Program for the School of Science as Applied to the Arts,
November 25, 1853
In as much as the session is rapidly drawing to a close, and many
other important subjects demand the attention of the Faculty, I will not occupy
their time by setting forth in general or in detail the many objects which may
profitably engage the energies of the departments now to be organized. I will
therefore proceed without further preface to indicate a plan by which those
energies may be directed, for a while at least.
It is likely that in the School of Science as applied to the Arts,
two kinds of Students will demand attention, which for the sake of convenience,
I shall call Amateur and Professional Students. To comply with all the desires of
the former kind in Engineering, and to benefit them as much as perhaps is
possible, will require an amount of time and instruction not now in our power
to bestow. Empirical teaching, if not entirely specious, is far more costly
than that which first inculcates the principles of a Science. The amount of
time it exacts from the teacher is far greater than that required by the other
kind, and even then it appeals almost entirely to the memory of the pupils. I
therefore propose that Amateurs be taken only from the Seniors, and from such
"partial course". Students as are qualified to improve by the
instruction afforded. This instruction should be given during the second
session of the Senior year. These Students might be taught many valuable
applications of Civil Engineering without attending minutely to the
Mathematical principles involved. Their preceding Academic course ought to
qualify them to understand a good deal of what
their text books may present to them. I would use for their instruction at
present Maharis Civil Engineering and Gillespie on Roads. To these books
lectures on points not fully presented there may be occasionally added as
experience may dictate. As the Seniors will have had opportunities, during
their previous years, to see and learn somewhat of the use of Engineering
Instruments, and as drawing and draughting belong to a professional education
would not occupy any portion of their limited time by these subjects. I think
that two or three lessons a week will be a fair portion of their time for the
subjects here suggested, and at the close of the session these Students should
graduate as is usual now. Whether it will be possible or profitable to form
this class of Amateur Engineers is left to the decision of the Faculty. Much
light can doubtless be thrown on this question by the experience of the Senior
Professor who taught Engineering to the whole Senior Class some years ago. I
also submit the following questions to the consideration of the Faculty. Shall
this, or any other, amount of Engineering be taught to all the Seniors as
requisite for their first Academic degree, or only to such as prefer it to what
is now given them in the last session of their College course? What studies in
our present scheme shall it replace? How much time during each week shall be
devoted to it, and shall the needful amount be taken altogether from the
present Studies of the Senior Class, or shall some of their now vacant hours be
so applied? The Professional Engineers may be distinguished into College and
Independent Students. The College class I would form of Seniors at the close of
their first session and they ought to continue in the new School at least
eighteen months. If some changes are introduced
into the Mathematical text books of the Academic course, these Students ought
to be well qualified to begin at once with superior advantages the course on
Engineering Mechanics and Descriptive Geometry. To them also must be given
instruction in drawing and draughting; in the various uses of their
instruments, and in the reduction and application of the data furnished by
their practice in field work, as well as in many other practical matters
whereon special treatises have been written, such for instance as Trautwine on
Curves and Excavations, D'Aubisson on Hydraulics, Haupt on Bridges, Wright on
Mortars, &c, &c.
The Independent Students will enjoy the same instruction as the
College Students, reciting, when prepared to do so, with them in all their
studies. They are distinguished from the others, in this programme, because
they are supposed to join
the University only as Students in the Scientific School.
As they may not attend to any thing else, their progress in pure Mathematics
will be much more rapid than that of the College Classes. In one year they may
pass over the ground that requires two years in the Academic course. A
knowledge of Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry both plane and spherical
should be required of all these Independent Students before they enter the
School of Engineering. But it will be so much to the advantage of both teacher
and pupils to have none but College Students in this school that it may be
worth the while to consider whether any Independent Students shall be invited
to join the University.
As text-books for the Professional Engineers I would recommend for
the present — Church's Analytical Geometry and Calculus, Bartlett's Analytical Mechanics, Davie's Descriptive
Geometry, Alahan's Civil Engineering and Industrial drawing, and Gillespie and
Trautwine on Roads and Railroads. I mention here only the principle text books,
for experience only can determine what treatises on the special applications of
general principles it may be advantageous to introduce. I would also recommend
that lectures on particular points not sufficiently examined in their text
books be delivered to the professional Students as opportunity serves. Whether
these lectures be open to the Academic Students deserves consideration. Perhaps
it may be useful to suspend an ordinary recitation of the Junior or Senior
Classes and allow attendance in the lecture room of the School of Science and
Arts, and this not in the Engineering department only.
As to the time requisite to give the instruction suggested above,
precise statements cannot be made at present. I can only indicate what appears
to me to be the minimum. The Independent Students should have at least two
lessons in pure Mathematics every day during the first year of their course.
For the remaining eighteen months, or two years, and after they are joined by
the College Students, I do not see how this number of daily recitations can be
safely diminished. So then while the Engineering department is fully organized
and has all the Students herein mentioned, four Mathematical recitations a day
must be provided for, in addition to those in the Academic course. Besides
these recitations attention must be paid to practice in the field and in the
drawing room and to the occasional lectures. It will be obviously out
of the power of any one man now amongst us to
devote all this time to the Recitation room, and besides make those constant
acquisitions necessary to a healthy and progressive instruction. In other
Engineering schools it is customary to commit the teaching of the elementary
mathematics, such as Analytical Geometry, the Calculus, and Descriptive
Geometry to those of the more advanced Students who are capable of rendering
such assistance. As a reward for their services, their own instruction in the
higher Mathematics is gratuitous, and besides a small salary is offered them,
usually $100.00 a year. The Professor in the School is still responsible
for this teaching and it should be under his constant supervision. Whether this
plan should be adopted here, or whether other members of our Academic corps be
requested to help where they have time and inclination is left to the decision
of the Faculty.
As to the place and seasons for the instruction I can only suggest
that if the mathematical recitations be held at 9 ½ A.M. and 2 ½ P.M. the rooms
belonging to the Academic course might be used without interfering with their
rightful occupants. The Library might be occupied as a room in which to give
instruction in drawing and draughting, and seasons intermediate to those
specified above might be devoted to this practice as well as to field work. The
whole of Saturday might be occupied by Engineering excursions profitable both
to soul and body.
Although
Prof. Hedrick has given me a carte blanche to make such
arrangements for his department as I think best, yet it is natural that I
should feel more diffidence in settling his duties than in my own case. From
the very nature of those duties, their programme
will not be so formal or formidable as that of the Engineering department, yet
the time of the Professor of Applied Chemistry will doubtless be fully
occupied. A division of his pupils into classes is almost impracticable, and
instruction by recitation and lecture, although given occasionally, will be of
minor importance. To enter his department
Prof. Hedrick will require from the applicants some
acquaintance with the general objects and principles of Chemistry. But in the
Analytical Laboratory, each pupil will have to study his text books at his own
stand, surrounded by the chemicals and apparatus necessary to repeat and verify
the experiments and conclusions of the author before him. So also while engaged
in original analyses, each pupil will have to work and to be taught by himself.
It will be the duty of the Professor to give constant attention in the
Analytical Laboratory, superintending the manipulations of each pupil. His own
investigations will also for some years occupy much of his time. To these he
will doubtless, at the proper time, call the attention of his pupils to add to
their stock of experience or to awaken their curiosity and stimulate their
exertions. He will at times lecture to his pupils on special points of interest
in theory or practice communicating to them such information as they may not
have time or opportunity to collect for themselves. Among these special topics
is Agricultural Chemistry, on which he proposes to give a series of lectures
closely connected in time and subject matter. These lectures might be
advantageously opened to all Students in Chemistry connected with
the University. Whether they should be preceded by an
elementary introduction, and notice be given to the public of the time of their
commencement so that Students in the Engineering
department and others from a distance may be induced to attend is a matter of
detail to be settled hereafter. The use of Chemistry in Geology, Mineralogy and
Engineering will be developed mainly in the daily practice of the Analytical
Laboratory.
The Students of
the University will not be qualified to enter the
Chemical Department of the new School until the second session of their Senior
year. It is hoped that they can be induced to attend the whole of the Academic
course of lectures on Chemistry, for it will be of very great advantage to
them, even it they be excused from the attendant recitations. Eighteen months
at least will be necessary to secure the full benefit of the course on
Analytical and Synthetic Chemistry. Whether the aid of assistants may not be
used advantageously to the whole system of
the University is a question for time and experience to
answer. Also whether it is advisable for
Prof. Hedrick to have a class of Independent Students, or
whether all beginners should be referred to the Academic course for one session
is a question for him and the Faculty to decide hereafter. Of course beginners
if he can find time to attend to them will advance much more rapidly with
Prof. Hedrick hearing daily recitations, than if they
waited for the less frequent instructions of the College course. Whether there
shall be a special course in Geology and Mineralogy is another question
submitted to the consideration of the Faculty. It is also left to the decision
of the Faculty to decide whether the Candidates for the usual College Diploma
be invited to spend some of their vacant hours in the Analytical Laboratory
during their last session here, as well as in the Engineering department. But
caution is necessary here for these amateur Students often do worse damage to
the chemicals and apparatus of the Laboratory than
good to themselves. The special Students in Engineering do not now seem to me
to have time within the two and a half years allotted to their professional
studies to devote to Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology. But because an
acquaintance with these branches of Science is of the utmost importance to
them, I recommend that they be strongly advised, if not required, to spend an
additional six months in the Analytical Laboratory.
The seasons for
Prof. Hedrick's instruction have been already suggested,
as extending from Monday Morning to Saturday night. I know of no other place
suitable for an Analytical Laboratory, wherein no lectures can be delivered,
but a part of the basement of the Library building. A large room, in all
probability, will not be needed for some years. One of the rooms adjacent to
the Library might serve for a while as a room for his delicate balances.
As to the rewards to be held out to the pupils in the School of
Science as applied to the Arts, some difficulty may arise from the fact that
very few will be inclined to take the full course both in Engineering and in
Chemistry. But I would suggest that the degree of Master of Arts be conferred
on all the College who shall have faithfully attended to the full course of
professional instruction in either Engineering or in Chemistry, that the degree
of Bachelor of Science (or of Philosophy) be given to all the Independent
Students who shall have attended the full course in Engineering together with
some Chemistry, Mineralogy, & Geology, or to the full course in Chemistry,
and that certificates of connections with
this University be given to the partial course
students of the Scientific School.
It will be observed that many branches of Natural Science of their
applications have been omitted in this sketch. An acquaintance with
Electricity, Magnetism, Acoustics, Optics, and Astronomy is of great importance
to the Chemist as well as to the Engineer. The great difficulty of attending to
these subjects in the course of Instruction afforded by our new departments
arises from the want of time and of teachers.
Still the necessity of these branches of Science should be deeply impressed on
all our pupils and they should be urged to all diligence in obtaining
acquaintance with them. But unless the Independent Students be allowed access
to the Academic lectures on these subjects, and so become at least aware of
their existence, it is evident that they will labour under very great
disadvantages when compared with the College Students. A knowledge of the
French language is at present almost indispensable to an accomplished Engineer.
Notwithstanding the labours of Stephenson, Brunel, Fairbaiou, Haupt and our
corps of Topographical Engineers, no Engineer's library is complete whilst
wanting the Annales des Ponts et Chaussies and the Memoires de la Societe des
Engineurs. Many other matters of detail are left for future consideration, or
to be determined by the light of experience.
All which is respectfully submitted
Charles
Phillips
Chairman of Com.