,11] TECHNICAL EDUCATION ■WS/VS/>rw^<^ WN'WW^ .A.IDX)IiESS DELIVERED B7 PROFESSOR GALBRAITH AT THE OPENING OS THE ENGINEERING LABORATORY OF THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL SCIENCE, TORONTO, FEBRUARY 24TH, 1892. TORONTO : Printed bt Warwick & Sons, 63 and 70 Front Street V/kst. 1892. -t-- — «-3--r TECHNICAL EDUCATION. -A-IDIDI^IQSS DELIVEREP BY PROFESSOR GALBRAITH AT THE OFiiNING OF THK EiNGINEERING LABORATORY OF THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL SCIENCE, TORONTO, FEBRUARY 24TH, 1892. TORONTO : Pbintrd by Warwick & Sons, 68 and 70 Front Street V/est. 1892. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR GALBRAITH, AT THE OPENING OF THE ENGINEERING LABORATORY OF THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL SCIENCE, FEBRUARY 24, 1892. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — The subject of the paper which I propose to read this evening is " Technical Education." In selecting this subject I was influenced not only by its appropriate ness to the occasion, but also by the fact, as it appears to me, that there is more or less vagueness in the public mind as to its objects and methods. . «^ The word technical is derived from the Greek i^'xyt?, an art, handi- craft or trade. The idea involved in this word is the bringing forth or making of material things as distinguished from thoughts and mental images. It is not always safe, as you know, to infer the modern mean- ing of a word from its derivation. Nevertheless it happens that one of the great branches of technical education, as at present understood, is exactly defin^^d by the old Greek word, namely the training of appren- tices in the arts and handicrafts. Technical education in this sense has been in existence since the days of Tubal Cain, the instructor of e^ery artificer in brass and iron ; and to it we owe the greater part of the material progress which has been made since the world began. In these latter days, however, a now application has been found for the term. In consequence of the growing competition for trade among civilized nations, and the recognition of the relations of art and science to production, schools for giving artistic and scientific training to those engaged in industrial pursuits are becoming acknowledged as one of the necessities of modern times. These are known as technical art schools and technical science schools. It is to the latter alone that I propose to direct your attention this evening. From the time of the revival of learning in the middle ages down to the preuent century the energies of the universities and schools have been directed in channels having little or no connection with the mate- rial necessities of civilized beings. The sole exception has been the schools of medicine. That this should have been so may seem strange, but it appears to me that we have not far to go for the explanation. The universities and schools are not the originators of knowledge. They are simply collectors and distributors. Natural science is a thing of modern growth. It had to reach a certain stage of development before the community could become interested in it ; and not until a demand for scientific knowledge had been created could it be admitted into schools of learning. How long, for example, is it since the physical sciences have been made a part of our Ontario school curriculum. . t Herbert Spencer, in an essay on Education, says : — " That which our *• school courses leave almost entirely out we thus find to be that which " most nearly concerns the business of life — all our industries would •' cease were it not for that information which men begin to acquire as " they best may after their education is said to be finished. And were '• it not for this information, that has been from age to age accumulated " and spread by unofficial means, these industries would never have ex. '* isted. Had there been no teaching but such as is given in our public •' schools, England would now be what it was in feudal times. That *• increasing acquaintance with the laws of phenomena, which has ** through successive ages enabled us tD subjugate nature to our needs, *' and in these days gives the common laborer comforts which, a few ** centuries ago, kings could not purchase, is scarcely in auy degree owed '* to the appointed means of instructing our youth. The vital knowledge, '* that by which we have grown as a nation to what we are and which ** now underlies our whole existence is a knowledge that has got itself " taught in nooks and corners, while the ordained agenc'es for teaching *' have been mumbling little else but dead formulas." It seems to me that these words of Spencer should be taken rather as an indictment of the community than of the schools There has been, and may yet be to some extent, opposition on the part ■>f men per- meated with the older culture to the introduction of the physicil sciences into the schools, but this opposition is disappearing as the sciences grow and prove their fitness for a place in the educational system. One of the main obstacles to the introduction of the teaching of science, even after its importance had been fully recognized, was the large outlay required for the necessary apparatus. Scientific investigation is both qualitative and quantitative. The teaching of science on the quali- tative side consists in the enunciation and illustration of principles. The apparatus required for this purpose is comparatively inexpensive, and may be improvised to a great extent by the teacher. In many cases no apparatus at all is required — simple observation of natural phe- nomena being sufficient. The case is altogether different when the prin- ciples of science are to be investigated quantitatively. Instruments for making precise observations and measurements must be used. These * instruments are expensive and cannot be made by teacher or student. The highest mechanical skill is required for their manufacture, and patience, time and opportunity for their use. Laboratories have to be equipped, and the whole time of teacher and student given up to work with the hand, eye and ear. , , ^ It is not to be wondered at, that the introduction of science into the curriculum has been slow. Now that it has been accomplished the question naturally arises, Wherein exists the special necessity for the establishment of technical scientific schools ] I think it may be answered thus : In all schools for the teaching of professions and callings, whether we choose to consider them technical or not, it is an admitted necessity that the teachers should be practical men in such professions and occupa- tions. What would be thought of a medical school in which the teachers were not physicians ? of a law or divinity school in which they were not lawyers and theologians ? In like manner the teachers in technical schools should be engineers, architects, maaufacturers, arti- zans, miners and agriculturists if it is possible to get them. The diffi- culty which exists at present to a large extent, but which will disap- pear with the progress of technical education, is that there are very few men in the above professions and occupation .vho have had a sufficient/ training in science to make them successful teachers — their knowledge is practical, not scientific. The teacher in a technical school should be more or less acquainted with the various trades — with the methods in vogue for handling and transforming material. He should know how things are done and made in actual life and on the commercial scale. 4 Ho ought to have a better perspective, 30 to Hpealc, than the purely scientific man in reference to the needs of his students, and should be able to meet them more nearly on their own plane, and interest them in science by selecting his illustrations from their work, a^hial or pro- spective. It is of the first importance that he should keep himself informed in the latest manufacturing j)roce8sos. This cannot be done by reading. The text-books are always years behind the times in this respect. Manufacturing and engineering periodicals are better, but still they convey little or no idea of the scale on which work is done. Personal observation, travel, and engaging in outside work whenever possible are the only methods whereby the teachers in technical schools can gather the proper material for illustrating scientific principles and maintaining the interest of students in their work. The principal work of a technical school is the teaching of science and not, as many suppose, to turn out fully fledged engineers, archi- tects, manufacturers and tradesmen ; all that it can pretend to do is to turn out partially educated men. The graduates must supplement the work in the school by practical experience in after life before they ac- quire the light to call themselves practical men. The practical work of the school differs in many respects from the practical work of actual life. Where it is work of the same kind, as for instance, drawing, designing, the use of surveying instruments, lathework, smith work, etc., yet the feeling of reality and responsibility is lacking. It is a very different thing to make mistakes in school work from making mistakes in similar work in actual life. A man is vastly more impressed by the necessary punishment which follows mis- takes in the serious business of life than he can be by the arbitrary penalties instituted by the faculty. Again there is a great body of knowledge necessary to complete a man's practical education which it would be only an utter loss of time to attempt to give in a school, simply because there are no well-defined threads of scientific thought upon which to string it. Three-quarters of the information to be found in an engineers' hand-book would be use- less in the curriculum, although all-important in practice. Such knowl- edge becomes useful only when impressed by experience. The establishment of engineering laboratories marks a new departure in technical education. Surely it will be said, the work in these labor- atories in practiccl. So it is, but not perhaps in the sense in which the ijuestion is put. The steam engine in an engineering laboratory is not used for the same purpose as the factory engine. In the shop it is used for manufacturing purposes ; it is placed in the laboratory for the pur- pose of being experimented upon. In the laboratory it is tried at dif- ferent speeds, worked condensing and non-condensing, with varying steam pressures, with and without steam-jacketing, with difForent amounts of lead and cushioning, with diUerent counterbalances for crank and connecting-rod, with varying clearances, with simple and multiple expansion. The work done at the main shaft is accurately measured ; likewise the work in the cylinder — the feed water and con- densing water are weighed— the degree of dryness of the steam deter- mined. In short, in thf laboratory all the conditions which may affect actual practice are expertmentally investigated. It is only in this way that the principles governing the construction and action of engines can be fully determined. What would an employer do with a man who should attempt any auch work with the factory engine 1 He would simply give him to understand that his usefulness was gone, and that he had better look for employment at ihe School of Practical Science. Again, since the teaching of principles is the main object of a school of applied science, it seldom happ'ina to be useful to complete any of what is CTdinarily called practical work, as would be necessary in actual life. To do so would occupy too much time. Practical constructions involve so many and various considerations and methods, that the attempt to complete them would simply be reverting to the old state of affairs when the apprentice gained his knowledge altogether on actual work. The study of the sciences would be so much interrupted and confused by auch a method as to be of very little value. The practical ■work of a technical school in so far as it is of the same kind as that of after life must be selected and pursued rather as illustrating the prin- ciples of the special science under consideration than for the sake of the work itself. In practical life, on the other hand, the result is the thing aimed at, and it matters nothing to those who pay for this result how it was arrived at, whether by rule of thumb or by the application of scientific jprinciples. The work of the school is more analytic than synthetic, 8 more destructive than constructive. The student pulls, as it were^ machines to pieces in order that in after life he may learn to put them together. His proper work is investigation and experiment. After he graduates, his work on the contrary is construction and design. It would not be advisable to give equal prominence to both kinds of work in the school. The time is too short and the feeling of responsibility which should govern construction and design is absent and cannot be artificially excited. Make-believe work is essentially false and unscien- tific. The arrangement of the courses of study in the School of Practical Science is in accordance with these principles. The departments of instruction are civil, mining, sanitary, mechanical and electrical en- gineering — architecture, analytical and applied chemistry, and miner- alogy and geology. In addition to the instruction given in the school the students take such work in the University of Toronto as is necessary. The university work is mathematics, physics and chemistry. Up to the present session mineralogy and geology have also been taken in the university. The greater part of this work will henceforth be taken in the school. Through the exertions of the Hon. the Minister of Education and the liberality of the Provincial Legislature an engineering laboratory has been established and is now approaching completion. The Dominion government have also contributed their quota by relieving the school from the payment of customs duties on such apparatus and machinery as it was found necessary to import from abroad. It may be of interest to you to have a short description of the main features of this laboratory. ' It consists of three departments : First, the department for testing materials of construction. Second, the department for investigating the principles governing the applications of power. This department ia subdivided into the steam laboratory, the hydraulic laboratory and the electrical laboratory. The third department may be termed a geodetic and astronomical* laboratory, as the work to be done in ii, which relates principally to standards of length and time, is of special importance in these sciences. In order to prepare specimens for the testing machines a shop has- been fitted up with a number of high-class machine tools specially suited 9 for reducing the specimens to the requisite shapes and dimensions with a minimum of hand labor. It is also fitted with the necessary appliances for making ordinary repairs. The machines in the department for testing materials are the follow- ing :— - An Emery 50-ton mach. e built by Wm. Sellers