The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1909-05-13
a Technical
Education
a Valuable Talk on the Great Use
fulness of Special knowledge
in These Days.


Paper Read Before the Chaadauqto Circle.
Much has be en- said for and against
the college bred or college educated
man. especially in the mechanical field,
and it is in defense of the college en-
gineer or technically educated mechanic
that this paper is written. | DO not
mean to telittle the claims of the prac-
tlcal man. The practical man made
the steam engine possible, but the tech
nical man developed it to its present
state of usefulness. Mike Farrady con-
ceived the idea of the dynamo-Edison
made it useful, and so on down the
line one can name innumeraOle IN
stances. A practicalI man is the one
who can do; a technical man with Dlt
of practise can both think and do, so 1t
can plainly be seen that the two should
80 hand in hand. And I'll venture to
saw with technical education you will
find it easier to work out of the wage
into the salaried class. do not me an
that all general managers and superin-
tendents are college educated. NO,
but what do wish to say is that with
a technical education your chances OF
becoming the general manager or su-
perintendent are vastly greater than
the common run and your ability to re-
tain either after obtained are greatly in
your favor.
The fed is SO broad for technical
uraiuates and so narrow for the man
who can do, bat requires somebody else
to think for him, that one should not
fritter away his time for mere pit
tance when with little energy and am
hilton or a combination of both ne can
double. aye, treble or quafruple his
salary. Machinery and mechanical ap-
n,iances are more complicated than
they were forty years ago and IN order
to make them more economical II re-
uuires not only the ability to run the
ma achine if it be an engine, but the coal
pile must he taken into consideration
The ability to take specimen of coal
from your last shipment and analyze II
requires very fine study in science.
At the Philadelphia Centenniaf Ex
position in 1876 in the mechanical ex
hibit were two large Corliss engines o
the beam type standing thirty mine fee
from base to the top of the beam ant
weighing fourteen hundred tons, usinl
steam at twenty-five pounds condens
ing and eighty-fve pounds noncondens
inc. The fly wheels were thirty feet il
diameter with two-foot face and tn
cylinders forty inches in diameter ant
a stroke of tea feet. A lot OF iron JUS
to develop seven hundred horse power
These engines were built in Providence
r.. l., but are now doing duty In Tn
Pullman Palace Car Company's shop
A great deal of difference betwee
these two engines and one recently ii
stalled by the Uuited States Steel tru'
with no fly wheel and only eightee
inches high with high pressure cylll
ders 42x54 and low pressure 7Oxo4 usin
steam at one hundred and fifty pount
and developing twenty-five thousal
horse power.
III venture to say that our model
technical engine builder gets mo
power out of fourteen tons OF steel al
iron. Why? Because scientific stu'
of steel and iron has taught him nc
to extend the factor of safety, also nc
to use good material to better advanta
which of course requires more scien
ard technical study, thus the adVanta
of technical education.
In all things pertaining to mechan
and engineering, ,inflexible natural la
have set the limit to their achie'
ments, and these danger points m,
be approached with caution. New
theless your technical man understar
how to approach these danger poi
without fear of disaster. Occasiona
disaster will happen, but nine times
of ten it is not the faultof the techni