It was difficult to arrive at any decision; for of
the many who had risen to eminence as engineers, some had adopted
one order and some the other. There remained a third course, that of
combining the school and the shop and of pursuing simultaneously the
study of theory and the exercise of practical manipulation. Unforeseen
difficulties arose, however, in the attempt to carry out this, the most
promising method. The maintenance of the shop proved a heavy expense,
which it was found could not be lessened by the manufacture of salable
articles, because the work of students could not compete with that of
expert mechanics. It would require more time than could be allotted,
moreover, to convert students into skilled workmen. Various
modifications of this combination of theory and practice, including more
or less of the Russian system of instruction in shop-work, have been
tried in different schools of engineering, but never under so favorable
conditions as the present. With characteristic caution and good
judgment, President Morton has studied the operation of the scheme
of instruction adopted in the Stevens Institute, and, noting its
deficiencies, has now supplied them with munificent liberality, giving
to it a completeness that leaves seemingly nothing that could be
improved upon, even in a prayer or a dream. Still, no one will be more
ready to admit than he who has done all this, that it is not enough to
fit up a machine shop, be it never so complete, and light it with an
electric lamp.
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