PRACTICAL ENGINEERING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 154, 29 June 1912, Page 8

PRACTICAL ENGINEERING

TECHNICAL SCHOOL SUGGESTION. A report upon the proposal to set up a_ board to control mechanical engineering instruction in Wellington, was submitted to the Technical Education Board last evening by the director, Mr. La Trobe. The Value of the report was emphasised by the board, and in view of its importance, it was held over for discussion at a subsequent meeting. The present accommodation for mechanical engineering classes, said the director, included a drawing office; an excellent set of machine part models, and some good steam engine models j an engineering workshop, with smithy and of iice attached ; a small collection of pat-tern-making tools, and a small equipment for showing the elementary procesEes in moulding and casting. A steam laboratory was needed — far more so than an elaborate workshop equipment — to contain elementary heat appartus. It should contain experimental steam, gas, oil, and petrol engines, with experimental boileis and all gear to, cany out tests. In a country which, in the near future, would largely depend upon its excellent water supplies for power, a hydraulics laboratory should be _ attached to every technical school •which, aimed at teaching the science of mechanical engineering. , "In reality," continued the report, "the phenomena uf electricity are more easily studied, and more readily understood, than many of the physical properties of the ordinary materials of engineering. Electricity is a simple thing compared with steel and iron, and the laws of its actions are mpre easily and certainly determined than the laws of 'ihe action^ say, of steam in. a eteam engine or Bteain turbine." Any training which would lessen the difficulties of the young engineer in the problems which he must face in commercial practice was certainly worth, while and more preferable to that book knowledge and theorising which, had jußtly earned the contempt of ■ the practical man. The cost of the necessary apparatus could be spread over a number oi yeare. In any examinations practical work in the laboratory, said the director, should have a large part. ■ This ab once excluded such, examinations as those of the Government or Board of Trade, in which no first hand knowledge of such matters was usually necessary. The promotion of an apprentice both in shop and in school should depend on his work in both, places. The board should consist of th« following :—: — A representative of the WellingtonTechnical Education Board ; an independent engineering authority (the Hafbour Board engineer, for instance) j a representative of the ironmasters ; of the Australasian Institute of Mar be Engineers ; of the Amalgamated- Society of Engineers ; and the directors of Technical Education. The report, as stated, waa held over for discussion.