models of every type of ship, including the ocean greyhounds built in Germany that have so attacked England's sea supremacy. "Yes," said the Professor who was showing me over this part of the building, "England is trying to hold its own." I had referred to the building by the White Star Line of the "Oceanic" so as to surpass the German "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse," that in 1898 held the Atlantic record for the swiftest average and the fastest passage from New York to Southampton. The phrase "England is trying to hold its own," heard in this gigantic college of our competitors, has an intense significance, and as I looked around at the most highly finished models of German handicraft, to the lay eye faultless, and testifying to the highest craftsmanship of great shipbuilding yards, I was dumb, for I knew twenty years ago such a museum of German work had been impossible. In the Geodesy Museum were all kinds of instruments for surveying, old and new, as well as a collection that was used by the students when on a surveying expedition.

The requirements of the college have so outrun their space that the central courts, arranged to give light and air, have had to be covered over with glass, thus making the basements excellent lecture or practising halls. One of these has just been turned into a new electrical lecture hall, and it requires an expert electrician to do justice to a description of the arrangements here and to the most elaborate laboratory. The hall seated 486 students, and was fitted with dark shutters, which were closed over the glass roof by electrical power, and at the lecture table was every possible arrangement for demonstrations -two sets of storage batteries, high tension and alternating currents, &c. In the laboratory were electrical engines of every type. Machines are sent here, and new patents, for testing, as the school's certificate gives an official value. Here also was a Linde machine for liquefying air, producing half a litre of air per hour. Near here also is a Röntgen Rays room.

In the Engineers' Museum were models of every type of machine, and in the mechanical laboratory, that was a very long hall, were engines of very varied type, being tested on running trials. Round one engine were several groups of students, one group analysing the combustion, another group weighing the coal and measuring water feed; others were making interesting diagrams of high and low pressure gauges. The engine was working against a brake band. Near this an engine was just being put up for testing, and not far off an engine was running, and was to make a six months' test here. This was a new Testing new patent, and a secret, but I gleaned it was a machine that would develop the use of the waste steam. In this department is the great testing machine, to test up to a breaking strain of 500

patents.

tons.

In the organic chemistry department, Prof. Liebermann has his own laboratory, adjoining the general laboratory, with consulting library next door, and with a private stair by which the professor ascends to the lecture hall. He has his own table, and working with him are one private and one general assistant; in the general

room four students work at each table, with an assistant. Here I

saw an English student working near an admiral of the German Navy officers Fleet. Twenty-two were at work in this laboratory. The balance- at school. room was next door, and then the analysing room, and lesser room for exploding; also the washing room, a special room for sulphuretted hydrogen, &c., and four general workrooms en suite. In the lecture-room above, the table was being prepared for a lecture on Natural Dyes. Proofs of various colours in different stuffs were there, and the woods and other materials from whence the dyes were produced. In the collection room adjoining were collections of artificial materials, as glucose for sugar, and also a collection of aniline dyes, such as Azodyes. There were two rooms filled with these collections, and amongst other materials I noticed the Alizarin that is now used for dyeing the red of the French soldiers' trousers, instead of madder. In the metallurgical department were a wind furnace and muffle or assaying furnace, and an arrangement for a very powerful gas blast.

Observing the remarkable cleanliness and order throughout the whole of the vast building I asked the Professor who was my guide how it was possible to preserve such order, and he pointed out to me hanging on the wall the code of fines for disorder; for leaving a water tap turned on there was a fine of 10 pfennig, for a gas tap not turned off the fine was 30 pf., and so on down to one for leaving any scrap of paper about.

The last department I visited in this very remarkable building was at the top of the premises, where the photographers were at work. Here, owing to want of space, the museum specimens have been hung in the corridors adjoining the waiting rooms. Professor Vogel, who discovered the method of photographing in colours by means of rays of the three primary colours, was until recently at the head of this department, and a most interesting collection illustrating the development of this discovery was hung on the walls, a fruit piece with the first yellow ray photograph, then the second red ray, and then the blue. An illustration of butterflies from nature was most true to the rich natural colours. Professor Vogel received 80,000 marks for this patent in Germany, and 36,000 in America. Ás in the other divisions, the arrangements here permitted of all types of work, the operating rooms being supplied with most powerful cameras, the laboratory and dark rooms and developing chambers having every convenience and the latest appliances. A new developer lately discovered by Dr. Ellon of Berlin was in use. This developer, called Brenzkatechin, develops and fixes at the same time. The time of exposure is placed on all the examples, and I noticed a good moonlight view had been exposed for one hour thirty-five mninutes. To illustrate the development of photography early work is exhibited, and on the wall is hung the first camera for the Daguerreotype that came to Germany.

at school

As we were leaving this department, in a corridor we had to Army officer pass a group crowded out from a hall who were listening to a botanical lecture, and amongst them was an officer, possibly standing beside a lad educated at the Volksschule, a fitting

illustration of how the whole nation, at least in technical training, is marching on in an unanimous, compact body towards a higher culture and more developed science.

Seeing how admirably this college meets the higher educational needs of the more scientific branches of modern industry, I asked myself whether I should find in the smaller towns any similarly appropriate provision for the different needs of general workers in trades and handicrafts.

One of the objects in writing this report is to prove or disprove the fact that the German system of education is benefiting the nation as a whole, raising the standard and the enjoyment of life, and benefiting the nation commercially, and in Unter den Linden, at the offices of the great steamship lines, I had one example of the beneficial outcome of a part of the education I had been inspecting. Here I found were the models of the great liners that now encompass the earth even as do our own vessels. It is but a few years ago, and it would have been impossible for a German to have travelled, as he now can, in a German liner to North and South America, the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, India, China, Japan, Australia. The teaching of commercial geography opened the eyes of the Germans to the value of direct communication with those parts of the world where German goods were in demand and where German emigrants congregated; and the teaching of shipbuilding and ship engineering taught the nation how to build the vessels for this service, instead of purchasing them from another nation, and the individual is content to be taxed for the subsidy to these ocean liners, convinced of the advantages they bestow upon the general community.

CHAPTER II.

IN PRUSSIAN POLAND.

I left Berlin and proceeded eastwards towards the lesser-known parts of Germany. At Frankfort-on-Oder I found a new building and architectural school was just opening, but, as I should find the same type of school in full work at Posen, I went on to this originally Royal Polish city, an interesting town. Arriving late on a Saturday evening, I was enabled on the Sunday to judge somewhat of the life of the people before entering upon my task of examining their new technical schools, which I found were pleasantly situated on the outskirts of the town.

I found Director Spetzler, the head of the Baugewerkschule, and also the President of the Fortbildungs and Gewerkschule, most genial and kindly, and my letters from the Prussian Cultus Minister, Dr. Bosse, helped me here as elsewhere to a cordial reception. The technical work in this town I found to be all under two roofs. The building in which the Baugewerkschule

was housed was a large, square, red brick edifice of four stories, with wide, bold, stone stairs conducting to each floor.

Let me here explain this word Baugewerk or building trade school. It really includes what we should include under building architectural work-a certain type of civil engineering, and it is divided into two sections, named Hochbau and Tiefbau. The Hochbau includes such work as houses, shops, factories, in fact above-ground work, and the Tiefbau includes on or belowthe-ground, such as railways, bridges, drainage, &c.

But

school.

In this same building is carried on the Fortbildungs (continuation), and the Gewerkschule or trade school. The whole premises were in excellent order, and very clean; but in this case in the building school I found the number of pupils small, as during the summer the pupils are mostly engaged upon practical work, and do not attend the classes, so only thirty-four were now at work here, against 234 in the winter months. in the whole building, which was founded in 1892 at a cost of Cost of 250,000 marks = £12,500, there are educated, in addition to these 234, about 1,000 scholars in the continuation schools, and in this town, which has a population of about 100,000, there are for general education four Gymnasien, one Realschule, and ten Bürger and Volksschulen. The trades of the district are various: no great industry save a large factory for the manufacturing of chemical manures, which are used very extensively in the agricultural district surrounding Posen.

There is one great leverage the German schoolmaster possesses wherewith to lift his pupils into good work that an English teacher does not possess, and that is the fact, if a certain grade of work is passed, the student is freed from one or two years of military life, becomes a "volunteer" and only serves one year; but in this school at Posen, as in many of the lower technical schools, the director has not this lever to use; though in certain cases, if a pupil's work and diligence is far beyond the average, then for such a pupil this right of one year's service can be attained.

The pupils enter at sixteen, and there are four classes in the school, and each class lasts for half a year with twenty lessons, but as the pupil is on practical work during half the year, he is twenty when he has finished the course. The fees are 80 marks Tuition fees. (£4) for the half year, and 20 marks (£1) for materials; pupils providing themselves with instruments, and T squares, and water colours. Lodgings are arranged for the pupils at a fixed rate for board and lodging of 40 to 60 marks a month. A certain number of poor students are excused a part, or even all the fees; a proof of need, of intense diligence and capacity from former schools, such as the Volksschulen, must accompany any application for such exemption.

At the end of each half-year the pupil receives a certificate of the result of his work, and on his passing out of the first or highest class an examination is held, and those who pass receive a diploma from the Royal Examination Committee, which is accepted by the master builders and architects as a proof of the

Work programme

knowledge their code demands; it also suffices for certain Government situations in the building departments and in the Tiefbau department, i.e., positions on the canals, railways, roads, &c. The programme of work is, shortly, as follows:-For the fourth or lowest class: German language two hours a week, especial attention being given to building and business work, and the important points in connection with post, telegraph, telephone, railways. Arithmetic and algebra have respectively two and four hours per week. Mensuration of plane figures four hours. Natural philosophy two hours. Practical geometry four hours. Building construction, introducing every type of separate portions of buildings, and their construction in stone and wood, to this sixteen hours per week are given. To the elements of form, proportion, &c., four hours are given. To freehand drawing four hours, and to writing and modelling, according to the decision of the Director. The third class gives three hours to algebra; to trigonometry and stereometry four hours. To natural philosophy two hours, to building material study three hours, practical geometry four hours. To statics four hours. To building construction in stone and wood twelve hours. Form: Joints and braces in stone, wood, and iron, and study of the columns of the Renaissance, simple façades-to this four hours is devoted. Freehand drawing, simple ornament, and parts of buildings from models, and practice in sketching have four hours also. Building knowledge or architecture, planning simple buildings, and studying the principal laws affecting buildings, four hours; and modelling again as decided by the Director.

The second class: Natural philosophy, especially the uses of magnetism and electricity in connection with the building art, two hours. Practical geometry four hours.

Then comes Festigkeitslehre, or the strength of form and materials, to which five hours is given; with practical work, building construction that now advances to stairways, foundations, and their difficulties, such as piling, dams, &c., pillars, joists, and the interior work, such as the carpentry and locksmith's work, doors, windows, wall decorations, &c.; to this, as always, the most time is given, viz., twelve hours. Then come architectural plans and designs for simple town houses and the essentials of farm building, to which five hours are given.

In this 2nd class appears for the first time the Entwerfen or designing of which so much is made in all these schools in all trades. At the start plans are to be drawn of simple buildings; houses for artisans, or for the minor officials, small houses detached or connected with others, village schoolhouses, or the dwellings of a village pastor, the principal stress being laid on the details in working out the construction, and upon the most suitable form taken in connection with the class of materials used. The pupil also has to sketch out working plans of the details of the sketch. Eight hours a week are given to this; and to valuations, quantities, costs, &c., two hours. Then comes studies in form, sketches and designs of balconies, oriels, &c.