No. 175.

Contents.

193

New Companies.

198

Gazette Notices

199

193

Patent List

Official Memoranda

194

Faults in Glass and Their Recognition...

199 199 201

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Vol. VII.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

UTUMN has come, and the youth of the country is girding up its loins for the struggle in the coming winter. Already the "shouting of the captains" is to be heard, and programmes of the various instructors, good, bad, or indifferent are to be seen, inviting all who are interested to come and partake of the goodly feast of reason and flow of knowledge to be found within the gates of their respective academies. Among others, the voices of those are heard who invite the student to attend their particular courses of technical instruction in this, that, or the other branch of industry, including, we need not say, the subject of Technical Chemistry. We are not without some experience, both as regards those who teach Technical Chemistry, and those who have been their pupils, with the result that we are disposed to take a view of the subject which compared with some of the recent radiations of shining scientific lights will, perhaps, be deemed heretical. The student of science, whether he knows it or not, should be actuated by a definite purpose, and it is necessary here to point out that the definite purpose should be sufficiently limited in its scope to give the student a reasonable chance of its successful accomplishment. A student may become possessed with the definite purpose of acquiring a technical knowledge of nearly every chemical industry existent, and we must say that one or two of the prospectuses we have seen would tempt the youthful enthusiast to do this with the result that his little knowledge becomes a dangerous thing to himself and his future employers.

If, therefore, a student requires to know technical chemistry in its relation to Tar Distilling, or Dyeing and Calico Printing, it seems to us that it is unwise for him to devote his attention simultaneously to the acquisition of the chemical details of the manufacture of Sulphuric Acid, or Oil, Tallow, and Grease Refining, or Chemical Manures. This then brings forward the question, are the courses of instruction usually given in technical schools or colleges properly framed to ensure this end. Without professing to know all the different methods, we would say that those systems are wrong in which a whole body of students, having various and diverse definite purposes in view are grouped together in a lecture theatre, and submitted to a series of discourses consisting largely of formulæ and elementary principles, which are usually and rightly to be found in courses of instruction in chemistry, pure, simple, and non-technical. We believe that for a person contemplating the study of dyeing and calico printing, for instance, the best thing is to at once recognise that there is no royal road; that he cannot acquire the desired knowledge all at once; that he should sufficiently master the principles of inorganic and organic chemistry, to pass-let us say-the advanced stage of the Science and Art Department, and then devote his attention to the particular branch in question, with singleness of purpose and under a competent instructor. A saying is attributed to P. T. Barnum, that "if you keep on hammering at one nail, you are pretty sure to get it home at last; " the truth of which is too obvious to be gainsaid.