Technology

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the science which treats of the arts. more particularly the mechanical. It is properly the science of the arts. Its object is not itself, i. e., the practice of art, but the principles which guide or underlie art, and by conscious or unconscious obedience to which the artist secures his ends. In its ordinary acceptation, however, it includes only the utilitarian arts, and in fact only some of these. Painting, sculpture, music, poetry, do not come within its sphere. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. Technical education as the term is now used is a branch of professional education. The name itself might properly include military education, agricultural education, or industrial education. But these branches have their own specific designations, and it is only with the last named that technical education is likely to be confused. And yet there is a difference. Industrial education looks to increasing the efficiency of human effort in producng material goods. It develops of hand without rising to the dignity of a profession. It teaches trades, it establishes manual training schools, it takes the workman from his task and patiently shows him a better way of working. It is fostered by the Federal Government, by the states, by cities, and by private corporations. Technical education looks to the higher training of the individual. It is based on scientific study. It begins with fundamental branches, as Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, and proceeds to apply these to the problems of daily life. It stimulates the discovery of new truth, but more constantly the new application of old truth. It is engineering education in the widest possible use of that term. In its beginnings it was elementary, but there was a constant effort to elevate the study into the rank of the learned professions. This effort was furthered by the intimate relation existing between the mechanic arts and the fundamental sciences. This made the engineer a student. There was and is no easy road into the profession of engineering. The first engineering school, afterward called the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was opened in 1825 at Troy, N. Y., through the generous aid of Stephen van Rensselaer. Mr. van Rensselaer was a Harvard graduate and keenly alive to industrial development. He was familiar with the Fellenberg School at Hofwyl, Switzerland, a kind of manual training school for the poor. He stated the aim of his new school to be the instruction of persons "in the application of science to the common purposes of life." Prior to this time there seems to have been no conception of engineering as a profession in any part of the United States. Such engineering work as was done fell to men trained at West Point, or in foreign schools, or in the school of personal experience. It is probable, too, that van Rensselaer had no definite purpose of establishing a new professional class. However, after the death of Amos Eaton, the first senior professor, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute became more definitely a school of civil engineering. In spite of growing industrial development no further schools of this nature were established until 1847. In that year a school of applied science was started at Yale, which afterward grew into the Sheffield Scientific School, and the Lawrence Scientific School was established at Harvard. The University of Michigan also made preparations at the same time for a course in civil engineering. These were the only engineering schools opened before the Civil War. The Rensselaer Institute graduated 318 men before 1860, and the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard 49, as has been said in spite of "an unconcealed disdain on the part of the regular faculty." The next impulse to technical education came from the Federal Government with the passage of the famous Morrill Act in 1862. The starting point of this legislation was a desire to promote agricultural education, but the mechanic arts were included in the plan and seem to have reaped in some quarters a more profitable harvest than agriculture. When the states received their land script some turned over the funds to existing institutions, some established agricultural schools, some colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and some made the land grant the basis for a full university development. At present there are 46 institutions operating as land grant colleges under the Morrill Act and including engineering education in their program. Following the history of engineering education one step further we note the continued establishment of private institutions, as the Worcester Polytechnic in 1868, the Stevens Institute in 1871, the Case School of Applied Science in 1881, and the Rose Polytechnic in 1883. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was chartered in 1861, but not opened until 1865. It received assistance from the Morrill Act, but rapidly grew beyond the limits of a state institution. At the same time colleges and universities developed engineering work as a legitimate branch of professional education Prof. C. R. Mann in in his his valuable monograph (Bulletin No. 11 Carnegie Foundation, 1918) sums up the record as follows: "The four schools of 1860 increased to 17 by 1870, to 41 by 1871, to 70 by 1872, and to 85 by 1880. Now there are 126 engineering schools of college grade, of which 46 are land grant, colleges operating under the Morrill Act, 44 are professional schools in universities, 20 are attached to colleges, and 16 are independent. The number of students has increased from 1,400 in 1870 to 33,000 in 1917, and the annual number of graduates in engineering from 100 in 1870 to 4,300." The first engineering course offered was in civil engineering. In 1828 Professor Eaton lectured on this subject-so designated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic In 1839 an unsuccessful effort was made to establish a national society of civil engineers. The American Society of Civil Engineers was established in 1852, and held its first national convention in 1869. Next to civil engineering comes mechanical engineering in extent of popularity. Electrical engineering and mining engineering follow next in order. Some institutions offer only one or two courses, others like Columbia University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer the greatest possible variety. The term engineering has been widened to include every possible phase of scientific work, as chemical, metallurgical, electrochemical, sanitary, textile, automotive, highway, hydraulic, marine, etc. Engineering schools are in the main co-ordinate with colleges, requiring for admission the completion of a high school course, and giving four years of instruction before conferring the first degree, which corresponds to the degree of B.A. or B.S. in college. Later come special courses widely differentiated leading to higher degrees. The curriculum is divided between general subjects, as English, mathematics, and modern languages, the fundamental sciences, especially chemistry and physics, and technical engineering subjects. The proportion assigned to each group varies with each institution, but the percentage given to technical work has steadily increased. This has necessitated the early differentiation of the various courses. Often this appears before the end of the first year. It reflects the specialization of modern industry. Another result deplored but not yet corrected is the congestion of the course. This is one of the pressing problems of engineering education. The first degree given engineering students has many varied names, but bachelor of science, bachelor of science in engineering, and bachelor of engineering seem to be the most popular. Subseque Subsequent courses of study are provided covering two or three years and leading to higher specialized degrees as C.E., M.E., E.E., etc. An interesting experiment in technical education is the co-operative plan of work introduced in the University of Cincinnati in 1906. By this plan practical work is united with theoretical throughout the whole course. This plan is described in a Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Education (1916), No. 37, "The Co-operative System of Education," by C. W. Park. A thorough study of engineering education was made by Prof. C. R. Mann and published in 1918 by the Carnegie Foundation as a special bulletin under the auspices not only of the Carnegie Foundation but of a joint committee on engineering education of the National Engineering Societies. Technical education is a new form of professional training. It is the direct out growth of the deeper and more general knowledge of the forces of nature-a knowledge which has come forth largely within the last seventy years. Technical education is most directly studied in, and functions through, the schools of engineering, although developed many schools whose teaching is limited to special subjects. The schools of engineering have grown up co-ordinate with the college of liberal learning. Students enter them directly from the high school. They have not yet become co-ordinate with the professional schools of medicine or of law or of the ology. The present movement, however, toward making the engineering co-ordinate with the other professional schools-its course being subsequent to the college of liberal learning. Such an advancement in technical education is the special purpose of many of its supporters. Engineering schools include several types. Among them are civil, sanitary, mechanical, electrical, and mining engineering. The tendency of recent years has been to split up these different courses into finer differentiations. The teaching given in schools of engineering is largely through laboratories which are, as a rule, well equipped and well administered. Each department usually is organized with a head and several subordinates. These departments are in most schools co-ordinate with each other their relationships heading up in a general faculty and a president. Although the teaching in schools of engineering is largely technical, yet it is commonly recognized that success in the vocation of the engineer depends quite as largely upon general qualities as upon professional. Answers made by some several thousand engineers in response to a circular sent out by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, of New York, respecting the comparative worth of personal attributes and of technical abilities, showed that three-fourths of all those who replied, believe that the general qualities were of higher value than the special. Character, a sense of responsibility, integrity, common sense, judgment, initiative, efficiency, thoroughness, industry and understanding of men, were declared to have a weight of seventy-five per cent. in any determination of vocational success. Personal character was, in a word, the most comprehensive value. The course of study usually covers four years and is quite as arduous as the study of medicine or of law. The student begins his day in the laboratory early in the morning and continues until late afternoon. The year usually covers thirty-six weeks, and a summer school also invites his attendance. In certain cases, through attendance of the summer sessions, is able to abbreviate somewhat his period of residence. The expense of the student in the engineering schools is perhaps the heaviest, with the possible exception of the medical, of any professional college. The laboratory fees are many. Little time is allowed for his self-support, in case he should desire to earn his way. In certain schools is found a co-operative method by which the student spends one-half of his time in receiving instruction and the other half in practicing or or working in industrial plants. The University of Cincinnati is the most outstanding example of such co-operation. Two groups of students are made, which alternate with each other in bi-weekly periods. The University is thus able to use its full equipment with a full quota of students, and also to take advantage of the shop. The course at Cincinnati is finished in five years of eleven months each. This method is regarded by some as the best. It is also regarded by others as at the present time, of doubtful value. Students of engineering schools on graduation enter factories and offices of a type for which their preceding studies have fitted them. The stipend which they receive in their first year is usually small-about $125.00 per month would perhaps be the average; but for the abler men the progress is rapid toward large incomes. Schools of engineering have played a large part in the development of the civilization of the United States. They are of special worth in a country whose material resources are yet to be developed. In the development of such resources, however, the engineering school finds that it is not to neglect the human factor. For the best schools recognize that the student is a man before he is an engineer. A large philosophy of life is looked upon as of value in itself, as well as of value in promoting the worth and the efficiency of the application of technical training. Among the chief schools are the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824; the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, founded in 1847; the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, founded also in 1847; both these schools waiting some thirteen years for development. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, founded in 1861; Worcester Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1865; Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pa., founded in 1866; the Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken, N. J., founded in 1870; Case School of Applied Science at Cleveland, founded in 1880; and Rose Polytechnic Institute of Indiana, founded in 1883. The schools more recently established have been, usually, parts of a university.