The writer has often been asked by correspondents interested in the matter of technical and trade education to outline a course of instruction in mechanical engineering, such as would represent his idea of a tolerably complete system of preparation for entrance into practice. The synopsis given at the end of this article was prepared in the spring of 1871, when the writer was on duty at the U.S. Naval Academy, as Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and, being printed, was submitted to nearly all of the then leading mechanical engineers of the United States, for criticism, and with a request that they would suggest such alterations and improvements as might seem to them best. The result was general approval of the course, substantially as here written. This outline was soon after proposed as a basis for the course of instruction adopted at the Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken, to which institution the writer was at about that time called. He takes pleasure in accepting a suggestion that its publication in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN would be of some advantage to many who are interested in the subject.

The course here sketched, as will be evident on examination, includes not only the usual preparatory studies pursued in schools of mechanical engineering, but also advanced courses, such as can only be taught in special schools, and only there when an unusual amount of time can be given to the professional branches, or when post graduate courses can be given supplementary to the general course. The complete course, as here planned, is not taught in any existing school, so far as the writer is aware. In his own lecture room the principal subjects, and especially those of the first part of the work, are presented with tolerable thoroughness; but many of the less essential portions are necessarily greatly abridged. As time can be found for the extension of the course, and as students come forward better prepared for their work, the earlier part of the subject is more and more completely developed, and the advanced portions are taken up in greater and greater detail, each year giving opportunity to advance beyond the limits set during the preceding year.

Some parts of this scheme are evidently introductory to advanced courses of study which are to be taken up by specialists, each one being adapted to the special instruction of a class of students who, while pursuing it, do not usually take up the other and parallel courses. Thus, a course of instruction in Railroad Engineering, a course in Marine Engineering, or a course of study in the engineering of textile manufactures, may be arranged to follow the general course, and the student will enter upon one or another of these advanced courses as his talents, interests, or personal inclinations may dictate. At the Stevens Institute of Technology, two such courses--Electrical and Marine Engineering--are now organized as supplementary of the general course, and are pursued by all students taking the degree of Mechanical Engineer. These courses, as there given, however, are not fairly representative of the idea of the writer, as above expressed, since the time available in general course is far too limited to permit them to be developed beyond the elements, or to be made, in the true sense of the term, advanced professional courses. Such advanced courses as the writer has proposed must be far more extended, and should occupy the whole attention of the student for the time. Such courses should be given in separate departments under the direction of a General Director of the professional courses, who should be competent to determine the extent of each, and to prevent the encroachment of the one upon another; but they should each be under the immediate charge of a specialist capable of giving instruction in the branch assigned to him, in both the theoretical and purely scientific, and the practical and constructive sides of the work. Every such school should be organized in such a manner that one mind, familiar with the theory and the practice of the professional branches taught, should be charged with the duty of giving general direction to the policy of the institution and of directing the several lines of work confided to specialists in the different departments. It is only by careful and complete organization in this, as in every business, that the best work can be done at least expense in time and capital.

In this course of instruction in Mechanical Engineering it will be observed that the writer has incorporated the scheme of a workshop course. This is done, not at all with the idea that a school of mechanical engineering is to be regarded as a "trade school," but that every engineer should have some acquaintance with the tools and the methods of work upon which the success of his own work is so largely dependent. If the mechanical engineer can acquire such knowledge in the more complete course of instruction of the trade school, either before or after his attendance at the technical school, it will be greatly to his advantage. The technical school has, however, a distinct field; and its province is not to be confounded with that of the trade school. The former is devoted to instruction in the theory and practice of a profession which calls for service upon the men from the latter--which makes demand upon a hundred trades--in the prosecution of its designs. The latter teaches, simply, the practical methods of either of the trades subsidiary to the several branches of engineering, with only so much of science as is essential to the intelligent use of the tools and the successful application of the methods of work of the trade taught. The distinction between the two departments of education, both of which are of comparatively modern date, is not always appreciated in the United States, although always observed in those countries of Europe in which technical and trade education have been longest pursued as essential branches of popular instruction. Throughout France and Germany, every large town has its trade schools, in which the trades most generally pursued in the place are systematically taught; and every large city has its technical school, in which the several professions allied to engineering are studied with special development of those to which the conditions prevailing at the place give most prominence and local importance.

A course of trade instruction, as the writer would organize it, would consist, first, in the teaching of the apprentice the use of the tools of his trade, the nature of its materials, and the construction and operation of the machinery employed in its prosecution. He would next be taught how to shape the simpler geometrical forms in the materials of his trade, getting out a straight prism, a cylinder, a pyramid, or a sphere, of such size and form as may be convenient; getting lines and planes at right angles, or working to miter; practicing the working of his "job" to definite size, and to the forms given by drawings, which drawings should be made by the apprentice himself. When he is able to do good work of this kind, he should attempt larger work, and the construction of parts of structures involving exact fitting and special manipulations. The course, finally, should conclude with exercises in the construction and erection of complete structures and in the making of peculiar details, such as are regarded by the average workman as remarkable "tours de force." The trade school usually gives instruction in the common school branches of education, and especially in drawing, free-hand and mechanical, carrying them as far as the successful prosecution of the trade requires. The higher mathematics, and advanced courses in physics and chemistry, always taught in schools of engineering, are not taught in the trade school, as a rule; although introduced into those larger schools of this class in which the aim is to train managers and proprietors, as well as workmen. This is done in many European schools.

As is seen above, the course of instruction in mechanical engineering includes some trade education. The engineer is dependent upon the machinist, the founder, the patternmaker, and other workers at the trades, for the proper construction of the machinery and structures designed by him. He is himself, in so far as he is an engineer, a designer of constructions, not a constructor. He often combines, however, the functions of the engineer, the builder, the manufacturer, and the dealer, in his own person. No man can carry on, successfully, any business in which he is not at home in every detail, and in which he cannot instruct every subordinate, and cannot show every person employed by him precisely what is wanted, and how the desired result can be best attained. The engineer must, therefore, learn, as soon and as thoroughly as possible, enough of the details of every art and trade, subsidiary to his own department of engineering, to enable him to direct, with intelligence and confidence, every operation that contributes to the success of his work. The school of engineering should therefore be so organized that the young engineer may be taught the elements of every trade which is likely to find important application in his professional work. It cannot be expected that time can be given him to make himself an expert workman, or to acquire the special knowledge of details and the thousand and one useful devices which are an important part of the stock in trade of the skilled workman; but he may very quickly learn enough to facilitate his own work greatly, and to enable him to learn still more, with rapidity and ease, during his later professional life. He must also, usually, learn the essential elements and principles of each of several trades, and must study their relations to his work, and the limitations of his methods of design and construction which they always, to a greater or less extent, cause by their own practical or economical limitations. He will find that his designs, his methods of construction, and of fitting up and erecting, must always be planned with an intelligent regard to the exigencies of the shop, as well as to the aspect of the commercial side of every operation. This extension of trade education for the engineer into several trades, instead of its restriction to a single trade, as is the case in the regular trade school, still further limits the range of his instruction in each. With unusual talent for manipulation, he may acquire considerable knowledge of all the subsidiary trades in a wonderfully short space of time, if he is carefully handled by his instructors, who must evidently be experts, each in his own trade. Even the average man who goes into such schools, following his natural bent, may do well in the shop course, under good arrangements as to time and character of instruction. If a man has not a natural inclination for the business, and a natural aptitude for it, he will make a great mistake if he goes into such a school with the hope of doing creditable work, or of later attaining any desirable position in the profession.

The course of instruction, at the Stevens Institute of Technology, includes instruction in the trades to the extent above indicated. The original plan, as given below, included such a course of trade education for the engineer; but it was not at once introduced. The funds available from an endowment fund crippled by the levying of an enormous "succession tax" by the United States government and by the cost of needed apparatus and of unanticipated expenses, in buildings and in organization, were insufficient to permit the complete organization of this department. A few tools were gathered together; but skilled mechanics could not be employed to take up the work of instruction in the several courses. Little could therefore be done for several years in this direction. In 1875 the writer organized a "mechanical laboratory," with the purpose of attaining several very important objects: the prosecution of scientific research in the various departments of engineering work; the creation of an organization that should give students an opportunity to learn the methods of research most usefully employed in such investigations; the assistance of members of the profession, and business organizations in the attempt to solve such questions, involving scientific research, as are continually arising in the course of business; the employment of students who had done good work in their college course, when they so desire, in work of investigation with a view to giving them such knowledge of this peculiar line of work as should make them capable of directing such operations elsewhere; and finally, but not least important of all, to secure, by earning money in commercial work of this kind, the funds needed to carry on those departments of the course in engineering that had been, up to that time, less thoroughly organized than seemed desirable. This "laboratory" was organized in 1875, the funds needed being obtained by drawing upon loans offered by friends of the movement and by the "Director."

It was not until the year 1878, therefore, that it became possible to attempt the organization of the shop course; and it was then only by the writer assuming personal responsibility for its expenses that the plan could be entered upon. As then organized--in the autumn of 1878--a superintendent of the workshop had general direction of the trade department of the school. He was instructed to submit to the writer plans, in detail, for a regular course of shop instruction, and was given as assistants a skilled mechanic of unusual experience and ability, whose compensation was paid from the mechanical laboratory funds, and guaranteed by the writer personally, and another aid whose services were paid for partly by the Institute and partly as above. The pay of the superintendent was similarly assured. This scheme had been barely entered upon when the illness of the writer compelled him to temporarily give up his work, and the direction of the new organization fell into other hands, although the department was carried on, as above, for a year or more after this event occurred.

The plan did not fall through; the course of instruction was incorporated into the college course, and its success was finally assured by the growth of the school and a corresponding growth of its income, and, especially, by the liberality of President Morton, who met expenses to the amount of many thousands of dollars by drawing upon his own bank account. The department was by him completely organized, with an energetic head, and needed support was given in funds and by a force of skilled instructors. This school is now in successful operation. This course now also includes the systematic instruction of students in experimental work, and the objects sought by the writer in the creation of a "mechanical laboratory" are thus more fully attained than they could have possibly been otherwise. It is to be hoped that, at some future time, when the splendid bequest of Mr. Stevens may be supplemented by gifts from other equally philanthropic and intelligent friends of technical education, among the alumni of the school and others, this germ of a trade school maybe developed into a complete institution for instruction in the arts and trades of engineering, and may thus be rendered vastly more useful by meeting the great want, in this locality, of a real trade school, as well as fill the requirements of the establishment of which it forms a part, by giving such trade education as the engineer needs and can get time to acquire.

The establishment of advanced courses of special instruction in the principal branches of mechanical engineering may, if properly "dovetailed" into the organization, be made a means of somewhat relieving the pressure that must be expected to be felt in the attempt to carry out such a course as is outlined below. The post-graduate or other special departments of instruction, in which, for example, railroad engineering, marine engineering, and the engineering of cotton, woolen, or silk manufactures, are to be taught, may be so organized that some of the lectures of the general course may be transferred to them, and the instructors in the latter course thus relieved, while the subjects so taught, being treated by specialists, may be developed more efficiently and more economically.

Outlines of these advanced courses, as well as of the courses in trade instruction comprehended in the full scheme of mechanical engineering courses laid out by the writer a dozen years ago, and as since recast, might be here given, but their presentation would occupy too much space, and they are for the present omitted.

The course of instruction in this branch of engineering, at the Stevens Institute of Technology, is supplemented by "Inspection Tours," which are undertaken by the graduating class toward the close of the last year, under the guidance of their instructors, in which expeditions they make the round of the leading shops in the country, within a radius of several hundred miles, often, and thus get an idea of what is meant by real business, and obtain some notion of the extent of the field of work into which they are about to enter, as well as of the importance of that work and the standing of their profession among the others of the learned professions with which that of engineering has now come to be classed.

At the close of the course of instruction, as originally proposed, and as now carried out, the student prepares a "graduating thesis," in which he is expected to show good evidence that he has profited well by the opportunities which have been given him to secure a good professional education. These theses are papers of, usually, considerable extent, and are written upon subjects chosen by the student himself, either with or without consultation with the instructor. The most valuable of these productions are those which present the results of original investigations of problems arising in practice or scientific research in lines bearing upon the work of the engineer. In many cases, the work thus done has been found to be of very great value, supplying information greatly needed in certain departments, and which had previously been entirely wanting, or only partially and unsatisfactorily given by authorities. Other theses of great value present a systematic outline of existing knowledge of some subject which had never before been brought into useful form, or made in any way accessible to the practitioner. In nearly all cases, the student is led to make the investigation by the bent of his own mind, or by the desire to do work that may be of service to him in the practice of his profession. All theses are expected to be made complete and satisfactory to the head of department of Engineering before his signature is appended to the diploma which is finally issued to the graduating student. These preliminaries being completed, and the examinations having been reported as in all respects satisfactory, the degree of Mechanical Engineer is conferred upon the aspirant, and he is thus formally inducted into the ranks of the profession.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.

Robert H. Thurston--July, 1871.

I.

MATERIALS USED IN ENGINEERING.--Classification, Origin, and Preparation (where not given in course of Technical Chemistry), Uses, Cost.

Strength and Elasticity.--Theory (with experimental illustrations), reviewed, and tensile, transverse and torsional resistance determined.

Forms of greatest strength determined. Testing materials.

Applications.--Foundations, Framing in wood and metal.

FRICTION.--Discussion from Rational Mechanics, reviewed and extended.

Lubricants treated with materials above.

Experimental determination of "coefficients of friction."

II.

TOOLS.--Forms for working wood and metals. Principles involved in their use.

Principles of pattern making, moulding, smith and machinists' work so far as they modify design.

Exercises in Workshops in mechanical manipulation.

Estimates of cost (stock and labor).

MACHINERY AND MILL WORK.--Theory of machines. Construction. Kinematics applied. Stresses, calculated and traced. Work of machines. Selection of materials for the several parts. Determination of proportions of details, and of forms as modified by difficulties of construction.

Regulators, Dynamometers, Pneumatic and Hydraulic machinery. Determining moduli of machines.

POWER, transmission by gearing, belting, water, compressed air, etc.

LOADS, transportation.

III.

HISTORY AND PRESENT FORMS OF THE PRIME MOVERS.

Windmills, their theory, construction, and application.

Water Wheels. Theory, construction, application, testing, and comparison of principal types.

Air, Gas, and Electric Engines, similarly treated.

STEAM ENGINES.--Classification. [Marine (merchant) Engine assumed as representative type.] Theory. Construction, including general design, form and proportion of details.

Boilers similarly considered. Estimates of cost.

Comparison of principal types of Engines and Boilers. Management and repairing. Testing and recording performance.

IV.

MOTORS APPLIED to Mills. Estimation of required power and of cost.

Railroads. Study of Railroad machinery.

Ships. Structure of Iron Ships and rudiments of Naval architecture and Ship propulsion.

PLANNING Machine shops, Boiler shops, Foundries, and manufactories of textile fabrics. Estimating cost.

LECTURES BY EXPERTS.

GENERAL SUMMARY of principal facts, and natural laws, upon the thorough knowledge of which successful practice is based; and general resume of principles of business which must be familiar to the practicing engineer.

V.

GRADUATING THESES.

GRADUATION.

Accompanying the above are courses of instruction in higher mathematics, graphics, physics, chemistry, and the modern languages and literatures.