Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10

The importance of form is seen in great
many other products of steel and iron.
Thus, every ploughshare or propeller is an
example. In designing the teeth Of wheels
the complicated curves are often struck out
with much mathematical refinement, the
designers purpose being to produce tooth
which will push and not grind its mate.
Without any mathematics, however, the
rightoutline is indicated in observing how
the contour of even a carelessly cut tooth
is modified in actual wear. Again, in some
what the same way, current of sand and
water as it courses through pipe gives
valuable hints as to how its bends may be
changed for the better. Builders of yachts
and ships are much concerned to find out
lines giving them the highest speed, or the
highest speed compatible with carrying
capacity. To aid them in their quest they
sometimes make model in wax, suspend it
propel it at various speeds through trough
of water. This Is the practice of firm OF
builders in Dumbarton, Scotland. Would
1t not be better to make q model in chalk
and move it either through sand or through
mixture of water and sand? The form as
modified by the abrasion might suggest the
figure best suited to move with least resist
ance as a ship.
The Education Of Ingenuity.
As we observe ingenuity at work in these
and kindred ways, doing old tasks with new
economy, or conferring gifts distinctly new
upon mankind, the question arises: Can this
faculty Of invention BE- educated? OF course
in its core and essence it proceeds from an
incommunicable somewhat born with man;
but cannot education do much to elicitit, In
form it, direct it to needed work, keep 1t.
from wasting itself on what has already
been done, and from attempting the sheerly
impossible? Undoubtedly. yes And, al
though we have as yet no distinctive college
of invention as we have institutes of tech
nology and academies of art and design,
gifts Of ingenuity are not neglected in our
schools. It has become clear to the edu-
Gators of this country that the most valu-
able asset America possesses is neither her
iron ore nor her wheat harvest, but the
dormant capacity of her children for inven-
tion, as for other fields of human service.
To-day educational methods are, therefore,
more and more addressed to pupils
original faculty. A teacher of the best type
does not pour information into the passive
mind of his scholars, but having given a
child the elements of knowledge, leaves him
to take the next step by an Independent
effort Of reason or judgment.
One of the pioneers in this creative view
of education was William George Spencer,
distinguished teacher, the father of Her
bert Spencer. When, for example, he
taught geometry, he did not take his classes
through Euclid along the well-traveled
paths, but set for his pupils problems of his
own devising. The main principle of this
new education is that just as pupil gets
better idea of wheel and axle by making
and using them than by hearing about
them, or even by seeing pictures of them, SO
does he get a firmer grasp of the geography
of America, when he outlines the contour
of its great rivers and marking the sites of
its chief cities =
Can't Create Edisons and Bells.
Nobody imagines that any scheme of edu-
cation, however wise, can implant the in
tuitions, the resourcefulness of such men
as Edison or Bell. But it can smooth the
path of the most original mind, and in the
years of mental Elasticity call out the best,
because the individual powers of youth,
who otherwise would earn the stigma Of dull
ness, are really chargeable to the teachers
who neglected to find out what was in him
and draw it out ut the right time.
A plan of education that develops the
creative faculty which every scholar pos
sesses in some measure will, of course, be
most galnful where that faculty exists in
young people educated to respect and un-
fold their individual powers there may be
expected decided increase in the proper
tion of inventors of mark, even if the men
of irrepressible genius remain as few as
ever. For now that manual training is to
the fore not only will suggestions for the
exercise of ingenuity come thicker, but the
power to test their validity will be COM
moner. And many capital idea has been
born only to die from lack of skill to carry it
to experiment..
An excellent example of what can be done
for the education of ingenuity is afforded in
the New York College for Training Teach
ers, where the impulse Of inventive minds
schoolrooms throughout the land Here
the men and women who are being prepared
for the teaching Office are shown how impor-
tant principles of mechanics, physics,
physiology, even, can be illustrated by
homemade apparatus quite within the skill
of anyone to construct. A valve which
permits the escape of air and water in
pumps and resists their inflow is made by
simply cutting short slit lengthwise in
bit Of rubber tubing. A tumbler coated
with strip of tin foil becomes Leyden
jar. A dynamo is built by joining COM
mon steel magnet to series Of small cleo
tro magnets fastened to the spokes of
wheel.
Illustrating ction Of tho Lungs.
The process Of breathing is illustrated
with lamp chimney, little bag of thin
leather, and piece Of rubber cloth, such as
dentists use. The lamp chimney stands for
the chest cavity. Its upper end is tightly
closed by stopper, from which hangs the
little bag, partly filled with air, represent
ing the lungs. Over the lower end of the
chimney the rubber cloth is securely tied,
to stimulate the diaphragm. When the
rubber is seized between finger and thumb
it enlarges the space in the chimney, and
the little lung bag becomes inflated. When
the rubber is pushed up the bag collapses,
as the lungs do in the act of exhalation.
Prof. Woodruff, who has devised these and
other ingenious models, has received from
his students additions to them of no little
merit. He finds that not only is inven-
tiveness cultivated by model making, but
that where ingenuity does not exist the
building of apparatus has great educational
Importance. A student takes more inter-
est in principle of mechanics, physics, or
physiology, when he 'embodies it in model
than is possible if he only reads about it or
sees somebody else illustrating it in the
workship.
In this college, as in other centers of the
new education, there is something in the
than any special feature to be observed in a
classroom. The students. throughout the
whole course of instruction, are impressed
not with the perfection, but with the in
of science. And what more
lesson can there be that it is every
ones privilege to wrest something, be it
little or much, from the limitless Unknown?