5 gulden a year, say 8s., and 1 gulden for requisites; and from this, again, poor scholars can be exempted. In the year 1898 there were 175 pupils in this school, 143 of whom completed the year's course, and 127 attained its "aim." I had still one educational surprise in store for me ere I left this small but intellectually advanced town of Reichenberg. Funds for trade Museums. CHAPTER XIII. AN INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM. On the Sunday morning I went out to the Industrial Museum by invitation of the Curator, Dr. Gustave Pazamek, to look at his art treasures. I found the museum in a pleasant outskirt of the town, a handsome stately building with artistically broken lines, towers, gables, and a tall clock tower dominating the fourstoried building. It was opened in the year 1898, and the Reichenbergers are justly proud of this North Bohemian Trade or Technical Museum. In the history of the mode of procuring the funds for this building the struggle between Czech and German comes in, this being largely a German centre; but at last the funds-150,000 florins from the State, and 100,000 florins or gulden from private subscriptions-were obtained, and the work begun, with £20,000. Thus in all, at the end of 1898, there had been subscribed beyond the sums given by the State, Bohemian Parliament, the town, and the district, by surrounding small towns, village communes, and by private firms, breweries, local savings banks, and nobles of the district, the total amount of 72,064 gulden, or £5,765: a very large sum in the small amounts subscribed, and additional sums given by State and district, etc., brought the total up to 338,064 gulden, or £27,045, and certainly they have a handsome edifice and a well-arranged museum. The exhibits are arranged in centuries, and also in countries, and there are examples from China and Japan, but the greater part of the building is filled with European work, and especial space is given to Reichenberg manufactures, and those of the surrounding district, and to their development. For example, there is a textile exhibit arranged in centuries and according to nations, and in the Reichenberg section is the old heavy fourtreadle loom which was used up to 1840 for cloth (worked by two men). On the wall are old paintings, illustrating life of different periods, one of two wandering workmen halting on a hill as they approach Reichenberg, with a quaint legend, saying they be hope to find work in Reichenberg. wheels and combs for yarn are there, cloth-workers, and The old spinning and the rich old gold and silver-work headdresses. A fine central hall fills the inner space with a chapel-like apse, and above this is a gallery in which a military band-this being a special day-was playing the Lohengrin overture. The absence of pillars on one side of this hall makes it look unbalanced At the end of the hall is a cloister, which when toned by age will be very effective. One of the most important industries of the district is that of glass and porcelain, and in the upper gallery running round the hall is a most noteworthy collection of these manufactures. There are examples from the tombs of Egypt and of Rome; some of these are being copied now in Bohemia, and having a great sale, notably the iris glass. Rich examples of Venetian glass were near a collection of Bohemian glass in the glorious gold, ruby, and sapphire hues. There are also examples of cut and engraved glass of the eighteenth century with arms and mottoes and elaborate incising. And the Committee had come down also to the most modern productions of English, French, and Belgian work, and had gone to Minton, of Stoke, and Tiffany, of New York, for specimens. Whilst I was in this gallery I saw a group of four young workmen in their Sunday clothes, studying most carefully and critically a case of nineteenth century glass; there was no mistake about their technical interest in the work which had English engraved glass amidst it. CHAPTER XIV. HAIDA GLASS INDUSTRY. The chief centre for the glass trade here is at the little town of Haida, where there is a good technical school, described by me in "Our Foreign Competitors." It is called the "K. K. Kunstgewerbliche Fachschule für Glasindustrie." The town of Haida is very small, but the school has fifty-four day scholars, forty Sunday scholars, eighteen persons attending courses in the public drawing hall, and fifty preparatory scholars; in all 162 students. taught are drawing (elementary, freehand, and decorative design The subjects and figure studies), painting, glass engraving, porcelain painting, chemistry and physics, projection, forms of pottery, and heraldic decoration, modelling and trade drawing, arithmetic, and business book-keeping. There is as usual a library and museum lads begin at fourteen, and must have gone through five classes The 4.91. H Towns not selected because schools there. in a Volkschule. The school is free, but foreigners pay 30 gulden a year. In the Reichenberg Museum was a case of glass work produced at this school, and it was most delightful to dwell upon. There was a grand crystal Humpen or Wassail bowl, with enamel work in gold and colours, and with the Austrian arms and motto, a remarkably rich example; a glass vase with two handles, with an Arabic motto worked out in red, white, blue, green, and gold enamel; a glass flagon, cut and engraved with palms and landscapes; a glass cup, with a most elaborate arabesque design in gold on a blue ground; a glass goblet, with twelve-sided facets, with cut balled foot, and with painted black and raised gold ornaments. A most elaborate piece of work was a great salver of crystal glass, painted in gold and white, and faint blue, and a star with radiating circles; a Moorish design most artistic, and minutely finished with exquisite care. And all this work had been executed in this tiny town of Haida, and exhibited in this artistic town of Reichenberg, which I left with regret at not having more time to study its intellectual culture and commercial developments. This was the last of those small towns in Austria which time allowed me to visit on this journey, but I have referred to towns visited on other journeys, and the towns described were not selected to be visited for this report because I knew there were good schools in them. I knew not what I should find in the towns which I visited, but I did know that they were centres of industry, and therefore I was confident that I should also find them centres of education. Object to prove wide diffusion of technical education on the Continent. CHAPTER XV. THE SAXON CAPITAL On my return journey I had to pass through Dresden and Leipzig, and was enabled to spend some short time in the technical and commercial schools of these Saxon towns; so as I began this report with a slight sketch of the technical work in the great Prussian capital, I will conclude it with a passing sketch of the work in the Saxon Court and business capitals. A very voluminous report might be written on the work done here, but, like Berlin, these two towns are well known and are easy of access; and my object has been to prove how widespread and in what remote centres most excellent work is being done rather than to prove that in capitals and wealthy centres this type of education is richly provided for. In Dresden the great school is the Royal Saxon Technical College, a quiet, massive building, over 300 feet long, in the Bismarck Platz. There are five town continuation schools and Sunday schools, and others under the Continuation School Society, and Trade Schools, and also the Trade and Continuation Schools of the different trades, such as druggists, printers, boot makers, &c., but a passing glimpse at the College must suffice for Dresden. The Director is a practical chemist, and whilst waiting to see him I was enabled to notice the building and the students coming and going. The entrance hall is decorated with frescoes illustrative of the sciences and of architecture, &c. It was instructive, by way of comparison, to notice the announcements on the walls of the various clubs. For Gymnastics the meetings were on Wednesdays and Saturdays; for fencing, daily from 12 to 1; whilst for rowing it was "when you like"; so curious a contrast this to our own college notices. The corridors of the school were rather low, but hung with photographs &c. In the mechanical drawing department were illustrations of boilers, engines, &c., and in the lecture hall adjoining photographs of famous works, and in the old courtyard, now glazed over, was a good museum of all types of models of engines, railways, ships, &c. This is really a technical college for all trades, and very varied was the work being done. Under weaving were models of looms, and examples of work from the raw flax to printed linens. For gun-making there were models from Krupp's, and in the engineering rooms models of bridges, viaducts, &c., and photographs of all types of bridge work. In the architectural department the model room was very complete, containing models of towers, roofs, vaulting, stairs, &c., and examples of all types of building material. The professor's room is close to this museum, and this opened into the drawing room, where various types and portions of buildings were being worked out in the different styles of architecture, from the classical to the rococo, which past generations in Dresden have loved too well. Their electro-technical department was not so complete as others I have described; the lecture hall was old and small, but a new one is being built. There were fifty students studying here. Their library consisted of 32,000 volumes; the volumes of German patents contained registration of no less than 100,384 patents in patents. eighty-nine classes registered by Germans since 1875. In the professors' common room were the latest scientific journals in English, American, French, and Swedish. In the machine engineering laboratory they were rich in engines, a triple-expansion engine of 35 horse-power, a twin motor of 26 H.P. There were Prussian machines, a Waddington pump, a gas motor from Deutz, water motor from Zurich, dynamos, hand and steam hammers, circular saws, &c. These were all in Machine Laboratory No. II.; whilst in Machine Laboratory No. I. were hydraulic machines, cold saws, testing machines, and a brass bar just broken at a pressure of 7,200 kilos. Another testing machine for railway iron of the Werder Klett system of Nuremberg up to 100 tons, and a 160-ton testing machine for granite, wood, &c. There were thirty-six students at work in the department for organic chemistry. Special attention is given to distillation, and a separate room set apart for this. All rooms are fitted with the Professors ment to England electric light. Another subject to which special attention is directed is the science of colour dyeing. In this as in other schools both professors and students make journeys to perfect their knowledge and keep them abreast with foreign developments. In 1898 the professors of architecture took journeys, one to Italy, another to study wood building in Central Germany and Switzerland, and another to Italy and Greece, whilst the students under the direction of the professors visited some of the work in course of construction in Dresden, and also went afield to such towns as Würzburg, Ansbach, Rothenburg, and Meissen to see medieval architecture, and under the same Professor, Dr. Gurlitt, the famous buildings and churches as well as art-workshops in their own city were studied. Other students, under Professor Eck, visited granite bridges and granite works, and brick works, and other parties of students of the building division under other professors visited the buildings in Berlin, including the great Technical College described at the beginning of this report. In the engineering division, two of the professors made journeys, one to take part in the Maritime Congress in Brussels, and the other to study special surveying work; whilst the students under different professors studied work in their own city, such as the works at the railway station, railway work in other cities, bridges, the harbour at Worms, new bridges over the Elbe and the Rhine, iron works, electrical works, &c. In the mechanical division, amongst other journeys by other professors, Dr. Mollier came to England to study the machine laboratories of our technical institutes, and also visited the one I have sketched at Berlin in the Technical College. The students in this section studied the electric lighting in the hotels of Dresden, and in various electrical works and railway stations, &c. Others also visited such works as the steel works of Krupp, gas meter works, foundries, iron and steel works, &c., &c. In the chemical division excursions were made to iron, soap, and margarine works, glass and porcelain works, and paper works. In the general division, professors took journeys to Denmark and Bohemia to Natural History and Neuphilologen Conferences, and the students, under guidance, studied botany in the Erz Mountains and geology in various localities. The number of students attending this high school in the winter of '98-'99 was 819, and 214 hospitanten or special lecture students; making in all with three officers, kommandiert to the college, a total of 1,036 students. This slight sketch of this important college and a hint at their study excursions will give a glimpse of the work being done. |