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 skillful, at least as soon as the common laborers who form the usual reinforcement. 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 three parties concerned—the owner, the student, and the operative. A large number of young men may be found studying in machine 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 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 fruitful ness. 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 respondents-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 ferreted 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 formulæ of heat, chemical affinity, and mathematics itself. 222 MEMORIAL OF ALEXANDER LYMAN HOLLEY. The first step is to recognize the fact, and I beg engineers, especially those who, from their scholastic habits, see least of the every-day 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 countingroom 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 coöperative 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. INDEX. American Institute of Mining Engineers, Memorial Session, 18. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Memorial Session, 56. Catalogue of the Books, etc., written by A. L. Holley, 143. Chanute, Mr. O., Remarks of, 39. Civil Engineers, American Society of, Resolutions of, 97. Civil Engineers' Club, Cleveland, Action of, 151. Civil Engineers, the Institution of, Telegram of, 49. Clarke, Mr. T. C., Remarks of, 37. Cleveland Civil Engineers' Club, Action of, 151. Coryell, Mr. Martin, Remarks of, 37. Coxe, Mr. Eckley B., Remarks of, 42, 76. Coxe, Mr. W. E. C., Telegram from, 52. Dutton, Captain C. E., Remarks of, 29. Egleston, Dr. Thomas, Remarks of, 33. Emery, Mr. Albert H., Remarks of, 92. Engineering Science and Art, the Inadequate Union of, 205. Engineering, the Intermediate Power between Nature and Civilization, 167. Fernie, Mr. John, Remarks of, 75. Forrest, Mr. James, Letter of, 50. Fritz, Mr. John, Remarks of, 45. Feneral Services, 9. Great Britain, Action of Iron and Steel Institute of, 160. Hewitt, Hon. A. S., Remarks of, 23. Hoadley, Mr. J. C., Remarks of, 82. Holley, Mr. A. L., Remarks of,. at the Pittsburgh_Testimonial Presentation, 164; Holley, Mrs. Mary H., Letter of, 54. Holloway, Mr. J. F., Remarks of, 40, 84, 151. Hunt, Dr. T. Sterry, Remarks of, 21. Inadequate Union of Engineering Science and Art, 205. Jones, Mr. W. R., Remarks of, 46. Leavitt, Mr. E. D., Jr., Remarks of, 28. Macdonald, Mr. Charles, Remarks of, 40. Maynard, Mr. G. W., Remarks of, 35. Mechanical Engineers, American Society of, Memorial Session, 56. Mining Engineers, American Institute of, Memorial Session, 18. Nomenclature of Iron and Steel, 171. Partridge, Mr. William C., Remarks of, 94. Pechin, Mr. E. C., Remarks of, 47. Pittsburgh Testimonial, The, 162. Porter, Mr. Charles T., Remarks of, 81. Raymond, Dr. R. W., Remarks of, 19; Memorial Address of, 99. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y., Action of Trustees of, 157. Richards, Mr. Windsor, Telegram from, 50. Ricketson, Mr. John H., Remarks of, 38. Rothwell, Mr. R. P., Telegram from, 51. Sandberg, Mr. C. P., Telegram from, 50. Snelus, Mr. G. J., Telegram from, 50. Some Pressing Needs of our Iron and Steel Manufactures, 182. Taylor, Mr. W. J., Remarks of, 47. Technical Education, 205. Thomas, Mr. Sidney G., Telegram from, 50. Thurston, Professor R. H, Remarks of, 49, 56. Twichell, Rev. Joseph, Remarks at Funeral, 9. Weeks, Mr. J. D., Remarks of, 52. |