The Indianapolis journal., 1883-03-08

best advantage OF the school, and miss the
all-important opportunity of applying their
Theoretical knowledge as they go along.
If, on tine other hand, boys defer the shop
till after graduating they will find many
excuses for sighting it or for not doing it all
At the age OF twenty, with a good knowledge
of drafting and well-disciplined faculties
American boys would be far more likely to
turn into craftsmen or to take their chances
in business than to submit to the dull rou-
tine OF elementary shop practice. Theoreti-
cally there is much to be said in favor of this
plan. for it brings to the workshop the
trained powers of the school, and makes the
practice continuous. 1t is the plan of the
Russians, in the Imperial Institute of Tech
nology at st. Petersburg, when the students,
after a four years course in pure technology,
with the usual holidays and vacations, re-
turn on the 1st day of September and work
in the machine shops till the 1st day of the
following September, ten hours day, with
out vacations, and the results are very salts
factory But the Russians can carry out
such system inasmuch as the government
controls the positions to which the students
aspire, and without which they must starve,
and make the fifth year of practice COM
pulsory
Very few who have had much experience
in teaching American boys believe that such
a plan could be successfully adopted here,
There are many solid, positive reasons in
favor of incorporating the shop practice with
the intellectual discipline. The period of
boys life between sixteen and twenty-one is
the period of sharp acquisition; ideas taken
then remain in a special sense part OF the
mental furniture forever and are incorporated
with the mind. Probably no one, whose
course OF education is uninterrupted, ac
quires as much or retains what he acquires
as long as between the ages mentioned. 1t is
an interesting fact that the enthusiasm which
an American boy cherishes for his college, an
English boy feels for his school, where the
training he most values was received. The
American hurrahs for Yale or Harvard-the
English for Eton or Rugby. Floreat Etona
shouted Lieutenant Digby at the head of his
battalion i'll the Zulu war, and a moment
later was shot. The same would be true
here were all our boys fitted for college at
few large schools and fitted as we'll
This being true, shop practice has an ad-
vantage 1t would otherwise lose in coming
into this period. Again, a man whose ma
tured and furnished mind has laid hold of
the string problems of theoretical mechanics
in school and who finds himself on the
threshold OF manhood, does not bend him
self with just the same ease to the simple
elements OF machine-shop practice as an un-
graduate does'
WHAT WILL BE ATTEMPTED.
''In the Rose school the following modifi-
cations OF the Worcester plan will be at
tempted:
81. The course of study will be four hours
instead of three and half
-. The practice will be concentrated in
the first year and diminished in the fourth,
so as to allow more time for instruction in
machine design
"3. While the same subjects will be
taught, perhaps more attention Will be given
to the Hennaucties
Il. different view will be taken here of
the profession of civil engineering from the
one usually held The young men who
propose to be civil engineers will spend
part of their practice time in the machine
shop.
Civil engineering cannot easily be sepa-
rated from mechanical because the most inn
portant business of a civil engineer nova
days is not surveying and mapping but
bridge and building construction, the set
ting of water-wheels and other engines and
such like undertakings which involve a
knowledge of mechanics, SO that two or
three of the best so-called civil engineers in
the country have given it as their firm
judgment that course in mechanics includ-
ing workshop instruction, is the best way to
prepare for the practice of civil engineering
But, on the other hand the building of
new highways and railroads still goes on and
calls for certain number of young
men who are expert in the use
of the transit and level, especially in
railroad problems, who know how
TO draw and who are expert in mensuration;
hence, training for this sort of employment
cannot be neglected in polytechnic school,
1t would conduce to clearness to call such
work Typographical engineering.
IAN added consideration of some weight
in favor of retaining distinct department
of Typographical engineering is that many
Of the M hn frapnant Olo Il
cal schools have no taste or aptitude for me-
chanical work, and some have not the re-
quisite physical vigor for it, whose fitness
for success in field work or in mapping is
unquestionable But it will be clearly ad-
vantageous to all to have workshop practice.
But no changes will be made except such
as reason and a large experience show to be
desirable and ADVANTAGEOUS to the student
But healthy child wants food. An
adequate beginning must be sustained by
continual contributions in order to good pro
gress. We want the sympathy and patient
consideration of the community we want
books, apparatus and models constantly in
excess of the resources of our funds. The
example of the founder is worthy of atten-
ton.
'The machine-shop is ready; a reference
library will soon be on the shelves and
cabinet OF minerals is on hand and on the
way into suitable cases; ample models are in
nand ana on the way Tor the proper equip
ment of rooms for drawing and design. The
brick for new building for a chemical labor
atory are now lying in the yard; apparatus
for chemistry, physics and field work is in
the building or provided for; commodious
recitation and lecture-rooms are ready when
wanted.
Il hope also in the course of time TO col
lect models and examples of the best me-
chanicaI devices, and also of the leading man
factures.
''These collections If models play very
important part in European archaeological
schools, and for obvious reasons. Indeed,
the outlay in some cases is enormous and
would be insupportable did not manufac-
turers find their account in placing here ex-
amples of their best work. At Chemnitz
saw two good examples of the class: One a
perfect working model of the Hartmann To-
comotive, which cost So, 900, and the other
larger working model of the Merkel station
ary engine worth S250-each presented by