THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

					THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO INDUSTRY.

If it be contended that the foundations of the wonderful Sheffield Technical
School in St. George's Square were laid in Arundel Street, the contention will
not be disputed by those who know their Sheffield well.  The School of Art, with
its many famous masters, did the spade work which produced the far greater
triumphs of the Technical School.   Mr. Young Mitchell had been appointed Head
in August, 1846.  The School was first helped through a Government grant in
December, 1864, an outfit of £500 and £150 for three years.  The grants referred
to had been made by the Government School of Design. A Rotherham student in the
school (Samuel Habershon, of the Holmes), in the examination for Bachelor of
Medicine (London), gained an exhibition and gold medal for anatomy and
physiology, the gold medal for chemistry, and an exhibition and gold medal for
materia medica and pharmaceutical chemistry.  In November, 1848, Mr. Habershon
added to previous laurels by taking a gold medal and University scholarship in
physiology and comparative anatomy, and gold medal with honorary certificate in
surgery. The work of the school gradually had as a result that art again began
to flourish.   Its base had been broadened and the great manufacturers were
showing a readiness to purchase works of art. Mr. Overend in a speech there
referred to the misfortune that, at that time, England possessed no taste in art
or design, everybody flocked to Paris, yet, almost as he spoke, M. Chevalier
(coadjutor with Cobden in framing the French Treaty of Commerce) had declared
that in England development had arisen in art and taste, and the speaker
attributed it to the schools of art. He went on to declare that that development
had been watched with jealousy by the Governments of Austria, Bavaria and
Wurtemburg, where similar  institutions had  been  arranged, so that  precedence
in  those countries might be maintained.  Of his own knowledge he could say that
whereas, in previous years, the great manufacturers of Manchester and Glasgow
had secured all their designs from France, they were now securing  them from
London or our provinces, wherever schools of art had been instituted.  And, he
added, it was worth pointing out that whereas in 1840 the amount exported from
this country of articles in which artistic taste was demanded was; £2,700,000;
in 1862, twenty-two years later, it had risen to; £8,000,000, an increase of 196
per cent. Notable successes that year in Sheffield were by well-remembered
artists,  Richard  Lunn taking the Norfolk prize of twenty guineas for design of
a dessert service, whilst Miss Isabella Howlden secured honourable mention for a
painting of flowers from life. What the schools had done for the country's trade
has just been shown; but, in 1864, a Select Committee of the Commons dealt with
this question, and it was then stated that the only town which had reported
contrary to the generally-held opinion that such schools could not be
self-supporting was Sheffield, and that in Sheffield there was a growing
preference for a school of design rather than one of art.

EARLY SEEKERS AFTER KNOWLEDGE. At many periods in her history Sheffield had
shown a desire that her sons should know more of many things--notably those
which produced her prosperity.  Two or three of these may be cited: the first
reference to it came in the coffee house of Mr. Booth in Howard Street, in 1791,
when it was decided to form a society for the improvement of mechanical
knowledge in the town. Then in March, 1834, Dr. Lardner began a course of
lectures before the members of the Literary and Philosophical Society on heat,
and later in Bow Street chapel before the members of the Mechanics Institute on
the sources, accumulation, concentration and preservation of power, whilst Mr.
J. Murray, on lune 3rd, 1834, lectured in the Mechanics Institute on electricity
and galvanism. It is also interesting to notice that in the Science and Art
examinations instituted by South Kensington throughout the north of England, in
the autumn of 1863, A. H. Allen, of Fearnley place, Sheffield, secured a first
grade certificate for inorganic chemistry, standing top of the list; but his was
the only success then gained by a Sheffield student.  He was afterwards
Sheffield's Borough Analyst for many years. In the middle of last century,
skilled artisans were very numerous in the town.  In 1838, James Crawshaw, a
cutler of very great ability, died. He lived in High Street, and of him it was
said that some of his inventions in cutlery would effect important changes in
that great branch of Sheffield's industry.  The lobster knife of four blades
acting on one spring and the quad-angula knife admitting any number of blades,
both originated with him, and were introduced without being patented. The
specimens he produced "showed beautiful workmanship and a mental power in their
production." Then John Hanson, of the Bay Childers in Bridge Street, who died
there in 1837, aged 75, was a scissor smith by trade and made for the show-rooms
of Joseph Rodgers & Sons, Norfolk Street, the dozen very beautiful and extremely
delicate scissors weighing altogether not one half grain. Those scissors are the
admiration and delight of all who pass through those rooms.  They remind one
almost irresistibly of the French Queen, who found an expert in her retinue, and
it became the unfortunate lady's task to make silk stockings for her Queen, so
extravagantly delicate that a pair would pass through the Queen's wedding ring.
It was no wonder that the lady went blind.  Incidentally it was in 1842 that
Messrs. Rodgers began the manufacture of the well-known Norfolk knife, which
to-day is in their show-rooms.  The handle, 18 inches long, is of carved pearl,
mounted in chased gold, with more than 100 blades at the time it was made, each
blade bearing etched portraits and beautifully etched views. Gradually,  even as
 far  back  as  1882,  there  came  the  use of  the  word "technical" by famous
men from London. Sir Philip Magnus used it here in 1886, suggesting that the
first steps should be in the direction of metallurgy and mechanical engineering
and the manufacture and use of tools. Alderman Michael Hunter, junr., spoke
later in the same direction, suggesting the use of a small downstairs room as a
start where technical teaching might be carried on.  Even by this time gifts of
tools, benches and vices had been made by local manufacturers and also by Mr.
Ripper. Alderman Hunter, Mayor that year, expressed the confident belief that it
would mean the Sheffield men becoming sounder mechanics, and also referred to
the fact that, even then, lavish sums of money were being expended on technical
education, without which no nation could hope to prosper. At a meeting of the
subscribers to the Sheffield Technical School, held on January 27th, 1885, the
report stated that the subscriptions amounted to £10,238 and annual
subscriptions to £454. The committee had passed through very anxious times.
First of all an unexpired portion of the lease of the National Schools in Carver
Street was purchased, but it was afterwards found that the owners were not
willing to grant purchase of the freehold, and so, after spending £538, the
committee pledged itself to try and secure the Old Grammar School in St.
George's Square.  The appointment of professors also caused much thought.  It
was eventually decided to appoint Mr. W. Greenwood as Professor of Metallurgy,
and Mr. W. Ripper Assistant Professor of Engineering, and on November 11th,
1884, it had been decided that the title should be the "Technical School "
instead of the "Technical Department."  Mr. Ensor Drury was appointed Secretary.
 The first session of the Technical School was opened on the premises in St.
George's Square on October 6th, 1885. The opening of the Technical School on
February 1st, 1886, was important then, but became ten times more important in
the light of the town's development.  It was then spoken of as "a very important
development of the industrial enterprises of Sheffield," and to-day no one would
gainsay such a statement, after almost forty years experience of its usefulness.
 It was to a very great extent due to the energetic efforts of the Council of
Firth College, which obtained a grant from the City and Guilds of London of £300
a year for five years, and on the opening day it was announced that the
donations had amounted to; £11,500, and that on the site of the Old Grammar
School in St. George's Square, which had been bought, a very well-equipped
school had been built. The metallurgical laboratory was 42 feet by 35 and 21
feet high, and was one of the most complete in the kingdom. There were the
metal-testing room, the mechanics' shop, the pattern shop, the engineering
laboratory, lecture and class rooms, a library and a reading-room.  The upper
story was given over to engineering drawing, this being 97 feet by 27. There was
a smith's shop, a foundry, many specimen cases, and a metallurgical theatre to
seat 140 people.  At the opening there were present the Archbishop of York, Sir
H. E. Roscoe, Sir Frederick Bramwell, Sir Henry Bessemer, Professor Magnus, and
Dr. H. C. Sorby.  Sir Frederick Bramwell declared the school open. Sir Henry
Roscoe spoke delightfully.  He said it was twenty years since Mr. Mundella got a
Commission appointed to enquire into the whole question of technical education;
and the education of the artisan and the prosperity of Sheffield were very
closely allied.  All great inventions came from workmen or those who had gone
through trade or research. What Sheffield had got in that school was only a
beginning of what she must get.  It was difficult for the outsider to understand
how it was that a town like Sheffield, with a population of 300,000, should
think it extraordinary to spend £10,000 for a technical school at a time when at
least one small town in Germany-Rhemschied-was spending more than that though
its population was no more than 30,000. The Germans were alive everywhere to the
advantages of technical education, and in all parts of that country progress was
being made very rapidly.  Manchester in this country was very clearly showing
the way with 10,000 entries in its evening classes under the School of Art
Department. A well-known German had once said to him that his country lay awake
at nights fearful of the time when England, and especially Sheffield, would wake
up to the advantages of such education for, when that became the case, with
superior physique, material advantages, and superiority in mental advantages,
England would be able to face and beat the world. What a prophecy! Professor
Magnus in his speech laid special stress on the fact that manufacturers were
beginning to realize that thoughtful heads were better than mere hands, and that
there was an intimate relationship between industry and science.  Every large
factory was at that time equipped with a laboratory of Applied Science.  In
France he saw the advantage of an observation taken by the spectroscope, an
application of science to metallurgy due to Sir Henry Bessemer, but one which he
was glad to hear could be then seen in Sheffield in Sir John Brown's works, and
Sir Henry reminded him that the experiments referred to were begun in Sheffield.
 Not until every large industrial town in the United Kingdom was provided with
such a fine school as that in Sheffield could the kingdom afford to rest.

OPENING OF THE SCHOOL. In the evening a great meeting was held in the Albert
Hall, speeches being delivered by Sir Frederick Bramwell and the Archbishop. The
school, once known as the School of Practical Science, had been an institution
in advance of the times. It had been hoped that pupils would be attracted from
other towns, and considerable sums were spent in advertising. However, later
came proof that this was impossible, as, for every £100 spent in advertising, no
more than one outside pupil was secured.  The School had to be given up, but the
promoters were not discouraged.  About 1877 came a second effort, headed by the
generosity of Mr. John Brown, Mr. Mark Firth, and Mr. J. F. Moss; but again the
project failed, and so came the third such enterprise. Towards it the City and
Guilds of London had made a generous grant, Mr. F. T. Mappin had given £2,000,
the Duke of Norfolk £3,000, and thus, through those splendid gifts, a definite
headquarters had been established. The Technical Instruction Act was put into
force in Sheffield on January 29th, 1890, and on May 16th of that year fresh
Governors, as expressed in the Act, were elected.  Six were to be chosen by the
school and six by the Council of Firth College, and those representing the
school were Sir F. T. Mappin, Bt., Mr. Wilson Mappin, Ald. George Barnsley, Mr.
J. H. Andrew, Mr. S. G. Richardson,and Mr. R. G. Holland. When the prizes were
distributed at the Technical School in 1893, Prof. Ripper stated that there were
566 students as against 189 in the year 1889-1890. With the spread of technical
education came the necessity of grants in aid, and on January 21st, 1896, the
Technical Instruction Committee of the City Council, though compelled to refuse
all the new applications, including one from Wesley College for £500, devoted a
certain amount of money to this purpose. Thus grants were made to the Sheffield
Technical School £4,300, in addition to Firth College £800, to the School Board
£500, to the Grammar School £600, to the Church Institute £200, and to the
School of Art £800.

On January 4th, 1890, a Junior Department of the Sheffield Technical School was
opened.  Prof. Ripper who, just about that time, declined a flattering
appointment in Australia, spoke of the progress of the school. He said that
hitherto it had been open to students of 16 and upwards who wished to secure
knowledge of mechanical engineering or metallurgy, but the school had advantages
lying dormant which might be turned to great usefulness.  Thus it had been
decided to institute a two years course for students at 14, which would be of
considerable benefit to them in their subsequent industrial pursuits.
Instruction would be practical, partly in the laboratories and partly in the
workshop: woodwork and woodturning and work in the ironshop would be taught: no
attempt would be made to teach trades but to give students the power of using
their hands.  They would be given experimental work in chemistry, and altogether
the governing principle would be that education did not end in schooldays but
that, in very many cases, the first six months after leaving school taught a boy
more than he had ever learned before. The Metallurgical Section, reorganized and
enlarged, was to be in the hands of Professor Arnold:the laboratory had the most
modern appliances known, especially in regard to rapid and accurate chemical
examination of iron, steel, fuel and refractory materials, and scientific
research had advanced marvellously since 1862. At the Prize Day at the Technical
School, November 4, 1891, Sir F. T. Mappin, who presided, remarked that Mr.
Mundella at a meeting held in 1883 said, he regarded his resolution advocating
the establishment of such a school as the most important he had ever moved in
Sheffield. It could not maintain its pre-eminence unless the rising generation
was educated otherwise than in past years, and he was glad to say that the Town
Council was showing the intelligence and liberality necessary for maintenance of
the school.  Sheffield men found the money in 1883, and the town in 1891
possessed an institution which had no equal in the United Kingdom, according to
all authorities. All that the ratepayers had to pay for the grants by the Town
Council was equal to no more than a farthing in the £. The Local Taxation Grant,
secured by the imposition of an extra 6d. a gallon on whisky, had helped,
something like £6,000 having accrued from that source through the medium of the
Town Council, the precise sum being £5,820.  From figures which Mr. Ripper had
obtained he was told the attendances in 1889-90 were 451, mostly sons of
manufacturers, foremen and managers at the works. The Metallurgical Section has
done wonders in recent years and assuredly started under excellent auspices.  It
was called a Society when, on February 28th, 1891, the inaugural meeting was
held at the school, and so large was the attendance that the big upstairs room
at the school had to be requisitioned at the last moment.  That was to hear
Professor Arnold lecture on "Aluminium in Steel."  After the lecture Mr. Ripper
spoke, saying that, as an engineer, he regarded the subject of aluminium as of
as great importance as that of steel itself, and said that very soon the
Sheffield Technical School would have an equipment without a parallel in the
country. Mr. James Stuart, M.P., presented the prizes at the Technical School on
October 31st, 1892, Mr. F. T. Mappin, who presided, saying that up to that time
the Town Council had given £14,310 to the school.  Mr. Stuart said he had found
it full of the right spirit and one of the most efficient he had ever seen.  The
whole character of education in the Empire was undergoing a fundamental change.
Formerly it served to train the faculties, now it was used to prepare youths for
the business of life. Everything was changing in obedience to the nation's
sentiments in the matter, and the nation demanded that education should be used
to fit the people for what lay in front of them, and that such facilities should
be offered to rich and poor alike. Thus the technical schools had come to the
front to give the people what they ought to have--the scientific basis of the
occupation which was to be theirs through life.  The operation was feeling its
way into the life and vigour of every nation in Europe simultaneously, but it
wanted a great guiding hand, not the Vice-Chancellor of Education, but a real
leader who would view the system of elementary education in its relation to such
institutes or technical schools.   Technical education had its limits; it could
not teach a trade, but it could and did help the student to his trade.

A DESIRABLE CAUTION. On March 25th, 1893, Mr. Robert Hadfield, President of the
Metallurgical Society, speaking to the students of the Sheffield Technical
School, said he was a firm believer in making specialities and processes on
private lines, though many which were regarded as secrets really were very open
to the enquirer.  Caution was often very desirable, though always it should be
possible to secure interchange of thought and opinion. It was a truly wise
policy for Sheffield to keep at the head by preserving her supremacy in the
world of metallurgical progress.   Research work which had to be done in the
schools helped in that way very greatly; they might lose something by imparting
information, but they would win in the long run, and there was still room in the
world for those who were not afraid of hard work and who were willing to do it.
Early in September, 1893, Professor Ripper came back from a visit to the States,
during which he had visited the Chicago Exhibition and enquired into technical
education very thoroughly.  In an interview which appeared in the Sheffield
Telegraph on September 4th, he said he found great zeal in all branches and he
did not think that Oxford, Cambridge or Dublin could show such wonderful
evidence of rapid progress as he had seen. At Harvard University was a wonderful
equipment, photographs of experiments in surgery, engineering, astronomy and
physics.  In the ordinary school education, such matters took a high place;
great strides had been made in civil engineering and great interest shown. In
most of the colleges were departments of mechanical engineering, all very well
equipped in every way, though, in this respect, Great Britain still stood well
ahead,  and  the United States equipment generally was a copy of ours. The
Stevens Institute at Hoboken, New York, and the Institute of Technology in
Boston were magnificent buildings, and he found the McGill Institute in Montreal
possessed of probably the finest equipment in the world, whilst in the Pratt
Institute in New York, almost every branch of the skilled trades was taught, and
it was always crowded with students. The fact that Sheffield had awakened to the
seriousness of foreign competition was brought home to the country by a step
taken by the Technical School authorities on September 20th, 1896.  This was in
response to an application that Japanese students be permitted to share the
opportunities given by the school, which were generally admitted to be without a
rival anywhere for completeness. The request was a very urgent one from the
Japanese Government, but it was refused, as the authorities could not see their
way to make the facilities open to students other than British subjects. From a
then recently published report of a Commission of British manufacturers and
working men which had visited Germany and other places on the continent, it had
been clearly shown that too little attention was being given on this side to the
sciences in use in trade and manufacture, and British firms were no longer able
to claim the old time superiority over others.  Unfortunately, the number of
people in this country at that time alive to such a state of things was
lamentably small, but it was well known that constant appeals were being
received in Sheffield and other great centres for permission for foreigners to
make use of the facilities here provided. The annual distribution of prizes in
connexion with the Sheffield Technical School took place in 1899 on November
19th, the Master Cutler for the year, Mr. R. A. Hadfield, officiating.  He
declared that he knew of no other such school in the country comparable with
that at Sheffield, where the ideals associated with the city were so fully
carried out, and it was a happy day for Sheffield when Sir Frederick Mappin
stood in the breach and secured Professor Ripper's services permanently for the
city. Sheffield's first steps towards a comprehensive scheme of technical
instruction were purely voluntary. They began six years before the passing of
the Technical Education Act of 1889. The records of the Technical Department
were in themselves impressive. In 1887 the number of day and evening students
was 99; in 1891, 518; in 1894, 678; and in 1899, 910. Then, in addition, there
were 893 students of Arts and Science, or a tenfold increase in a decade on the
whole undertaking.  Sheffield ought to remember what had been done in
Birmingham: how Carnegie gave £50,000 to the local University, and the public
spirit of the city backed the gift up by £300,000.  It was ten years since he,
the speaker, thanks to the kindness of Sir William Leng, made an appeal in the
Sheffield Telegraph on behalf of technical education in the town. Professor
Ripper paid a visit to the Paris Exhibition in 1900; and issued his report in
November of that year to the Sheffield Society of Engineering and Metallurgy at
the Technical College.  He said he had found immense strides in engineering
since the Chicago Exhibition in 1893, and electricity was playing a part never
before known. No less than 30,000 h.p. was exhibited, though, unhappily, no
eagerness was shown by British firms to display the running of their exhibits.
There were only three or four British exhibitors in that section.  There were
6,500 from America, 3000 from Germany in all the sections, against a total of
600 British. This country had only six exhibitors of machine tools, whereas the
United States had 125. The German Government had voted £250,000 towards the cost
of exhibiting; and the British Government only £75,000, and it was obvious that
the shops which produced the magnificent engines shown by Germany and the States
must have perfect machine-tools.  Almost all were of the four-cylinder expansion
type, with the trip-gear so common on the Continent. He saw no quadruple
expansion engines. He did, however, see one British engine which was a delight,
the Willans engine, weighing a third of its rivals, occupying a third of their
floor space, and whose power was at least equal to any in the Exhibition.  It
was simplicity itself.

SIR WILLIAM CLEGG'S OPTIMISM. When the technical instruction prizes were
distributed in February, 1901, Sir William Clegg, always recognized as an ardent
enthusiast in Education, said he refused to believe that even Sheffield could
afford to rest on its oars, and he also refused to believe that,  as some folks
said, Sheffield had accomplished its mission, and would soon be dethroned. He
gave interesting figures relating to the country at the beginning and end of the
last century, showing that the population had risen from 159 millions to 413
millions, its wealth from £2,200,000,000 to £12,400,000,000, its revenue from 37
millions to 120 millions, and its exports and imports from 67 millions to 815
millions.  In all that wonderful development Sheffield had taken its share, and
he could see no signs of decay. There were at that time over 1,000 students
attending the classes at the Technical School, though many employers still
disregarded the advantages there offered. He hoped it would be possible for the
City Council to help more than in the past by its grants on behalf of technical
instruction, for there were certain revenue producing concerns under the
Corporation which could give a good deal of help by subsidizing institutions
from which Sheffield very properly hoped much.  Those who were making large
fortunes out of Sheffield ought to do their share.  Birmingham had recently
given £410,000 for its new University, with 25 acres for a site, Manchester's
new Secondary School had cost £200,000 irrespective of the site, and Sheffield
University College and Technical School had cost £140,000.  America showed the
way in private benefactions by the £300,000 given by Rockefeller to the Chicago
University. In the early part of 1904 progress with the Sheffield University
College Technical Departments was very marked, and an interesting resume of the
work done was published. It stated that in 1883 the first steps were taken
leading to the foundation of the whole scheme. The buildings of the Grammar
School were then obtained and work begun in the year following.  Later, there
came a branch in the Firth College buildings, but they proved inadequate and a
new building was erected.  This also  proved insufficient for the inrush of
pupils, and big extensions were made  with new departments for engineering,
mining and electricity, still more for metallurgy, and new classrooms. Very soon
a new department was built on the site of the old Caledonian Works in the then
Charlotte Street, this being possible through the generosity of Sir Frederick
Thorpe Mappin, Bart., two years before.  The Grammar School eventually
disappeared entirely in the face of these repeated extensions, and it was
proposed that on the site, at each end, should be built an extensive wing facing
St. George's Square, where departments previously cramped would be given
sufficient accommodation.  On the new site, steam, applied mechanics and
chemical engineering would be given full scope, with new quarters for electrical
engineering under Mr. E. H. Crapper.  When the whole of the properties were
secured the site would be one of 7,477 square yards or an acre and a-half. The
cost of land and buildings up to June, 1903, was £24,888 and equipment £13,367.
The City Council was committed to a further  £10,555  on  land  and  the  new
wing  at  the  north-west  corner  and  £4,000 for equipment; making a total
cost of £52,810.

The Bessemer Gold Medal was presented to Mr. R. A. Hadfield at the Iron and
Steel Institute meeting in town on May 5th, 1904, the honour being received from
the hands of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, President.  Mr. Hadfield was Vice-President
that year, and the medal was presented for his valuable services to metallurgy.
Mr. Carnegie said there had never been an occasion on which the medal had been
awarded with a greater unanimity on the part of the Council or to one in whom
they had a stronger belief that they had found a really worthy recipient of
their greatest honour.

Mr. Hadfield, in his reply, regarded the gift as to a representative of  the
great City of Sheffield where, more than 140 years  before, Huntsman first made
steel, and which remained the leading centre in the world for the highest
quality of material and its wide range of special products.  He referred in
happy terms to the President's kindly encouragement when he visited him in
America fifteen years before, and to contemporaries with him in his researches--
Dr. Sorby, M. Osmond, Professor Barratt, Dr. Fleming, Mr. Stead, Professor
Amold, Professor Ledebur, and Mr. H. M. Howe.  M. Osmond had said that the
speaker's researches had not been merely the finding of a new alloy, but ranked
as a discovery equal in importance only to that of the effect of quenching in
the history of the metallurgy of iron.  It was the only one of the same order
which it had been reserved for the age to make.  Certainly a material which
subverted all previous metallurgical ideas, and was found non-magnetic, hard yet
tough, not hardened by quenching, was at the time of its discovery, in 1883, not
a little remarkable. The Bessemer Gold Medal was conferred on Professor J. O.
Arnold in the following year, but the recipient gave it to the City, declaring
that it would have been impossible for him to have secured it but for the
notable facilities given him by the City Council.

WHERE THE SCHOOLS FAILED.

Speaking before the Sheffield Society of Engineers in February, 1904, Mr. W. H.
Ellis referred to the contention that, for a student to be able to present
himself with a technical degree, would be of great practical advantage to him in
obtaining a position. He could not agree. In fact, there was, as he spoke, a
feeling that a young man having an engineering or a science degree was an
indication that too much time had been spent in theory for him to have the
necessary workshop experience, and it might stand in the way of his securing the
position he applied for. The offering of a free University education to every
young man, such as had been made by a leading educationist, would lead many
parents to make efforts for their sons to go further in education than they
could afford, and cause the boys to lose the opportunity of going into the works
at an early age.  He saw a great inclination to substitute the word ''
university" for "school" in such matters, and he did not think that desirable,
for very many of the technical subjects in engineering--steam, applied mechanics
and mathematics--could be taught infinitely better in schools than by University
lectures, which very often did not benefit the student much. He wanted to say
something about the schools. Very many young people were going from the
elementary schools into the works, and they had to be taught many things which
should have been taught them before. He referred to simplicities, such as
holding up the head when speaking, speaking clearly, writing legibly, spelling
correctly, intelligently forming sentences, and his experience of such boys
taught him that their arithmetic was faulty. Yet they had come straight from
good schools in the city; they were far too fond of fractions and regarded
decimals as a luxury. He supposed not ten per cent. of engineering students made
their life-work pure engineering, and expressed the opinion that too much must
not be made of questions of ability or training, but that alongside those two
should be placed the essentials to success--resasonably good health and, above
all, perseverance. Mr. Haldane, then Minister for War, visited Sheffield in
February, 1907, and at the Sheffield Metallurgical Society's dinner, delivered a
striking speech.  Always known as a many sided, extremely able man, he betrayed
that evening technical knowledge which was astonishing. He had just listened to
a fine speech by Sir Charles Eliot, the head of Sheffield's University, and
declared that the word University had a sweet savour in his nostrils. He had had
a great deal more to do with University movements than with the movement of
troops, and he remembered very well the depressing situation of 1897, when
Universities were not popular. The London University was entirely
disorganized--it examined but it did not teach and though teaching came into the
work of the University, it only came after fierce opposition.

Whilst all this was being gone through, there was one man in Parliament who kept
a steady eye on what was proceeding, that was Mr. Chamberlain, a splendid friend
of education, and it was whilst the fight to transform the University of London
was at its hottest, that Mr Chamberlain prevailed on Parliament to pass a Bill
for a University of Birmingham.   That of course was business of the best type,
and Mr. Haldane began to look round and find some city where he also could be of
use.

THE NEW UNIVERSITIES. He found Liverpool, but Leeds was not wholly favourable
when it disovered that the Victoria University had reached a stage when it
should be trifurcated, and his only experience of cross-examination was when
before the Privy Council he gave evidence in favour of the establishment of
Universities in the North of England.  What happened?  Liverpool fought
splendidly for its charter, Manchester came next, Leeds following, with
Sheffield close upon its heels, and the result was that to the two which had
been established first, Birmingham and then London, there came four other
teaching Universities, not at all a bad piece of work in four years. He was a
pretty close reader of Continental newspapers, and he could tell them the
Continental educationists were showing quite an anxious concern at the strides
being made in this country in technical education. He did not refer to technical
education in its narrow sense, but the strides being made in application of
science to industry. Oxford and Cambridge remained national treasures, nobody
wished to disturb them; but they did want science given its rightful place in
the development of this country.  Metallurgy was indeed a great subject; it
covered many other things beside iron and steel.  It seemed strange to him that
the nation which had the greatest interest in the production of gold in the
world, and which produced more than any other nation in the world, had no school
on a large scale for precious metals.  For such an industry as it possessed,
Sheffield ought to be the pioneer school of the world;  the application of
science to Sheffield's industries ought to be more evenly distributed.  In spite
of the magnificent generosity of Mr. Belt and Sir Julius Wernher in Birmingham,
he was convinced that Sheffield had within it powers to make her School of
Metallurgy the greatest of all. In an interview in September, 1907, Professor
Ripper spoke with something approaching enthusiasm respecting the future of the
Sheffield Technical School.  He said that in connexion with the new Imperial
College of Science in London, it had virtually been conceded that Sheffield
should be considered the national centre for study of steel metallurgy, this
being the result of a deputation from Sheffield a short time before. The
metallurgical department of the school naturally occupied the first place, and
probably was the most important branch of the work carried on. Only the
competent were permitted to take advantage of the facilities there provided, and
it had been arranged that students might prepare for the degree in metallurgy of
the University of Sheffield by attendance at evening study, on condition that
they had first matriculated under the Joint Board of the Northern Universities,
and also had passed one year in the Institution as day students. That qualified
them to take the remaining courses of study for their degrees in evening classes
only. The training given included courses in the analytical and manufacturing
branches of steel metallurgy both as regarded crucible Siemens and Bessemer
steels, with fuel and refractory materials, with pyrometry and with the
micrographical analysis of steels, in fact with all the branches of chemical and
physical science treated from a practical standpoint that underlay the
successful production of the high class steels so important a part of the
manufactures of the city. Sheffield's magnificent scheme of technical education
quite naturally stirred enthusiasm in the mind of Mr. Haldane, who knew more
than most Englishmen how very thoroughly the system had spread in Germany. This
was reflected in January, 1908, in a speech which he delivered at the annual
meeting of the British Science Guild, at the Mansion House. He said that
Sheffield's technical undertaking was like a great steel works, the students
mastering the mystery of steel making with pyrometer and spectroscope, carrying
the scientific aspect to a high pitch. After he had seen what was being done
there he had visited the "great East End of Sheffield," and there he found in
the laboratories experts who had been trained in the University of Sheffield,
and the firms were reaping great benefit. One of the heads of a great firm, who
knew America and the Continent very well, declared that Sheffield, with possibly
one exception, was unrivalled in the training of  young men in this way, and
stated that his firm, notwithstanding tariffs, had broken right into the markets
of the United States and Germany, commanding them as they could not have
commanded them some years before. Quality told, and it was knowledge and applied
science which taught how quality might be obtained. Dr. H.E. Bovey, Rector of
the Imperial College of Technology, delivered an interesting lecture in Firth
Hall, at the annual meeting of the University, on November 26th, 1909.  He said
that Sheffield had been the first to make common cause in the Imperial College
in its efforts to provide the very best education for all young men who would
continue the work of bending the powers of nature to the service of man. The
nation had reached a moment when the question must be asked whether  technical
education  was  necessary  or  not.    If it was, the nation must be prepared to
pay for it, and manufacturers must be ready to put their hands in their pockets
and help, and keep their laboratories up to date. Efficiency must not be
lowered, but co-operation and concentration would assist greatly, such
concentration as was being attempted by the Imperial College and in which the
Sheffield University was taking a free part.  It was a scheme of interchange
though one calling for very careful adjustment, for the test would fail if
solidarity was not secured. In July, 1911, Sir Robert Hadfield published, in the
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, a particularly interesting article giving his reasons
for pursuing study of research work in iron and steel, the branch of metallurgy
in which he had always been most closely associated.  It was when visiting the
Paris exhibition in 1878 that he saw and studied the wonderful exhibits of the
Terre Noire works.  He found it necessary to open by translating some sixty
pages of French description before he could make a start, and knowledge of the
language enabled him to be first in the field, whilst it was also through
research and the efforts of Terre Noire, that it became possible to produce rich
ferro-manganese in the blast furnace at £10 ton, instead of it costing £90, as
it had previously done. It was some ten years later that his own personal
research bore fruit of any consequence, manganese steel coming first.  He
believed that his work presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers and to
the Iron and Steel Institute in 1888 and 1889, was the first presentation of
systematic study with regard to the addition of a special element other than
carbon added to and alloyed with iron.  Faraday conceived the same idea of
studying iron alloys, and he had a series of them made in Sheffield, as far back
as 1830, but those experiments were not carried out sufficiently to be either of
practical or scientific value entirely due to the surroundings then prevailing.
Professor Ripper has admitted that, in a severely accurate definition, Sheffield
is not so much an engineering as a heavy trades centre; but he contends "that it
affords striking illustration of the tendency of the special type of engineering
in which it is engaged to concentrate large business units consisting of a
number of separate but related processes under one administration."  Professor
Ripper illustrated his argument by pointing out that John Brown & Co. Ltd. found
it an advantage to secure collieries, iron mines and blast furnaces; Vickers
Sons & Maxim possessed their own shipbuilding yards, whilst Cammells had their
own collieries, iron ore mines, and blast furnaces. In a sentence, the great
concerns of the city had been so organized that to-day, and for many years past,
they had been capable of undertaking immense contracts and of carrying them out
from start to finish unaided by any other firm. What had been done in this way
on the Continent had been copied at home, and the huge commercial combinations
thus brought about had secured the happiest results for the nation.  One may
carry the picture further, and hazard the belief that out of the war has come
yet another combination--that of the British Empire--the most powerful business
concern in the whole world. Electricity has done wonders for Sheffield trade.
Probably when he first put forward its claims, Mr. John Tasker had no thought of
it other than as illuminant, but it was to him that Sheflield owed its
electricity none the less, and when,  in  some  perhaps far-off future day, the
portraits of men famous in the making of the town are gathered together, that of
John Tasker will find a place.  The proof of its capabilities in other
directions intensified the importance of electricity.  It was applied for power
transmission, and its success was instantaneous here as everywhere else,  until
to-day the operations of our great Electric Supply Department are trivial in
lighting when compared with the calls on it for power. The electric motor is
universal, steel furnaces are charged by electric power, electric cranes are in
the melting house, at the forging presses, and in the machine shops, with
electricity supplying power to machines of every type.  Professor Ripper reminds
us of the extreme physical strain and endurance of the men handling the huge
masses of molten metal 30 years ago, and points to "the ease, precision, and
comparative freedom from strain since electricity was introduced." Of course,
this is common to the whole world: without electricity, output during the
deadliest days of the war must have been about one-tenth of what actually
occurred, and possibly the war would have been shortened. The piled up mountains
of ammunition on every front would have been impossible, and there must have
been more of the fighting which characterized the Franco-German War, with fewer
of the devilish devices which marked the last one. We should not have had the
machinery for such gigantic output even if it had been possible to provide the
men to work it under the old conditions, and at the some time to maintain our
armies across the seas. Actual education in engineering in Sheffield dates back
some 40 years, when apprentices in the town were wont to gather at evening
classes connected with the South Kensington Science and Art Department.  These
were conspicuously successful at such places as the old Mechanics' Institute and
the Central Secondary Schools, where evening classes were held. Gradually the
number of students increased; the movement was taking hold, encouraged as it was
by the manufacturers, and in 1883 the City and Guilds of London Institute
granted an annual sum of £300 for five years to the Firth College to found a
Professorship of Mechanical Engineering, provided that a sufficient fund was
raised locally for maintenance and appliances.  That resulted in the Technical
School "to provide instruction in Iron and Steel Metallurgy and Engineering."

THE DRAPERS' COMPANY. It was on January 26th, 1911, that the magnificent gift by
the Drapers' company to Sheffield was announced.  It was one of £15,000. The one
condition which accompanied the gift was that the entire sum should be in the
building of the new wing.  The Drapers' Company was not unused to such princely
benefactions.  In 1902 it gave; £30,000 to promote the incorporation of the
University College of London, £7,000 a year to the People's Palace, and
altogether, since 1888, it had given grants of various kinds amounting to no
less than £130,000. The stone laying of the new wing came in 1911, the ceremony
being in hands of His Honour Judge Benson, Master of the Drapers' Company, when
Mr. G. Blake Walker, Chairman of the Mining Committee, delivered a speech of
very considerable interest. He said there was no coalfield in the British Isles
where possibilities of mining education were more desirable than on the border
line of counties with Sheffield as its centre. The already existing industries
round about that centre, and the still to be developed coalfield which extended
from Sheffield to the east for some forty miles, at any rate were things of
immense value, and when other coal-producing districts were approaching
exhaustion, the great coalfields of South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Notts.
would form the reserve upon which the country would be forced to rely. The
conditions under which the coal would have to be worked would be attended by
very considerable dangers and difficulties, especially technical difficulties,
and it would be then that the power and value of research work at the Sheffield
University would be most truly appreciated… They were, as he spoke, preparing
for working coal at depths of 2,500 feet, involving problems which had not had
to be faced before, though they were beginning to be heard of in Belgium and
Germany.  For such reasons it seemed to him imperative that the Sheffield
University should be especially well equipped for dealing with difficulties
which were certain to arise.  They could not hope that disastrous explosions
would ever cease completely, yet mining science had done great things within
recent years, and a very much greater tonnage of coal per life lost was then
being worked than in earlier years.  The coal owners for twenty years had been
striving to get mining education in Sheffield, and their chance had come in the
University, and certainly it would be wrong if the central town of the central
coalfield of England was less well equipped than other places. Cheap coal was
essential, and to get it coal must be worked scientifically, with great
technical experience and knowledge. The magnificent gift of the Drapers' Company
was devoted to development of the Applied Science wing of the University's
activities, one which was then uncompleted, but which was estimated to cost
about £35,000. It was declared when the gift was announced that before another
month passed transferrence of equipment would have been made, and the whole work
would be housed in the new quarters.  It was expected to be in the non-ferrous
department that the University would make its most notable development, devoting
itself to those metal trades of the city which were not concerned with iron or
steel, the principal one being electro plating, and it was expected that in
future years the University would be able to do for electro plating what it had
done for steel during the preceding twenty years. The new wing would be equipped
for carrying on the industry on a thoroughly comprehensive scale, with an
equipment unrivalled in the country, and it was regarded as certain that the
Birmingham Technical School and the Northampton School in London, well equipped
as they were, would be compelled to take second place to Sheffield.  Great
extensions were being made in the mining section in Sheffield, and the Applied
Science Department always had worked in close conjunction with that of Mining in
the operations at Sheffield. In October, 1912, the new wing of the Sheffield
Applied Science Department was opened and brought into use. It was then stated
that the new scheme would not be completed until the summer of 1913.  Up to that
time great inconvenience had been occasioned through lack of proper
accommodation, and the change brought about was rather startling. Thus the
Mining and Applied Chemistry Departments, which formerly only had one room,
suddenly found themselves furnished with a separate floor, each consisting of a
dozen rooms, whilst the Department of Non-ferrous Metallurgy, whose importance
had grown with marvellous speed, was given one half of the new wing, or two
whole floors. In November, 1912, the Education Committee heard a very
satisfactory report read by Professor Ripper on achievements of scholarship
holders at the University.  It dealt largely with the scholarship scheme, and
Professor Ripper said it had been invaluable in many ways.  In connexion with
the Applied Science Department, out of a total of 243 degrees which had been
conferred since the power to confer was given to the University, 109 had been
secured by students who had come from elementary schools and who had won
scholarships, and 45 per cent. of those who had won degrees had won scholarships
under the Education Committee's scheme.  Taking the University as a whole, out
of 412 degrees conferred on all departments, 165 had been conferred on
scholarship holders.  Out of 43 Mappin medals, 25 had gone to scholarship
holders; out of five Royal Commission Exhibitions and Bursaries, four had been
secured by scholarship holders, so that the Education Department scholarship
scheme had proved thoroughly successful. Professor Ripper referred to many
appointments which had been secured by holders of Sheffield Elementary
Scholarships; two were very high officials in the Marconi Company, three held
responsible positions in the Westinghouse Brake Company, one was a captain of
artillery, one had a doctor's degree in Columbia, and another was research
assistant in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich; and there had been scarcely a week
in the last seven years when there had not been applications by big works for
more Sheffield University men. One such pupil had been given one of the higher
positions in the Post Office, another Sheffield Elementary Scholarship holder
had a prominent position in the Patents Office, and one poor scholar, so poor
that he had been unable even to purchase his text books, had secured a valuable
position with a great manufacturing firm in Manchester.

THE SCHOOL OF ART.

WHEN, in 1868, Canon Sale, Vicar of Sheffield, reviewed the position of the
School of Art he pointed out that it was started as a school of design by Dr.
Harwood and the celebrated artist Hayden, but it was not until two years later
that the school had any aid from Government.  It was then managed by the Board
of Trade, which began by granting a sum of £150 for a master. Very humble at the
beginning, the school experienced great oppposition from the manufacturers in
the town, who thought that the raising of a new class of designers and artistic
workmen would militate against their interests. However, the school advanced
steadily, especially under the headship of Mr. Young Mitchell in 1846, and a
year later it was reported that, out of 180 pupils, 136 were engaged in the
staple trades of the town.  That meant progress in the right direction, but many
other intending pupils had to be refused owing to lack of accommodation.  The
Government grant was raised to £200 in 1847, and in the following year removal
took place from the Bath Buildings to Arundel Street, this bringing with it a
considerable influx of members. A further, and this time  substantial, grant by
Government, from £200 to £600, placed the school in the very first rank of such
institutions, and its next boom year came in 1851, the year of the Great
Exhibition, which proved a very real value to art and design.  The scholars of
the Sheffield School did very well there with their many exhibitions. In 1863,
for some inexplicable reason, the Government grant fell away to £510, and later
to £400, afterwards being totally withdrawn, and payments being by results.  The
result was that the debt of the school went up to £416, but many very generous
subscriptions were received, notably, 100 guineas each from Mr. Hadfield and Mr.
John Brown. How successful the school was in its exhibits may be gathered from
the fact that in 1865 it secured 35 certificates and 6 honourable mentions, the
largest number of any town in the kingdom, and in the following year no fewer
than 870 exhibits were sent to London, producing 28 prizes, 18 honourable
mentions, and 18 of the exhibits were selected for the National competition.  In
spite of all that had been done, the school that year (1868) stood in the most
critical position it had occupied since its formation, though by its work it had
greatly raised the name and fame of Sheffield.

A GENEROUS AGE. Our forefathers, rich in their collections of great paintings,
had much the same readiness to let others see their treasures as characterizes
their sons to-day.  Nowadays, opportunity for such generosity is furnished by
accommodation in the Mappin Art Gallery, and many such loan collections have
been shown there and greatly admired.  Fifty years ago there was no such
palatial hall, but in 1870 the School of Art housed a very notable collection,
contributed to by Mr. Henry Wilson, Mr. J. B. Mitchell-Withers, Mrs. J. Firth,
Mr. J. H. Allcard, Mr. Robert Young, Mr. Birks, Sir John Brown, Mr. Thomas
Jessop, Mr. Addy, Mr. J. Wigfull, Mr. Marriott Hall, and Councillor Crighton,
many very famous artists being represented. Results of the work in Sheffield
were not long in coming.  Edwin Page Turner, formerly student in the Sheffield
School of Art, did the whole interior decoration of the Town Hall at Bolton from
his own designs, and also designed the art chimney-piece which attracted such
general admiration at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and which was purchased by
the Prince of Wales.  It had a framework of waves inlaid with painted art tiles,
with subjects from Aesop's Fables, birds, figures, and animals, with a
background of foliage. A striking speech was delivered at the Conversazione of
the Sheffield School of Art, in 1874, by Mr. William Bragge. He pointed out that
the school was earning even greater premiums than ever before, though still much
too  small.   There  was such  a necessity  here  for  that  class  of school it
was surprising that it was not filled to overflowing.  He thanked God that the
liberty of deciding whether they should send their children to school was going
to be taken from the parents.  Nothing that had been passed during the previous
fifty years had equalled in national importance the passing of the Education
measure, establishing a national system of education. It would quickly be
discovered that there was as great an importance in education in higher matters
as there was in the rudimentary branches themselves; he meant the kind of
education which would enable boys to fight the battle of life thoroughly and
successfully.   England had lagged very far behind, in that essential matter was
far behind her Continental rivals, and she had neglected her sons so thoroughly
that coming generations would have to fight a battle so hard that only the
greatest pluck and endurance would win it. She would find her sons forced to
compete without that rightful training with greatly skilled artisans on the
Continent by the hundreds and thousands, and in the States as well, artisans who
understood the principles governing their work and, beyond that, better
cultivated.  Foreign competition was approaching this country very rapidly, and
it was necessary that our workmen should be properly educated to save their
honour. He wanted to see in Sheffield a school where the worker in silver or
iron or the cutler might see the earliest types of the industry, and he wanted
to see here a metal-work museum.  The establishment of such a thing in Sheffield
would pay wonderfully well from a commercial standpoint. There was in the home
of the late Miss Harrison an ideal place for such a museum.  Such towns as
Halifax, Huddersfield, Nottingham and Birmingham had established such museums,
and if one could be provided in Sheffield the outlay would be returned ten-fold.
It would be possible to get loans from the South Kensington Museum, where the
first proposals of such a thing were made by the  Prince Consort, of whom this
country knew far too little. A  movement in 1885 to form a School of Design for
Sheffield was begun, producing; £3,000 in subscriptions, and in this year the
Overend prize of £50 was awarded to Godfrey Sykes, the Mayor's prize of £10 to
Charles Green, the Master-Cutler's prize of £5 to James Gamble, and the
Montgomery medal to T. Gregory. Those facts had relation to the beginning of the
Technical School, in the 'sixties, when several Sheffield gentlemen specially
interested in Sheffield trades tried to form such a school, but failed. In 1883
the effort was renewed, the old Grammar School taken, and the work begun in the
following year. The school was soon found to be inadequate, and a new one, in
its turn also declared inadequate, was built.   In 1888 the services of
Professor Ripper were secured, and two years later Mr. J. O. Amold was placed in
charge of the metallurgical department. A pleasant suggestion of Sheffeld's
interest in education is supplied by the visit of Professor Henry Roscoe on
April 7th, 1879, when he lectured before a crowded audience in the Albert Hall
on  "The Chemistry of the Sun."  That was one of the famous Gilchrist lectures,
and Professor Roscoe here made his only appearance as a lecturer on behalf of
the Trustees of the Gilchrist Trust  "because of the manifest interest Sheffield
has taken in the series." In 1880, Mr. E. J. Poynter, Director of the Science
and Art Department of the Board of Education in London, visited the Sheffield
School in company with Mr. Stuart Wortley, M.P., and in 1882 came another very
renowned expert in Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, Director of South Kensington
Science and Art Department, declaring that results had been secured in Sheffield
unapproached in any other town in the Kingdom. When he presented the prizes at
the School of Art in January, 1882, the Rev. W. H. Dallinger said that there was
no town in England where the needs of a thorough art education could be advanced
by the people more than in Sheffield, where were manufactured articles which
everyone must use and use often. He urged them to make the useful beautiful. He
had often been asked how it was that Ruskin had chosen to place his incomparable
museum in such a town as Sheffield, and he declared that the question was the
more cogent because the town was so completely indifferent to what had been
given to it.  His view was that Ruskin loved reality above all else, and he
recognized that Sheffield made what it professed to make; it did not make brass
and call it gold.  The dark days of the town were vanishing before the cry of
light, and he had hopes of yet seeing it a great centre of true art in its
manufactures.

SIR JOHN MILLAIS, CHIMNEY SWEEP. Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., R.A., presented the
School of Art prizes on April 12th, 1887, and among those present were the
Mayor, the Master Cutler, with Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Stuart Wortley, the last named
Sir John Millais' daughter.   The Chairman, Dr. H. C. Sorby, referred to Hugh
Stannus as a pupil of the school, and Sir John Millais, in an auto-biographical
sketch of his life, told how, when  his mother took him from his home in the
Channel Islands to see the President of the Royal Academy, Sir Martin
Archer-Shee, that gentleman replied to his mother's eulogies of her son by
advising her to bring him up a chimney-sweep rather than an artist!  Then the
mother produced the hopeful's portfolio of sketches, which the President went
through very quietly and then told the mother it was her solemn duty to bring
him up to the profession of an artist. Sheffield gained many awards in the
Exhibition of Art Metal Work in London, organized by the Armourers' and
Braziers' Company of London in 1890. These were presented at a gathering in the
Cutlers' Hall, when the Mayor, Mr. J. B. Jackson, presided, and a notable
feature of the meeting was an exhibition of the various designs sent up to
London, though several of these had been purchased by the Company, and were to
have permanent places in the Armourers' and Braziers' Museum.  Amongst the
designs purchased were a pastille or incense burner by G. R. Webster, two trays
in brass worked throughout by C. W. Crowder, two specimens of saw piercing by
John Gorrill, and a stag in bronze by Thos. Benton, an apprentice. Mr. G. F.
Lockwood, referring to the growth of the local Art School, pointed out that,
admirable as it might become, it could not hope to make technical knowledge
overtake actual workmanship, and that Sheffield "ought to be very grateful to
the great London Company for encouraging devotion of time and trouble to special
efforts such as could not be bestowed on ordinary work, but which afterwards had
the effect of increasing the workman's knowledge and skill when applied to his
daily toil."  Mr. E. Tuck, organizer of the Sheffield section, said that good as
it was Sheffield's art work ought to stand much higher than it did.  The secret
was that, however excellent the actual craftsmanship was, unless it was carried
through in good style and with some approach to feeling, it could not command
the market. The union of art and skill must take first place as it did in
France. There, however, advantages occurred which were not common here--the
artisan found inspiration in the churches. Once when he was in Paris he saw at
the Exhibition one of the finest specimens of wrought iron work he ever beheld,
a perfect representation of the double poppy. He was showing his delight at the
work when a leading manufacturer in the French capital took him to his works,
and there showed him many wonders of the same type, done by his workmen. The
prizes were distributed at the Art School in 1892 by Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen,
when Miss Jean Mitchell swept the board, securing so many prizes that she could
not carry them away, and Sir Philip made certain interesting personal references
in this connexion.  He had known her father very intimately when he was head
master at the Sheffield School twenty years before, and pointed out that the
daughter's talent was obviously hereditary. He assured his hearers that the
progress of the Sheffield School of Art was regarded in London as simply
marvellous, and that in great measure it was due to the efforts of the head
master, Mr. J. T. Cook.  It was worthy of note that James Havenhand was a
student in Sheffield's school in 1879, when he secured the 100 guineas prize
offered by the London Crafts and Guilds for the best design for a wall fountain,
and afterwards improved himself in art at the Lambeth Schools. The Mayor, Mr.
Joseph Gamble, made reference to Alfred Stevens, foremost as painter, designer,
draughtsman, sculptor, and in everything in art, yet he had to borrow £100 from
the Mayor's brother so that he could finish his incomparable Wellington monument
in London, quite the most imposing memorial in the city. In 1893,the Sheffield
School of Art was first in the whole country save Birmingham for prizes and
diplomas; in 1894, it finished first of all with two gold medals, and the
Princess of Wales scholarship, whilst in 1896 the same high distinction was
secured by the students, two gold medals and the Owen-Jones medal; and the
highest degree ever issued for theory and practice of designing the figure was
also awarded to the school. The Mayor of Sheffield, Alderman Batty Langley,
distributed the School of Art prizes in 1893, and encouragingly declared that
the kind of work highly prized at the time was the work which true art had
designed, the machine had fashioned, and the artist had finished.  Secondary and
technical education were teaching the eye, ear, hand, memory and brain all
together,  and  art  was  the  schoolmaster of history as the great Continental
galleries showed.  There one had religion, history, mythology, poetry, the
graces and the passions of all ages materialized by the genius of art. At the
same time all that art could do was useless unless, behind  it, was
encouragement and support  of our great  schools.   He regarded the £9,000
granted by the Council to the Technical School and art education as the soundest
commercial speculation he had known the Corporation to make. On January 4th,
1894, speaking as Chairman to the students of the Art School when the Master,
Mr. J. T. Cook, read a paper on Renaissance in Art, the Earl of Wharncliffe
advised the production only of work which was based on the best models.  Bad
taste was as catching as scarlet fever, in art as well as in other things, and
manufacturers should set their faces resolutely against anything in their
showrooms that was not artistic.  It had often struck him that in Sheffield,
great centre in the iron trade as it was, there was not a single establishment
to which one could go for artistic ironwork.  In London, on the other hand, one
found the most beautiful gateways,  parapets  and  balconies  in  hammered iron,
  executed  by  actual smith's work, and it seemed to him very desirable that
Sheffield should be given similar distinction.

A NOTABLE LECTURE. In a very interesting paper read by Mr. Charles Green in
April, 1896, before the Sheffield Arts Crafts Guild, he dealt with old Sheffield
fireplaces, speaking  of  one  magnificent  example  still   surviving  at
Conisbro',  though dating back to 1200;   to another very beautiful example in
Beauchief Hall, to a chimney piece which was absolutely perfect in Carbrook
Hall, interesting fireplaces which not long before existed in the Thatched
House, in the Weights and Measures Offices in Tudor Place, the Old Club House in
Norfolk Street, in the jeweller's shop at the top of Cambridge Street, and he
added  that in the  period 1800-1850 every style  and  every  class in quality
was introduced into Sheffield houses, for there had been many very highly
skilled craftsmen in the town, such as Edward Law, Major Norton, Ackroyd,
Nevill, Jobson, George Wright, William Ellis, and, amongst the greatest of them
all, Stevens and Sykes. Mr. E. Onslow Ford, R.A., presented the prizes at the
Art School on February 18th, 1898, the ceremony taking place in the Mappin
Gallery. He said he found a great deal more being done by Sheffield
manufacturers to encourage talent than in other places. He had found Birmingham
turning a blind eye to its own schools, and not alive to present-day needs.  He
was glad an end was being reached in the Gothic revival, and to see the
beginning of the Renaissance.  There had arisen a great danger of overcrowding,
over elaboration, and now a fresh danger was creeping in, that of the weak,
wavy, hazy line in all decorative schemes. That had to be guarded against, just
as the black and white patch process acquired from the Japanese was quite
foreign to true British art. Originality could not be defined: the most original
thinkers were the most reserved, and also the hardest workers, and could not
help themselves in their originality.  Just then England was very prosperous,
but the time of a country's prosperity was when great caution was desirable,
lest the unreal and unwanted should creep in. And, after all, everyone could do
something, and take as his text the words pencilled behind Van Eyck's
masterpiece in the National Gallery: "All I can do--not all there is." Mr.
Arthur Wightman presented the prizes won at the School of Art in the Mappin Art
Gallery in April, 1901, Mr. W. Chesterman in the chair. This was the last of the
gatherings which had gone on since 1843, the Corporation having taken the school
over.   Mr. Wightman said that, in 1841, Sheffield had as a resident a
celebrated but unfortunate historic painter in Benjamin Hayden, who in January
of that year gave a series of lectures on painting before the Literary and
Philosophical Society.  In the following October be delivered another course,
and on the 13th of that month a meeting was held to establish a school of
design. There were only three present at that meeting-Mr. Hayden, Dr. Harwood
and Mr. H. P. Parker. However, the school was formed, and, in the next year, the
Town Trustees granted £10 to its funds. Benjamin Wightman, his father, was then
secretary to the school in Sheffield, which began its work in 1843, and its
first report was issued in 1846.  In October, 1855, the foundation stone was
laid of the building in Arundel Street, this being by Dr. Ferguson Branson.  The
cost was £6,349, the subscriptions amounting to £3,500, and a bazaar helping on
the funds.  The school fell into dire straits in 1863.  Mr. Henry Wilson brought
some measure of prosperity to it in 1869 by a gift of £400; all the mortgages
were wiped off by a general effort in the town, and in 1893 the Corporation
grant was raised from £400 to £800.  In 1846 the largest number of students in
the school at any one time was 65; in 1901 it was 476. It may be mentioned that
Mr. Arthur Wightman succeeded his father as secretary on the father's death in
1867, and, with the exception of two or three years, the school had always
during 59 years had a Wightman as its secretary. Sir W. B. Richmond, President
of the Sheffield School of Art, delivered one of his entertaining lectures at
the annual meeting of the institution at the Cutlers' Hall, on November 4th,
1902.  He said that Sheffield was very anxious to restore the union between art
and manufacture, for which it was so celebrated  in  past ages. There had  grown
up a  very  common fault in the misapplication of design to material, and it was
essential that the manufacturer and the artist should be brought into close
touch with one another, for each could teach the other many things.  Design must
be governed by material; that was a starting-point which must never be lost
sight of, and he would like to see the art of Sheffield the art of the
metal-worker. The trade of Sheffield could not afford to forget the artists of
Sheffield: artists of every kind, for everyone of them had a lesson to preach to
trade. Nothing but that which could be washed with soap should ever be brought
into Sheffield, where the first beneficent law, that of cleanliness, was but
little illustrated, and he believed that sunlight was a thing but little known
in Sheffield.  Consequently one found there an art in keeping with the
prevailing climate, but one which might be very splendid, even in the gloom of
that great town, if it was governed by good taste. He could only say for
Sheffield that, if it was true that electricity was going to cleanse all great
towns, Heaven be praised and science be praised.

A CHANGED SCHOOL. Very comprehensive alterations were made at the School of Art
in the winter of 1906-7, at a cost of £8,000, from the designs of Mr. J. R.
Wigfull.  These gave the school an 80 foot frontage to Arundel Lane, provision
for technical trades in the basement, where were placed a metal working room and
a casting room. Then, under the altered scheme, wrought iron work began to be
practised, a blacksmiths' shop was provided, and a plaster casting room.  Other
rooms were for printing, lithography, chasing, bookbinding, and a large
designing room.  The whole premises were quite transformed, and, with 500
regular scholars at the time, some extension was surely overdue, as anyone must
realize who remembers the severe austerity of the gloomy school in the
'eighties. To be guilty of paraphrase one might almost say of the school as it
then existed, "Abandon Art, all ye who enter here," for art calls for light and
brightness, and breadth.  The new school was opened on January 23rd, 1907, by
Sir Charles Holroyd, Keeper of the National Gallery of British Art, who declared
that the school had been made the best in the country. He said that all bad
designs were the production of men who had only one craft--they persevered in
things quite unsuitable. He entreated his hearers, above all things, to draw
from life and get "the line beautiful."  He was a firm believer in what was
often called "mooning about"-it often meant seeing things otherwise easily
missed, and things of real beauty, which would prove of great value in study.

A thoroughly interesting exhibition of arts craftsmanship came in 1909, in
connexion with the local Arts Guild Of which the first four members were Charles
Green, G. Halliday, R. S. Douglas and C. W. Crowder, the last-named Master in
1907, T. Swaffield Brown joining some time later.   The guild was established in
1895, and at this exhibition many very interesting specimens were displayed.
Miss Agnes Kershaw, Mr. Swaffield Brown and Mr. Halliday provided  wax and
plaster models; Mr. Charles Green, two panels in plaster and also medallion
heads; Mr. J. Gorrill, exquisite work in pierced metal and inlay; Mr. Douglas,
repousse work in silver; Mr. Crowder, enamelled spoons; Mr. A. E. Flint, silver
repousse work after Meissonier; and Mr. Thomas Taylor, a very fine example of
wrought iron work.  In a local newspaper, it was stated that the aim of the
guild was to put machinery in its proper place, as supplementing, not
supplanting, the craftsman, and quoted a remark by a great artist in Burne Jones
that "a man's work is his day of judgment."

Presenting the prizes at the School of Art, in February, 1908, Sir George
Clausen said that, in the eighteenth century, when the most beautiful things
were being made in Europe, there was not one School of Art in this country, but
there was in the workshops a great tradition amongst the men, of beauty and
appropriateness, a thing which largely died away on the introduction of
machinery.  Cheapness took its place and a period ensued when decoration and art
became very poor in England. It was recognition of this which brought about the
schools of art, and the last fifty years had been of great benefit to students
and those who controlled their work.

In the Sheffield School, any student could do everything he wished to do in any
direction, and the schools had stepped into the places of the old trade guilds.
At all times, work done by hand was more beautiful than that done by machinery,
though it was not easy to say why.  He had one caution to offer, that was to go
back to the finest and earliest examples when learning, and keep their fingers
from the danger of over ornamentation.

"Art," he added, "is older than science," and archaeology proved that every
nation at its zenith had a noble art, just as it also proved that in the season
of its decadence the art of the nation was feeble.

THE CHARM OF THE ORIENT. Thus the Orient was losing its charm in art; India,
once the home of beautiful textiles, was adopting European vulgarity in colour
and shape; Japan, not long ago the most artistic country in the whole world
since the days of Greece, was losing her art.   The character of nations was
being levelled down by the absence of discrimination between what was good and
what false.  Since England occupied Cairo the art of Cairo was disappearing, and
was vulgarized--the art of a country which had been declared the most highly
civilized in the world.  England remained the emporium of lovely things, but had
got out of the way of  making them, and an abortion of taste had arisen.