Philip Magnus

“ Then, again, there are many branches of manufacturing industry which greatly depend for their success upon the designer’s art, and it is necessary that the industrial designer should possess a knowledge of the processes of the manufacture in which his designs will be utilized, as well as of the properties and capabilities of the material to which they will be applied. Indeed, it is the possession of this knowledge which mainly distinguishes the industrial designer from the ordinary artist. To determine the best training for such designers is one of the problems of technical education. ”

“ The ordinary education of all persons who are likely to be engaged in productive industry should be determined by the general requirements of their future work. This proposition affects the curriculum of all schools in which different classes of producers are to be trained, i.e. of primary, secondary, and higher schools, and involves the consideration of the extent to which, in such schools, modern languages, science, drawing, and manual instruction should take the place of literary and classical studies. ”

“ To these advantages of technical education, as affecting the workmen themselves as well as the progress of the industry in which they are engaged, must be added the general improvement in the character of the work produced, resulting from the superior and better-trained intelligence of those who have had the benefit of such instruction. ”

“ If the demand for technical instruction is to be fully satisfied, a great part of our existing system of education must be reconstructed, and the training provided in our several schools must be made a more fitting preparation for industrial work than it is at present.
Schools in which the course of instruction is not specialized with a view to any particular industry, but is so arranged as to form a general preparation for manufacturing or other trade pursuits, are often spoken of as professional, technical, or trade schools ”

“ It is thought that, by developing to a higher degree the intelligence and skill of those children who show aptitude for scientific and practical work, they will be able, when they enter the shop, to learn their trade more quickly and more thoroughly, and to acquire that general knowledge of their work, and to exhibit those special aptitudes, which may qualify them for the position of foreman or manager. ”

“ The history of invention shows how frequently important improvements in machinery are made by the workman or minder in charge of it, and adds weight to the arguments already adduced for giving technical instruction to persons of all grades employed in manufacturing industry. ”

“ For, whilst workshops for instruction in the use of tools are found in very few of the polytechnic schools, the laboratories, for the practical study of chemistry and physics, are perhaps better fitted and under more eminent professors at some of the German universities than at the polytechnic schools. At the same time, engineers of every description, architects, and builders, besides a great number of manufacturing chemists, find in the polytechnic the scientific and technical training which the lawyer or i^hysician, and in many cases the industrial chemist, seeks in the university. ”

“ The education of all classes of workpeople begins in the public elementary schools; and, in view of the future occupation of the children, it may be taken for granted that primary instruction should be practical, and should include drawing and elementary science, with some amount of manual training for boys, and with needlework, cookery, and domestic economy for girls. ”

“ In consequence of these altered relations between employer and employed, there is an acknowledged want of properly trained workmen in a number of trades in which skilful hand work is still needed; and in these trades a demand has arisen for technical schools, or some other substitute for apprenticeship, as a means of suitably training workmen and foremen. The ever-increasing competition in production has led to the employment, in many trades, of children to do work of a mechanical kind requiring little skill ”

“ They are well attended by workpeople of all grades, who are encouraged by their employers to profit by these opportunities of instruction. In England evening technical instruction is more systematically organized than in any other country. It is under the direction of the committee of the council of education known as the Science and Art Department, and of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the advancement of technical education, an institute founded and supported by the corporation and by a large number of the livery companies of London. ”

“ Most of the provincial colleges may indeed be regarded as technical schools with a literary side. In order that they may provide university education in addition to sound technical instruction, it is necessary that they should be placed on a sound and satisfactory footing by means of state endowment. Of the more recently erected English colleges, the Owens College at Manchester is the most important, combining the faculties of a German university with those of a polytechnic school. The Yorkshire College, Leeds, possesses a special school for the teaching of weaving and dyeing. ”

“ Generally, an apprenticeship school should be looked upon as a temporary expedient, as a form of relief applied at the birth or during any temporary depression of a particular industry. The proper training school for workmen is the factory or shop. ”

“ In nearly every country of Europe, and in the United States, primary instruction includes drawing, in addition to reading, writing, and reckoning. In England this is not yet the case, drawing being taught in very few schools outside of the jurisdiction of the London school board. In France, Belgium, Holland, and Sweden handicraft instruction is generally included in the curriculum of elementary schools. Rudimentary science is also taught in nearly all the primary schools of Europe. Modelling is taught both to boys and girls in many Continental schools ”

“ In University College and King’s College, London, the metropolis possesses two institutions each of which may be likened to a university and a polytechnic combined. In the nniversity of Cambridge there are mechanical workshops in connexion with the chair of engineering. The Royal School of Mines and the normal schools of science and art in South Kensington are the only technical institutions in England supported by state aid. The central institution in London has more in common with the German polytechnic school than any other institution in Britain. ”

“ In some of the large cities — in Berlin, Vienna, and Munich, for instance — ^the university and polytechnic coexist; and in certain cases, in which a very special training is required to fit a youth for his career, the German student, after spending three or four years at a polytechnic school, passes on to another institution, such as a dyeing school, in which his studies are further specialized with a view to his future work. ”

“ In all the principal towns throughout Europe evening classes have been established for teaching drawing, painting, and designing, and the elements of science in their application to special industries. On the Continent these classes are mainly supported by the municipalities, by the chambers of commerce, by industrial or trade societies, by county boards, and in some cases by the fees of the pupils. ”

“ VTiere a new industry, especially in. rural districts, lias to be created ; where decaying industries need to be revived ; where machinery is superseding hand work, and, owing to the demands for ordinary hands, there is a dearth of skilled workmen ; where through the effects of competition and other causes the trade is carried on under conditions in which competent workmen cannot be properly -tiained in the ordinary shop, — in these cases, and in various art industries, an apprenticeship school may prove to be the best means of training workmen, and of advancing particular trades. ”

“ What such manufacturers require are the services of a few skilled engineers, artistic designers, or scientific chemists. From the manufacturer's point of view, therefore, technical instruction is not so much needed for the hands he employs in his work as for the heads that direct it. ”

“ Rapidity of execution is attained by keeping a workman at the same work, which after a time he succeeds in mechanically performing, and continues to do until some machine is invented to take his place. In most trades, as formerly practised, the master employed a few apprentices who assisted him in his work, and who learnt from him to understand the details of their craft, so that, when the term of their apprenticeship was over, they were competent to practise as journeymen. ”

“ The students spend from six to seven hours a day in the workshop, and are trained as fitters, founders, smiths, and pattern-makers. As in all such schools, , saleable goods are produced, but, as production is subordinated to instruction, the school does not bind itself to deliver work at a given date, and therefore does not compete with any manufacturing establishment. The students on leaving these schools are com- petent at once to undertake the duties of foremen, managers, or draughtsmen. ”

“ There are many trades, too, in which the handicraftsman and the designer should be united. This is the case in such industries as wood-engraving, metal-chasing, and silversmith’s work. In these and other trades the true artisan is the artist aud handicraftsman combined. ”

“ In most of these schools drawing is taught with special reference to local industries. ln England an attempt is being made to attract children to evening schools by means of recreative classes. These classes are intended to continue the child's general education, and to supplement it by some amount of practical teaching between the time that he leaves the elementary school and is prepared to take advantage of evening technical instruction. The training of most workpeople, and of nearly all those who are engaged in manufacturing industry, consists of— (1) primary teaching in elementary schools ”

“ In the evening classes organized by the depart- ment, as well as in those in connexion with the institute, the workman or foreman engaged in any manufacturing industry has the opportunity, by payment of a very small fee, of studying art in all its branches, science theoretically and practically, and the technology of any particular industry. ”

“ In such trades, owing to the absence of facilities for instruction in the ordinary shops, there is a want of skilled hand labour which there is an increasing difficulty in satisfying, and to supply this want technical schools of different kinds have been established. ”

“ A separate professor is engaged to lecture on that particular subject with which he is specially conversant, and the number of such professors attached to a polytechnic school is very large. In the engineering department there are six or seven distinct courses of lectures under the direction of thirteen professors. ^ The largest and most recently constructed of aU these institutions is the polytechnic school of Berlin, which was completed in 1884 at a cost of about £450,000. In France the institutions in which the highest technical instruction is given are concentrated in the capital. ”

“ Tinder such an artificial system of production, the pupil is less likely to acquire excellence of workmanship and smartness of habit than in the mercantile shop, under the strain of severe com- petition.. Moreover, the cost of maintenance of these schools renders it impossible to look to them as a general substitute for apprenticeship. By sending into the labour market, however, a few highly-trained workmen, who are absorbed in various works and exert a beneficial influence on other -workmen, these schools serve a useful purpose. ”

“ Drawing is always well taught, and the schools generally contain good chemical laboratories, as well as collections of physical apparatus and museums. From the children of these schools the ranks of fbremen are largely recruited. They receive no special trade instruction, but the general training is so arranged as to qualify them for higher posts ?n industrial works. ”

“ The school is the substitute for the shop. In such a school the pupils have the advantage of being taught their trade systemati- cally and leisurely, and production is made subsidiary to instruc- tion. ”

“ Provided his early education enables him to take advantage of this instruction, no better system has been suggested of enabling workmen, wlxilst earning wages at an early age, to acquire manual skill by continuous practice, aud at the same time to gain a knowledge of the principles of science connected with their work and explanatory of the pro- cesses of the manufacture in which they are engaged. ”