I. PREFACEはじめに

--To discuss emergence of technical education in Japan, we should look at a precedent in the United Kingdom because it was brought by Britain, in particular Scotland. We know there was big turning point in the Britain, 1868-1870, when the government launched a plan to set up professional engineering school  for Indian Public Works.

**日本の技術教育は、1871年、工部省工学寮により始まりました。翌年、工部省下の燈台寮、製作寮（横須賀製鉄所）、測量司などが修技校を開設し、イギリスからの教師の到着を待って、1873年9月に工部省全寮司の技術者養成のために工学校を創設しました。日本人技術者育成の必要性は鉄道師長のエドモンド・モレルが提案し、工部省官僚の伊藤博文と山尾庸三の理解の下で、モレルのキングス・カレッジ・コネクションを通して教師が雇われるはずでした。そして、友人のヘンリー・ジョイナーとライマー・ジョンズが来日しましたが、モレルは志し半ばで急逝してしまいます。おそらく、当時、イギリス政府が創設したばかりの「インド工学校」のようなものを造ろうとしたようです。伊藤がアメリカ出張や岩倉使節団参加のために日本を留守にしている間、山尾は旧知のヒュー・マセソンに相談し、主としてグラスゴー大学のランキン教授の推薦で教師を派遣してもらうことに成功します。ランキンは「インド工学校」創設に関わり、自ら工学教育のあり方を考えていました。その同教授の指導の下で学位論文を書いていたのがヘンリー・ダイアーで、ランキン教授から日本の工学寮工学校の校長に人選されると、ランキン教授の考えを日本で実現しようとしました。

ランキン教授は1860年代末には体調を崩し、工学寮工学校の教師人選を終えると、1872年12月には亡くなります。

**インド植民地は、1858年にイギリス政府の直轄植民地になると、その公共事業局技師の不足に直面します。多数の実践的技術者が必要となり、伝統的な徒弟制実務訓練ではない専門的な教育機関を創設すべきか、政府は土木技師協会の協力を得て議論を始めます。この議論はロンドンでは技師や大学教員の間で行われましたが、スコットランドではより広範囲の人物の間で行われたようです。ロンドンのエジンバラでの議論はそれぞれ報告書がでており、以下に揚げ、解題を付します。

II. Discussions in the Scotland from Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. Vol.VII. 1868.

II-1 On the Value of a National System of Technical Education. By John Scott Russel, Esq., Vice-President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Being an abstract of a discourse delivered at the Conversation of the Society, held in the Museum of Science and Art, on 24th January 1867. Awarded the special thanks of the Society.

You will readily imagine that when I accepted the invitation to meet you here, on the occasion of this my long- promised visit to this city, it was impossible for me not to accept with heartfelt pleasure the opportunity of meeting again so many old friends and fellow-workers, and to join once more my efforts to yours in promoting the diffusion of scientific knowledge, and in encouraging and helping its successful applications to all those practical arts, occupations, professions, and industries which feed the commerce and occupy the people of this mercantile country, and which are so rapidly and on so gigantic a scale accelerating the civilisation of mankind. For no less than forty years you and I have been labouring together in this great work of applying science to the advancement of the uses and destinies of our fellow-men. And although I have now been absent from among you for near thirty years, I feel it to be areal pleasure to find that we have not been changed by time in our views of the duties of life ; that you still prosecute successfully your efforts to educate and to advance society ; and that you still feel, as I do, that scientific knowledge has been conferred on society as a great boon from God, and that its purpose 1s to enable men to employ all the great and long-hidden powers of nature for the advancement of the human race, and for the purpose of rendering them more intelligent, more refined, abler, wiser, happier, better than they have been in the earlier, ruder stages of society.

  I join with you, therefore, this evening with great satisfaction in adding my feeble co-operation to yours. It is only an act of gratitude to you to give you the aid of my best thoughts, for it was in the rooms of your Society that, some forty years ago, I read my first paper, on the “ Application of Science to some of the Engineering Arts,” and it was the great kindness with which you then viewed my first efforts that much encouraged me to devote ever since then all my leisure from specific duties to efforts for the advancement of knowledge, to the practical education of the people, and to the application of abstract science to the realities of life. When I left Edinburgh, it was to undertake at Greenock the construction of steam-engines and steamships on a large scale, such as formerly I had only made on a very small one.

  The experience I gained there enabled me afterwards in England to design and construct such vessels on a scale, of a power, with a speed, and with perfections such as in old times we never dreamed of. But I frankly confess to you that it is to the early lessons of science I had the pleasure to learn in your Universities, to the early applications which I learned hete to make of abstract truth to the control, organisation, and direction of matter, of power, and of motion, that I owe any success which I may have had in wielding the great powers of nature, and applying them to human use. The benefits I myself, therefore, derived from technical education and practical training in my youth here, I am desirous to see extended to the generation now about to succeed us in the field of active industry. I am glad to find that the Society of Arts has not slacked its efforts, but has now increasing prosperity and influence, which it is using for important ends. I view with especial pleasure the connection of the Society of Arts with this great Technical Museum, because I see in that a new link uniting science with the practical social well-being of the community,—education through the eye of a more powerful, more rapid engine of popular education than by sounds through the ear. You may try hard to make a man understand a new sort of steam-engine, or cannon, or telescope, by talking to him, or telling him all about it in a book; but show him the thing itself, or its copy in little.

  Do as Mr Archer has done here. Give him not only the thing itself, but a section through the middle of it, so as to show him all its secret structure ; 1n short, turn it inside out, as I have to-day seen done in this Museum, and your young mechanic educates himself in a manner infinitely better than words can tell. Or, if it be a process of manufacture you want to teach him, here is the whole process laid out before him so clearly as to tell the whole story by a kind of pantomime; for there the rude piece of iron or steel can be seen turning out of the rude ore, going through Protean metamorphoses, and at last coming out something utterly unlike the form, shape, colour, property, and power to the rude stuff it started out of.

  Matter itself here speaks that primitive tongue of pantomime which all can comprehend, and speaks home through eye to mind. But although the mere seeing of things here does much important good to the industrious thinker, it will neither answer the multitude of questions which the very sight raises in his mind, nor will it reveal to him the hidden causes which underlie and create the marvels of industry. The young race who follow us have not only to see how things are done, but to do them ; not only to understand things, but to invent them, and make them, and send them out into the world, and put them to work where they are wanted. I rejoice, therefore, to find that you have not erected this great practical collection as a separate and detached institution, but have attached it, as an associate and supplementary institution, to the adjacent institution - our noble, time-honoured, beloved University.

  I rejoice that that University cherishes, encourages, and fosters this younger institution; that it has deposited many of its ancient valued treasures here, and that the chasm from science to practice is bridged over to join the edifice of the Philosophical University to the edifice of the Technical Museum, so that the student who has studied principles there may see their applications here ; and so that the visitor to the Museum, who finds himself unable to comprehend the marvels of the Museum , may go as a pupil to the University, and find there his ignorance illuminated, his doubts resolved by science. I congratulate you, therefore, both as citizens of Edinburgh, as members of this Society, and as old students like myself, and members of the University, on having so closely attached modern art and industry to ancient learning and philosophy. But although what Edinburgh has thus accomplished is admirable, we must still be asking ourselves whether there be not something more which ought to be done, which is wanted, and which the Society of Arts, the University, and the citizens of Edinburgh might advantageously undertake and carry out for the completion of the great purpose of educating and of training the next generation of skilled working men.

  By working men I mean all those men who have to deal with the material world - I mean the working men, as distinguished from the merely thinking, writing, teaching men, though their mental work is often harder, more laborious, more valuable than ours. But for our purposes, I mean by "working men” those who have to go into life in order to wrestle with dead matter, have to try their strength with iron and steel, and rock and water ; who have to overcome the inertia of dead matter , to conquer the resistance of materials, to hew rocks and make them into houses, cities, roads, and bridges ; who have to struggle with masses of iron and steel, and stretch and twist and coil and draw them out into railways, and wheels, and plates, and ships , and guns ; who have to take their skill and knowledge down into the bowels of the earth, and there, without the light of sun or the breath of heaven, have to tear out of their dark recesses the millions of mineral wealth which thousands of years ago the all - seeing, foreseeing God carefully stored up there , ready to reward the toil, the science , and the skill of the adventurous skilled generations which He knew would one day turn to good use the debris of former worlds—which He knew would one day be wanted by that race of instructed men who would one day diffuse the blessings of Christianity, civilisation, and science over the earth's surface.

  These I call working men, and those also I call working men whose skill and study it is to find out in different lands, under different climates, what are the productions in which one country is poor and another rich , and who, on opposite sides of the globe, ask one nation by telegraph what it wants, and tell them back by telegraph that they have despatched a ship with the supply of their wants , and that in return they will receive the superfluous productions of their more genial soil.

  That man who carries the natural products of working men from one part of the globe to another, he also is the working man, and he struggles against time, want, distance, space, ocean, and elements, and diffuses the blessings of each place and climate to all. The man, too, who is toiling night by night to learn how the kinds of matter now useless may be turned to use ; who, out of rude, raw, or refuse matter, is creating new beautiful and valuable substances ; who, by wielding the magical art of the chemist, is gradually converting all that seems valueless and waste to worth and work ; he, too, is a working man in the highest sense of the word . What I now ask you, therefore, is—Does there remain anything more to be done for the education of the working men of the coming generation that you have not done, and might advantageously now proceed to undertake and do? It 18 not the fault of our ancient Universities, of our old and admirable grammar schools, or of our unparalleled parish schools, that they do not at present give to society the full measure of its wants.

  These institutions at an ancient date were probably the first institutions in the world of their kind. The celebrity of our ancient Scottish Universities, of our academies, and, let me say, the well-earned celebrity of our parish schools, at one time extended itself over all the world; but mark what has happened. In old times there were three learned professions—the Church, the Law, and Medicine. For these professions, and for these alone, the Universities were established, and to prepare for the Universities was the highest aim of all our schools, and these aims they have admirably fulfilled.

  Let me ask you whether there are not now more than three professions requiring learning, science, skill, education, careful training for their exercise. Within the last fifty years a multitude of professions, requiring a high degree of training and knowledge, have grown up. It is not the fault, it is the merit of our Universities and schools that these have been created, for it was the light which they gave which sent the men out into the world who have created these new sciences, and created these new professions. We received in our youth an education superior to the then apparent wants of society. But society in fifty years has made centuries of progress.

  What is, then, now our duty? Our duty 1s to give to the rising generation an education so superior to all the wants that we can now see or think of, that they shall be ready to go out into the world, not only knowing all we now can give them to know, but ready and prepared for the enormous advances society is to make in the next fifty years. And who can tell what, in the next fifty years, may be the strides which human knowledge will take? I state the question moderately when I say there are now a multitude of professions requiring as high an education as the clergyman, the lawyer, and the doctor; and it is indispensable for us, if we will do our duty by the next generation, to educate them not only for all we now know, but for all we have good reason to expect to come upon them—so that the world that 1s coming will not find our successors unprepared. Here is a short list of such professions as I refer to—the civil engineer, the military engineer and artillerist, the civil architect, the naval architect, the naval engineer, the mechanical engineer, the manufacturer, the mining engineer, the worker in metals, the agriculturist, the merchant, the professor, and the teacher. All these are professions requiring a profound scientific knowledge and long training; and I think I am not speaking unkindly when I say that I know of no institutions in this country in which young men destined for these professions can enter and find a curriculum prepared for them, where they can go through a regular series of examinations, can have a degree or diploma conferred upon them, and can go out from the school into the world ready to undertake instruction in its practical duties.

  What I ask this Society to do, 1s to join me in the deep interest which I feel in trying to make the generation of young Scotchmen who are to fill our places ready to undertake these duties, and to fulfil them in an equally admirable manner with that in which the Scotch clergyman, the Scotch lawyer, and the Scotch doctor perform their duties—duties the performance of which has gained them celebrity over the whole world. In my time men used to come from every country in Europe to have their professional education in the Universities of Scotland ; and I hope the time will soon come when men of all these professions will come to the Universities of Scotland, because they will find there an admirable curriculum of education organised for them.

  Now, that you may not imagine I am talking to you mere notions out of my own head, allow me to tell you I am only begging you to do for Scotchmen and for Englishmen what people in other countries have already done on quite as large a scale as I want you to do it. In 1848, when I visited Prussia, I found that there the education of working men was much more universal, and carried to a much higher point than in England; and that in Germany schools had been expressly instituted by the Government for the purpose of training men specially for the skilled trades and occupations of active life. All the men destined for mechanical trades were instructed in the laws and principles of mechanics--they were taught to compute the strengths, quantities, constructive values, and prices of all the materials of structures in the construction of which they would have to be occupied : and in the same way special instruction was provided for other tradesmen--for manufacturers, for engineers, and for merchants.

  I am strongly in favour of the establishment of technical schools, colleges, and universities, similar to the polytechnic universities on the Continent, in which men of all professions find a special course of study, provided on a scale of national liberality and completeness sufficient to turn out in each of those professions men fitted by their systematic training and extensive knowledge, not only to practise successfully, but to extend and advance, the respective professions to which they belong.

  Adopting very nearly the Prussian model, I would leave the parish schools to be, as they are at present, the elementary schools for the whole people, and at the age of six no one should be absent from these schools so that at the age of nine every one may be expected to read, write and count.

  Let that be called the first stage, or primary education. The second stage of education is that in which the pupil is to gain knowledge by the means he has already acquired, and that must be done in what I would call a secondary school. The third period of education might begin after twelve, when the pupils ought to be sent to receive that kind of training which would be best adapted to it them for their future career.

  At this point of their education, I think that boys not destined for the learned professions should abandon earned languages, and take, instead, to the practical study of modern tongues, modern history, and modern science. At sixteen, I would send the thoroughly prepared pupil to the technical university or college of the highest class : and here I would commence by giving the boy the training best fitted to secure his distinction.

  What I would recommend to you is to urge in the first place on your university, the great importance of instituting a series of courses of professional instruction as perfect for each of the professions I have named as they already give for theology, medicine, and law. The subjects on which they should give instruction would be such as these—Higher geometry, higher analysis, mental arithmetic, constructive geometry, trigonometric surveying, topographical drawing, land surveying, marine surveying, subterranean surveying, plan drawing, descriptive geometry, perspective, light and shadow, principles of colour, laws of proportion and symmetry, laws of beauty and decoration, principles of motion, principles of pressure, experimental physics, strengths of materials, elements of machinery, mechanical powers, sources of motion , laws of heat, laws of gravitation, steam engine building, shipbuilding, machine building, geology, mineralogy, stone masonry, house building, earthworks, tunnelling, coal mines, iron works, mines , laws of water, hydrostatics and hydraulics, hydraulic machinery, sea works and docks , fresh water works, navigation, seamanship, chemistry, organic chemistry, manufacturing chemistry, chemistry of food, chemistry of health, chemistry of materials, principles of public works, roads, canals, railways, rivers, cities, bridges, sewers, waterworks, gasworks, ventilation, legislation of public works, principles of construction and composition, mechanics, carpentry, turner work, smith work, slater work, plaster work ; Greek, Roman, Oriental, medieval, Gothic, King James , Elizabethan, Italian , and German architecture ; principles of agriculture, botany, physiology of plants, chemistry of plants, animal anatomy, physiology and disease, agricultural implements, buildings, roads, and fences, manufacturing materials, machinery and buildings, principles of merchandise, laws of wealth, political economy, commercial geography, principles of trade and finance, natural productions of all nations, languages of modern commerce, commercial customs of nations ; laws , measures, weights, and moneys of nations , industries of nations, principles of bookkeeping, laws of exchange, principles of gunnery, nature of artillery, laws of projectiles, strategy, and fortifications. No doubt that would require a considerable number of new technical professorships.

  Then, I would ask the managers of this Museum to lay it out in conformity with this long list of subjects which I have given you, so that each professor might have for the illustration of his lectures the contents of this Museum. Then, you must get a great deal more liberal grant than you now have for the professors of your University. The Technical College of Zurich alone receives from the State an annual grant of L.10,000, and that in a country where a five - franc piece goes as far as L.1 here. Your professors ought to have a grant of L.10,000, in order to enable them to undertake the sufficient number of lectures, and sufficient grants to enable them to enlarge adequately their premises ; for you must have enlarged buildings to do what I propose. I hear your enlightened and accomplished Lord Provost has matured a large plan for the further embellishment and improvement of this beautiful city.

  I hear the inhabitants are very liberal and kind about it ; that they sympathise with him, and are going to help him , and give the best proof of their earnestness by allowing themselves to be taxed ; and if there is in this earth a proof of sincerity and benevolence and desire of improvement, it is willingness to be taxed. I would say, as you are going to be taxed at any rate, tax yourselves for this great good ; and let it be one of the clauses in the Act of Parliament, that on one side of this place there shall be a beautiful spot of ground allotted for the enlargement of the University, and for the additional rooms wanted for the purposes of technical education ; and let there be little tunnels connecting the three buildings— the University, this Museum, and the new Technical Rooms, so that the three buildings may compose one great group, and those who work in them may be brought together to co -operate in one great cause.

  The part of the business I should like the Society of Arts to undertake would be, to represent the wants of the arts and manufactures of this country, and to show to the Lord Provost and Town Council , and to the members of Parliament, of how great advantage this technical education would be to the city and to the country, and by every means you have in your power to enforce the necessity of keeping pace with other countries in the education of the men of this country. It is common for us to say, that Scotchmen and Englishmen will succeed every where better than other people . It is common to say, “We have beaten them always in the past, and we will always beat them. ”

  That is braggadocio. That is not the language we ought to hold towards our fellow-men. I grant you the ability of Scotchmen and the energy of Englishmen ; but do you mean to tell me that because your men are better by nature your Society ought therefore to give them a worse education — that because you have a clever man you will give him fewer chances and a worse start than his competitors? I hope I shall hear nothing of the kind ; but rather that because Scotchmen are prudent and frugal and sharp-witted, and Englishmen are energetic and pushing and enterprising, they deserve to have the best education you can possibly give them.

  It is said we are a nation of shopkeepers, and that education is a commodity which is bought and sold, and that it will be regulated by the rule of supply and demand, —that it will fetch its own price, and that it ought to be let alone. That is a false principle of political economy, which has misled the English nation enormously, but which has not misled you so much, because I do not believe it is accepted here.

  This fallacy was first exposed by a Scotchman whose name is dear to you all — the late Dr Chalmers. He said the law of demand and supply does not apply to education, because the law of demand and supply supposes that in proportion to the rarity of a commodity its price is enhanced, and in proportion to the abundance of it is less valued. With education precisely the contrary is true. Those who are ignorant do not care a straw for education, and those alone who have education value it and want to have more of it.

  Therefore, it is not the business of the enlightened part of the community to abandon the education of the unenlightened to themselves ; on the contrary, it is the duty of the educated to educate the uneducated, and of the enlightened to provide for the enlightenment of the unenlightened. I hope that, accepting this view of duty, you will move the State to grant you the means necessary to carry out such an extension of your University system as I have indicated. You have in Edinburgh many clever men, in addition to those in your University, well able to teach the technical sciences ; and you ought to bring them all into one systematic institution, so that they might have the advantages of being together, that they might co -operate with and assist each other.

  Mr Russell concluded by saying there was much he should have wished o add had time permitted ; but if the Society of Arts, the Professors of the University, or the citizens of Edinburgh, would think well of the suggestions he had made, any assistance he had it in his power to render, and any information he could give, he should cheerfully contribute to the furtherance of these purposes.

CONFERENCE ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 1868 Transaction of RSSA, pp391-

  A Conference on Technical Education was held , under the auspices of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, on Friday, 20th March 1868, in the Society's Hall, No.117 George Street, Edinburgh. In the circular of invitations sent out for the Conference it was stated that its object was “to bring prominently before the people of Scotland the great want of scientific and industrial instruction in the education of the various classes of the community, the necessity which exists for a more thorough recognition of science as a branch of study in every sphere of life, and the best means which can be adopted for carrying out a system of technical education in the universities, art and other schools, mechanics' institutions,” &c.

THE EDUCATION AND STATUS OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. COMPILED FROM DOCUMENTS SUPPLIED TO THE Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1868 TO 1870. LONDON, 1870.

INTRODUCTORY MEMORANDUM.

THE Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in issuing this volume on the Training and Status of Civil Engineers in the United Kingdom and in Foreign countries, desire to express, on behalf of the Institution, their cordial thanks for the trouble taken by various correspondents in so fully responding to their inquiry, and for the ready courtesy with which the information so supplied has been in every case communicated.

  A FEW years ago attention was called to the state of technical education in this country, which, it was stated, had been recently shown to be so much inferior to that in other European states as to threaten seriously the industrial interests of Great Britain. The subject was taken up by the Government, and by various public bodies, and much information respecting it was collected and put on record.

  The Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers felt it their duty to interest themselves in that part of the inquiry which bore upon their own professions. During the sessions of 1867 and 1868 suggestions had been made to them with a view to their taking steps for promoting and encouraging the theoretical education of engineering students ; and after considering the subject maturely, they resolved that it would be highly desirable in the first instance to obtain, from the most direct and authoritative sources, full information as to the system adopted for the education and technical training of Engineers, and generally as to the status of members of the profession, in carious foreign countries where this profession had assumed an important position.

With this view the Council issued the following circular : --

THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.

Established 1818. Incorporated by Royal Charter 1823.

25, Great George Street, Westminster, 8.W.

7 July, 1868.

SIR,

  The Council of The Institution of Civil Engineers, being anxious to obtain the most complete and reliable information as to Engineering Education (other than Military Engineering) in different countries, have directed me to seek your assistance and co-operation, with a view to the collection of full particulars of the systems of instruction pursued in your country and elsewhere, their cost to the students and to the State, and the effect, or presumed effect, of such preparatory training upon the profession.

  The accompanying heads of inquiry have been drawn up to serve as & basis for the investigation, but not in the least degree to limit its scope ; and I am to express the earnest hope of the Council, that you will be pleased to promote the object they have in hand to the utmost of your power.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

JAMES FORREST,

Secretary.

HEADS OF INQUIRY

  As to Systems of Engineering Education in different Countries,

  The general system of Engineering Education (exclusive of Military Engineering).

The presence or absence of Government support, and its nature if given.

The courses of study and examinations, if any, required before entering the profession.

A list of the principal establishments for Engineering Education, with programmes of the course of study pursued at each place, and details of the systems of teaching and of the whole modus operandi of communicating instruction. Also a Catalogue of the Text Books employed.

The nature of the Diplomas, or Certificates granted, if any.

Whether the plan of serving a regular pupilage to a practising Engineer, as in England, prevails; and, if so, the fees paid by the pupils, and the duration of such pupilage.

The practice of the profession as to the assumption of the style and title of Civil Engineer, without any previous regular training, certificate, or diploma.

The titles of any printed Reports, or other documents, bearing on the subject of Engineering Education, which may be consulted with advantage.

In addition to this, the Council invited suggestions on the subject from any persons who might be willing to aid in the cause.

  These appeals were liberally responded to, a very large mass of information having been received, consisting of original reports and statements by Engineers of eminence, and by the authorities of educational establishments, accompanied by voluminous collections of printed documents illustrative of the subject, often in minute detail.

  This information has been carefully examined, translated, condensed, abstracted, classified, and arranged, and in some cases, where there was no direct intelligence, reference has been made to published sources of information, in order to render the whole as complete as possible.   The result is now given in the following pages, and the matter has been divided into three parts.

  The First Part contains information collected as to the educational institutions in Great Britain and Ireland, where instruction is given bearing on the profession of engineering.

  The Second Part contains information collected as to engineering education and the status of Civil Engineers in foreign countries.

  In Part the Third are published various suggestions which have been offered to the Council, and extracts taken from various publications, bearing on the subject of engineering education generally.

  It may be desirable here to give a brief summary of the most important points that appear to be shown by these documents in regard to the status of the members of the profession in different countries, and the nature of the education and training they receive.

  It will facilitate any remarks on the latter subject to distinguish clearly between the two kinds of education which it is generally deemed desirable an Engineer should receive.

  In the first place, he should be acquainted with such physical sciences as bear on his profession, and should be familiar with the rules and operations necessary to apply their principles in practice. The imparting of this knowledge may be termed the theoretical education of the Engineer.

  Secondly, he must be acquainted by actual experience with the nature of practical works, and with the operations and processes necessary for their design and construction.

  The obtaining of this knowledge is his practical education.

  This twofold training is not peculiar to engineering, it obtains in almost all other professions. In medicine and in law, for example, the theoretical and practical courses of studies are essentially distinct, and the combination of both is necessary to form the competent practitioner.

THE STATUS AND EDUCATION OF ENGINEERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (Part I.)

  It is hardly necessary to remark, except for the purpose of completing the comparison with foreign countries, that in England the profession of engineering is entirely unconnected with the Government, there being no state corps of Engineers other than those attached to the Army. It is open to any one to enter the profession, and to obtain in it any standing his merits may entitle him to; and all the civil works of the country, whether public or private, are (with some few exceptions, where Royal Engineers have been employed) executed by private practitioners.

  There is, further, in England no public provision for engineering education. Every candidate for the profession must get his technical, like his general education, as best he can; and this necessity has led to conditions of education peculiarly and essentially practical, such being the most direct and expeditious mode of getting into the way of practical employment.

  The education of an Engineer is, in fact, effected by a process analogous to that followed generally in trades, namely, by a simple course of apprenticeship, usually with a premium, to a practising Engineer; during which the pupil is supposed, by taking part in the ordinary business routine, to become gradually familiar with the practical duties of the profession, so as at last to acquire competency to perform them alone, or, at least, after some further practical experience in a subordinate capacity.

  It is not the custom in England to consider theoretical knowledge as absolutely essential. It is true that most considerate .masters recommend that such knowledge should be acquired, and prefer such pupils as have in some degree attained it, and it is also true that intelligent and earnest-minded pupils often spontaneously devote themselves, both before and during their pupilage, to theoretical studies ; but these cases, though happily much more frequent now than formerly, really amount only to voluntary departures from the general rule.

   The theoretical knowledge which may, in these cases, be desired, is obtained either by private reading or by attendance at the scientific classes established at various educational institutions, some of which have made special provision for studies of this kind, as may be seen in the particulars given in Part I.

  The practical education in England is perhaps the most perfect possible, if the opportunities obtained during the pupilage are ample, and the pupil properly avails himself of them ; for nothing can give a student so thorough and useful a knowledge of practical works as being actually engaged for a length of time upon them in a really working capacity ; in addition to which, the habits of business and the familiarity with all subsidiary arrangements, acquired in this way, have a beneficial influence on the student's future career. This thorough proficiency in practical matters tends largely to compensate for -- in many cases to outweigh -- the deficiency in theoretical attainments, and it is undoubtedly this, influenced in some degree by the natural. self-reliance and practical common sense inherent in the English character, which has given such a high standing to the profession in this country. :

The Status And Education of ENGINEERS IN FOREIGN Countries. (Part IL.)

  In most parts of the Continent the status of Civil Engineers differs materially from that obtaining in England. In almost every country of Europe there exists a state corps of Engineers, educated and supported by the Government, whose business it is to construct and superintend the public works of the nation. Private practitioners are therefore excluded from these works, and have to find employment, as best they can, in private industrial enterprises.

  France affords the most perfect example of this system. The Government Corps of Engineers exists under two divisions, viz., the Ingénieurs des Mines and the Ingéneurs des Ponts et Chaussées. The former have the highest rank, and are employed chiefly, but not exclusively, on mining operations, and works allied thereto; the latter take the more general public constructive works, as their name implies.

  There are several classes in each division, Inspectors General, Engineers in Chief, and ordinary Engineers, and promotion is partly by merit and partly by seniority. The total number at present is given (page 43) at 783. They hold a good position in the country; have generally considerable ability ; and include in their ranks some men of great eminence in mechanical Science.

  Members of either corps are allowed, on special application, to undertake private work on the railways of the country (all other private work being forbidden), and receive a sort of furlough for the purpose. But if their absence from their official duties exceeds five years they forfeit their position, and lose all rights appertaining thereto.

  The cases, however, of Government Engineers taking charge of private works are not numerous, as there exists in France a large body of Civil Engineers independent of the Government, and having no official status, who devote themselves to the requirements of private individual enterprises.

  These have to make their own way in the profession, and occupy in fact the same kind of position as Engineers in England, except that they have a sort of official guarantee as to their education, as will be hereafter explained.

  The education of foreign Engineers is strongly contrasted with that in England in every particular. Practical training by apprenticeship is unknown; the education begins at the other end, namely, by the compulsory acquirement of a high degree of theoretical knowledge, under the direction, and generally at the expense, of the Government of the country. Partly with this, and partly afterwards, there is communicated a certain amount of information on practical matters ; but this is imparted in a way differing much from the English plan, and probably with less efficient results.

  Thus, while the English Engineer is launched in his profession with the qualification of a considerable practical experience, but with perhaps little or no theoretical knowledge, the foreign one begins with a thorough foundation of principles, but with a limited course of practice ; a deficiency, however, which tends to correct itself with time.

  The education of both the Government and the private Engineers is on the same system, though carried on in different establishments.

  The Government Engineers must have been at first pupils at a large general scientific educational establishment called the Ecole Polytechnique. Admission to this is by public competition, and the standard is very high—so high, in fact, as to exclude all, but persons already well advanced. The education in this school is exclusively scientific and theoretical, and from it students are taken to supply not only the corps of Government Civil Engineers, but also all the scientific departments of the army and navy.

  After a two years’ course in the Ecole Polytechnique, such young men as are candidates for Government employment as Engineers are drafted off, also by strict examinations, into two special schools for the two departments respectively, namely, the Ecole des Mines and the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, in each of which the studies last three years.

  During the five years thus spent, the theoretical education given to the Engineer is very complete, every branch of science bearing on his profession being taught him, and his proficiency being tested by the strictest examination at the end of the term. On passing the final examination, the pupil enters the corps he is destined for, and begins at once his official duty in the lowest grade.

  The practical education of the pupil, though not so complete or so effective as in England, is by no means neglected. During the three years’ study in the special schools, much instruction is communicated having a practical bearing ; lectures, descriptions, and exercises being given very fully on practical matters, with the object of making the pupil familiar with the general nature of the works he will hereafter have to do with, and so preparing him for his future experience on them. ‘To aid this, the pupils are sent for a considerable portion of the three years on “ missions” to various public works in practical execution under the department they are to be attached to; but whether during these missions they actually take part in the works going on, or merely make observations, and write accounts of what they have seen, is not clear.

  At any rate, at the end of the term (being then twenty three or twenty-four years of age) they are assumed to be capable of doing useful practical work in the lower grade, or third class, and are at once given employment, with pay, as supernumeraries, draughtsmen, or sub-engineers, on some important engineering work in progress, where they gain the further practical experience necessary to fit them for taking more independent positions.

  The education both in the Ecole Polytechnique and the subsequent Special School is mainly at the cost of the Government, the pupil only paying small fees. This fact, and the provision for life which the employment affords, produce a very keen competition for the privileges, which keeps up a high standard of qualification.

  The education of Civil Engineers practising privately is given in an establishment called the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. This was originally founded as a private establishment; but it was afterwards taken to by the State, and is now entirely under Government direction. The instruction, however, is not professedly gratuitous, as the pupils pay moderate fees.

  Admission to this school is open to all who can pass a strict entrance examination; but the applications always much exceed the numbers that_can be received (about 200 annually), and selection is made of the best.

  The course of studies lasts three years, and is generally of the same nature as that given to the Government Engineers, with the exception that mathematical attainments are not pushed quite so high. In the first year the instruction is theoretical only ; in the second and third years theoretical and practical instruction are combined. Thus the school aims at representing a combination, on a less extended scale, of the Polytechnic and special schools of the Government corps. It is, moreover, more general and practical in its nature, so as to prepare the pupil as much as possible for any of the varieties of engineering work that may fall in his way, or indeed for other occupations of a scientific nature. —

  After this course is passed through, a diploma of “ Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures ” is given to those students who have passed the highest public examination, and a lower certificate of capacity to those who have simply satisfied the important points. These documents give no claim to any employment, but are considered such good guarantees of ability, that their holders seldom fail to procure paid employment soon after leaving the school. They begin, like the Government Engineers, in subordinate situations, and gain experience and position as they go on.

  There is nothing to prevent any Engineer from practicing in France who has not been through any of the acknowledged schools, and self-made men of superior practical ability have often succeeded well ; but these cases form the exceptions to the general rule.

  In Prussia, a corps called. Master Constructors (Baumeister) are employed by the State, and are educated as follows :—

  Each officer must first have received a complete general scientific training in one of the ordinary schools or gymnasia of the country.

  He must then be practically engaged for one year with one of the constructive officers of the State.

  He is then admitted into a special Government educational establishment in Berlin, called the Royal School of Construction (Konigliche Bau Akademie), where he remains two years, the studies comprising all branches of scientific knowledge appertaining to engineering and architecture, particular care being bestowed on construction and drawing. He then passes the first State examination, and enters upon practical paid employment in a subordinate capacity.

  After three years of this, he devotes two more years to study, and then passes a second State examination, when he is considered fully qualified for a Government appointment in the higher grade, which he will receive as vacancies occur.

  Thus the complete education of the Government official Engineer occupies in all eight years from the time of his leaving the preliminary school, of which four years are devoted to actual practice -- a feature that appears to be general in Germany, and that remarkably distinguishes the German curriculum from the French one, and brings it more into analogy with the English; with, however, the very important addition of the theoretical acquirements. It has, in fact, the advantages of the English and the French systems combined.

  It is peculiar to the Prussian Government system that the student must fully qualify both in engineering and architecture.

  There is also in Berlin a Government school for private practitioners, called the Royal Industrial Academy (Konigliche Gewerbe Akademie), analogous to the Ecole Centrale of Paris. This has also the feature of requiring the education to be commenced by passing some time in practical employment. The course in the school occupies three years, and the certificate given is generally a sufficient recommendation to remunerative employment.

  In the Duchy of Baden the arrangements for engineering education in the Polytechnic Institution at Carlsruhe are noted for their perfection, and in consequence the school is much frequented by foreigners. Copious information will be found as to this school; and, in order to convey a more complete idea of the nature of the education, there is added a complete list of the questions given for the examination for the Diploma in Civil Engineering in 1867-8. The degree of proficiency, both in theory and practice, required for the proper solution of these questions must be very remarkable.

  The system in Austria seems pretty nearly the same as in Prussia, except that there would appear to be only one educational establishment, the Polytechnic Institute, for all classes of Engineers, and that any students are eligible for Government employment, on passing the required examinations. After examination diplomas are granted, guaranteeing the theoretical and practical proficiency of the student; and licenses to practise in engineering, architecture, and surveying must be obtained from the Government, according to prescribed rules. This restriction on private practice appears peculiar to Austria and some neighbouring states. In Prussia, and most other German countries, as in France and England, the right to practise is free.

  The system in Russia appears pretty nearly the same as in France.

  In Switzerland, the Polytechnic School of Zurich and the Special School of Lausanne bear a high character for engineering education.

  In Italy there are also good educational arrangements.

  In Spain there is a corps of Government Engineers somewhat analogous to those of France, and their education 1s properly provided for.

  In the United States there is no Government system of education, nor does the English practice of pupilage with a premium prevail. It would appear that young men, after obtaining an education in some college or school, enter at once as paid assistants into Engineers’ offices, and afterwards make their way in the profession as best they can.

SUGGESTIONS AND Extracts. (Part IIL.)

  It remains to give a brief notice of the principal points contained in the suggestions and extracts in Part III.

  Sir John Rennie’s communication refers chiefly to the practical knowledge to be acquired during and after pupilage.

  Mr. Conybeare considers that, whereas some years ago the foreign Engineers were deficient in practical experience, and the English in scientific training, at present the former defect has been remedied, but the latter remains, placing the English Engineer at a great disadvantage, as compared with his foreign brethren. He considers that the professional organization in England is defective, and that there is not sufficient security that any one elected to the Institution has really the qualifications of an Engineer.

Mr. Conybeare suggests :—

1. That the Institution might influence for good the scientific education given in the Engineering departments of the colleges and schools.

2. That no Engineer should take a pupil without adequate scientific training.

3. That Engineers in different departments of the profession should exchange pupils for a time.

  Mr. Heppel insists on more theoretical knowledge being acquired before and during pupilage, and suggests that a Faculty of Engineers might be created at one or more of the public universities, not-for educational purposes, but for examination, and the conferring of a degree -- say, “Master in Engineering ’’ -- on competent candidates.

  Mr. Callcott Reilly, admitting the deficiency in theoretical acquirements of so many young men practically studying the profession, suggests that the influence and resources of the Institution might be beneficially employed by the establishment of ** Readerships,” with the object of giving such students instruction in theoretical knowledge, or rather for aiding them in instructing themselves.

  The Society of Arts Committee approve of the system of pupilage, but recommend an extension and improvement of the preliminary scientific education given in ordinary colleges, so that students should enter on their pupilage as well instructed as foreign students enter the special schools of the Continent. The proficiency of students in the college should be tested by examinations, and diplomas conferred, not, however, as certifying competency to practise, but

merely vouching that they have attained such proficiency in the theoretical studies as to be fit to enter on a practical pupilage with advantage to themselves and their employers.

  The examination should be conducted with the aid of two independent examiners, one appointed by the Government, and one by the leading Institution of the profession.

  After pupilage, a voluntary public examination might be held, partly practical and partly theoretical, with the view of testing whether the young men have really profited by the pupilage ; and diplomas should be granted to young men of undoubted merit.

  They recommend that persons taking pupils should give the preference, as far as possible, to those adducing evidence of the possession of adequate scientific instruction.

  Professor Fleeming Jenkin points out forcibly and lucidly the defects of the present English system, and the great superiority of the foreign one as regards theoretical knowledge. His views as to improvement will be found concisely stated on page 204.

  Mr. Scott Russell laments the evils threatened to this country by the deficiency of technical education generally, and recommends large measures for averting them.

  Professor Leone Levi recommends the establishment of an industrial university, or a superior technical institute, for the direction and promotion of technical, industrial, and professional instruction in the United Kingdom.