not until they
have acquired practical experience in order to become more conversant with the theories of the different processes, do they go to the
School of Mines.
From  the 8th of September to the 1st of May, the teaching in
mining and metallurgy, chiefly that of iron, is going on without interruption, in Stockholm, and even the first practical knowledge in
mine-surveying, is obtained in the rooms of the school itself; but
on the i st of May the pupils start travelling, and at first pass six
weeks at some iron-works in company with and under the superintendence of their teachers. There they have to blow-in a blastfurnace only sixteen feet high, belonging to the school, without any
help whatever from professional or other people. Then, they are
called upon to produce different kinds of pig-iron suitable for different purposes, and they have to calculate themselves the proper mixtures to obtain this result.
Besides this short blast, which they manage altogether on their
own account, they are obliged to watch the working and management of the large blast-furnace belonging to the works very closely,
as well as to take part of the manual labor at the ore-calcining kilns
and the Lancashire forges.
Having finished these practical studies in blast-furnace working
and the process of making malleable iron, they at once proceed to a
mine, where they, under the supervision of another teacher, practice
surveying, and study in a practical way the extraction of the ore
and the general working of the mine. This is continued till the
beginning of July, from which time the pupils, under the guardianship of their teachers in the respective branches, visit the most
prominent and notable iron-works and mines of the country. These
travels go on till the end of July, when the pupils have to write
down an account of them, and the impressions received during this
time. The nature of these accounts are taken very much into consideration by the teachers, in the determination of the certificates.
The final examinations take place at the end of October.
MR. CHARLES MACDONALD, Member of the American Society of
Civil Engineers and of the American Institute of Mhining Engineers.
A recent writer in the New York Times, in speaking of education,
has said: " Few things have been made plainer within a few years




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                  133
than the falsity of our system of education as generally followed,
the chief defects just now being in method and discrimination."
Judging from the tenor of the discussion of Mr. Holley's able
paper, this view would seem to be very generally held by members
of our own profession in regard to technical education; hence the
elaborate comparisons of different methods, old and new.
There have been advocates of a purely theoretical system, by
which general principles are taught without the aid of practical
illustration. Then, again, it has been suggested that the methods
of the workshop may with advantage be introduced into the school,
and lastly, as Mr. Holley indicates, there is the possibility of reversing the last method, by bringing the school into the workshop.
It does not seem to me that the inadequate results which are too
often obtained from our technical schools are due so much to the
methods employed as to our own treatment of the individual with
whom we have-to do.
Between the ages of ten and sixteen the mind is in a condition to
receive impressions only; it is, therefore, eminently proper that this
period of life should be devoted to the acquirement of what is generally understood as a common school education, in which I would
substitute French and German for the dead languages, which have
heretofore been so persistently and indiscriminately forced upon the
pupil. At the age of sixteen the body is in much greater need of
attention than the mind; it may be said to be in a transition state,
in which relaxation and change of scene are of' the greatest importance. The boy should be taken from school at this age, and allowed
a vacation of from six to twelve months, during which time he
should be permitted to see as much of the world as practicable, and
should be given to understand that he has now arrived at that most
important period of life when he must select for himself an occupation. At the end of his vacation, if his preferences are decidedly
in favor of the engineering profession, he should be allowed a year's
practical contact with that branch of it with which he proposes to
connect himself. If he is of a mechanical turn of minid, it would
not appear to be difficult to obtain a position for him, without pay,
in some manufacturing establishment, where he would be daily
brought in contact with the best that is being done, and with the
men and methods by which it is accomplished; he would begin to
recognize the difficulties under which practical men labor, and at
the same time he would see the necessity of a knowledge of practical
methods, to the successful application of general principles. This




134                    DISCUSSIONS ON
experience would undoubtedly inspire him with a desire to acquire
a knowledge of such general principles, and would furnish the incentive to study, which is, after all, the one thing needful; without
this the best methods may too often be employed without imparting
knowledge, while, on the other hand, if the student has been enabled
to see the end from the beginning, he will absorb much that it is
important for him to know, even under the most defective system.
Great care should be taken in limiting the time spent in preliminary
contact with practical life, lest the habit of study be impaired or
the student shall have been impressed with a desire to accomplish
results without a proper appreciation of the importance of scientific
methods. I have mentioned a year as generally sufficient for this
introductory work, at the end of which time the student, at the age
of eighteen, will be in proper form to enter upon a four years' technical course in a purely theoretical school. This should bring him
to the full stature of manhood, well equipped and eager to encounter
the difficult problems of an active professional life, and with a store
of knowledge at his command, which will enable him to render a
good account of the abilities with which he has been endowed.
To conclude briefly, I swould adopt the views expressed by Mr.
Holley, in so far as they indicate the necessity of a short, practical
experience, before technical training begins, but I believe this can
best be accomplished by placing the student in a commercially successful manufacturing establishment, or upon some scientifically conducted public work, without pay, and under the direction of the
managers of the work solely. Contact with other students, or with
expert school-men at this stage, would divert the mind from the
main object, which is to acquire a correct idea of what is being accomplished in practical life, and would not tend to develop the habit
of self-reliance, or the improvement of the mind in the direction of
its greatest capability.
MR. ISAAC NEWTON, Member of the Institute of Mining Engineers.
Sound acquirements in such thoroughly practical professions as
those of civil, mechanical, or mining engineering, it seems to me,
can only be attained by actual practice; but, before the pupil can
take part in real operations, or can even see them with any profit, it
is essential that he should be thoroughly grounded in the ordinary
academic studies; but he should also have obtained such knowledge
of the profession he is preparing himself for, as can be acquired by
instruction in a technical school. A pupil at the beginning of his




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   135
career, after leaving the technical school, finds out, as soon as he
begins to face the realities of his profession, that, instead of having
completed his professional education, he had only begun it. From
what little I have seen of the course of technical students, I am disposed to think that the first two years or thereabouts, after grad uation,
will give the young man more accurate knowledge regarding his
fitness for his work than can be got from the school itself.
It seems to. me that it would be a wise plan for our polytechnic
schools to divide their degrees into two steps or stages; the first to
b)e bestowed on the student on graduation, and the second after an
examination, to be held after, say, the first two years of his course.
During this period the candidate should keep a record of his technical
reading, with his observations thereon, of the engineering operations
he has witnessed, and of the work he has been engaged upon. The
character of these records, and an examination based thereon, should
be the ground of the award of his final or full degree. I feel convinced that if this plan, or one similar to it, could be carried out, a
few years would witness a marked improvement in the rising generation of our engineers, civil, mechanical, and mining.
There is another matter, it strikes me, which ought to receive more
attention than it does in the polytechnic schools. I mean the purely
business training that is essential to financial success in all the professions under discussion; a knowledge of bookkeeping, and the
methods of making up accounts, will give the engineer who has this
knowledge a vast advantage over one who is deficient in this particular. I have on more than one occasion seen young men about
iron establishments and engineering workshops, whose sole technical
knowledge was acquired by their own unsupervised reading, and by
watching what was going on about the works, promoted over the
heads of those who had graduated from technical schools. The
young graduate, full of enthusiasm for his profession, is too often
prone to look with a sort of contempt on such acquirements, but he
may rest assured that a familiarity with business methods is a vital
necessity for his permanent success.
Let me call attention to one more point. All will admit the vast
importance of accurate knowledge respecting the cost of production, and the comparative cost of various methods and processes; all
will at the same time admit the difficulties of finding this out by
watching the operations of various works. Pupils cannot be too
strongly impressed with the importance of such knowledge, and
they should be taught to carefully utilize every opportunity to get it.




136                     DISCUSSIONS ON
MIR. CHARLES B. RICHARDS, Member of the American Society of
Civil Engineers.
What follows refers only to mechanical engineering, particularly
to machine construction, in relation to which the subject under discussion is of the greatest importance.
The system  in large American shops (particularly in New England) of the subdivision of labor, and of employing one man on one
kind of work only, is so prevalent, that good, practical, general mechanics are not being produced. The system of employing apprentices who shall learn general work in the machine shop is in disfavor,
first, with the employer, because to carry it out fully does not correspond with the system of subdivision; second, with the employ6,
because skill in one kind of work is soon acquired, and this done,
he finds the tendency of the subdivision system is to keep him engaged on the one kind of work he has become skilful in.
The places of foremen and directing mechanics who, from the general character of their training and practice under the old system,
became fitted for their positions, cannot be filled from the ranks, in
shops where the system of labor subdivision prevails. Good planer
hands, or lathe workmen, or fitters, etc., are being trained from men
who enter the shops at low wages, and devote an indefinite time to
practice in a single process, in which their labor soon becomes remunerative, and to which it is therefore devoted exclusively. Hence,
a general knowledge of processes is not acquired. Our directing
mechanics and engineers, who in former years, and almost up to the
present time, were raised from the bench, must hereafter be trained
in the schools, and it is to be confessed that their education is a perplexing problem.
President Holley has, in my opinion, touched the keynote, in
assuming that practical instruction should precede that of the scientific school, for an interest in the sciences, and facility in acquiring
them, are developed as the application of the sciences to the arts becomes apparent, and are increased in proportion as these relations are
more evident.
What the nature of the preliminary practical instruction should
be, is the important question.  It should be of a character to insure
the greatest saving of time to the pupil in attaining the object of his
aim.  It should not extend over so much time that the pupil will
be deterred from attempting the scientific school course. It should
be strictly preparatory to the theoretical course.
I do not think this preliminary study should consist of, or, in



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    137
deed, should necessarily comprise practical work with tools in the
shop, for so many arts are here brought together, that almost the
first question which arises is, which one of them shall be practiced?
Shall it (for example) be that of the pattern-maker, or of the moulder, or of the machinist? It is evident that a general knowledge of
all is essential to the engineer, and a certain amount of skill in all,
perhaps not in one more than in another, would be desirable, but
call the time be afforded for this? It is a question whether, in a
course of preliminary study, opportunities for general observation,
carefully directed, are not more useful than those for putting one's
own hand to the plough.
I believe the best training, preparatory to the theoretical course,
can be obtained by about two years of hard work in the general
duties of the office of a directing engineer of works, who should
direct the instruction, and should of course be a cultivated practitioner, who will look after the interests of his pupils.  In such a
position the student can be given the best of opportunities to study,
at the drawing-table, the details of machines and of processes, the
construction and carrying out of which he ought to have opportunities of attending to carefully in the shop. The discipline of the office
will be most useful to him. Drawing, one of the arts he is to practice, will be acquired in a way which will serve to give a clear and
practical aspect to subjects whose mathematical treatment he will
encounter in his subsequent theoretical studies.  The time necessary
for acquiring some skill with the pencil and pen will be saved from
the school course, and will also be well improved in the study of approved examples of modern construction, rather than the models of
obsolete practice which are found in many school cabinets.
I believe it to be hardly practicable to organize a system of very
profitable preliminary instruction, in which the practical working in
the shop with tools is a feature, for even under a competent instructor, most boys would need to practice elementary processes for an
unprofitably long time, in order to warrant their being permitted to
attempt advanced work, when the risk of a costly failure from lack
of' skill is considered. It is probable that many manufacturers of
machinery would regard the kind of training in shop manipulation
which would be the most profitable to the student, with much the
same kind of feeling that the enlightened patient would regard a
course of surgical practice by prospective medical students.
It is probable that a plan could be systematized for having pupils
taken into the offices of engineers whose qualifications and positions




1  8                    DISCUSSIONS ON
are favorable for the purpose. One argument in favor of this plan
is, that if, after the school course is completed, the pupil should find
time for a course of practice in manipulations, he will find himself
much better fitted to enter upon this with profit to himself and to
the shop where he works, than he would have done when younger,
and before his studies in the office had taught him where to direct
his attention and efforts; and it is my opinion that, if le cannot
afford the time for this last course, he will be better off without it
than he would have been if this had been substituted for the preliminary office course.
PROF. R. H. RICHARDS, Jfemnber of the American Institute of
MHining Engineers.
The two questions considered.. I. Should a course of study in
works precede, accompany, or follow that in the scientific school?
II. Is it practicable to organize practical schools in engineering
w:orks?
The office of instruction seems to be to train the individual to
observe. Observers note only what are to them the salient points of
a subject. The individual must therefore be given sufficient falmiliarity with a subject to know what are the salient points to experts,
in order that he may take note of them.
Practice before theory.-A carpenter, of twenty-four years of age,
who has done nothing but mark with a square, cut off, and drive
nails for eight years, has a mind used to a very few simple operations, and entirely unfit for gaining the greatest profit from the scientific school. He has a mind squared to a certain base-line, and
one which can be taught only by a method which starts and builds
up with reference to that base-line. Practice at the first undoubtedly brightens the mind, but when the novelty has entirely worn off,
and nothing but routine work is done, the mind becomes dimmed
more and more to other things and less receptive for the training of
scientific schools. Men can be seen everywhere who, when once they
have got into a narrow routine of work-and it requires only a short
time to bring them there-are callous to all wider and larger views
of their subject, and to whom the scientific-school training will have
no interest or appeal, unless brought down to and built upon their
own little rules of things. The order in which information may be
brought to practical usefulness seems to be, 1st, observe; 2d, record
intelligently; 3d, assimilate, digest, classify, compare; 4th, promul



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   139
gate the results or bring them to usefulness. The routine man cannot observe nor record.
Theory before practice.-The school-man, if properly taught, has
learned the principles of observation and classification, but he lacks
the practice, or, in other words, he does not know what the salient
points are which the expert should know, and his observation will
therefore be excessively one sided, the cause of most of the so-called
difference between theory and practice.
The school-man tries to " square nature with the book," and fails
because he has never had sufficient opportunity to test himself. He
needs to learn that his own judgment is one of the elements to be
observed, and that it must be placed in the balance along with the
other facts obtained. This can only be done by testing himself, and
trying himself side by side with people and things. The graduate
of a scientific school, unless special pains has been taken to put
him upon original work or upon work in which he must mind the
helm himself, will have to start at the very beginning, in order to
make himself a thoroughly practical leader. The school-man when
he finally gets to work, will find that he does not know many things
which the books would have taught him if he had been awake to
their meaning. This surely is not the most healthful order for gaining independence of thought.
An alternative: An educated mind, serving in engineering work,
and then in the scientific school.-This arrangement will undoubtedly
give the best training of all. The mind is stimulated, rationalized,
and widened by a liberal education, by a free contact with men of
equal age, both superior and inferior in intellect. With such a preparation, the mere routine of engineering work will not absorb and
obscure the mind; it will simply be a groundwork upon which the
causes and effects of things can be seen to act. The mind after such
a practical training is in a thoroughly receptive condition for what
the scientific school may have in store for it; the views recorded in
books are brought side by side with one's own, and intelligently
compared with them. But while this order of things seems better
fitted than any other, it has one difficulty, and that is, the expense
and time required for it are more than can generally be afforded by
our young men. The question at once comes before us then, should
education be planned for the few or the many?
Synchronous arrangement of practical and theoretical work.-This
seems to offer the most practical solution for the education of the
majority. In this arrangement the mind is constantly stimulated in




140                     DISCUSSIONS ON
its theoretical study by the practical application of what is learned.
This brings the mind and soul together, strengthened by each other
for the one purpose of gaining independence. There may be, however, a very considerable variation in the arrangement of a synchronous course. (a.) The practical side may be emphasized at the start,
and the theoretical at the end of the course. (b.) The two may be
evenly distributed.  (c.) The theoretical side may be dwelt upon
more fully at first, the practical side towards the end. My own view
of the matter favors this last arrangement. The student at first
should be given enough practice to stimulate his mind and explain
the uses of things; but it is at the end of his course, when he is
about to step away from his alma mater, that he needs to know himself, and to have proved himself side by side with people and things;
it is toward the latter part of the course, therefore, that the practical
part should be emphasized.
Thus far I have dwelt upon the first question, i. e., that of sequence. The second question seems to me to be poised in this way:
Are we to depend upon practical scientific schools, or upon educational engineering works?
In Europe the schools, mines, and works are more commonly under
one control. Students can be more readily accommodated with practical advantages. In this country, however, the schools and works
are carried on by different people; besides, the works are under people
who believe that they possess facts which are unknown to any one
else. These facts they regard in a certain sense as their capital. I
fear that the time will never come in the United States, when large
corporations can be made to believe that it is for their own interests
to educate men who will soon be able to take charge of other simiJar works.
The introduction of practical work into the mining course, by the
-use of smelting and ore-dressing laboratories, at the Massachusetts
Institute of' Technology, has proved of the greatest benefit to the
students. The work is upon a scale varying from one hundred
pounds of ore to two or three tons, and gives a great deal of scope
for testing the economy and efficiency both of the processes and of the
individuals. As their laboratories have been developed from year
to year, the students have steadily bettered their attainments. The
work in these laboratories taken together with annual visits to mining regions by the classes, and with careful studies of the mines and
works, have thus far given results which are most satisfactory and
encouraging.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                    1 41
AIR. J. DUTTON STEELE, Member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
The deficiency in our system of educating young men for the pursuits of an engineer are well known to those who have been largely
engaged in directing our public improvements; it is the development
of the theoretical to the sacrifice of the practical. To some extent
this is the case in all professions, but in that of the engineer the lines
dividing the two are strongly marked, and the latter attains an importance which equals if it does not surpass the former.
The first duties of a young man on leaving college are entirely practical, and for such he has little or no preparation, and he soon discovers that he has to enter upon new fields of investigation in which
he has to work haphazard and without the aid of text-books and
teachers, where slow progress is made in the absence of strong mechanical proclivity, or an acute sense of observation.  It is not therefore surprising that many, after spending the best part of their life for
study, discover that they have mistaken their calling and give up
the pursuit, whilst others, feeling that there is a future before them
in the vast fields of practical science, manfully struggle with the obstructions they so unexpectedly find in their way, and after spending
double the time in the school of practice, that they have already done
in that of theory, find at length that they have become something
more than "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to those who are
their inferiors in technical education.
Practical knowledge is something more than the education of the
hand or the eye of the student to skilful manipulations, it is also a
knowledge of the nature of things as they exist, of the imperfections
rather than the perfections of the objects with which he has to deal,
and although his education is an aid to him in his after pursuits,
much that he has learned has to be stored away for a remote future,
or is lost in the pressing needs of the present.
For a clearer view of this subject let us assume that theoretical
education is a knowledge of the forces of nature, and that practical
education is a knowledge of the repellent powers in nature to the application of these forces, and we will see that the latter includes a
larger field of study than the former, and one that is more difficult
to accomplish, as it has not, thus far, been the subject of classification
or system, and is dependent upon the opportunities and powers of
original observation. Bessemer's invention for producing steel rails
was so simple that any novice in chemistry could understand it, yet
he had to study the repellent forces to his process which existed in




142                    DISCUSSIONS ON
the iron ores of England for seven years before he could produce
satisfactory results. In the early history of our public improvements, it was not unusual to find whole series of structures failing
from  imperfect foundations, yet the schools had done their work
well, the plans were good, but those who had charge of carrying
them out had, probably, never seen a bridge founded, and were incapable of forming a correct judgment as to the requirements of the
cases as they were presented to their minds in endless variety. We
have had large amounts of money expended in our coal mining districts in attempts to extinguish fires in coal-mines by anti-combustible gas, overlooking the practical fact that the burning mass was
generating a repellent gas in larger volume and of greater intensity
than could be produced by artificial means, and which would prevent the contact of the extinguishing material with the fire. The
locomotive is the offspring of practice, and it was not until it had
obtained nearly its present perfection (but not its present power),
that scientists resolved its several parts into due proportions, and led
the way to its enlargement and greater efficiency.
Far be it from my intention to undervalue the pursuits of science;
it is the only true foundation upon which to erect a structure of
professional ability, but it is not the structure, and unless the
builder learns how to put his materials together, the structure will
not stand. Nor can the schools be looked to for the production of
such minds as Telford, Stephenson or Bessemer; they are special
creations of Providence for the advancement of mankind in industrial pursuits; they overreach the schools and conduct their investigations in new fields where they are guided largely by the lights of
practice. But we should expect the schools to put forth young men
capable of making themselves practically useful in the pursuits they
have elected for their life-work, and to shield capital, on the one
hand, from the blunders of uneducated pretenders, and on the other,
from that class of scientific devotees who whittle down their theories
to so fine a point that they will not stand.
This can only be done by uniting the theoretical and practical in
the schools of technical education, by giving them equal prominence
in the system, and by letting them go hand in hand as far as possible in the progressive stages of mental and physical development.
Other systems must result in an unnecessary waste of time and
money, and in disappointment to the subject.
It is however more easy to point out the defect than to discover
the means of remedying it. The medical student has his dissecting



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   143
room and hospital, the chemical student his laboratory, the student
of natural history his museum, all of which are complete illustrations
in themselves, but the student of engineering cannot have his examples within the range of college buildings, nor can he have unquestionable control of them, distributed as they are over wide extents of
country. If, however, it is admitted that the practical is of equal importance with the theoretical, an equal proportion of the school term
can be appropriated to each branch of study, and a separate corps of
professors assigned to each. In such an arrangement the practical
teachers must be governed by circumstances during their half of the
school year, but should keep the youth under their personal observation and training during the entire period. In many cases they
could obtain employment for them at a nominal compensation or
gratuitously, in others their time must be spent in inspection and observation. Surveying they could generally get to do, and if not, they
could resurvey what has been surveyed before, and thus perfect
themselves in the use of instruments and in calculating quantities;
they could obtain the plans of.structures, from the most simple to the
most elaborate, and calculate the strains upon them, and learn that
there is a practical as well as a philosophical problem involved in
every operation, from the driving of a spike to the construction of a
bridge, and they could enter the manufactories and mines, and
gather from them a fund of useful knowledge, even if they were not
allowed to assist in the operations.
If it is not considered practicable to so unite the two in a single college course, let them be pursued in alternate years, and so continued
until the desired amount of education is obtained. Our present
system tends too much towards binding up the minds of our young
men in books, and cramps that free range of thought which is necessary to enable them to grasp the multifarious professional demands
of our country, or it so depletes their physical energies that they are
unfitted for the hard outdoor work of an engineer, and consigns them
to the more sedentary duties of the office, in which, useful though
they may be, their chances of advancement are comparatively few.
MR. A. L. TYLER, Member of the American Institute of Mining
Engineers.
The discussion has been very interesting, and I fully agree in the
necessity of a basis of general culture-now this can be laid by the
time a boy is sixteen. Then, to answer the question, "What shall
we do with our boys?" First, let us so prepare them that they shall




144                     DISCUSSIONS ON
get all the advantages of the technical school, which can only be done
by making the preparation more practical in its nature. Take the
time allotted for education up to twenty-one, which is our American
limit. At sixteen put the boy, no matter what his specialty may
be, into a machine shop for a year; teach him to chip and file, and
to hand-tool a shaft; to be independent of the labor-saving machines,
and also teach him to work, and to know that a half dollar represents
ten hours' labor. Then at seventeen let him go back to the school.
His mental powers have only lain dormant, and a short time will
place him on full equality with his comrades, and in advance of
them, owing to his practice. His drawings from models will be far
more easily and thoroughly acquired. After his three years' study,
at twenty, let him take the final year in the shop, learning setting
up, fitting of parts, the use of patterns, etc.
Now at twenty-one he is ready to start. Suppose he is to be a
blast-furnace man. He goes to the weigh scales and weighs iron.
His weights will be accurate, his iron properly graded, and his yard
systematically arranged. If his scales get out of order he will adjust
them himself. He will gradually gain the confidence of the old
founder, who despises " theory blowers," and believes in nothing but
practice, but who fully appreciates his honest work and system, and
he will absorb information as a sponge does water.
In short, what we want is not so much to improve the technical
school as to see that the student shall get all it has to give.
DR. H. WEDDING, of Germany.
Our German institutions for technical education have been so often
mentioned, that I think it may be perhaps not quite uninteresting to
you to hear some more particulars about the technical schools, as
far as they are designed for teaching mining and metallurgy.
There are two essentially different kinds of institutions. One kind,
which are called Mining Schools (Bergschulen or Steigerschulen),
and another, which are called Mining Academies (Bergakademien).
The first are established in the largest mining districts, and are
only designed for the education of working-men; those workmen
who show a desire for a higher education, and excel in industry
and good behavior, are selected by the owners or the directors, and
sent to the mining schools, where they get free lessons, their expenses for living being often paid besides. They have there the opportunity to learn all that is necessary to become good foremen
(steiger), but it is not designed to make engineers out of them.




TECHNICAL EDUCATION.                   145
Sometimes, it is true, one of these young men will show such talent
in the school that he will be sent afterwards to a mining academy,
but that is only the exception.
The method of education of engineers, that is, men who shall
have the faculty to manage mines and melting works of every description and size, control the men, superintend the assays, make
constructions of machinery, furnaces, etc., is quite in another way.
A young man who would become a mining or metallurgical engineer,
ought to go through in the first instance a general school (gymnasium,
realschule), where he gets only a general education, not the least a
technical one. When about twenty years old he leaves this school,
and goes to the Bergakademie, the real technical school. These mining academies are in Germany sometimes institutions for mining
branches alone, and sometimes include other branches, as civil engineering, architecture, etc.
We professors of these academies, or rather most of us, try to get
up the preliminary general education as high as possible, and prefer
the scholars who have a finished general education, finding that
these generally make quicker progress than others, though their
mathematical and chemical knowledge are very low on the average.
Between the general school and entering of the mining academy,
one or two years of practical work in mines or smelting works were
formerly prescribed; but this prescription is now omitted, it being
free to the scholar to do so still, or come at once to the academy,
because we are of the opinion that every young man should be fitted
by the general school morally as well as intellectually to take care
of himself.
But, as the young men or their parents generally ask the professors
for their advice, and this advice is always given for some practical
work before entering the academy, most young men go first to a mine,
a colliery, or a smelting works for at least one year. For a diligent
young man we think one year generally sufficient to get the practical
knowledge which is undoubtedly necessary for the understanding
of the lectures given at the academy.
The purpose of this practical year is neither to make a workman
out of the young scholar, nor an engineer.  He cannot in a year become equally a good puddler, coal-cutter, smelter, etc. He can only
get a practical idea which will enable him to follow the lectures without obliging the professors to dwell upon practical things in a tedious
manner.  It is not necessary that the student shall see all different
kinds of mines and furnaces. If he has studied a colliery well, he will
10




146        DISCUSSIONS ON TECHNICAL EDUCATIO.N.
understand easily the description of a lead mine; if he has studied
a blast-furnace well, he will also understand the description of the
puddling process, etc.
I always advise the young men to take one branch, for instance
puddling, quite earnestly. In working with their own hands, they
not only learn, but appreciate, the powers of a laborer; they know
what they can demand from a man. I speak here from my own
experience. After I finished the gymnasium, I went by the advice of
our well-known German metallurgist, Mr. Karsten, to a Silesian
iron-mill, and learned to work a charcoal finery till I was quite
master of this process. I found it afterwards very easy to manage
and understand all other iron processes, and I appreciate and value
to-day, in my present situation as consulting engineer to the Prussian government for its metallurgical works, the knowledge which
i got in those two years of practical work.
The mining academy takes three years. The question arises, is
it good to mingle practice with the studies?  From my own experience I must question that. The vacations may be well adapted to
continue the practical work, or to make excursions, to travel, etc.,
but study and practical work together seem very irrational.
After the studies at the mining academy are finished, the young
man is generally twenty-five years old, and thinks now about securing for himself a situation, which will enable him to be married
at thirty. He has now no more time in which to work as a workman. Ile now begins his career at a mine or a smelting-works;
at first working just according to his inclination for mechanical or
chemical pursuits, either in a draughting office or in a laboratory,
whence he makes his way as an engineer to the place for which his
ingenuity and his assiduity may fit him.
So the young man leaves the mining academy not as anl engineer,
but with all the foundation to become a good and useful engineer.