Rüegg.2004.history.of.the.university.in.europe.vol.3.guagnini.ch.15.technology

A HISTORY OF THE
UNIVERSITY IN EUROPE
general editor
walter ru¨ egg
VOLUME I I I
UNIVERSITIES IN THE NINETEENTH AND
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES
(1800–1945)
EDITOR
WA LT E R R U¨ EGG

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CHAPTER 15
TECHNOLOGY
ANNA GUAGNINI∗
i n t rodu c t i o n
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the forms of instruction that were
available for the training of engineers in Europe were a combination of
apprenticeship and of basic scientific knowledge of a kind that was not
necessarily related to practical ends. In general, technical subjects were
regarded as inappropriate fields of activity for institutions of higher educa-tion.
Advanced schools that did provide instruction in the applied sciences
were few, and their main objective was to prepare state officials for the
military or the civil service. By the end of the nineteenth century, this old
nucleus of military and administrative schools had been swamped by the
growth of new institutions, and, in the process, the emphasis had shifted
from public service towards training for the industrial professions. The
pattern of growth of these new forms of technical education was uneven:
the number of institutions offering instruction for industrial careers and
the number of students enrolled in them differed markedly from one coun-try
to another. The quality of the facilities, too, was very variable. The fact
remains, however, that in the aftermath of the First World War, technical
courses and degrees at university level were available in all the industri-alized
countries of Europe. Virtually everywhere, in fact, they constituted
one of the most rapidly growing sectors of higher education.
The process that led to the extraordinary proliferation of higher tech-nical
schools and courses was not a linear one. One of the most peculiar
features of the sector was the diversity of the origins of its constituent
∗ This survey is largely based on the volume edited by R. Fox and A. Guagnini (eds.),
Education, Technology and Industrial Performance in Europe, 1850–1939 (Cambridge
and Paris, 1993). The chapter draws heavily on the essays of the contributors to this book
and on discussions with them.
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Anna Guagnini
institutions. The majority of the new schools were created outside the
university system, in a variety of quite distinct institutional contexts, and
they were admitted to the highest levels of the educational hierarchy only
slowly. The upgrading of those schools was generally brought about by
a gradual redefinition of their aims and by a reorganization of their pro-grammes.
In the course of this transformation, more uniform standards
were adopted. Nevertheless, higher technical schools often retained char-acteristic
marks of their heterogeneous background. In this survey spe-cial
emphasis is placed precisely on this aspect, namely on the variety
of the backgrounds from which higher education developed, not only in
different national contexts, but also within the boundaries of individual
nations.
Without exception, the growth in the number and size of the institu-tions
of higher technical education during the nineteenth century caused
significant tension in the upper levels of the educational system. In all
European countries, resistance to change was a deeply entrenched feature
of higher education, and there is no doubt that the ‘utilitarian’ character
of the new curricula continued to fuel hostility towards technological edu-cation
long after engineering schools were accepted as a recognized part
of the university system. Attitudes to those schools were also hardened
by the rapidity with which they proliferated and by the heavy demands
they made on financial resources.
It was inevitable that the growth in enrolments and the ever-increasing
sophistication of the programmes would cause internal problems and
heighten the difficulty of preserving exacting standards in teaching and a
serious commitment to research, while coping with the inexorable pres-sure
towards specialization and the fragmentation of curricula. These
were dominant themes in the history of higher technical education
between the First and Second World Wars, and, in many respects, they
remained unresolved after 1945.
t e c h n i c a l educat i o n for p u b l i c s e rvan t s
Science has always drawn ideas from the world of practice, though it
has done so with aims that have been predominantly theoretical. The
second half of the eighteenth century was no exception to this trend;
however, in this period, there were also new attempts to point the arrow
in the other direction, by using theoretical knowledge to illuminate the
problems of manufacture. In the process, experimental and mathemati-cal
research, stimulated by an interest in the scientific principles under-lying
machines and processes, yielded a considerable amount of knowl-edge
that was relevant to practical questions, especially in mechanics and
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hydrodynamics.1 The interaction was assisted by institutional develop-ments.
Throughout Europe, this was a period in which natural philoso-phers
became increasingly involved in practical matters. Members of
academies and scientific societies and the professoriate of institutions of
higher education acted as consultants and advisors, and occasionally as
the directors of public works and state-owned industries.2 The case of
the chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822), who in the 1780s was
director of dyeing at the royal tapestry works in Paris, the Gobelins,
is only one of the many examples of the active role played by natural
philosophers.3
The institutional seats of knowledge had other important links with
sites of practice. Models of machines were, albeit on a small scale, an
essential component of the natural philosopher’s world, as instruments for
demonstration and experimental research. They acted as a focus for the
bond between scholars and instrument-makers, and hence as a channel for
the cross-fertilization between science and technology.4 The importance
of this channel in the development of technology is perhaps best exempli-fied
by the association between James Watt (1735–1848), the instrument-maker
who invented the separate condenser and other improvements in
the steam engine, and the scientific community centred on the University
of Glasgow.5
The conviction that science was the necessary foundation for the
improvement and development of the useful arts had much support among
natural philosophers. However, the aim of institutions devoted to the
teaching of science was not to train practitioners in any of the useful arts;
their main concern was theoretical, and the abstract notions that were
formulated did little to guide the work of men who were engaged in the
design and production of manufacts. It is true that some members of the
scientific community did make contributions to technology. But these con-tributions
were the fruit of personal research interests. The fact remains
that there was little in the scientific curricula offered by the traditional
centres of learning in the late eighteenth century that could help practising
engineers and mechanics in the solution of their problems.
The involvement of individual scientists in technical matters, at a
private as well as a public level, continued throughout the nineteenth
1 On these themes see various chapters in C. Singer, C. E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and T. I.
Williams, A History of Technology, vol. IV: The Industrial Revolution (Oxford, 1958).
2 C. Gillispie, Science and Polity in France at the End of the Old Regime (Princeton, 1980).
3 Gillispie, Science (note 2), chapter VI.
4 L. Stewart, The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology and Natural Philosophy in
Newtonian Britain (Cambridge, 1992).
5 OnWatt and the Glasgow scientific circle: D. S. L. Cardwell, The Rise of Thermodynamics
in the Early Industrial Age (London, 1971).
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Anna Guagnini
century. However, already by the second half of the eighteenth century,
the scale and complexity of some sectors of government-controlled activ-ities
had grown to such an extent that technical responsibilities began
to be entrusted to specially appointed civil servants. In most European
countries, corps of technical experts were established in the army and
in those sectors of the public administration, such as mining and high-ways,
in which governments had a direct interest and could exercise their
authority. It was precisely with a view to preparing candidates for these
sectors that new schools were created with a special focus on the applied
sciences. Their aim was at once to provide what were regarded at the time
as the scientific foundations of the useful arts, and to confer the neces-sary
qualifications for public appointments, in either the army or the civil
service.
The academic standards of the new institutions varied significantly
between countries, depending on the status of the positions to which
they gave access. But even schools that functioned initially at a rather ele-mentary
level tended quite soon to upgrade their syllabuses and to adopt
more demanding criteria for the admission of candidates. In this respect,
the schools for the training of civil and military officers clearly belonged
to the more elevated levels of higher education, where they emerged as a
main foundation for the subsequent development of university-level tech-nical
education in the nineteenth century. However, none of these schools
belonged to the university system. In fact, one of their distinctive features
was precisely that they were neither created nor controlled by educational
agencies, but rather by ministries of war, public works or commerce.
Almost invariably, the first technical schools were organized in response
to the needs of the army. In addition to the military academies, special
schools of military architecture and artillery were opened to prepare offi-cers
for the tasks of the technical corps, such as the construction and main-tenance
of fortifications, and the production, supply, and use of munitions
and weapons.
It was in France that these schools were best organized. In 1748, the
Ministry ofWar officially opened the E´ cole (from 1775, the E´ cole Royale)
du Génie Militaire at Mézières. Students, many of them from aristocratic
or military families, were admitted at the age of fifteen, following an
entrance examination. The courses, which lasted two and, subsequently,
three years, were based on a syllabus that included mathematics, natural
philosophy, machine design, fortification, architecture, and, towards the
end of the century, chemistry. The presence among the teachers of distin-guished
men of science, and the brilliant scientific achievements of some
of the students, gave the institution great academic distinction: Charles
Bossut (1752–68) and Gaspard Monge (1746–1818) were just two of
the eminent names associated with the school in the eighteenth century.
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Technology
The lineage of the French artillery schools was rather less distinguished.
Originally they were attached to various battalions, and it was only in
1802 that the sector was reorganized, when the E´ cole du Geńie Militaire
was expanded to include an artillery section and renamed the E´ cole de
l’Artillerie et du Génie Militaire.6
At the turn of the century, schools for the preparation of technically
trained military officers existed in most European countries. However,
in the unsettled political climate of the period, the life of some of these
institutions was ephemeral. Their organization improved in the aftermath
of the Napoleonic wars, when the growing recognition of the impact of
new technologies on military techniques and an awareness of the impor-tant
contributions made by the French military schools in the field of
science and technology combined to induce other governments to pay
more attention to the provision for specialized military instruction. In
1816, the Prussian Ministry of War set up the Vereinigte Artillerie- und
Ingenieurschule in Berlin, and the Ho¨ gre Artillerila¨ roverket och Artilleri-och
Ing. Ho¨ gskolan was founded at Marieberg in Sweden in 1818. In
Russia, Spain, Belgium, and the Italian states, too, existing schools of
military architecture and artillery were reorganized from 1820, as part of
the same movement.
Clearly, the amount of technical instruction that these schools offered
was limited, since time also had to be found for purely military subjects
and drill. Also, the enrolments were low, for the military could only absorb
a fixed number of recruits every year. Nevertheless, in the early decades of
the nineteenth century, when few other institutions offered instruction of
a kind that was relevant to technical matters, the schools played an impor-tant
role in fashioning a new generation of educated technical experts. In
fact, their influence far transcended the military sphere: engineers who
had been trained for the army were often employed in the design and
construction of public works. In Sweden, for example, the civil engineer-ing
sector remained under the supervision of military engineers until the
mid-nineteenth century.
Also quite separate from the university system were the mining schools,
most of them founded in the later eighteenth century. At a time when,
in most European countries, natural underground resources were the
property of the state, the primary aim of these schools was to train the
small number of civil servants who were employed as managers in state-owned
mining enterprises. One of the earliest and most famous schools of
this kind was the Bergakademie of Schemnitz (Banska ˇ Stiavnica), estab-lished
in 1763, and situated at the centre of one of the most prosperous
6 R. Taton, ‘L’Ecole Royale du Génie de Mézières’, in R. Taton (ed.), Enseignment et diffu-sion
des sciences en France au dix-huitième siècle (Paris, 1964), 559–615.
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Anna Guagnini
mining districts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.7 Two years later, Prince
Xaver of Saxony (1730–1806) opened a similar institution at Freiberg,8
and in 1770 the Prussian Government set up the Bergakademie in Berlin.
The courses at all these schools lasted three years, and in all of them the
teaching of geometry, hydraulics, mining techniques and chemistry was
complemented by practical laboratory exercises and visits to mines. In the
early nineteenth century, Freiberg was the most renowned centre for min-ing
instruction in Europe. It attracted foreign students and supplied min-ing
managers for several neighbouring countries, notably Poland, and the
northern European states. However, the number of students who enrolled
in the mining schools remained small: Schemnitz, with a total of about
40 students per year, was in the 1770s the best attended of this class of
institution.
The creation of mining schools in Eastern Europe was a sign of the
importance that governments in the region attributed to the exploitation
of mineral resources. Their example, in turn, stimulated similar initiatives
in France. Here, too, mines were the property of the state, and it was
therefore a governmental agency, the Ministry of Public Works, which in
1783 created a special school for mining engineers, the E´ cole des Mines.
The main purpose of the school was to supply men for the Corps des
Ingénieurs des Mines, and it was part and parcel of this objective that the
school was located not in the mining districts but in Paris, close to the main
seats of administrative power. In 1802, the Convention closed the E´ cole
des Mines, replacing it with two schools situated in the mining areas. But
in 1816 the E´ cole des Mines was reopened in the prestigious quarters of
the Hotel Vend ˆ ome.9 Among the subjects covered in the three-year course
were mineralogy, assaying, and the general principles of mine working
and management. However, the main thrust was theoretical, while the
practical aspects of instruction were treated largely in the long vacations,
when students were expected to work in mines under the supervision of
senior engineers.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, military and mining instruc-tion
remained an important sector of higher technical education through-out
Europe, and it continued to stimulate institutional initiatives. Further
expansion and the increasing specialization of military training led to
the opening of new schools of artillery and naval architecture. Mining
7 Gedenkbuch der hundertja¨hrigen Gru¨ndung der Bergakademie Schemnitz (Schemnitz,
1871).
8 Bergakademie Freiberg. Festschrift zu ihrer Zweihundertjahrfeier am 13. Nov. 1965.
2 vols. (Leipzig, 1965); F. W¨ achtler and F. Radzei, Tradition und Zukunft. Bergakademie
Freiberg 1765–1965 (Freiberg, 1965).
9 E. Grateau, L’E´ cole des Mines de Paris. Histoire – organisation – enseignement. E´ le`ves-ing
énieurs et élèves externes (Paris, 1865).
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schools were established in Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden and in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire; private enterprise also made its contribution,
with the opening of the E´ cole desMines atMons in Belgium (1836) and of
the Royal School of Mines in London (1851). But the most notable devel-opments
took place in civil engineering. This was largely the result of the
expansion of schools for the training of recruits for the corps responsible
for public works. The first initiative in this direction had already been
launched in France in 1748, when special courses were set up in Paris
for the employees of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées. The courses were
later transformed into the E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés, and, like the
corps to which they were attached, were administered by the Ministry of
Commerce.10
It was one of the distinctive features of the E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés
that, until the end of the eighteenth century, the professorship was not
made up of professional teachers. In fact, most of the teaching was done
by officers from the corps and by the best students of the school. The first
year of the three-year course was spent on general scientific subjects; in the
second year, mechanics, hydraulics, geometry, surveying, strength of mate-rials,
and stereotomy were taught; and the final year was devoted mainly
to instruction in practical projects. As in the case of military and min-ing
schools, the limited number of career opportunities for highly quali-fied
public officers imposed constraints on the enrolments. In fact, pupils
were recruited, in small numbers, from among the younger members
of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées. In the first decades, the total number
of the students in attendance was no more than twenty, about ten of whom
graduated each year. By 1806 the number had risen to about 53, and in
1850 it was 78. The character of the E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés was
modified when, in 1794, the E´ cole polytechnique (founded in that year
as the E´ cole Centrale des Travaux Publics), was established. According
to the original plan, drawn up by Monge and subsequently endorsed by
Napoleon, this institution was to replace the E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés
as a source of candidates for the highest ranks of the military and civil ser-vice.
In the event, the whole system for the training of state officers was
reorganized. As a result, the E´ cole polytechnique became the common
preparatory school for students who sought admission to what now began
to be known collectively as ećoles d’application: the E´ cole de l’Artillerie
et du Geńie Militaire, the E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés, and the E´ cole des
Mines. In this way, the E´ cole polytechnique became the cornerstone of
the interlocking system of advanced technical schools that firmly estab-lished
themselves at the top of France’s educational hierarchy, well ahead
10 A. Picon, L’invention de l’ingeńieurmoderne. L’E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés, 1747–1851
(Paris, 1994).
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Anna Guagnini
of the faculties of the Napoleonic Université de France in both prestige
and influence.11
The E´ cole polytechnique was administered by theMinistry ofWar, and
from 1804, when the Emperor Napoleon I reorganized the school, stu-dents
were subject to military discipline. Admission was strictly controlled
by a highly competitive system of national examinations, the concours,
in which advanced mathematics was the core discipline. Candidates were
required to hold the baccalaureate (the qualification awarded to pupils
emerging from the lycées), but in the nineteenth century additional spe-cial
classes, offered by the most important lycées, were indispensable in
order to prepare students for the entrance examinations. Once they had
entered the E´ cole polytechnique, students underwent an intensive two-year
course in higher mathematics, rational mechanics and geometry; vir-tually
no technical instruction was provided. The fact is that, despite the
technical bias suggested by the name, the aim of the E´ cole polytechnique
was to teach the general scientific principles on which engineering was
deemed to be based. It was one of the distinctive features of the school
that, from the start, the courses were given by some of the most dis-tinguished
mathematicians and physicists of the day, including Monge,
Lagrange and Fourcroy.
The students who passed the final examination had access to the fur-ther
education thatwas provided by the ećoles d’application: the E´ cole des
Ponts et Chausseés and the E´ cole desMines, for pupils aspiring to civilian
careers, and the E´ cole de l’Artillerie et duGeńieMilitaire and the E´ cole du
Génie Maritime for those going on into the army or navy. Here the teach-ing
was more specialized, and applied subjects featured more prominently
in the syllabus, but their treatment was academic and abstract rather than
practical. There is no doubt that, in the early nineteenth century, the E´ cole
polytechnique and the écoles d’application were leading centres in the
development of scientific knowledge as well as engineering science. But
the schools, with their strong emphasis on mathematics and intellectual
skills, turned out to be more important as centres for the preparation of
high-powered administrators than practising engineers.
the i n f l u e n c e of the french model
In the first decades of the nineteenth century, France offered a formidable
example of a state-led move towards scientific education as the basis for
the training of technical civil servants. The E´ cole polytechnique and the
écoles d’application became objects of admiration among the advocates of
11 E´ cole polytechnique. Livre du centenaire 1794–1894, 3 vols. (Paris, 1894–7); T. Shinn,
Savoir scientifique et pouvoir social. L’E´ cole polytechnique, 1794–1914 (Paris, 1980);
B. Belhoste et al. (eds.), La Formation polytechnicienne 1794–1994 (Paris, 1994).
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modernization who campaigned for social reform and economic progress,
and they prompted similar initiatives in other countries. However, it was
not an example that other countries were able or willing to follow in detail.
The fact is that the success of the higher technical schools in France was
closely wedded to the particular structure of French bureaucracy, and to
the presence in Paris of the most distinguished scientific community of the
time. These conditions did not exist elsewhere, and although advanced
schools for the training of technical civil servants began to appear in
other European countries, none of them achieved the same commanding
position at the national level. And none of them approached the academic
reputation of their French counterparts, at least until the second half of
the nineteenth century.
Even where deliberate attempts to emulate the pattern of the French
schools were made, the results differed significantly. In Spain, for exam-ple,
the monarchy created in 1802 an Escuela de Caminos y Canales
in Madrid whose plan was prepared by a former pupil of the French
E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés, August´ın de Betancourt (1758–1824).12
In other countries too, former pupils of the French écoles d’application
played a vital role in the organization of broadly comparable schools. This
was the case of the Institute of Engineers of Ways of Communication in
St Petersburg, founded in 1809.13 On the strength of the experience he
had gained in organizing the Spanish school, the man who was called in
by the Russian authorities to plan the institution was once again Betan-court,
who was also appointed the first director. Former students of the
E´ cole des Ponts et Chausseés were also attracted to the St Petersburg
school: both Gabriel Lamé (1795–1870) and Emile Clapeyron (1799–
1864) taught applied mathematics and physics there in the 1820s.
In Spain as in Russia, the influence of the French model was clear in
several respects: these included the close bond of the schools with the
corps d’état, their quasi-military regime, and the strong emphasis on sci-ence
as the foundation of engineering. However, in both countries, the
absence of a well-organized civil service, and the consequent lack of a
sustained demand for technical experts, did not allow the new institu-tions
to thrive. In fact, the Escuela of Madrid had a rather ephemeral
12 A. Rumeu de Armas, Ciencia y tecnologıá en la Espan˜ a Ilustrada. La Escuela de Caminos
y Canales (Madrid, 1980).
13 I. Gouzévitch and D. Gouzévitch, ‘Les contacts franco-russes dans le domaine de
l’enseignement supérieur technique et l’art de l’ingénieur’, Cahiers du monde russe et
soviétique, 34 (1993), 345–68. I. Gouzévitch, ‘Technical Higher Education in Nineteenth-century
Russia and France: Some Thoughts on a Historical Choice’, in A. Karvar and B.
Schroeder-Gudehus, Techniques, Frontiers, Mediation. Transnational Diffusion of Mod-els
for the Education of Engineers, special issue of History and Technology 12 (1995),
109–17. For an account of the early history of this institution: A. M. Larionov, Istoriia
Instituta Inzhenerov Putej soobshcheniia Imperatora Aleksandra I za pervoe stoletie
sushchestvovaniia 1810–1910 (St Petersburg, 1910).
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Anna Guagnini
life until 1835. But it was not only in the academic quality of the results
that the emulation departed from the original. While it is beyond question
that the E´ cole polytechnique and the e´coles d’application provided a stim-ulus
for emulation in other European countries, their role as a blueprint
is not straightforward. While they certainly inspired broadly similar ini-tiatives,
the organization and educational approach of the schools had
to be adjusted to very different economic and political contexts, to local
professional traditions, and to the structures of pre-existing systems of
schooling. Not surprisingly, the results departed significantly from the
original.
Like Spain, the Italian states had a long and deeply rooted associa-tion
with French culture – an association that was further consolidated
in the period of the Napoleonic occupation. It is not surprising, there-fore,
that the Italian intellectuals who campaigned in the 1830s for the
modernization of culture and society looked admiringly to the French sys-tem
of higher technical instruction. However, political instability and the
prevailing conservatism of the ruling classes stifled any attempt to intro-duce
significant reforms in the educational system. Moreover, and more
specifically, the creation of higher technical schools was bound to come
into conflict with the Italian universities’ firm control of higher education.
Their chief aim was to provide the necessary qualification for admission
to the liberal professions, mainly medicine and law. But it was also a pecu-liarity
of some of the Italian universities, namely those of Turin, Pavia,
Padua and Rome, that, already in the second half of the eighteenth century,
their faculties of arts and natural philosophy offered special courses for
young men seeking to enter the engineering profession – whether as civil
servants or in private practice. In fact, in Piedmont and in Lombardy, a
university degree was required in order to be admitted to the corporations
that controlled the engineering profession.14
In the 1840s and 1850s, plans were discussed for the opening of special
engineering schools, but political insecurity and the long established liai-son
between the engineering profession and the universities prevented fur-ther
developments. In the event, after the unification, engineering schools
were established as special sections within the university system. The
scuole di applicazione per ingegneri, as these sections were called, admit-ted
students after they had completed the second year of the courses
leading to degrees in mathematics or physics; moreover, their teachers
were members of the science faculties. As a result of this institutional
14 G. Bozza and J. Bassi, ‘La formazione e la posizione dell’ingegnere e dell’architetto nelle
varie epoche storiche’, in Il centenario del Politecnico di Milano, 1863–1963 (Milan,
1964); C. Brayda, L. Coli and D. Sesia, Ingegneri e architetti del Sei e Settecento in
Piemonte (Turin, 1963).
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link, coupled with the strong influence of the French engineering schools,
the thrust of the courses was essentially theoretical. Until the end of the
nineteenth century, in fact, practical instruction was virtually absent from
the syllabuses of the Italian engineering schools.15
The approach in Prussia was very different. Here, the Bauakademie
was established in Berlin in 1799, as part of a general reorganization of
all sectors of the educational system which culminated in the opening of
the University of Berlin in 1810. The cultural context of the reform was
fashioned by a dominant humanistic ideal and, in the sphere of higher
education, by a total commitment to the cultivation and the advancement
of knowledge, unsullied by utilitarian concerns. Science as an intellectual
pursuit was compatible with such an approach, but its applications were
regarded as alien to the realm of education. The reformers were clearly
aware both of the importance of scientific and technical instruction as
a factor in economic progress, and of the scientific achievements of the
French engineering schools. But they dealt with the problem of technical
training by developing a separate, less academic level of schools. Thus,
in planning the Bauakademie, their aim was to some extent similar to
that of the French schools, namely to prepare competent recruits for the
civil service, who would be employed in major public works, in partic-ular
in road and canal construction and surveying. However, these were
conceived as strictly technical careers, not stepping stones to the highest
ranks of the civil administration. Hence the Bauakademie’s level and style
of education was quite distinct from that of the university. The cultivation
of science belonged to the university, whereas the instruction offered by
the Bauakademie, as a technical institute, was essentially professional in
character. And, crucially, the Bauakademie was not only independent of
the university system; it also ranked below it.16
Respect for the academic prestige of the French E´ cole polytechnique
was also evident among the promoters of higher technical education in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the approach that the govern-ment
adopted there was novel, differing even from the solution favoured
in Prussia. The main features were two-fold. First, in 1815 the Bohemian
15 G. C. Lacaita, Istruzione e sviluppo industriale in Italia, 1859–1914 (Florence, 1973);
A. Guagnini, ‘Higher Education and the Engineering Profession in Italy: The Scuole of
Milan and Turin, 1859–1914’, Minerva, 26 (1988), 512–48.
16 W. Lexis, Die Technischen Hochschulen im Deutschen Reich (Berlin, 1904); K.-H. Mane-gold,
Universit ¨ at, Technische Hochschule und Industrie. Ein Beitrag zur Emanzipation
der Technik im 19. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Beru¨ cksichtigung der Bestrebungen
Felix Kleins, Schriften zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 16 (Berlin, 1970). On the
creation and development of the Bauakademie in Berlin: R. R¨ urup (ed.), Wissenschaft
und Gesellschaft. Beitr ¨age zur Geschichte der Technischen Universit ¨ at Berlin 1879–1979,
2 vols. (Berlin, Heidelberg and New York, 1979).
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Anna Guagnini
Polytechnisches Landesinstitut of Prague and the Polytechnisches Insti-tut
of Vienna (opened respectively in 1806 and 1815), were recognized
as institutions of higher education, though separate from the university
system. Scientific disciplines loomed large in the syllabuses, in so far as
they were regarded a necessary component of an engineer’s preparation.
But equal prominence was given to the subjects that were more relevant
to the professional activities of the students. Thus technical subjects were
treated as extensively and systematically as possible, and were given the
same dignity as the scientific disciplines.17 Secondly, and very charac-teristically,
attention was paid to the instruction of students in subjects
that were relevant to manufacturing practice, especially applied chem-istry
and mechanical engineering. This reflects the fact that the technical
schools of Vienna and Prague also departed from the French model in the
range of posts for which their students were trained: their objective was to
prepare not only technical officers for the state corps, but also young men
going on to careers in the private sector, whether in construction or in
manufacturing.
A similar solution was adopted two decades later in Belgium, a coun-try
that had deeply rooted cultural links with France but whose response
shows clearly how models were adjusted to different circumstances. The
influence of the French model was as deeply rooted here as it was in Spain
and Italy; like the latter, Belgium was occupied by France in the first decade
of the nineteenth century, and during that period the French administra-tion
set up technical corps that mirrored those already existing in France.
But at the same time, Belgium was beginning to emerge as Europe’s second
most industrialized region. The concern with the preparation of techni-cally
trained administrators, borrowed from the French tradition, was
counterbalanced by an equal concern with the instruction of young men
going on to industrial careers.ACorps des Ponts et Chaussées, first created
in 1804 during the French occupation, was reorganized in 1831, when the
country became independent. Four years later, plans were submitted to
the government for the creation of two new schools, the E´ cole des Ponts
et Chausseés at Ghent and the E´ cole des Mines at Lie`ge.
Originally, the aim of the new schools was to train technical officers
for the civil service as well as employees for industry. However, by the
time they were opened in 1838, each of them was subdivided into two
separate institutions: the E´ cole Spećiale du Geńie Civil and the E´ cole
des Arts et Manufactures in Ghent; the E´ cole Spećiale des Mines and
the E´ cole des Arts et Manufactures in Lie`ge. The ećoles spećiales were
17 H. Gollob, Geschichte der Technischen Hochschule in Wien (Vienna, 1964); H. Sequenz
(ed.), 150 Jahre Technische Hochschule in Wien 1815–1965, 2 vols. (Vienna and New
York, 1965); C. Hautschek (ed.), Johann Joseph Prechtl. Sichtweisen und Aktualit ¨ at seines
Werkes (Vienna and Cologne, 1990).
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Technology
similar to the French écoles d’application, both in the privileged access
which their students enjoyed with regard to entry to the civil service, and
in the theoretical bias of their courses. The syllabuses of the two écoles
des arts et manufactures, on the other hand, had a more practical bent,
characterized by a less sophisticated programme of mathematics and by
extensive studies of manufacturing practices. Inevitably, the écoles des
arts et manufactures had a lower status than the écoles spéciales; but the
fact remains that in Belgium state-supported institutions for the training of
technical officers and for industrial engineers were created simultaneously
and as part of the same educational structure. By 1840, therefore, Belgium
had a two-tier system of higher technical schools.18
The country in which the continental drive towards the creation of
schools for state-employed technical officers was least effective was
Britain. Her industrial successes had gone hand in glove with the dra-matic
development of her means of communication – canals, turnpikes,
bridges, docks, and, from the 1820s, the railway network. However, the
control of these initiatives remained largely in private hands. In keep-ing
with its generally laissez-faire policy, the government did not regard
itself as responsible for assessing the qualifications of the technical men in
charge of these works, nor for providing relevant instruction. Regardless
of whether any such form of education was available before the mid-century,
the training of technical experts was controlled by strict and
well-established rules that had their roots within the engineering commu-nity.
Experience and practical knowledge were by far the most important
qualifications for young men who aspired to the highest ranks of the
engineering profession, whether in private practice, or as employees in
industrial concerns. The lengthy process of apprenticeship (usually seven
years), or, for those who could afford it, premium pupilage (shorter but
expensive) with some well-established firms or freelance engineers, were
the only recognized routes to positions of real technical responsibility.19
These professional values and norms were codified in the statutes of the
professional associations that began to represent the elite of the engineer-ing
community, from as early as 1771, when the Institution of Civil Engi-neers
was established. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, founded
in 1847, adopted a similar attitude towards professional qualifications.20
In both cases, admission was based on experience and the candidate’s
professional success; by comparison, scientific education and academic
degrees carried virtually no weight. This does not necessarily mean that the
18 J. C. Baudet, ‘The Training of Engineers in Belgium, 1830–1940’, in Fox and Guagnini
(eds.) Education (note *), 93–114.
19 C. More, Skill and the English Working Class, 1870–1914 (London, 1980).
20 R. A. Buchanan, The Engineers: A History of the Engineering Profession in Britain 1750–
1914 (London, 1989).
605

Anna Guagnini
institutions under-estimated the importance of fostering the advance-ment
and diffusion of technical knowledge. In fact, they were actively
engaged in supporting research, organizing meetings, and promoting self-education
and the exchange of information between members. What was
conspicuously absent was any attempt to replace experience with higher
education.
Clearly, this attitude left little scope for the development of engineer-ing
schools. It is not surprising, therefore, that the few early attempts to
establish special higher courses for engineers in the late 1820s and 1830s
did not prove successful. The University of Durham and the newly estab-lished
London colleges (University College and King’s College) created
engineering chairs and set up special programmes for engineers. How-ever,
enrolments were low; it was only in the last decade of the century
that formal education, as a partial alternative to apprenticeship, began to
be recognized as a relevant qualification for admission to the engineering
association.21
the emergence of i n du s t r i a l e n g i n e e r i n g ,
1830–1850
All the state-controlled schools mentioned so far offered at least some
instruction in subjects, such as chemistry and applied mechanics, that
were relevant to manufacturing practices. And occasionally students from
those schools found their way into industry. However, most European
governments were reluctant to become involved in schemes for the train-ing
of technical experts for industry. For its part, industry did not subject
the various central authorities to the pressure that might have led them
to take more account of industrial developments. In the first decades of
the nineteenth century, in fact, hardly any manufacturers put the case for
higher technical instruction with an industrial orientation.
Such exceptions as there were tended to be found in the chemical indus-try,
where by the 1840s a few manufacturers, most notably though not
only in Germany, were already beginning to engage young men edu-cated
in the universities.22 The training in analytical methods and lab-oratory
techniques which these men had received made them particularly
suitable for the supervision of assaying and testing operations. How-ever,
such demand as there was, was largely satisfied by the universi-ties.
Here, the University of Giessen, where Justus von Liebig opened his
21 H. Hale Bellott, University College London, 1826–1906 (London, 1929); F. J. Hearn-shaw,
The Centenary History of King’s College 1828–1926 (London, 1929).
22 L. F. Haber, The Chemical Industry During the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1958).
606

Technology
teaching and research laboratory in 1825, was a particularly successful
example.23
Despite these early developments, it cannot be stressed too strongly that,
before 1850, a close link between academic science and industrial practice
was unusual. In manufacturing sectors other than chemistry, such as met-allurgy,
textiles and mechanical engineering, theory and practice were even
further apart, although from time to time scientists and university profes-sors
were consulted by manufacturers on specific problems. These inter-mittent
contacts were sufficient to ensure that, throughout the first half of
the century, a considerable amount of research was carried out by scien-tists
(many of them French), who applied rigorous experimental methods
to the study of technical problems. The problems included the efficiency
and safety of steam engines and other machinery, the strength and elas-ticity
of materials, and the classification of kinematics, subjects that
were treated in such pioneering works as Jean Nicole Pierre Hachette’s
(1769–1834) Traité élémentaire des machines (1811) and Gérard Joseph
Christian’s (1776–1832) Traité de la méchanique industrielle, 3 vols.
(Paris, 1822–5). The fact remains, however, that although these books
made a significant contribution to the assessment of contemporary prac-tices
in the rapidly advancing sphere of manufacturing techniques, in the
design of machines, mills and engines, and in metallurgy, the pace was
still set by men of experience rather than by men of science.24
It is not surprising that, in the light of the dominant emphasis on experi-ence,
apprenticeship was still regarded by manufacturers (in Britain even
more than on the Continent) as the best form of training for industrial
careers. This was true not only with respect to skilled workers, but also
for young men aspiring to more senior positions – as foremen, draughts-men
and, from the mid-century, as technical supervisors in large industrial
concerns. At best, a formal education in science and its applications (but
also in other subjects such as mechanical drawing and foreign languages)
was regarded as complementary to apprenticeship. This was the spirit
that guided the Mechanics’ Institutes, large numbers of which provided
popular lecture courses and libraries for working people in the main man-ufacturing
centres of Britain in the 1830s and 1840s. Elsewhere, in less
industrialized countries, efforts were made to set up networks of trade
schools with the aim of preparing skilled workers. Pupils were taught the
rudiments of mathematics and mechanics, and drawing, and they received
basic manual instruction in a variety of crafts and trades. None of these
23 J. J. Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry (Urbana, Ill., 1959); J. B. Morrell,
‘The Chemist-Breeders: The Research Schools of Liebig and Thomas Thomson’, Ambix,
19 (1972), 1–46.
24 Singer, Holmyard, Hall and Williams, Technology (note 1).
607

Anna Guagnini
schools was remotely associated with higher education; they were also
far inferior in status to the schools that trained technical experts for the
public sector.
Among the schools that belonged firmly in the elementary sector of edu-cation
were the écoles d’arts et métiers that were privately established in
France before the Revolution by the Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
(1747–1827). The first of these schools was opened in 1780 at Liancourt
and transferred to Compiègne in 1799. It was followed five years later
by the school at Beaupreau (replaced, in 1815, by the school at Angers),
and in 1843 by a third one, at Aix. In 1845, the total number of students
enrolled in these schools was 400 and thereafter, in the last quarter of the
century, it rose significantly to between 850 and 900. Initially, the écoles
offered little more than basic craft training. It was only in 1832, when
they were transferred to the Ministry of Commerce, that algebra, elemen-tary
descriptive geometry, mechanics and drawing were included in the
programme and admission standards were raised. However, workshop
instruction was retained as a distinctive element in their programme. And
even when, from the mid-nineteenth century, their syllabus became grad-ually
more sophisticated, the écoles d’arts et métiers remained loyal to
their original practical bias and proudly aloof from higher education.25
The middle-level technical schools, the Gewerbeschulen, that were
opened by the governments of the German states in the 1820s and 1830s
were also of an unequivocally vocational character. Their purpose was
explicitly to foster economic development, and the schools were adminis-tered
by the ministries of commerce of the various states. Prussia took the
lead in 1821 with the establishment in Berlin of a Gewerbeinstitut.26 As
indicated above, the capital of Prussia already had a school for technical
officers but the aim of the new two-year course (extended to three years in
1830) was specifically to train technical staff for industry. Students were
recruited at an average age of fourteen from provincial trade schools, and
were offered basic instruction in mathematics and science. In a manner
reminiscent of the écoles d’arts et métiers in France, workshop training
was a prominent feature of the syllabus, and a good deal of time was
devoted to drawing.
In other German states, where schools for civil servants did not exist,
the objectives of the Gewerbeschule were initially less specialized.27 They
were intended to prepare low-level civil servants and merchants, as well
as technical employees for private industry. In fact, the majority of the
25 C. Rodney Day, Education for the Industrial World: The écoles d’arts et métiers and the
Rise of French Industrial Engineering (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1987).
26 R¨ urup (ed.), Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft (note 16).
27 Manegold, Technische Hochschule (note 16); K. Gispen, New Profession, Old Order:
Engineers and German Society, 1815–1914 (Cambridge, 1989).
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students who attended the Gewerbeschule in the first half of the century
went on to positions in the public services, and it was only from the 1840s
that the number of students who found positions in the private sector
began to grow. It was very characteristic of these schools that, in order to
adapt the preparation to a variety of different occupations, most of them
introduced specialized sections of mechanical and chemical engineering,
forestry and architecture.
Concern with the training of skilled workers was also the primary rea-son
that led the Swedish Government to create a technical institute in
Stockholm in 1826. Here scientific teaching was limited in scope, and
much time was devoted to practical instruction. Although mathematics
and scientific subjects had acquired a more prominent place in the syllabus
by 1850, the self-image remained strongly coloured by a commitment to
technical training. It was only 50 years after the institute’s foundation that
a new denomination, Kungl. Tekniska Ho¨ gskola (KTH), officially sanc-tioned
the school’s move into the sphere of higher education. In sharp
contrast with this state-supported school, it was private initiative that
led, in 1829, to the opening of Sweden’s other major technical school,
Chalmers Institution (in Gothenburg). The programme of this school was
deeply marked by the belief that scientifically based education was a pre-requisite
for the understanding of technology. In this respect, it started on
a path very different from that of the KTH.28
The circumstances that led to the opening of the E´ cole Centrale des
Arts et Manufactures in Paris in 1829 were similar to those that paved
the way for the foundation of Chalmers Institution. But in the case of the
E´ cole Centrale, the consequences of the development of high-level tech-nical
schools for industrial engineers were more far-reaching. The school
was established by a wealthy businessman, in association with a chemist
and a former pupil of the E´ cole polytechnique. Right from the start, the
school set for itself ambitious objectives: its aim was to form a new gen-eration
of industrial leaders who would have a thorough understanding
of the scientific foundation of manufacturing practices. Despite its high
fees, the school proved highly successful: by 1840, it had more than 125
students, and between 1845 and 1855 the figure exceeded 200. More-over,
the school’s reputation and the novelty of its aims attracted foreign
students in large numbers: in the period up to 1864, about a quarter of
the total enrolments came from abroad. The courses extended over three
years, and, for the students who attended on a full-time basis, the pro-gramme
was intensive. The first year was devoted to general scientific
28 T. Althin, KTH 1912–62. Kungl. Ho¨ gskolan i Stockholm under 50 a¨ r (Stockholm, 1970);
G. Ahlstr ¨ om, ‘Technical Education, Engineering, and Industrial Growth: Sweden in
the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, in Fox and Guagnini (eds.), Education
(note *), 115–40.
609

Anna Guagnini
subjects, with a strong emphasis on geometry; in the second and third
years, the syllabus was focused on applied subjects such as mechanical
engineering, building construction, highway engineering, analytical and
industrial chemistry, and steam engines, along with detailed descriptive
accounts of a variety of manufacturing practices – among them textile,
pottery, and paper-making. In sharp contrast with the programme of the
écoles d’arts et métiers, however, the surveys of technical subjects were
not supported by any significant practical instruction.29
The absence of workshop training, and the deliberately unspecialized
character of the syllabus, remained distinctive features of the E´ cole Cen-trale
for many years. Where significant changes did occur was rather in
the school’s academic standards. In 1856 it ceased to be privately owned
and was placed under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Agricul-ture
and Commerce. It was as a result of this move that stricter admission
procedures (including a competitive entrance examination, in the man-ner
of the E´ cole polytechnique) were adopted. The examinations were
directed at candidates who had prepared for admission to the E´ cole poly-technique,
but failed the final test. The programme of study also became
more demanding, with a view to achieving the standards of the older
engineering schools. This strategy was eventually successful. By the end
of the century, the E´ cole Centrale was recognized, for official purposes,
as a school comparable in status with the E´ cole polytechnique and the
écoles d’application.
Like these other schools, the E´ cole Centrale soon acquired a consid-erable
international reputation, and its example was used to advance
the case for advanced industrially orientated technical education in other
European countries. Whether they were inspired by the model of the tech-nical
schools of Vienna and Prague, or by the Parisian E´ cole Centrale, one
of the main arguments of the campaigners – especially in those countries
that ranked below the industrial pace-makers – was that the availability
of well-trained technical employees was bound to stimulate development.
But in reality the mechanism of interaction between education and indus-try
was far more complex.
The case of Spain highlights the obstacles that were encountered in
the attempt to implement this mechanism. In 1850 a Royal Decree estab-lished
a three-level system of higher education, comprising elementary,
secondary and higher technical schools. Initially only Madrid had a higher
technical school, but between 1855 and 1857 five similar institutions,
called Escuelas Superiores de Ingenieros Industriales, were opened in
29 H. Weiss, The Making of Technological Man: The Social Origin of French Engineering
Education (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1982).
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Technology
Valencia, Gij ´ on, Barcelona, Seville and Vergara. Admission criteria were
high. Students were enrolled on completion of a three-year course in the
science faculty of a university; alternatively, they had to prove, in an exam-ination,
that they had a comparable level of scientific education. The
plan was ambitious, but it failed: by 1867, all the escuelas except that
in Barcelona had closed. It was only in the relatively advanced economic
environment of the Catalan capital that this kind of institution managed
to find a favourable niche. The founding of the next higher technical
school in Spain – in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque Country and a well-established
mining and metallurgical centre – did not occur until the end
of the century.30
By contrast, a combination of public support and of thriving economic
circumstances paved the way to the success of the Swiss Eidgeno¨ ssische
Technische Hochschule (ETH). When, in 1855, the Swiss Federal parlia-ment
decided to found a Polytechnic School in Zurich, the organizers
opted for a solution similar in many ways to the Austrian and German
polytechnics, but on a grander scale. In order to adjust the courses to a
range of career options, different sections were established as schools of
civil, construction and mechanical engineering, applied chemistry (includ-ing
pharmacy) and forestry, with a sixth section for general education. On
entry, the candidates, who were at least seventeen years old, were expected
to have a general background in mathematics, algebra, descriptive geome-try
and physics. The courses were fairly advanced, especially those of three
years in the sections of mechanical, construction and civil engineering;
they included calculus, geometry, experimental physics, and chemistry, as
well as a substantial dose of technical subjects, including practical exer-cises.
Soon, high teaching standards, the variety of the courses, and the
low fees made the ETH a magnet for foreign students. In 1862, the total
number of regular pupils was 225, plus more than 200 free auditors.31
the ferment of i n i t i a t i v e s , 1850–1890
In setting a high level for its new school, the Swiss parliament opted for
a trend that was beginning to win support in other countries. Since the
30 J. M. Alonso Viguera, La ingenierıá industrial espanõla en el siglo XIX (Madrid, 1944);
R. Garrabou, Enginyers industrials, modernitzacio´ econo´mica i burgesia a Catalunya
(1850-inicis del segle XX) (Barcelona, 1982); S. Riera i Tuèbols, ‘Industrialization and
Technical Education in Spain, 1850–1914’, in Fox and Guagnini (eds.), Education
(note *), 141–70.
31 Eidgeno¨ ssische Technische Hochschule, 1855–1955. E´ cole polytechnique Fe´de´rale
(Zurich, 1955); ‘Zur Entwicklung der ETH 1855–1960’, in Eidgeno¨ ssische Technische
Hochschule Zu¨ rich 1955–1980, Festschrift zum 125 ja¨hrigen Bestehen (Zurich 1980),
17–83, 577–674.
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Anna Guagnini
mid-century, other technical schools that were originally set up to train
skilled workers such as, for example, the French ´ecoles d’arts et m´etiers,
had already upgraded their syllabuses. But the process was especially
marked in the German states. Here, in the 1860s, the Gewerbeschulen
were transformed into polytechnische Schulen; then, in the late 1870s,
following a new phase of reorganization, they became Technische
Hochschulen, whereupon they were transferred from the Ministry of
Commerce to the Ministry of Education and granted the same academic
autonomy as the universities.32 In the course of this process, workshop-training
gradually lost its original prominent role in the syllabus, more
attention was paid to the teaching of scientific disciplines, and higher
standards of proficiency in the sciences were required on entry. At the
same time, efforts were made to appoint teachers with good scientific
credentials, and to create for them an environment similar to the science
faculties of the universities. In particular, teachers were given the possi-bility
of adjusting their courses, to a certain extent, to their own interests;
at the same time, students were allowed some flexibility in the choice of
their programme.
The period from 1850 to 1880 was also characterized by a considerable
expansion in the number of students attending German technical schools.
The transformation and expansion of technical instruction, coming as
they did at a time when the departments of chemistry in the German
universities were acquiring an ever-growing reputation as a source of
industrial expertise, were observed abroad with a mixture of interest and
concern. From the mid-nineteenth century, Germany’s economy entered
a period of remarkable growth, characterized by the vigorous expansion
of her industries, especially in metallurgy, mechanical engineering and
chemistry. The government’s commitment to education in general, and
particularly to technical education, was perceived by contemporaries as
the mark of a determination to foster further progress, and as one of the
decisive factors of Germany’s industrial leap forward. In the countries
where this development was perceived as a threat, as well as in those
where it provided an example for emulation, the advocates of technical
education harped constantly on Germany’s success in their approaches to
public authorities and entrepreneurs.
With the benefit of hindsight, it may be argued that the impact of edu-cation
on industry was often overestimated by the advocates of technical
education, as were the merits of the German model. But it is beyond
question that the arguments and the intense lobbying were effective in
turning the attention of a growing number of manufacturers and of local
authorities, especially those in the industrial areas, towards the state of
32 Manegold, Technische Hochschule (note 16).
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Technology
the provision for technical instruction in their own countries. As a result,
the last quarter of the nineteenth century saw a spurt of new initiatives in
other European countries.
This was the case in Britain, where very little had been done in the
mid-nineteenth century. Royal support prompted the creation of engi-neering
chairs in Scotland, at the University of Glasgow (1840), and at
Queen’s University, in Ireland (1851). However, in England the provision
for higher technical education made virtually no progress in this period.
The only significant exception were two institutions, namely the Royal
College of Chemistry and the Royal School of Mines, that were opened
in London in 1845 and 1851 respectively. Both of these schools played an
important role in the development of a scientific community in England,
but their contribution as a source of technical employees for industry was
less satisfactory than the promoters had expected.33
It was only in the 1870s, following a series of parliamentary enquiries in
which the link between education and industrial progress in Germany was
almost obsessively highlighted, that the campaign promoted by the advo-cates
of technical education began to pay dividends. The result of their
efforts did not consist in the opening of specialized technical schools, but
rather followed the lines adopted in London by King’s College and Uni-versity
College. Thus, new chairs of engineering were established in the
university colleges that had been recently established in the main provin-cial
towns.
These colleges were created in the second half of the nineteenth century
with a view to providing locally institutions of higher education.34 Their
status was inferior to the ancient Oxbridge institutions, and most of them
were formally chartered as independent universities only in the twentieth
century. In fact, originally they were not even entitled to award degrees;
instead, they prepared students for the degrees offered by the Univer-sity
of London. But in their attempt to steer a middle course between the
ancient universities’ traditional liberal style of education on the one hand,
and a more modern approach on the other, they yielded to the growth of
new branches of professional education, above all medicine and the sci-ences,
pure and applied. Chemistry departments, often with a marked
emphasis on technical applications, began to develop in the 1860s. They
were followed soon after by engineering courses. Owen’s College (later
33 G. K. Roberts, ‘The Establishment of the Royal College of Chemistry: An Investigation
of the Social Context of Early-Victorian Chemistry’, Historical Studies in the Physical
Sciences, 7 (1976), 437–75; R. F. Bud and G. K. Roberts, Science Versus Practice: Chem-istry
in Victorian Britain (Manchester, 1984); J. F. Donnelly, ‘Chemical Engineering in
England, 1880–1922’, Annals of Science, 45 (1988), 555–90.
34 D. S. L. Cardwell, The Organisation of Science in England (1957; 2nd edn, London,
1972); M. Argles, South Kensington to Robbins: An Account of English Technical and
Scientific Education since 1851 (London, 1964).
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Anna Guagnini
to become the University of Manchester) created a professorship of engi-neering
in 1868.35 In the two decades that followed, a dozen other chairs
were established in England and Scotland. Even in Cambridge a professor-ship
of mechanism was transformed in 1891 into a chair of engineering,
while Oxford followed the example by creating a new chair of engineering
science in 1907.36
Initially, both civil and mechanical engineering were taught by the same
professor. But gradually, separate chairs were established, other technical
courses were inaugurated, new and more specialized courses were added,
and departments were formed. These departments were not self-contained
engineering sections, in so far as they depended on the science depart-ments
for the teaching of such subjects as mathematics, physics and chem-istry.
However, engineering certificates were offered to those students who
went through a complete programme, lasting for two or three years. The
colleges tried hard to encourage students to opt for a systematic course
of instruction, but the number of certificates that were awarded indicates
how difficult it was to persuade them. The fact is that the certificates
were not academically as prestigious as the normal university degrees,
and did not carry any professional qualification. Students preferred to
attend individual classes, and prepare for the examination held on a vari-ety
of individual subjects by such examining boards as the City and Guilds
of London Institute and the Science and Arts Department.
However, two significant exceptions to the pattern of the engineering
departments described above, both planned from the beginning as self-contained
institutions, were launched in London. In 1871, as a result of
a growing demand for technical personnel to be employed in the colonial
service, and especially in the Indian Public Works Department, the Royal
Engineering College was opened. The school admitted a limited num-ber
of students to its three year-course (until its closure in 1906, 1,623
pupils were admitted), but had good facilities and a competent teaching
staff.37 The other major initiative was the opening in South Kensington of
two schools, which in 1907 merged into the Imperial College of Science
and Technology. In 1878 eleven Livery Companies and the London City
Corporation founded the City and Guilds of London Institute for the
Advancement of Technical Education. Three years later their joint efforts
resulted in the opening of a lower-level technical school, Finsbury Tech-nical
School, followed in 1884 by a more advanced one, the Central
35 R. H. Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise (Manchester,
1977); A. Guagnini, ‘The Fashioning of Higher Technical Education in Britain: The Case
of Manchester, 1851–1914’, in H. F. Gospel (ed.), Industrial Training and Technological
Innovation: A Comparative and Historical Study (London, 1991), 69–92.
36 T. J. N. Hilken, Engineering at Cambridge University 1783–1965 (Cambridge, 1967).
37 J. G. P. Cameron, A Short History of the Royal Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill
(London, 1960).
614

Technology
Institution (Central Technical College from 1893). Divided into three
sections (civil, mechanical and electrical), the latter was destined for
the instruction of advanced but eminently ‘practical’ technical experts.
Although the school admitted occasional students, the main focus was
on the instruction of full-time students. Considerable attention was paid
to the teaching facilities and, by contemporary standards, its workshops
and laboratories were particularly well equipped.38
Self-contained were also a number of lower vocational schools that were
established in the 1880s in the main industrial towns, and that gradually
rose in intellectual standing, just as the German Gewerbeschulen had
done in the mid-nineteenth century. The Manchester Technical School,
for example, from its humble origins as an evening school, became the
faculty of technology of the University of Manchester in 1904.
France was another country in which the initiatives in the area of higher
technical education were less vigorous than those in Germany. This is
not to say, however, that attempts to promote the diffusion of techni-cal
knowledge were not carried out. In the main centres of industrial and
agricultural activity throughout France, in fact, numerous initiatives were
launched with a view to faster instruction relevant to the local economy.
From the beginning of the century, the larger municipalities sponsored
instruction in applied subjects. Academies and other independent soci-eties
also played their part. In 1857, for example, the Société des Sciences,
de l’Agriculture et des Arts in Lille inaugurated a successful E´ cole des
Chauffeurs to instruct operatives of steam engines, and in Bordeaux the
town’s Société Philomatique steadily expanded its programme of public
lectures to embrace not only instruction in basic literacy and arithmetic
but also more advanced subjects, such as the chemistry of wine manu-facture,
foreign languages and economics.39 But no example could match
that of the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, which, from its foundation
in 1826, emerged as a main focus both for the intellectual interests of
the region’s industrial elite and, in collaboration with the town council,
for the education of artisans in specialized schools of design, spinning,
weaving and commerce.40
Despite the importance of this pattern of expansion for the regional
economies of France, the fact remains that what was done was constrained
by indifference. The courses did not lead to formal qualifications, and
they certainly did not elicit either formal recognition or offers of material
38 J. Lang, City and Guilds of London Institute. Centenary 1878–1978 (London, 1978).
39 R. Fox, ‘Learning, Politics, and Polite Culture in Provincial France’, Historical Reflec-tions/
Réflexions historiques, 7 (1980), 543–64; also printed in R. Fox, The Culture of
Science in France, 1700–1900 (Aldershot, 1993).
40 R. Fox, ‘Science, Industry, and the Social Order in Mulhouse, 1798–1871’, British Journal
for the History of Science, 17 (1984), 127–68.
615

Anna Guagnini
support from the national administration, still less any attempt to inte-grate
the private initiatives with the national system of education. The per-sistently
fragmented pattern of the courses on technical subjects through-out
the 1850s and 1860s suggests that the economic, social and political
conditions that might have favoured decisive state intervention were not
yet in place.
It was only after 1870 that a new pressure for improved facilities and
for an educational system that would better serve France’s interests began
to effect real change. A main stimulus was the country’s humiliating defeat
in the Franco-Prussian war. In the soul-searching mood that followed the
war, the lack of adequate scientific and technical education was com-monly
cited as one of the main causes of the country’s military weakness.
Although the extent of the alleged atrophy may have been exaggerated,
the debacle of Sedan had the effect of stimulating a debate in which the
more liberal, modernizing forces in French society eventually overcame
conservative suspicion of the increasingly sophisticated industrial age that
was dawning and of the new social order that was following in its wake. At
first, the reforms were modest. But the new Institut Industriel du Nord in
Lille (opened in 1872), and the E´ cole Municipale (later E´ cole Supe´rieure)
de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles, which was created in Paris in 1882,
were early signs of the new momentum. In the later 1880s and through-out
the 1890s, the pace quickened appreciably; now, at last, the French
educational system began to respond with vigour.
The initiatives of this later period bore some of their most notable fruit
in the national network of faculties that existed (until the fundamental
reorganization of 1896) under the administrative umbrella of the Univer-sit
´e de France. Here, a policy of controlled decentralization on the part of
the Ministry of Public Instruction encouraged a greater reliance on local
authorities and private support, and favoured the development of courses
and specialized institutes devoted to subjects of local economic interest,
such as mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry and agricultural
science. In 1890 an Institut Chimique was attached to the science faculty
of Nancy; Bordeaux and Lille followed the example in 1891 and 1894
respectively.41 In electrical engineering, the faculties of Lille, Nancy and
Grenoble all fostered important developments by founding Instituts Elec-trotechniques
about the turn of the century – an initiative that was copied
very successfully at Toulouse in 1908. These institutes offered systematic
courses of instruction, embracing both theoretical and practical subjects,
and awarded specialized certificates and diplomas.
41 Weisz, Emergence; R. Fox, ‘Science, University, and the State in Nineteenth-Century
France’, in G. L. Geison (ed.), Professions and the French State, 1700–1900 (Philadelphia,
1984), 66–145; Paul, Knowledge.
616

Technology
Both in France and in Britain, the importance of the contribution made
by local public and private interests in fostering expansion in higher tech-nical
education in the late nineteenth century, and especially in the new
industry-orientated curricula, can hardly be overestimated. The impact of
the local connections was noticeable not only in the most industrialized
countries, but also in the second comers. In Italy, for example, a degree
in industrial engineering was offered by the Istituto Tecnico Superiore in
Milan as early as 1862, and in 1879 a section leading to a similar degree
was grafted on to the Scuola di applicazione per ingegneri of Turin. These
cities were the main centres of the economically more advanced north-ern
regions, where concern with the state of manufacturing was felt most
strongly. What prompted the initiatives was not an immediate need for
advanced technical expertise, but rather the belief that a new generation
of technical experts was necessary in order to support the development of
industry.42 Initially, enrolments in the new sections were sluggish, but in
the late 1880s attendance began to grow fast and in the following decade
they overtook those in civil engineering.
The local communities had a prominent role in Spain, too. Here in 1899,
30 years after the failure of the first attempt to launch industrial engineer-ing
schools, a new Escuela de Ingenieros Industriales was opened in the
thriving industrial town of Bilbao. At the same time, the Escuela de Inge-nieros
Industriales of Barcelona, which had existed since 1859, entered a
new phase of rapid development with the support of the local industrial
community and of the municipality.43 In Germany too, where the state
governments continued to support the well-established network of Tech-nische
Hochschulen, regional and municipal authorities were generous in
supporting the improvement of the schools’ facilities and financing the
much needed extension of their premises.
the q u e s t for s tat u s
The last quarter of the century was a period of notable advance in the
theoretical and experimental foundations of technology. In a variety of
fields, ranging from the design of heat engines to the study of the physi-cal
properties of materials, the attempt to find a balance between rigor-ous
methods of analysis, systematic experiments, and the often conflict-ing
requirements of practical engineering, began to bear fruit. Important
contributions were offered by a new generation of teachers who mus-tered
a thorough understanding of the discipline and a direct experience
42 A. Guagnini, ‘Higher Education and the Engineering Profession in Italy: The Scuole of
Milan and Turin, 1859–1914’, Minerva, 26 (1988), 512–48.
43 R. Garrabou, Enginyers (note 30); Tu`ebols, ‘Industrialization’ (note 30), 141–70.
617

Anna Guagnini
of engineering practice, and combined both sides in the production of
new technical textbooks. These texts were theoretically more demanding
than those available in the mid-nineteenth century, but at the same time
they were conceived with the particular interests and objectives of engi-neering
students in mind. Among the manuals that paved the way to this
new style of writing were William John Macquorn Rankine’s (1820–72)
Manual of Applied Mechanics (1856) and The Steam Engine (1859), and
Franz Reuleaux’ (1829–1905) The Kinematics of Machinery (1876).44
Familiarity with the kind of knowledge that was conveyed by these
texts began to be appreciated in the world of practice, not only in the
relatively more receptive world of civil engineering, but also in the much
more reluctant world of manufacturing. A good illustration of this trend
is the fact that strength of materials and kinematics began to be applied
more extensively in machine design. Also a better understanding of ther-modynamics
and of the theory of fluids played a vital role in the further
improvement of heat engines and in the development of a new genera-tion
of gas and oil engines. A sound theoretical preparation was essential
also in the assessment of the performance and efficiency of the increasingly
sophisticated machines that were coming into general use across the whole
spectrum of manufacturing. Admittedly, ingenious inventors with little
educational background continued to play an important role, as in the case
of Thomas A. Edison (1847–1931). But the development and improve-ment
of new technologies – the gradual and laborious process by which
inventions were transformed into commercially valuable solutions –
were largely the result of the work carried out by technical personnel
with a good theoretical preparation.
The close relations between science and technology were highlighted by
the dramatic developments of the electricity supply industry. Following on
the heels of the extraordinary success of telegraphy in the mid-nineteenth
century, the electrical industry represented in the 1880s and 1890s the
most exciting new technological frontier. Here both electrical engineers
and experimental physicists worked at the very sharp end of experimental
research. Their approaches were different, but both relied heavily on the
results of each other’s enquiries for stimulus and information.45
44 For a study of the evolution of a particular field of mechanical engineering: S. Timoshenko,
History of Strength of Materials (New York, 1953).
45 W. K¨ onig, Elektrotechnik – Entstehung einer Industriewissenschaft (Berlin, 1993); A.
Grelon, ‘Les enseignements de l’électricité’ and ‘La formation des hommes: du tournant
du siècle à la première guerre mondiale’, in F. Caron and F. Cardot (eds.), Histoire générale
de l’électricité en France, vol. I: Espoirs et conquêtes, 1881–1918 (Paris, 1991), 254–92
and 802–49; A. Guagnini, ‘The Formation of Italian Electrical Engineers: The Teaching
Laboratories of the Politecnici of Turin and Milan, 1887–1914’, in F. Cardot (ed.), Un
siècle d’électricité dans le monde. 1880–1980. Actes du Premier Colloque International
sur l’Histoire de l’Electricité (Paris, 1987), 283–99.
618

Technology
Inevitably, these developments left a profound mark on the teaching in
technical schools, accelerating still further the process of sophistication
of the syllabuses. More time came to be devoted to the theoretical foun-dations
of technology and to providing the special mathematical skills
that were required to master them. Graphical methods were extensively
adopted with a view to reducing wherever possible the use of cumbersome
and unnecessarily complex calculus. The upgrading of the syllabuses was
encouraged by teachers in the schools, who were keen to highlight the
changing nature of their disciplines and to bridge the academic gap that
separated them from their scientific peers. At the same time, however,
they were keen to point out that the academic credentials of technology
no longer rested on its dependence on science. Technology’s aims differed
from those of science in that they were essentially practical, but its theo-retical
foundations were equally demanding and intellectually dignified.
A sign of the changing character of the technical syllabuses was the
prominent role that laboratory teaching began to play from the 1880s.
Laboratory facilities were already available in some technical schools, but
they were used almost exclusively by the professoriate for demonstrations
or for their own personal research: students did not take an active part
in these activities. Chemistry was the only sector of higher scientific edu-cation
in which a more practical, laboratory-based approach to teaching
was already well established in the mid-nineteenth century. Here, training
in qualitative and quantitative analysis was an essential component of the
students’ instruction; this training was equally important for students who
pursued pure research and for those who prepared for industrial careers.
However, it was only in the 1880s that laboratory teaching began to be
adopted in other branches of technical instruction.
Teaching laboratories in mechanical engineering were first set up in
American schools in the early 1870s. In Europe they were pioneered by
Carl von Linde (1842–1934) at the Technische Hochschule of Munich
(1876), and Alexander Blackie William Kennedy (1847–1928) at Uni-versity
College, London (1878).46 Then, in the 1880s, they began to be
adopted extensively by the German Technische Hochschulen; indeed, the
introduction of these facilities was one of the most prominent features
of the reorganization of these institutions that occurred in the last two
decades of the century. The availability of laboratories of mechanical
engineering, materials testing (for civil and mechanical engineering), tech-nical
chemistry, and, from the mid-1880s, electrical technology became
the mark of a modern, high-quality school. Particularly lavish were the
facilities of the Technische Hochschule of Berlin (Charlottenburg), and
46 V. Dwelshauvers-Dery and J. Weiler, Referendum des Ingénieurs. Enquête sur
l’Enseignement de la Mécanique (Liège, 1893).
619

Anna Guagnini
the laboratories that were set up in 1890, as part of the plans for the
expansion and renewal of the Eidgeno¨ ssische Technische Hochschule of
Zurich.47
Unlike workshop-training, whose aim was to provide students with
manual skills and to show them how to operate machines and engines,
laboratory-based instruction was meant to complement the theoretical
preparation of the students. One of the main objectives was to familiar-ize
students with the methods of accurate quantitative measurement that
were more and more an essential component of an engineer’s practice.
The procedures and, to some extent, the instruments that were used were
similar to those of the physical and chemical laboratories. However, the
aim was not the pursuit of new scientific knowledge, but rather to provide
the means for controlling and improving technologies that were already
available. To this end, students of mechanical engineering were taught
how to conduct tests of the elasticity and strength of different materials,
to assess the performance of machines and engines, and to record and
compare the results of the trials. Electrical engineers, for their part, learned
how to measure electric currents and resistances, calibrate instruments
and carry out efficiency tests on dynamos and motors. In all these activities
the emphasis was not on originality but on precision and thoroughness.
Inevitably, the upgrading of the syllabuses and the development of
laboratory-based teaching represented a strong case for the reassessment
of the academic standing of higher technical schools. The issue at stake
was not so much the status of military schools or of institutions such as the
French E´ cole polytechnique, with its associated ećoles d’application, and
the écoles speciales of Ghent and Liège, that prepared technical experts
for military or civil service careers. As indicated above, the academic cre-dentials
of these schools were already high, albeit they often stood – and
remained – apart from the university system. The problem was rather the
place of the technical schools that prepared civil, mechanical, chemical,
metallurgical or electrical engineers for employment in the private sector.
These were the schools which, when they were opened, were regarded
as primarily vocational and therefore least qualified for admission to the
sphere of higher education. In reality, some of the schools that were orig-inally
established for the training of foremen and skilled workers gradu-ally
handed over this function to a new range of lower institutions and
by 1880 were already devoting themselves primarily to more advanced
levels of technological instruction.
Among the staunchest campaigners for a parity of esteem between
technical education and traditional academic curricula were the schools’
teachers. By highlighting the progress made by technological disciplines,
47 Ru¨ rup (ed.), Wissenschaft (note 16); Eidgeno¨ ssische Technische Hochschule (note 31).
620

Technology
and the social importance of technical progress, they sought to demon-strate
that their institutions and the universities should enjoy equal recog-nition
and status. Clearly, in doing so they also aspired to enhance their
own academic position. The benefits that they sought were not only finan-cial
and social: they also hoped to obtain more time and better facilities
for their research and to attract better students.
In their attempt to raise the status of higher technical education, the
teachers found allies in the associations of former pupils of technical
schools and, in some cases, also in the professional engineering associ-ations.
From their modest origins, often as societies for the former pupils
of individual technical schools, these associations had developed by the
end of the nineteenth century into powerful nation-wide agencies. Their
aim was primarily to protect the corporate interests of the communities
that they represented, and to enact strict controls over the use of profes-sional
titles. Another aim was to associate their members’ rising economic
power with some sort of social recognition. Hence they were particularly
concerned with the status of the academic qualification that gave access
to the title.
In Germany the cause of the technical schools was greatly supported
by the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI). Established in 1865, the VDI
played a vital role in the development of the Technische Hochschulen
and of their educational policy.48 The association’s strategy in support
of its members and of the profession changed significantly over the three
decades that followed: although in the 1870s the VDI took an active
part in supporting the ‘scientification’ of the syllabuses, in subsequent
decades it turned against this approach and campaigned vigorously in
favour of a more practical orientation. But even in this later phase, the VDI
strenuously backed the schools in their attempts to be fully admitted to
the sphere of higher education. In the event, the Technische Hochschulen
achieved their objective: in 1899 they obtained university status. This
entailed the right of conferring the doctorate and therefore gave access
to academic careers. It entailed also the passage of the schools’ teaching
staff to the same ranks as the university professoriate.
In Belgium too the engineering associations were among the promot-ers
of the decree that in 1890 granted the technical schools of Brussels,
Louvain, Ghent and Liège the right to bestow diplomas of ingénieur civil
des mines and ingénieur des constructiones civiles, qualifications compa-rable
to those offered by the traditionally more prestigious écoles spéciales
of Ghent and Liège. As a result of the same decree, the diplomas awarded
48 K.-H. Ludwig andW. K¨ onig (eds.), Technik, Ingenieure und Gesellschaft. Geschichte des
Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure 1856–1981 (Dusseldorf, 1981); Gispen, New Profession
(note 27).
621

Anna Guagnini
by these higher technical schools were also upgraded to the level of
university degrees.49
The academic value of the diplomas caused concern also among those
institutions, such as the English engineering departments and the French
technical institutes that were grafted on to faculties. For despite being
already part of the university system, their diplomas and certificates did
not carry the same distinction as the scientific degrees and did not give
access to academic careers. Hence, it was not uncommon for British stu-dents
of engineering, who aspired to teach their subjects at university
level, to complete their studies by taking a degree of Bachelor of Science.
It was only in the 1890s that Bachelor degrees in engineering science
were created. These degrees were undoubtedly regarded with a certain
unmistakable contempt by the traditional academic elites, but formally
their value was no different from the other qualifications awarded by the
university colleges. And yet, until higher education was recognized as a
necessary qualification for a professional career, it remained difficult to
persuade students to engage in the longer and more advanced programme
that led to an engineering degree. The situation was even more complex
in France where the value of a degree or a diploma depended essentially
on the reputation of the institution that awarded it. In 1897, a ministerial
decree allowed the university-based technical institutes to create engineer-ing
diplomas. Clearly, these diplomas did not carry any of the privileges
offered by the E´ cole polytechnique and the e´coles d’application.However,
the institutes endeavoured to win the confidence of local employers, and
by the turn of the century their former pupils were eagerly sought after
by industry, especially in the technologically more advanced sectors of
chemistry and electrical engineering.50
Another complex problem that weighed particularly heavily with the
engineering schools which were annexed to university faculties, or which
depended on them for the teaching of the scientific disciplines, was the
unsatisfactory state of their relations with their parent institutions. For
it was clear that the attempt to achieve academic parity with the sci-entific
faculties was the first step towards becoming autonomous, self-contained
technical faculties. Even in Italy, where the engineering schools
had enjoyed from their reorganization in the early 1860s a status compa-rable
with that of the science faculties, the quest for independence gained
momentum towards the end of the century. The point at issue was that
students who sought admission to the scuole di applicazione had to com-plete
the first two years of the programme of the faculties of mathematics
49 J. C. Baudet, ‘Pour une histoire de la profession d’ing´enieur en Belgique’, Technologia, 7
(1984), 35–62.
50 See texts in note 41.
622

Technology
and physics before being admitted to the engineering course. As the scuole
expanded, attempts were made to overcome this state of dependence by
setting up internal preparatory courses, specifically tailored to suit the
needs of engineering students.51 In Milan the objective was achieved as
early as 1862, but similar efforts by other Italian engineering schools
remained unsuccessful until the end of the century.
Clearly, the timing and characteristics of the process that led to the
upgrading of higher technical schools varied considerably in different
European countries. But one feature was common to virtually all those
cases. The transformation of the schools into university-level institutions,
from the 1880s onwards, encountered tenacious opposition from the aca-demic
elites, not only the professors of the traditional liberal disciplines
but also those in the pure sciences. Despite the changes in the syllabuses,
the close association with utilitarian pursuits was still regarded as hard
to reconcile with the ideals of higher learning. The hostility was as strong
in the industrialized countries as it was in the late comers.
Even in France, where the top of the educational system was occu-pied
by the E´ cole polytechnique, ostensibly an engineering school, higher
technical education did not enjoy the respect its spokesmen felt was its
due. The abstract, theoretical orientation that characterized the syllabus
of that school, with its strong emphasis on mathematics, proved at least
as impermeable to the development of industrially orientated curricula
as those based on the humanities. As for Germany, although the devel-opment
of her technical schools won the admiration of contemporary
commentators throughout Europe, this should not be taken to indicate
a more favourable attitude on the part of that country’s traditional edu-cational
elite towards modern curricula. On the contrary, the resistance
to the upgrading of the Technische Hochschulen in the 1890s was only
surmounted thanks to the personal intervention of the Kaiser himself, as
part of his more general engagement in support of scientific and technical
education.
r e s e a rch and d i v e rs i f i c at i o n
Despite the opposition of the traditional academic elites, in most Euro-pean
countries engineering schools had achieved by the turn of the century
a standing comparable to the universities. The success was not, however,
a definitive or complete one. On the contrary, in the two decades before
the First World War, the higher technical schools had to toil hard to sus-tain
their academic reputation. One of the main challenges was posed,
51 Lacaita, Istruzione (note 15); A. Guagnini, ‘Academic Qualification and Professional
Functions in the Development of the Italian Engineering Schools, 1859–1914’, in Fox
and Guagnini (eds.), Education (note *), 171–95.
623

Anna Guagnini
paradoxically, by their very success. For in virtually all European coun-tries,
the number of students in technical subjects grew dramatically in the
last decade of the century, and continued to do so until 1914. Students
tended to flock, in particular to the sections of mechanical engineering
and the new courses of electrical technology. As a result, in all but the
best-endowed schools the teaching laboratories became seriously over-crowded,
and the ratio between teachers and students fell. Where this
phenomenon was most acute, as for example in the Italian engineering
schools, the efforts made in the 1890s to improve facilities and raise stan-dards
were thereby seriously undermined.
The academic prestige of higher technical schools and engineering fac-ulties
was also challenged by the growing segmentation and specializa-tion
of the syllabuses. The fact is that in the attempt to keep pace with
the growth of technical knowledge and with the remarkable expansion
of industrial applications, the coverage of the courses had been steadily
increased, and a variety of new, often very narrowly focused courses had
been added. But there was a limit to the number of new fields that could
be incorporated into the syllabuses and that students could assimilate in
the three or four years that were required for most degrees. Thus, in order
to avoid cramming, new sections were added to the programme. At the
end of the 1880s, only the largest schools had specialized programmes of
electrical and chemical technology, mining and metallurgy in addition to
the basic curricula for civil and mechanical engineering; but by the turn
of the century many technical schools had expanded their programmes to
include at least some of the new specialities.
Fields were chosen in such a way as to suit the local economic and
industrial context. Specialized programmes in shipbuilding, agricultural
technology, forestry, and hydraulic engineering, for example, were set
up where these branches of technology were most likely to answer a
local demand. And often the launching of courses on new technical sub-jects
was encouraged and thereafter sustained by public or private initia-tives
emanating from the town or region.52 In this respect, specialization
was both a measure for controlling the excessive cramming of the syl-labuses,
and a way of fostering closer relations with the school’s clientele.
However, there is no doubt that this move had to be carefully weighed
against the persistent hostility of the traditional academic circles. For the
close connection with practical application that characterized many of the
new courses underpinned the higher technical schools’ original vocational
thrust. In fact, the danger of excessive specialization and fragmentation of
52 This is an issue that looms large in works such as Paul, Knowledge; M. Anderson, The
Universities and British Industry, 1859–1970 (London, 1972); C. Divall, ‘A Measure of
Success: Employers and Engineering Studies in the Universities of England and Wales,
1897–1939’, Social Studies of Science, 20 (1990), 65–112.
624

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