School of Mines.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4952, 22 November 1884, Page 2

School of Mines.

The following is a precis of the paper read at the last meeting of the Mutual Improvement Association by Jas. Adams, Esq., 8.A., oq the above subject :—

The object of a School of Mines ought to be the union of what has been gained by actual experience with what science has discorered of the nature and the mode of treatment of ores and minerals. With the aid of such a school, the skilful miner would hare the light of science to guide him in his daily researches. By whatever means such a union as this is effected, a lasting benefit would be conferred upon the country ; but if the means employed would also prove beneficial in every ' branch of science and every department of industry, then it should be adopted without hesitation. There is no doubt that there is a difficulty in establishing such a school, as we learn that Dunedin established a school some years ago—in so far os money and teachers can establish a school; but it has proved a failure, although we know that Otago is rich ia mineral wealth, and that Dunedin has a large number of her population practical miners. Ballarat is a large mining town, and has a population of about 50,000, and yet the School of Mines there is not a success. The attendance at the chemistry classes in the mining school is not more than thirty, and in the class for mineralogy from seven to nine. On the other hand, we know that such schools in Germany, France, and Belgium are well attended, and that the ordinary German or French miner possesses scientific knowledge in addition to bis personal experience. Tdo not think for one moment that our miners are one whit behind any in the world in intelligence and in the desire for scientific knowledge, but our intelligent miner has a difficulty to contend with that the German has not. That difficulty I proceed to point out: —At different times in the course of my school teaching I have given instruction to intelligent young mechanics who wished to learn decimal fractions' in order to be able to calculate areas and capacity, and to make their work io any specified scale. To accomplish this we worked through fractioni and decimal fractions, and after a good deal of patient labor those who were not deterred succeeded, but many fell off before they could reduce 17 square yardi 5 feet 142 inches to the decimal of 25 square yard?. It would have surprised them to learn that the foreign workman has no such drudgery to go through. Some people who have not thought about the subject will say that this question of decimals has little to do with the mining school, but, unfortunately, it has a very great deal to do with it. All that can be taught without decimal calculation in the programme of studies at a mining school is very little indeed. The practical subjects in the school are Chemistry and Metallurgy,and neither of these are taught but by the decimal or metric system. Suppose a professor to commence a class here, he would show how to prepare oxygen gas, and then experiment with it. Steel wire, and sulphur and phosphorus are successively burnt in it, and the usual tests for acids are made. He then pro* ceeds to show what weight of chlorate of potash must be taken to fill a bag with a certain volume of oxygen. Now he speaks of grams and decigrams of litres and centimetres, and he loses the attention of all, except that of those familiar with these weights and measures. But when he proceeds to illustrate how the actual volume of the gas is calculated, the subject is at once regarded as abstruse. Now it ought to be clearly understood, that the abstruseness does not arise from any scientific or mathematical difficulty. It arises simply from the use of weights and measures, different from any of those in our table books. The enthusiastic young miner hears of decimetres and centi* metres, of kilograms and decigrams and centilitres, and his heart fails him, even the degrees of heat on his thermometer are not those used in chemical calculation. But it will be asked what advantage has the French or German miner over the English miner. The German or Frenchman has all bis weights and measures in the metric system. His carpenter's rule is in decimetres and centimetres and millimetres. His ideas of capacity are litres and decilitres,* centilitres. His weights are in kilograms, grams, and centigrams. In fact he has nothing to learn on this subject when he attends a class in chemistry or mineralogy. But we have various systems of weights and measures for the ordinary affairs of life ; and this metric system for scientific calculations. It ii not clearly understood what useless labor our present weights and measures inflict on learners of Arithmetic. A boy ig taught practice and learns to calculate the value of 29 acres 3 roods 26 poles 46yds at £7 14s 10|d per acre and to reduce the amount to the decimal of £725 7s; and yet this operation, laborious as it now ts, means no more in the metric system than to multiply 29 32646 by 71411 and divide by 7257. It would appear scarcely credible to some people that all the rules of arithmetic are nothing more than the first four rules disguised by a barbarous system of weights and measures. i j^f^o as a stu<Jy ia mado abstruse and difficult by our present heterogenous gJ?tem, which not only impedes school children, but actually hinders the mechanic in the high&; branches of his work, and excludes fbramev from obtaining *he aid

of science in the redaction of ores and minerals. The remedy is. plain, if it is not simple—it is to adopt the rational, simple method of the metric system. It is in use on the Continent of Europe; it is in use to a great extent in America; and it is in use in all scientific studies. I sometimes see in the newspapers furious attacks on sonic . person or persons unknown, because mining schools do not flourish, but I do not believe there \e a worker in science in New Zealand, from Dr Hector down to the humblest teacher, who would not sacrifice ft good deal to aid in promoting a School of Mines; because the establishment of Schools of Mines in New Zealand would be an assurance that we should no longer waste the sources of mineral wealth, now classed under the name of mullock. The mundic and black jack would yield abundance of sulphuric acid, that necessary agent in the arts; zinc and copper would flow in a continuous stream from refuse, . now called mineral. The materials for pottery and glass would be used for a higher object than mending roads, or for filling in reclamation" grounds. A. new light would reveal to communities that there is more wealth to he obtained from the neglected mineral than from reefs of the precious metals. The industries now Ipringing up, as candle and soap factories, tanneries, woollen and fibre., factories, color making, and blacking making """ all owe their success to the intelligent ap« plication of science—to the proper pro- ■ - portion of the weights and measures of the chemical ingredients employed—and the only system of weights and measures easy and applicable is the metric system. It is proposed that an able lecturer shall instruct in mineralogy: this is a very good idea; but he must first have a class that can understand the weights and me a usres in use in science. The real teacher of science would feel himself degraded if his duties consisted in amusing an audience with various coloured fluids, with exploding gases, with making rings of phospho retted hydrogen, or by exhibiting the sparks of an electric machine and by pro ducing shocks from it. The teacher requires calculations, because the relations of weight and capacity lie at the door of science, and no entrance can be made without them. The knowledge of this metric system has enabled the German miner to acquire a scientific knowledge of his work, and in a mine he rises above his fellows as he ought to do. It is the very same case in the foundry or in the factory. The first step to take in order to adopt this metric system in New Zealand is to have it taught in every school —not as a general lesson, but as a practical object lesson. The actual length of the metre and its subdivisions, of the litre and its subdivisions, and of the kilogram, hecta gram, decagram, and gram should be made familiar objects to the pupils—to measure with them, to weigh them, to handle them, and above all to calculate by the metric system. In this way we should prepare the schools for the science lecturer, and pave the WBy for the adoption of the system throughout New Zealand. England is sure to adopt this system in course of time; but the necessity is greater for the Colonies, and especially for New Zealand, where Dew industries are continually started, and where the mineral resources are as yet almost untouched. As a last word, I may show from history how progress in mathematics and science depends on the symbols em* ployed. The ancient Bomans made little progress with their clumsy symbols until they adopted the alphabetic system from the Greeks. But the Greeks placed the study of arithmetic after that of plane geometry, so that even with Greek symbols mathematics stood still until the adoption of the Arabic symbols. The dawn of modern mathematics began with the use of 12 34567 89 0. But the crowning improvement in the latter was the adoption of the metric system, which, above all oihers, has spread Jhe knowSedge of mathematics and science to such a degree that the French and German workman has a scientific knowledge of his occupation ; but the English workman has no such advantage—for this real guide to science is, in his eyes, a dangerous foreigner.