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Extreme Weather
 Extreme Weather
Forty Years of the Tornado and Storm Research
Organisation (TORRO)

Edited by

Robert K. Doe
This edition first published 2016 © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Doe, Robert, editor.
Extreme weather : forty years of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) ; Robert K. Doe.
  pages cm
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-1-118-94995-5 (cloth)
1. Climatic extremes–Great Britain. 2. Weather. I. Tornado and Storm Research Organisation, editor. II. Title.
GB5008.G69D64 2015
551.55′4–dc23
2015018780
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Cover image: 17 April 2008, Dawlish, Devon, U.K. © Matt Clark

Set in 9/11pt Times by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India

1 2016
 Contents

Notes on Contributors xi 3.5 Towards a Climatology of Tornadoes

by Synoptic Type 43
Forewordxiii
3.6 Monthly and Annual Frequencies
Prefacexv of Tornadoes by Synoptic Type 43
3.7 Spatial Distribution of Tornadoes
About the Companion Website xvii
by Synoptic Type 44
3.8 Morphology of Tornadic Storms 46
1 Researching Extreme Weather in the United
3.9 Association of Supercells
Kingdom and Ireland: The History of the Tornado
with Giant Hail 47
and Storm Research Organisation, 1974–2014 1
3.10 Case Studies of Supercell and Non‐supercell
G. Terence Meaden
Tornadoes48
1.1 Introduction: The Early Years 1 3.10.1 Case 1: The Cold Front of
1.2 International T‐Scale: Theoretical Basis 2 29 November 2011 48
1.2.1 Hailstorm Research 3 3.10.2 Case 2: The English Midlands
1.2.2 Temperature Extremes for the British Isles 3 Supercells of 28 June 2012 51
1.3 Tornado Research Organisation 4 3.10.3 Case 3: The West Cornwall
1.4 The Inaugural Issue of The Journal of Meteorology 4 Supercell of 16 December 2012 52
1.5 Storm‐Damage Site and Track Investigations 6 3.11 Concluding Remarks 55
1.6 Birmingham Tornado of 28 July 2005 8 References58
1.7 TORRO Conferences 8
1.8 The Future 11
Acknowledgements13 4 Tornadoes in the United Kingdom
Additional information 13 and Ireland: Frequency and
References13 Spatial Distribution 61
Peter Kirk, Tim Prosser, and David Smart
Part I Tornadoes 15 4.1 Introduction 61
4.2 The TORRO Database 62
2 Historical tornadoes in the British Isles 17 4.3 Tornado Frequency for the United Kingdom
Paul R. Brown and G. Terence Meaden and Ireland: 1981–2010 63
4.3.1 Annual Number of Tornadoes
2.1 Introduction 17
and Tornado Days 63
2.2 Etymology of the Word Tornado 17
4.3.2 Season and Month of Occurrence 64
2.3 Terminology 18
4.3.3 Hour of Occurrence 65
2.4 Accuracy and Completeness of the Records 19
4.3.4 Intensities 65
2.5 Analysis of Historical Tornadoes 20
4.3.5 Track Lengths 65
2.6 Examples of Historical Tornado Reports 21
4.3.6 Maximum Track Widths 65
2.7 Concluding Remarks 30
4.3.7 Directions of Travel 66
References30
4.4 Spatial Distribution of Tornadoes in
the United Kingdom and Ireland 66
3 Supercell and Non‐supercell Tornadoes
4.4.1 Simple Mapping of the Database 66
in the United Kingdom and Ireland 31
4.5 Issues with Mapping 66
Matt Clark and David Smart
4.6 Kernel Density Mapping of Tornado
3.1 Introduction 31 Distribution 70
3.2 Basic Structure and Life Cycle of a Storm Cell 32 4.7 The ‘London Metropolitan’ Anomaly 70
3.3 Storm Mode: An Overview of Single‐Cell, 4.8 The Isle of Wight and South
Multicell and Supercell Convection 32 Coast Anomaly 72
3.4 Tornadoes in Supercell and 4.9 Concluding Remarks 73
Non‐supercell Storms 36 Acknowledgements74
3.4.1 Synoptic Situations Associated Additional Information 74
with Tornadoes in the United Kingdom 40 References75
v
vi Contents

5 Tornado Extremes in the United Kingdom: 8 Thunderstorm Observing in the United Kingdom:
The Earliest, Longest, Widest, Severest A Personal Diary of Days with Thunder 1953–2013 135
and Deadliest 77 Bob Prichard
Mike Rowe
8.1 Introduction 135
5.1 Introduction 77 8.2 Early Observations 135
5.2 Earliest Tornado 77 8.2.1 Thunderstorm Observing 136
5.3 Other Whirlwinds (First UK Record Only) 79 8.3 Thunderstorms of the 1960s 137
5.4 Longest Tornado Track 80 8.3.1 The ‘Days with Thunder Heard’ Statistic 140
5.5 Widest Tornado Track 82 8.3.2 Back to the 1960s 140
5.6 Severest Tornado 83 8.4 Thunderstorms of the 1970s 141
5.7 Largest Outbreaks 88 8.5 Thunderstorms of the 1980s 143
5.8 Highest Death Toll 89 8.6 The Forecasting of Thunderstorms 145
5.9 Concluding Remarks 89 8.7 Back to the 1980s 146
Acknowledgements89 8.8 Thunderstorms of the 1990s 147
References89 8.9 The Most Recent Thunderstorms: 2000–2013 150
8.10 Concluding Remarks 154
References154
6 Site Investigations of Tornado Events 91
John Tyrrell
9 Severe Hailstorms in the United Kingdom
6.1 Introduction 91 and Ireland: A Climatological Survey with Recent
6.2 Getting Started: How Site Investigations and Historical Case Studies 155
Come About 92 Jonathan D.C. Webb and Derek M. Elsom
6.3 Site Investigation Methods 92
6.4 Site Investigation Outcomes: The Growing 9.1 Introduction 155
Understanding of UK Tornadoes 94 9.1.1 Establishment of a Tornado and Storm
6.5 Site Investigation Experience 101 Research Organisation Research
6.6 Concluding Remarks 102 Database of Hail Events 155
Acknowledgements103 9.2 Assessing the Intensity of Hail Falls 155
References103 9.2.1 Hailstorm Intensity Scale 155
9.2.2 Kinetic Energy 156
9.2.3 Hailstone Size and Damage 156
Part II Thunderstorms and 9.2.4 Other Factors Affecting Damage 156
9.3 Annual Frequency of Hail 157
Lightning105
9.3.1 All Significant, Damaging Hailstorms 157
9.3.2 Frequency of Extreme, Destructive
7 Epic Thunderstorms in Britain and Ireland 107
Hailstorms158
Jonathan D.C. Webb
9.3.3 Comparisons with Continental Europe 159
7.1 Introduction 107 9.4 Seasonal Occurrence of Hail 159
7.2 Selected Epic Thunderstorm Events 109 9.4.1 General Seasonal Incidence of Hail
7.2.1 2–3 August 1879 109 and Damaging Hailstorms 159
7.2.2 5–10 June 1910 110 9.4.2 Storms of H5 Intensity or More 159
7.2.3 7–10 July 1923 114 9.4.3 Comparison with the Incidence
7.2.4   17–18 July 1926 114 of Thunderstorms159
7.2.5 28–29 August 1930 114 9.5 Geographical Distribution 160
7.2.6   18–22 June 1936 116 9.5.1 Storms of H2 Intensity or More 160
7.2.7 The West Country Thunderstorm 9.5.2 Geographical Distribution of Storms
of 4 August 1938 119 of H5 Intensity or More 161
7.2.8 5 September 1958 123 9.5.3 Point Frequencies 161
7.2.9 22–24 June 1960 125 9.5.4 European Comparisons 161
7.2.10 8–9 August 1975 125 9.6 Hailstorm Characteristics 161
7.2.11 13–14 June 1977 126 9.6.1 Hail Swathes 161
7.2.12 25–26 July 1985 127 9.6.2 Radar and Hail Swathe Identification 163
7.2.13 24 May 1989 128 9.6.3 Results of Hail Swathe Analyses 163
7.2.14 8–9 August 1992 131 9.7 Synoptic Weather Types and Hailstorms 164
7.2.15 24 June 1994 132 9.7.1 Specific Synoptic Background to
7.3 Concluding Remarks 132 Hailstorms 164
Acknowledgements132 9.8 Hour‐of‐Day Distribution 167
References132 9.9 Summary of TORRO’s Overall Findings 168
 Contents vii

9.10 Twenty of the Most Severe Hailstorms 169 10.11 Fewer Deaths from Lightning Over Time 203
9.10.1 1687: The Alvanley Storm 169 10.12 Lightning Strikes to Animals 204
9.10.2 1697: Remarkable Late Spring 10.13 Lightning Impacts on Aircraft and
Storms 169 Motor Vehicles205
9.10.3 1763: The Great Kent Storm of 10.14 Increasing Awareness of the Lightning Risk 206
19 August 169 Acknowledgements206
9.10.4 1808: The Great Somerset References206
Hailstorm of 15 July 169
9.10.5 1818: Stronsay, Orkney, 24 July 170 11 Ball Lightning Research in the United Kingdom 209
9.10.6 1843: The Great Hailstorm of Mark Stenhoff and Adrian James
9 August 170
11.1 Introduction 209
9.10.7 1893: Northern England and
11.2 Definitions 209
Southern Scotland on 8 July 172
11.2.1 Lightning 209
9.10.8 1897: The Diamond Jubilee
11.2.2 Ball Lightning 210
Storm of 24 June174
11.3 What Ball Lightning Is Not 210
9.10.9 1915: 4 July 175
11.4 Ambiguity: Ball Lightning, Fireballs,
9.10.10 1935: 22 September (Sometimes
Meteors and Meteorites 211
Referred to as the ‘Great
11.5 Early Beliefs about Lightning and
Northamptonshire Hailstorm’) 177
Ball Lightning 212
9.10.11 1958: The Horsham Hailstorm
11.6 Early Reports of Ball Lightning 213
of 5 September178
11.6.1 Ball Lightning over Land 213
9.10.12 1959: 9–11 July (Including the
11.6.2 Ball Lightning over
‘Wokingham Storm’) 179
Rivers and the Sea 214
9.10.13 1967: The Wiltshire Hailstorm
11.6.3 Ball Lightning Associated
of 13 July 181
with Churches 215
9.10.14 1968: The ‘Dust Fall’ Storms
11.6.4 Ball Lightning within Houses 216
of 1–2 July 181
11.6.5 Ball Lightning as a Precursor to
9.10.15 1983: South Coast Hailstorms
Cloud‐to‐Ground Lightning 217
of 5 June 185
11.7 Interpreting Early Reports 217
9.10.16 1983: Violent Hailstorms in
11.7.1 1833: Early British Opinion about
North‐West England on 7 June 185
the Nature of Ball Lightning by
9.10.17 1985: The Essex ‘Dunmow’
Luke Howard FRS (1772–1864) 217
Hailstorm of 26 May 186
11.7.2 1837–1859: Sur le Tonnerre
9.10.18 1996: The Storms of 7 June 187
and Other Works by François
9.10.19 1997: The Severe Storms of FA
Arago (1786–1853) 217
Cup Final on Saturday, 17 May 189
11.7.3 1838: Comments on Ball
9.10.20 2012: The Destructive English
Lightning by Michael Faraday
Midlands Hailstorm of 28 June 191
FRS (1791–1867) 218
9.11 Concluding Remarks 191
11.7.4 1842: ‘On the Nature of
Acknowledgements193
Thunderstorms’ by Sir William
References193
Snow Harris FRS (1791–1867) 218
11.7.5 1854–1868: English Translations
10 Lightning Impacts in the United Kingdom
of French Works 219
and Ireland195
11.7.6 The Late 19th Century:
Derek M. Elsom and Jonathan D.C. Webb
Ball Lightning, Spiritualism
10.1 Lightning as a Weather Hazard 195 and Parapsychology219
10.2 Historical Research into Lightning 196 11.7.7 1921: The Meteorological Office
10.3 Research into Lightning Impacts 197 ‘Ball Lightning Enquiry’ 220
10.4 Annual Number of Lightning Incidents 11.7.8 1923: Survey of Ball Lightning Reports 220
Causing Injuries and Deaths 198 11.7.9 1870–1934: Speculations on
10.5 Lightning Injuries 198 the Nature of Ball Lightning 220
10.6 Electrical Routes by Which Lightning 11.7.10 1936: Does Ball Lightning Exist? 220
Causes Injuries 199 11.7.11 1936–1937: The ‘Tub‐of‐Water’
10.7 Lightning Strikes to Groups of People 200 Event and the Estimated Energy
10.8 Locations to Avoid during Thunderstorms 201 Content of Ball Lightning 220
10.9 Lightning Incidents Affecting People Indoors 201 11.7.12 1937–1957: Quantum‐Mechanical
10.10 The Frequency with which Lightning and Nuclear Hypotheses for
Strikes a Person 202 Ball Lightning 221
viii Contents

11.7.13 1955–1972: Plasma Hypotheses 12.3 Severe Storm Forecasting in the

for Ball Lightning 222 United States 238
11.7.14 1964: The Flight of Thunderbolts 12.4 Severe Storm Forecasting Elsewhere 239
by Sir Basil Schonland FRS 222 12.5 Forecasting Techniques 239
11.7.15 1969: Eminent UK Scientists 12.6 The Ingredients‐Based Approach 240
Report Ball Lightning in Aircraft 222 12.6.1 Moisture 240
11.7.16 1969: The Taming of 12.6.2 Instability 240
the Thunderbolts by C. Maxwell 12.6.3 Lift 240
Cade and Delphine Davis 223 12.6.4 Wind Shear 240
11.7.17 1971: Ball Lightning: An 12.7 TORRO’s Forecasts 241
Optical Illusion? 223 12.8 Forecasting Severe Weather: 28 June 2012 241
11.7.18 1971: Micrometeorites of 12.8.1 Background 241
Antimatter?223 12.9 Concluding Remarks 245
11.7.19 1972–1995: Crew’s Ionised Acknowledgements246
Jet‐Stream Hypothesis for Ball References246
Lightning (and Some UFOs) 224
11.7.20 1974: TORRO and the Journal of 13 Extreme Flooding in the United Kingdom
Meteorology 224 and Ireland: The Early Years, ad 1 to ad 1300 247
11.7.21 1976: A Close Encounter with a Robert K. Doe
Fiery Ball Raises Questions of Ball
13.1 Introduction 247
Lightning Energy 224
13.2 Sources of Evidence 247
11.7.22 Ball Lightning as Electromagnetic
13.3 The Early Years – 1st–10th Centuries 248
Radiation224
13.4 Extreme Flooding in the 11th Century 249
11.7.23 Reviews of Ball Lightning 225
13.5 Extreme Flooding in the 12th Century 250
11.7.24 Ball Lightning Reported at
13.6 Extreme Flooding in the 13th Century 251
Cambridge University 226
13.7 Concluding Remarks 259
11.7.25 1985–1999: The TORRO
Acknowledgements259
Ball Lightning Division 226
References259
11.7.26 1999: Ball lightning:
An Unexplained Phenomenon in
14 Extreme Rainfall and Flash Floods in
Atmospheric Physics by Mark
the United Kingdom and Ireland: Synoptic
Stenhoff227
Patterns and Selected Case Studies 261
11.7.27 2002: Royal Society Theme Issue
John Mason, Paul R. Brown, Jonathan D.C. Webb, and
on Ball Lightning 227
Robert K. Doe
11.7.28 2006: Publication of Ministry
of Defence: Unidentified Aerial 14.1 Introduction 261
Phenomena in the UK Air Defence 14.2 Severe Dynamic Rainfalls 261
Region (2000) 227 14.3 Hybrid Rainfalls – Dynamic Precipitation
11.7.29 2000–2014: TORRO Ball with Embedded Convective Cells 264
Lightning Division 228 14.4 Severe Convective Rainfalls 269
11.8 A Selection of Ball Lightning Reports 14.5 Gwynedd, North Wales, UK, 3 July 2001 270
Recorded by TORRO 2000–2014 228 14.6 Boscastle, Cornwall, UK, 16 August 2004 272
11.8.1 Ball Lightning inside Houses 228 14.7 Holmfirth, Yorkshire, UK, 29 May 1944 274
11.8.2 Experienced Observer 229 14.8 Ottery St. Mary, Devon, UK, 30 October 2008 278
11.8.3 Earthquake Ball Lightning? 229 14.9 Concluding Remarks 280
11.8.4 A Recent Ball Lightning Event Acknowledgements281
Reported to TORRO 229 References281
11.9 2014: Ball Lightning in the UK Media 230
11.10 Concluding Remarks 230 15 Heavy Snowfalls Across Great Britain 283
Acknowledgments230 Richard Wild
References230
15.1 Introduction 283
15.2 Definitions 283
Part III EXTREMES 235 15.3 Synoptic Systems and Heavy Snowfalls 283
15.4 Snowfall Climatology of Great Britain 284
12 Forecasting Severe Weather in 15.5 Sources of Data 284
the United Kingdom and Ireland 237 15.6 Snow Depths and Days with Snowfall 284
Paul Knightley 15.7 Spatial Methodology for Heavy
12.1 Introduction 237 Snowfall Events 285
12.2 Modern Forecasting 238 15.7.1 LWT Catalogue 285
 Contents ix

15.8 Heavy Snowfall Events over Great Britain 285 15.24.3 LWT Frequencies Before,
15.9 Heavy Snowfalls 1861–1869 286 During and After the Heavy
15.9.1 20 February 1865 286 Snowfall Day 293
15.10 Heavy Snowfalls 1870–1879 286 15.25 Depressions and Heavy Snowfalls 293
15.11 Heavy Snowfalls 1880–1889 286 15.25.1 Depression Trajectories
15.11.1 18–19 January 1881 286 Associated with Heavy
15.12 Heavy Snowfalls 1890–1899 287 Snowfall Events 293
15.12.1 9–13 March 1891 287 15.25.2 Depression Traffic Associated
15.13 Heavy Snowfalls 1900–1909 287 with Heavy Snowfall Events 293
15.14 Heavy Snowfalls 1910–1919 287 15.26 Fronts Associated with Heavy Snowfall
15.14.1 11–12 January 1913 287 Days (1937–1999) 296
15.15 Heavy Snowfalls 1920–1929 288 15.26.1 Geographical Variations in
15.15.1 25 December 1923 288 Meteorological Fronts 296
15.15.2 15–16 February 1929 288 15.26.2 Relationship Between Fronts
15.16 Heavy Snowfalls 1930–1939 288 and LWT 297
15.17 Heavy Snowfalls 1940–1949 288 15.27 Concluding Remarks 297
15.17.1 26–30 January 1940 288 Acknowledgements298
15.17.2 18–20 February 1941 288 References298
15.17.3 26–27 March 1941 289
15.18 Heavy Snowfalls 1950–1959 289 Appendices
15.18.1 8 February 1955 289
15.19 Heavy Snowfalls 1960–1969 289 Appendix A: Data (Web Material)
15.20 Heavy Snowfalls 1970–1979 289 Appendix B: Selected Pictures from
15.21 Heavy Snowfalls 1980–1989 289 Conferences and Meetings 301
15.22 Heavy Snowfalls 1990–1999 289
15.23 Heavy Snowfall Frequencies in Appendix C: Tornadoes in the United
Great Britain 1861–1999 289 Kingdom and Ireland 1054–2013 319
15.23.1 Numbers of Heavy Snowfall Days 290 Appendix D: Data (Web Material)
15.23.2 Mean Length (In Days) of Heavy
Snowfall Events 291 Selected Name Index 321
15.24 LWTs and Heavy Snowfalls 292 Subject Index 323
15.24.1 LWT Frequency by Decade 292
15.24.2 LWT Frequency by Month and
Season293
 Notes on Contributors

Paul R. Brown of TORRO from 1994 to 2004. Professor Elsom’s current research
Paul has had a lifelong interest in weather and climate, part of the is concerned with assessing lightning impacts in the United
time in a professional capacity, the rest as an amateur. He has Kingdom and increasing public awareness and understanding of
been associated with TORRO since its foundation and a formal the lightning risk.
member of the organisation since 1998. Since 2006, he has
Adrian James, M.A. (Cantab), MCLIP
been a staff member assisting the head of the Tornado Division,
Adrian joined TORRO in 1975, writing the monthly thunder­
G. Terence Meaden, in compiling current and historical reports of
storm reports for the International Journal of Meteorology
tornadoes and other whirlwinds.
between 1988 and 1990, and was archives director of the TORRO
Matt Clark, B.Sc. Hons. (Reading) Ball Lightning Division from 1991 to 2000. He is currently assis­
Matt studied meteorology at the University of Reading, obtaining tant librarian at the Society of Antiquaries of London.
a B.Sc. in 2005. The degree course included 1 year of study at the
Peter Kirk, B.Sc. Hons. (Reading)
University of Oklahoma. Since 2005, Matt has worked in Obser­
Peter received a B.Sc. in meteorology from the University of
vations Research and Development at the Met Office in Exeter. In
Reading in 2006. His interests include severe weather around the
recent years, he has published a number of observational studies
world including tornadoes and tropical cyclones, as well as gen­
of damaging thunderstorms and cold fronts in the United
eral meteorology across the United Kingdom. He has been a
Kingdom. Matt has been a member of the Royal Meteorological
member of TORRO since 2004 and an associate fellow of the
Society since 2003 and a member of TORRO since 2006.
Royal Meteorological Society since 2006. He is a manager of the
Robert K. Doe, B.A. Hons. (Exon), Ph.D. (Ports), FRMetS, MRI UKWeatherworld forums and is part of the UKWeatherworld
Robert graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Portsmouth, Warnings Team, issuing warnings of severe weather across the
where he specialised in coastal storm climatology. Robert is a United Kingdom.
director and treasurer of the Tornado and Storm Research
Paul Knightley, B.Sc. (Reading), M.Sc. (Birm), FRMetS
Organisation (TORRO). He is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological
Paul has been fascinated by all aspects of meteorology from an
Society (FRMetS) and a member of the Royal Institution (MRI).
early age. He joined TORRO in 1992, and his interest with torna­
He was editor‐in‐chief of the International Journal of Meteorology
does and severe thunderstorms grew. In 1998, he visited the cen­
(2002–2006) and has published research on meteorological phe­
tral United States to go storm chasing, and has been 15 times to
nomena including tornadoes, waterspouts, floods, snowstorms,
date, where he has seen numerous severe thunderstorms and tor­
ball lightning, coastal storms, climate and risk. He is an honorary
nadoes. He undertook a masters’ degree in meteorology in 2000
research fellow in the School of Environmental Sciences at the
and has since been a weather forecaster at MeteoGroup UK,
University of Liverpool.
where he is now forecast manager. Paul took on the role of issuing
Derek M. Elsom, B.Sc. (Birm), M.Sc. (Birm), Ph.D (Oxford severe weather forecasts for TORRO in the early 2000s and has
Brookes), FRMetS been doing it since. He analyses the forecasts each year and pub­
Derek is professor emeritus at Oxford Brookes University follow­ lishes the results in the International Journal of Meteorology.
ing his retirement in 2012 from his position as professor of geog­ Paul is the current head of TORRO.
raphy, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and
John Mason, B.Sc., M.Phil. (Aber)
pro vice‐chancellor. His research has focused on weather hazards,
John is a geologist with a long‐standing interest in weather
especially tornadoes, hailstorms and lightning in the United
extremes through his photographic work. He has recorded in
Kingdom and on evaluating the effectiveness of alternative strate­
detail several notable extreme weather events in his home area of
gies for air quality management in urban areas, including high‐
mid‐Wales, including flash flooding and tornadoes, and contin­
pollution episodes (smogs), in various countries. His national and
ues to do so in collaboration with TORRO. He is also an active
international research has been published in more than 120 jour­
member of the international team that writes for and manages the
nal papers, chapters, reports and books, and he has presented
award‐winning climate change website Skeptical Science.
papers at many national and international conferences. Professor
Elsom joined the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation G. Terence Meaden, M.A. (Oxon), M.Sc. (Oxon), D.Phil.
(TORRO) in 1980 and raised international awareness of TORRO’s (Oxon), FRMetS
pioneering tornado research when he presented a paper at the Terence is a professional physicist, meteorologist and archaeolo­
12th International Conference on Severe Local Storms at San gist with undergraduate and doctoral degrees in physics and a mas­
Antonio, United States, in 1981. Together with Dr G. Terence ter’s degree in archaeology from Oxford University. He has held
Meaden, he organised a succession of TORRO conferences at academic posts at Oxford University; Grenoble University, France;
Oxford Brookes University from 1985 onwards. He was director and Dalhousie University–Halifax, Canada, as a professor of

xi
xii Notes on Contributors

physics. He has researched tornado climatology for over 40 years. Kingdom and the nature and origin of extreme winds in severe
In 1972, he established the International Tornado Intensity Scale extratropical cyclones (‘windstorms’).
based on the Beaufort Scale; in 1974, the Tornado and Storm
Mark Stenhoff, B.Sc. Hons., M.Phil. (Lond), CPhys, MInstP,
Research Organisation (TORRO); and in 1975, the Journal of
FRMetS, FRAS
Meteorology. He has been a FRMetS since 1957 and his publica­
Mark wrote his 1988 thesis on ball lightning. He was scientific
tions exceed 300, with tornado track investigations spanning the
director of the TORRO Ball Lightning Division from 1985 to
period 1967–2007. It was because of TORRO’s huge database on
1992. He is the author of Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in
the incidence of British and Irish tornadoes that he was invited to
Atmospheric Physics (Stenhoff, 1999).
be a consultant for the new‐build nuclear plant industry regarding
tornado hazard and damage risk. John Tyrrell, B.A., Ph.D., FRMetS
John was a senior lecturer at University College Cork until 2009,
Bob Prichard, B.A., FRMetS
where he taught and researched in the Department of Geography.
Bob has had a lifelong interest in the weather and was a forecaster
Upon retirement, his research activities have continued as a research
in the Met Office for most of his career until he took early retire­
associate. He was previously at the universities of Aberystwyth,
ment in 2004; he broadcast forecasts on the BBC for the Met
Nairobi, Lusaka and Grahamstown. He has investigated tornadoes
Office for nearly 25 years. When S. Morris Bower retired from
in Ireland since 1995 and published results in national and interna­
running the Thunderstorm Census Organisation, Bob sought to
tional scientific journals. John was head of TORRO for 2 years and
maintain some form of monthly thunderstorm reports, initially
is currently the regional coordinator for Ireland.
through the pages of the Climatological Observers Link (COL)
bulletin in 1974 and then through the Journal of Meteorology. He Jonathan D.C. Webb, B.A. Hons (Bris)
has now returned to providing a monthly thunderstorm report to Jonathan has enjoyed a huge interest in the skies and weather
the COL bulletin. He was editor of the Royal Meteorological from an early age. He is Thunderstorm Research Director of the
Society journal Weather from 2009 to 2013. Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), having
joined the TORRO team in 1985. He has also been a member of
Tim Prosser, M.Eng. (Oxon)
the Royal Meteorological Society since 1982 and recently com­
Tim has been a member of TORRO for 10 years and has a long‐
pleted a 5 year term on the editorial board of Weather. His pub­
standing amateur interest in weather phenomena. His academic
lished research includes case studies of thunderstorm episodes
background is in mechanical engineering, and he is currently an
and associated severe convective weather, also summaries and
I.T. specialist with an interest in Geographical Information
analyses of the TORRO research databases of hailstorms and
Systems (GIS). He has carried out a number of site investigations
lightning damage. He has also contributed to published research
for TORRO, including a recent investigation into damage caused
on temperature and precipitation extremes in the U.K.
by a downburst and tornado near York.
Richard Wild, B.Sc. Hons., Ph.D., FRMetS, FRGS, MAE,
Mike Rowe, B.A. Hons. (Exon)
MCFSS
Mike was a teacher of geography and history until his retirement
Richard is the weather services commercial manager and foren­
in 2010. He has been a keen weather enthusiast since childhood,
sic/senior meteorologist at WeatherNet Ltd. He is responsible for
with a particular interest in historical weather events. While at
weather forecasting, weather warnings and legal‐related weather
university, he began to compile historical weather data and, find­
consultancy work. Richard has a B.Sc. (Hons.) in geography and
ing more tornado cases than he expected, decided to concentrate
a Ph.D. investigating the spatial and temporal analysis of heavy
on them. He joined TORRO in 1975 and for many years wrote the
snowfalls across Great Britain. He is a fellow of the Royal
monthly reports of the Tornado Division.
Meteorological Society and has produced 40 research articles
David Smart about snow/snowfalls/blizzards in academic publications includ­
David is a research associate of the UCL Hazard Centre, University ing the International Journal of Meteorology and Weather and
College London. His interests are studying and understanding all also 2 books. He is a staff member of the Tornado and Storm
forms of severe and ‘high‐impact’ weather, particularly using Research Organisation (TORRO) where he is the research leader
numerical modelling and simulation. Some recent publications of the Heavy Snowfalls Division and has held this post since it
focus on cold‐frontal misocyclones and tornadoes in the United was established in July 1998.
 Foreword

This volume celebrates 40 years of meteorological research and Providing open access to all the meteorological information
publications by the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation that TORRO has collected, and the research insights it has
(TORRO) since its launch in 1974. TORRO’s members include gained, has always been a priority. A founding principle was to
weather forecasters and other meteorological professionals, acquire and disseminate knowledge for the general public
researchers and academics as well as amateur weather enthusi­ good. TORRO databases and research findings have been
asts. All share a passion for the study of severe weather. made readily available to other researchers through their
TORRO was founded for the purpose of systematising the col­ publication, notably, in the Journal of Meteorology (which
lection and analysis of information on tornadoes and waterspouts became the International Journal of Meteorology in 2005),
occurring in Britain and Ireland, but this soon extended to thun­ Atmospheric Research, and the Royal Meteorological Society’s
derstorms and damaging hailstorms. As the number of TORRO Weather. The Journal of Meteorology, launched in 1975, has
members expanded, data collection and research embraced light­ regularly published monthly and annual listings of severe
ning impacts, ball lightning, snowfalls, rainfall deluges and tem­ weather phenomena and annual reviews from the TORRO
perature extremes. TORRO has focused on severe weather that directors. All this provides key information for current and
poses significant risks to people and their activities in Britain and future researchers. Many university students – the next
Ireland. TORRO’s pioneering research ensured that Britain generation of meteorological professionals – have benefitted
became the first European country to have a realistic assessment from access to this readily available information for their
of the risk that tornadoes posed. In the early 1990s, TORRO dissertations.
developed the first forecasts of tornadoes in these countries and Since 1985, TORRO has organised annual conferences and
has continued to improve the forecasting of tornadoes and severe meetings, notably at Oxford Brookes University, to disseminate
weather ever since. and discuss the latest research findings. Involvement of inter­
For 40 years, TORRO has enabled many hundreds of amateur national researchers with the Oxford conferences subsequently
weather enthusiasts to contribute to improving the meteorological resulted in the setting up of the biennial ‘European Tornadoes
understanding of severe weather. The incidence and impact of and Severe Storms’ conferences, the first convened in Toulouse,
some severe weather phenomena, often very localised, cannot be France, in 2000. This was co‐sponsored by TORRO, and
readily measured using standard meteorological stations but, TORRO members presented several papers including one out­
instead, require individuals to undertake prompt visits to loca­ lining the first compilation of a European tornado climatology.
tions of possible tornado and hailstorm damage to document TORRO encouraged and supported the development of other
the type of damage, interview eyewitnesses and determine path national organisations to focus on severe thunderstorm and tor­
width, length and intensity. TORRO’s regional network of nado research in Europe, along similar lines to TORRO.
members, supported and advised by TORRO directors, has ena­ Sharing its databases with other European organisations,
bled this to happen. Members promptly report the occurrence TORRO has contributed significantly to improving risk assess­
of severe weather events to TORRO directors, and a thorough ment and understanding of tornadoes and hailstorms at the
investigation is quickly coordinated. TORRO’s weather enthu­ European scale which, in turn, is helping to improve under­
siasts have also searched historical journals and documents, standing of these severe weather extremes in other parts of the
academic journals, mass media reports and other sources to iden­ world too. Much progress has been made but new and challeng­
tify and document past severe weather events to add to TORRO’s ing research questions continue to arise. For example, the First
databases of tornadoes, waterspouts, hailstorms, lightning International Summit on ‘Tornadoes and Climate Change’ was
impacts, ball lightning, heavy snowfalls and rainfall deluges. held in Crete, Greece, in May 2014 with several TORRO
Cross‐checking and confirmation of this archive research have researchers participating.
enabled the compiling of extensive databases including a 1000‐ TORRO remains as relevant today as it did when it was
year database of some 3800 tornado and/or waterspout events founded 40 years ago. It has contributed many improvements
and 2500 hailstorms. These extensive databases have enabled and new insights into our understanding of severe weather phe­
TORRO to provide new international intensity scales and nomena in Britain and Ireland and throughout Europe as a
revised national risk probability assessments regarding these whole. Revised risk assessments are now widely available for key
severe storm threats. severe storm phenomena. However, severe weather continues to

xiii
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
the plane, the file, the hammer, and the chisel, and stand at the
bench, the forge, and the turning-lathe. It is in this way only that
the pupil can be taught the power of expressing, as Mr. Clark puts it,
“what has been absorbed on the receptive side.”
Mr. MacAlister illustrates the force of Mr. Clark’s diagrams in a
sentence: “We must not close our eyes to the fact that by far the
larger number of men in every civilized community are workers to
whom a skilled hand is quite as important as a well filled head.”[50]
The prevailing methods of teaching fill the head but do not provide
for assimilation, re-creation, and expression. Now to assimilate, to
reduce to practical value and put to use facts memorized, and to
create, the power of expression is an essential prerequisite; creating
is expressing ideas in concrete form. But under the old régime of
education only two modes of expression are provided—speech and
writing. A third mode—drawing—has been very generally adopted.
Drawing, however, is only the first step, an incomplete step, so to
speak, of expression. It is a sign, an outline, of a thing. What we
want is the thing itself. That thing can only be produced at the forge,
the bench, or the lathe; and this is manual training in the arts.
[50] Mr. James MacAlister, Superintendent of Schools of the City of
Philadelphia, Pa., at the meeting of the American Institute of Instruction,
Saratoga, N. Y., July 13, 1882.

What manual training will do for the pupil is expressed in the

following terse paragraph by Col. Augustus Jacobson:
“The boy leaving school should carry with him mechanical,
business, and scientific training, fitting him for whatever it may
become necessary for him to do in the world. I would secure for
society the advantage of all the brain capacity that is born and all
the training it can take. It is possible and practicable to let every
child of fair capacity start in life from his school a skilled worker, with
the principal tools of all the mechanical employments, an athlete
with the maximum of health possible to him, and thoroughly at
home in science and literature. The child so trained would, when
grown, be to the ordinary man of to-day what Jay-Eye-See is to an
ordinary plough-horse.”
 [E11] “Fortunately the past never completely dies for man. Many may
forget it, but he always preserves it within him. For, take him at any epoch,
and he is the product, the epitome, of all the earlier epochs. Let him look
into his own soul, and he can find and distinguish these different epochs by
what each of them has left within him.”—“The Ancient City,” p. 13. By Fustel
De Coulanges. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1882.
[E12] “In fact, memory comes from interest. What children are deeply
interested in they will never forget. A boy who can never say his lesson by
heart will remember every detail of the cricket or football matches in which
his heart really lives.”—“Educational Theories,” p. 116. By Oscar Browning,
M.A. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1885.
 CHAPTER XIX.

AUTOMATIC CONTRASTED WITH SCIENTIFIC

EDUCATION—Continued.
The Failure of Education in America shown by Statistics of Railway and
Mercantile Disasters. — Shrinkage of Railway Values and Failures of
Merchants. — Only Three Per Cent. of those entering Mercantile Life
achieve Success. — Business Enterprises conducted by Guess: Cause,
Unscientific Education. — Savage Training is better because Objective.
— Mr. Foley, late of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the
Scientific Character of Manual Education — Prof. Goss, of Purdue
University, to the same Effect — also Dr. Belfield, of the Chicago Manual
Training School. — Students love the Laboratory Exercises. —
Demoralizing Effect of Unscientific Training. — The Failure of Justice and
Legislation as contrasted with the Success of Civil Engineering and
Architecture.

A striking illustration of the defective character of both public and

private systems of education, in the United States, is afforded by the
statistics of commercial, railway, and other business failures. In 1877
a careful compilation of figures in regard to the shrinkage of railway
values showed the following result:
“In round numbers, eighteen hundred millions of dollars, or thirty-
eight per cent. of the capital reported as invested in two hundred of
our railway companies alone, is wholly unproductive to the investors,
and the greater part is wholly lost to them. This is sufficiently
appalling, but when we consider how many companies that have
managed to keep up the interest on their bonds have wholly, or
almost, ceased to pay any interest on their capital stock, which
stock, in turn, has shrunk to seventy-five, fifty, twenty-five, ten, in
some cases five per cent. of its par value, it will seem to be a
reasonable conclusion that the actual shrinkage and loss to
somebody on the face value of railway investments in the United
States has been fully fifty per cent.!”[51]
 [51] The Chicago Railway Age.

In view of this startling exhibit it is evident that in the projection,

construction, and management of the railways of the United States
there has been gross incompetency.
In 1881 Messrs. R. G. Dun & Co., the well-known commercial
agents, showed that of the wholesale merchants doing business in
the city of Chicago in 1870 fifty per cent. had failed, suspended, or
compromised with their creditors.
Forty years ago Gen. Dearborn, a prominent citizen of Chicago,
declared that not more than three per cent. of the individuals who
embark in trade end life with success. The success meant, doubtless,
is unbroken solvency during the business experience of the
merchant, and the final accumulation of a competence. The
mercantile ranks in the United States afford many instances of
individual merchants and firms who have settled or compromised
with their creditors several times, and finally succeeded—succeeded
at the expense of their creditors. But this is not the success meant
by Gen. Dearborn. This statistical information, furnished by Messrs.
R. G. Dun & Co., tends to confirm, approximately, the verity of the
common remark that in trade not one in a hundred succeeds.
Let us suppose that three merchants in a hundred so conduct their
business as never to ask their creditors for a favor, never to “settle”
for 50 or 25 cents, but always pay “dollar for dollar,” and come out in
the end rich. This is strictly legitimate success. It would be very
interesting to learn what becomes of the other ninety-seven
merchants. Most of them go down after a few years, never again to
emerge above the surface of commercial affairs. They live on
salaries, enter the ranks of the speculative class, or become genteel
paupers. But doubtless seven at least of the ninety-seven
“compromise” and “settle” themselves over the breakers, and finally
achieve success. So that of the ten successful merchants out of a
hundred those who succeed at the expense of their creditors are as
seven to three of those who win success by the highest degree of
mercantile merit.
 With ninety utter failures, seven successes which involve the
misfortune or wreck of others, and only three untarnished successes
in a hundred, the general ambition to enter mercantile life is simply
unaccountable. Of course the small number of successful merchants
have to calculate upon the failures which will inevitably occur. They
must discount the losses they are sure to incur through those
failures—provide for them by increasing the otherwise sufficient
profit of each transaction. In this way the public pays the cost of
each failure. In other words, the consumer is taxed to pay the
expense of ninety complete failures, and seven partial failures, in
every hundred mercantile experiments. This expense aggregates
scores of millions of dollars in this country alone, every year. The
sum of losses by the failure of merchants in good seasons is very
large, and in seasons of commercial depression it is vast.
It is evident that ninety-seven in every hundred merchants
mistake their avocation. Only three in a hundred are exactly fitted
for the business they undertake. They are morally the “fittest” who
survive by virtue of ability and integrity; the seven who survive by
levying contributions on their creditors may also be regarded as the
“fittest” according to the Darwinian theory. Of the ninety who go
down without even a struggle to “settle” or “compromise,” they
answer to the received definition of dirt—“matter out of place.”
The investigation made by Messrs. R. G. Dun & Co., which
resulted in the statistical information here reproduced and
commented upon, was brought about by the assertion in 1881 of a
life-insurance agent that fifty per cent. of the wholesale merchants
doing business in the city of Chicago in 1870 had meantime failed,
suspended, or compromised with their creditors. Out of this
investigation the question logically springs, “Is not failing in business
made too easy?”[52] If “compromises,” “settlements,” and “failures”
carry with them no disgrace, it is but natural that thousands should
take the risk of them in the contest for the great prizes which are
the reward of success. The distinction in the public mind between
the three merchants in a hundred who succeed legitimately and the
seven who succeed by questionable “compromises” or “settlements”
is very slight; and too many of the ninety who fail utterly retire with
large sums of money which belong honestly to their creditors.
Doubtless the life-insurance agent, in depicting the perils of
mercantile ventures, urged the propriety of the merchant fortifying
himself against disaster by insuring his life for the benefit of his
family. This is a legitimate argument when addressed to the
merchant in solvent condition; but the life-insurance agent’s intimate
acquaintance with the shaky finances of nine-tenths of the
commercial community teaches him that a large share of the money
he receives in premiums, comes not from the merchant, but from
the merchant’s creditors, who will soon be called upon, in the natural
course of events, to consent to a composition of his claim, while the
shaky merchant will retire with a paid-up policy of insurance in favor
of his family.
[52] “Mercantile honor is held so high in some countries that the
calamity of bankruptcy drives men mad. In France there are numerous
instances of almost superhuman struggles on the part of ruined merchants
to regain, by patient effort and pinching economy, their lost station in the
business community. César Birotteau, Balzac’s hero of such a struggle, dies
from excess of emotion in the hour of his triumph. ‘Behold the death of the
just!’ the Abbé Loraux exclaims, as he regards, with lofty pride, the expiring
merchant.”—“Ten-minute Sketches,” p. 220. By Charles H. Ham. Chicago
and New York: Belford, Clark & Co., 1884.

It is quite plain that in nine cases out of ten the merchant who
carries a large policy of insurance on his life actually pays for it out
of his creditors’ instead of his own money. To be sure, it may be said
that the nine merchants hope and expect to succeed, as well as the
one. But is not it the duty of the merchant who owes large sums of
money to think more of providing means for the payment of his
immediate debts than of laying up a support for himself and family
in the event of failure? Some disgrace ought to attach to failure in
business; that is to say, disgrace enough to make the merchant
cautious and economical, with a view, not to his own protection in
the event of failure, but to the protection of his creditors, and of his
own reputation as a business man.
These failures, on so vast a scale, of railway enterprises, and the
almost total wreck of mercantile ventures, show that the business of
this country is done, as a Yankee might say, “by guess,” or as the
mechanic of the old régime would say, “by the rule of thumb.” The
conclusion is hence irresistible that the youth of the United States
are not so educated as to fit them for the conduct, to a successful
issue, of great business enterprises. And this is an impeachment of
what is regarded, on the whole, as the best system of popular
education in operation in the world. A system of education which
turns out ninety-three or ninety-seven men who fail, to three or
seven men who succeed in business, must be very unscientific. If
the savage system of education were not better adapted to the
savage state, the savage would perish from the earth in the process
of civilization. The savage bends his ear to the ground and robs the
forest of its secrets, not three times in a hundred, but ninety and
nine times. Ninety-nine times in a hundred he traces the footsteps of
his enemy in the tangled mazes of the pathless wood.
In “Aborigines of Australia”[53] Mr. G. S. Lang states that “one day
while travelling in Australia he pointed to a footstep and asked
whose it was. The guide glanced at it without stopping his horse,
and at once answered, ‘Whitefellow call him Tiger.’ This turned out to
be correct; which was the more remarkable as the two men
belonged to different tribes, and had not met for two years.” Among
the Arabs it is asserted that some men know every individual in the
tribe by his footstep. Besides this, every Arab knows the printed
footsteps of his own camels, and of those belonging to his
immediate neighbors. He knows by the depth or slightness of the
impression whether a camel was pasturing, and therefore not
carrying any load, or mounted by one person only, or heavily loaded.
The Australian will kill a pigeon with a spear at a distance of thirty
paces. The Esquimau in his kayak will actually turn somersaults in
the water. After giving many illustrations of the skill of various races
of savages, Sir John Lubbock says,
“What an amount of practice must be required to obtain such skill
as this! How true, also, must the weapons be! Indeed it is very
evident that each distinct type of flint implement must have been
designed for some distinct purpose.” He adds, “The neatness with
which the Hottentots, Esquimaux, North American Indians, etc., are
able to sew is very remarkable, although awls and sinews would in
our hands be but poor substitutes for needles and thread. As already
mentioned (in page 332), some cautious archæologists hesitated to
refer the reindeer caves of the Dordogne to the Stone Age, on
account of the bone needles and the works of art which are found in
them. The eyes of the needles especially, they thought, could only
be made with metallic implements. Prof. Lartet ingeniously removed
these doubts by making a similar needle for himself with the help of
flint; but he might have referred to the fact stated by Cook in his
first voyage, that the New Zealanders succeeded in drilling a hole
through a piece of glass which he had given them, using for this
purpose, as he supposed, a piece of jasper.”[54]
[53] “Aborigines of Australia,” p. 24.
[54] “Prehistoric Times,” pp. 544, 548. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P.
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875.

The education which enables the savage to make these extremely

nice adjustments of means to ends is scientific. The observation, for
example, of the Arab who draws such accurate conclusions from the
“printed footstep of the camel,” if applied to the problems of civilized
life, would result in success, not failure.
The excellence of this savage training consists in its practical
character, in its perfect adaptation to the end in view. For example,
the Esquimau boy is not instructed in the theory of turning
somersaults in the water, in his kayak. He sees his father perform
the feat; he is given a kayak and required to perform it also. The
result is early and complete success. So of the Arab. In traversing
the desert it is important for him to read every sign, to translate
every mark left in the sand. Upon the accuracy of his observation his
life may often depend. The print of the camel’s footstep may tell him
whether he is, soon or late, to meet friend or foe. Hence from early
childhood his faculty of observation is trained until it soon becomes
as delicate and nice as the sense of touch of a blind, deaf mute. Sir
John Lubbock thinks that a great amount of practice must be
required to achieve so much skill; but the results are due, probably,
more to the nature, than to the extent, of the practice. It is the
excellence of the training that produces results which excite wonder
and admiration. The savage is indolent; he works only that he may
eat, and he works well, simply because he has been taught
objectively, instead of subjectively.
The difference in results between the best and the poorest
methods of instruction is very great, as witness the testimony of Mr.
Thomas Foley, late instructor in forging, vise-work, and machine-tool
work in the school of mechanic arts of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He says,
“It is a great waste of time to spend two or three years in
acquiring knowledge of a given business, profession, or trade, that
can be acquired in the short space of twelve or thirteen days, under
a proper course of instruction. Twelve days of systematic school-
shop instruction produces as great a degree of dexterity as two or
more years’ apprenticeship under the adverse conditions which
prevail in the trade-shop.”[55] The manual training methods are the
same as those which enable the savage to perform such feats of
skill. They are the natural and hence most efficient methods of
imparting instruction.
[55] Report on “The Manual Element in Education,” p. 30. By John D.
Runkle, Ph.D., LL.D., Walker Professor of Mathematics, Institute of
Technology, Boston, Mass.

The manual training school is a kindergarten for boys fourteen

years of age. Miss S. E. Blow, in formulating the theory of the
kindergarten, describes the methods of the savage’s school, and
those of the manual training school, as follows:
“It is a truth now universally recognized by educators that ideas
are formed in the mind of a child by abstraction and generalization
from the facts revealed to him through the senses; that only what he
himself has perceived of the visible and tangible properties of things
can serve as the basis of thought; and that upon the vividness and
completeness of the impressions made upon him by external
objects, will depend the clearness of his inferences and the
correctness of his judgments. It is equally true, and as generally
recognized, that in young children the perceptive faculties are
relatively stronger than at any later period, and that while the
understanding and reason still sleep, the sensitive mind is receiving
those sharp impressions of external things which, held fast by
memory, transformed by the imagination, and finally classified and
organized through reflection, result in the determination of thought
and the formation of character.
“These two parallel truths indicate clearly that the first duty of the
educator is to aid the perceptive faculties in their work by supplying
the external objects best calculated to serve as the basis of normal
conceptions, by exhibiting these objects from many different stand-
points—that variety of interest may sharpen and intensify the
impressions they make upon the mind, and by presenting them in
such a sequence that the transition from one object to another may
be made as easy as possible.”[56]
[56] “The Kindergarten. An address, delivered April 3, 1875, before the
Normal Teachers’ Association, at St. Louis, Mo.”

This admirable exposition of the theory of scientific education

solves the mystery which has always enveloped savage skill. It also
affords a philosophic explanation of the fact discovered by Mr. Foley,
namely, that the student of the manual training school acquires as
much knowledge in one hundred and twenty hours as the apprentice
of the machine-shop does in two years. In a word, it shows exactly
why scientific education is so incomparably superior to automatic
education. Mr. Foley asserts, in substance, that the scientific
methods of the manual training school are twenty times as valuable
to the student as the unscientific methods of the trade-shop are to
the apprentice.
In a familiar letter to the author, Prof. Goss[57] shows why the
methods of the manual training school are so very valuable. He says:
“In such a school, or course, a student is taught to perform a
series of operations, involving practice with a variety of tools, on
pieces of suitable material. It is not to be supposed that his ability to
make a certain piece is directly valuable, for the experience of a
lifetime may never require him to make it again. It is not expected
that while making the piece he will learn a number of formulated
facts relating to his work, and its application to other work, for that
is not the best way to learn. Nor can we expect him to acquire a
high degree of hand skill (accuracy and rapidity of movement
combined), for this his limited time will not permit. But he does this:
he works out a practical mechanical problem with every piece he
makes. He sees how the tool should be handled, and how the
material operated on behaves. He comes to understand why the tool
cuts well in some directions and not so well in others; and all the
time he queries to himself where it was that he saw a joint like the
one he is making. He is an investigator—as much so as a student in
chemistry. His mind must always guide his hand; his reasoning
opens new fields of thought with every stroke of the chisel.
[57] Prof. William F. M. Goss, a graduate of the school of mechanic arts
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at present instructor in
the mechanic arts department of the Purdue University.

“A boy ten years old, who was a member of a class under my

direction in Indianapolis in 1883, is reported to have said, ‘Why,
mother, I never looked at the doors and windows so much in all my
life as I have since I began at the wood-working school.’
“I tell my students how to go to work, when they are likely to
make mistakes, and how mistakes may be avoided. In operating
along the line directed they thoroughly understand what they are
doing, and why they do it. They see on all sides of their work.
“If I have several different tools for doing work of the same
character, I frequently give a student first one and then another,
until he has tried them all. Then I ask him which he likes best, and
why. Suppose we are to make a drawing-board. The class having
already been made familiar with the principles governing the
shrinkage and warping of woods, is asked in what way the cleats, to
prevent warping, may best be fastened to the ends. The question is
left open for a day or two, and sketches are submitted and views
exchanged on the subject.
“I frequently ask my students to pass to me, in writing, as many
facts (not in the form of a composition) as they can think of
regarding certain stated features of their work—not facts to be
obtained from books, but from things they have seen and with which
they are familiar. The replies are often remarkable for accuracy and
force of statement....
“The manual training school that does not by its work inspire
thought and encourage investigation is poor indeed; the school that
assumes its work to be mind training by hand practice is the ideal
school, and the school that will succeed....
“My answer to your second and third questions is already evident.
I consider an hour in the shop as valuable for its intellectual training
as an hour of book-study, and two hours in the shop as valuable as
two hours of study. I do not think that a student can take two hours
of shop-work in addition to a full course of outside study; but I am
convinced that two hours in the shop can be made to take the place
of one hour of study without extra burden to the student. Therefore,
this being done, the student will get as much again intellectual
benefit from the shop as he would get if the shop-work equivalent in
time were given to book-study.”
This description of the mental operations which accompany the
laboratory exercises of the manual training school shows the
intimacy of the relations existing between the brain and the hand. It
shows how they act and react upon each other, and affords an
explanation of the remark of Dr. Belfield,[58] that the laboratory
exercises are in fact a great strain upon the mental constitution of
the student. This observation of Dr. Belfield, one of the most
distinguished teachers of the old régime in the United States,
entirely justifies the claim made in behalf of the scientific character
of manual training as an educational agency, for it shows that such
training is in no sense automatic. If manual training is a great strain
upon the mental faculties, it must be because the use of tools
stimulates such faculties to great activity. And if this is true, the
mental discipline derived from manual training must be
proportionally great. This is a pivotal point; for if the observation of
Dr. Belfield is well founded in fact and reason, it proves to a
demonstration the high educational value of manual training—proves
its superiority over all the methods of the old régime.
 [58] Henry H. Belfield, A.M., Ph.D., Director of the Chicago Manual
Training School.

Prof. Goss says, “The manual training school student is an

investigator—as much so as a student in chemistry. His mind must
always guide his hand, his reasoning opens new fields of thought
with every stroke of the chisel. He sees on all sides of his work.”[59]
And Dr. Belfield says that these varied operations of the mind cause
a severe mental strain. It would be difficult to find a better
exemplification of scientific education than a course of training which
exercises simultaneously the powers of both body and mind, a
course which with every fresh burden put upon the mind puts new
vitality into the body. This is, indeed, the very opposite of automatic
education, and we may well call it scientific education.
[59] “No extent of acquaintance with the meanings of words can give
the power of forming correct inferences respecting causes and effects. The
constant habit of drawing conclusions from data, and then of verifying
those conclusions by observation and experiment, can alone give the power
of judging correctly.”—“Education,” p. 88. By Herbert Spencer. New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1883.

Another leaf from the experience of Dr. Belfield is worthy of

reproduction here. On the 20th of February, 1884, he took the sense
of the students in his school on the question whether or not they
should indulge in a vacation on Washington’s birthday anniversary.
Somewhat to his surprise the vote was almost unanimous in the
affirmative. He acceded to the wishes of the students, but no sooner
was the announcement made, than he was besieged with
applications from nearly all of them for permission to convert the
holiday into a work-day in the laboratories! Dr. Belfield has been
compelled to post a peremptory order against the occupancy of the
school laboratories by the students on Saturdays, which are regular
vacation days.
Natural training is scientific training. The fondness of the student
for the manual training school is evidence of its scientific character.
He is fond of it because it is natural. Miss Blow says of the child:
“Only what he himself has perceived of the visible and tangible
properties of things can serve as the basis of thought, and upon the
vividness and completeness of the impressions made upon him by
external objects will depend the clearness of his inferences and the
correctness of his judgments.” This is the education both of the
kindergarten and the manual training school, and it brightens,
stimulates, and develops, while automatic education stupefies.
Mr. Foley, formerly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
declares, as the result of his experience, as already stated, that the
scientific methods of the manual training school are twenty times as
valuable to the student as the unscientific methods of the trade-shop
are to the apprentice. But we have shown in a former chapter that
the training of the trade-shops of England, during the past one
hundred and fifty years, has been better than that of the English
schools and universities; in a word, that England is more indebted
for her greatness to her apprentice system than to her school
system. It follows that the school system of England must have been
almost indescribably poor.
That the system of popular education in the United States, which
is much more comprehensive, and presumably better, than that of
England, is very poor indeed in results, is shown by the statistics of
railway and mercantile disasters; and it is scarcely necessary to
remark that these disasters show prevailing methods of education to
be as defective morally as they are mentally. The reason of this is
that, being automatic, they lead neither to the discovery of truth nor
to the detection of error. It is easy to juggle with words, to argue in
a circle, to make the worse appear the better reason, and to reach
false conclusions which wear a plausible aspect. But it is not so with
things. If the cylinder is not tight the steam-engine is a lifeless mass
of iron of no value whatever. A flaw in the wheel of the locomotive
wrecks the train. Through a defective flue in the chimney the house
is set on fire. A lie in the concrete is always hideous; like murder, it
will out. Hence it is that the mind is liable to fall into grave errors
until it is fortified by the wise counsel of the practical hand.
It is obvious that the reason of the demand for the manual
element in education is not so much that industrial interests require
to be promoted, as that mental operations may be rendered more
true, and hence more scientific. What we need more than we need a
better class of mechanics is a better class of men—men of a higher
grade both morally and intellectually. The study of things so steadies
and balances the mind that the attention being once turned in that
direction great results soon follow, as witness, the history of
discovery and invention in England.
The world moves very fast industrially, but very slow morally and
intellectually. Mechanics stand the test of scrutiny far better than
merchants. Civil engineers and architects are more competent than
railway presidents, lawyers, judges, and legislators. The reason of
this fact is that mechanics, civil engineers, and architects are
educated practically in the world’s shops and the world’s technical
schools. They are trained in things, while merchants, railway
presidents, lawyers, judges, and legislators have only the automatic
word-training of the schools. It is notorious that criminals are not
punished in this country. Suppose there were such a failure of
bridges as there is of justice. That is to say, suppose nine-tenths of
the bridges constructed, whether for railway or other purposes,
should fall within a few months of their completion. What would be
thought of the technical schools whence the civil engineers
graduate?
Ninety-seven merchants in a hundred fail. Suppose ninety-seven
buildings in a hundred, constructed under the direction of architects,
should tumble down over the heads of their occupants six months
after their erection. The education of the architects would no doubt
be regarded as defective.
Buckle says of English legislation, “The best laws which have been
passed have been those by which some former laws were
repealed.”[60] It will be admitted that the same is true of American
legislation.[61] In other words, the average legislator is wiser in the
statutes he repeals than in the bills he enacts. What if the
incompetency of the legislator were paralleled by that of the
machinist? Suppose ninety-seven in every one hundred locomotives
should break down on the “trial-trip,” and be returned to the
builder’s shop for remanufacture. Such a result would be an
impeachment of the education of the locomotive builder.
 [60] “History of Civilization in England,” Vol. I, p. 200. By Henry Thomas
Buckle. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1864.
“In a paper read to the Statistical Society in May, 1873, Mr. Janson, Vice-
president of the Law Society, stated that from the statute of Merton (20
Henry III.) to the end of 1872 there had been passed 18,110 public acts, of
which he estimated that four-fifths had been wholly or partially repealed.
He also stated that the number of public acts repealed wholly or in part, or
amended, during the three years 1870-71-72 had been 3532, of which
2759 had been totally repealed. To see whether this rate of repeal has
continued I have referred to the annually issued volumes of the ‘Public
General Statutes’ for the last three sessions. Saying nothing of the
numerous amended acts, the result is that in the last three sessions there
have been totally repealed, separately or in groups, 650 acts belonging to
the present reign, besides many of preceding reigns....
“Seeing, then, that bad legislation means injury to men’s lives, judge
what must be the total amount of mental distress, physical pain, and raised
mortality which these thousands of repealed Acts of Parliament
represent.”—“The Man versus the State,” pp. 50, 51. By Herbert Spencer.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.
[61] “So thoroughly have the conscience and intelligence of the North
apprehended these facts [neglect to educate and enlighten the freedmen],
that while the Nation has done nothing they have given in private charity,
intended to remedy this evil, nearly a million dollars a year for nearly
twenty years. This is the instinct of a people versus the stupidity of their
legislators.... Of the true character of the South he [the author] was, like all
his class, profoundly ignorant, almost as ignorant as the men who made the
Nation’s laws.”—“An Appeal to Cæsar,” pp. 52, 56. By A. W. Tourgée.

Ninety-seven in every hundred boys who graduate from the public

schools and embark in mercantile pursuits fail. Suppose ninety-seven
in every hundred watches made in the American watch factories
should prove to be worthless. The watch companies would, no
doubt, soon be in the hands of the sheriff. But, as a matter of fact,
the Elgin National Watch Company, for example, makes twelve
hundred watches a day, and each and every one of them is an
almost perfect time-keeper.
There is, then, no such failure of the arts as there is of justice; no
such failure of mechanics as of merchants; no such failure of
locomotives and watches as of legislation. It follows that the
education of artisans is better, more scientific, than that of
merchants, judges, lawyers, and legislators. And this is a very
significant fact when it is considered that the State does much for
education in belles-lettres and scarcely anything for education in the
arts and sciences.[62]
[62] The reason why statutes fail more frequently than steam-engines
and bridges is not wholly because the legislator has to deal with human
nature and the mechanic with inanimate matter. Steam and electricity are
subtle forces, but man has quickly mastered them and successfully applied
them to a variety of uses.
It is not to the interest of any one that the machinist should make a
defective locomotive, for example; but it is often to the interest of some
one that the legislator should enact vicious laws. Vicious statutes are
enacted with a design to injure the public in order that certain individuals
may be benefited thereby.
If the mind should act as honestly in legislation as the hand does in
construction, statutes would not have to be repealed yearly.
We have fallen into the habit of regarding education as a polite
accomplishment having very little to do with the real business of life; but
this is not the fact. Education begins in the cradle and continues through
life; and it makes the man what he is. If he goes to the penitentiary it is his
education that sends him there. If he is sent to the General Assembly of the
State or to the Congress of the Nation, and there helps to enact vicious
laws, it is his education that is responsible for such laws. If the man as a
citizen sells his franchise at the polls, or his vote in the legislative hall, for
money, it is the education he has received that is responsible for his
baseness.
It will be said that the explanation of the greater apparent accuracy of
the work of the hand is to be found in the fact that it operates upon matter
while the mind deals with metaphysical subtilties. The contention will not be
that mind is less plastic than matter, but that it is more difficult of
comprehension. But how do we know this to be the fact? Where has the
experiment been tried of honest contact mind with mind? It was not tried
by the ancients. It is not on trial in any part of the world to-day. There is,
hence, no place in which to seek evidence as to how mind would act upon
mind if treated honestly, as matter is treated by the hand. But if the quality
of selfishness is eliminated, there will be no difficulty in bringing all minds
to an agreement, as the parts of a watch are brought into harmonious and
useful action. And it is through the hand that this beneficent union is
destined to be effected; for the hand is the source of wisdom, which is
simply the power of discriminating between the true and the false.
 CHAPTER XX.

AUTOMATIC CONTRASTED WITH SCIENTIFIC

EDUCATION—Continued.
The Training of the Merchant, the Lawyer, the Judge, and the Legislator
contrasted with that of the Artisan. — The Training of the Merchant
makes him Selfish, and Selfishness breeds Dishonesty. — Professional
Men become Speculative Philosophers, and test their Speculations by
Consciousness. — The Artisan forgets Self in the Study of Things. —
The Search after Truth. — The Story of Palissy. — The Hero is the
Normal Man; those who Marvel at his Acts are abnormally Developed.
— Savonarola and John Brown. — The New England System of
Education contrasted with that of the South. — American Statesmanship
— its Failure in an Educational Point of View. — Why the State Provides
for Education; to protect Property. — The British Government and the
Land Question. — The Thoroughness of the Training given by Schools of
Mechanic Art and Institutes of Technology as shown in Things. — Story
of the Emperor of Germany and the Needle-maker. — The Iron Bridge
lasts a Century, the Act of the Legislator wears out in a Year. — The
Cause of the Failures of Justice and Legislation. — The best Law is the
Act that Repeals a Law; but the Act of the Inventor is never Repealed.
— Things the Source and Issue of Ideas; hence the Necessity of
Training in the Arts.

There is a cause for the failure of the merchant, the lawyer, the
judge, and the legislator, as well as for the success of the artisan.
And the cause must be sought in the courses of training,
respectively, of the two classes. Let us assume that the artisan and
the merchant, the lawyer, the judge, and the legislator, graduate at
the same time from the public high school, or from Harvard or Yale.
The merchant at once begins to trade, to buy and sell. He concerns
himself with things only as they have a value, either naturally arising
from the law of demand and supply, or arbitrarily imposed by
circumstances. His consideration of the relations of things is confined
to the single question of the percentage of profit which may accrue
to him from traffic in them. These are subjective processes of
thought, and the merchant becomes absorbed in them to the
exclusion of all other topics. It goes without saying that he becomes
intensely selfish. The struggle is one of mercantile life or death—
ninety-three to ninety-seven in a hundred die; three to seven
survive.
Among merchants there is, hence, very little thought of the
subject of justice, and no effort to discover truth. There must, at the
end of the year, be a favorable balance on the right side of the
ledger, or the balance on the wrong side unerringly points the way to
ruin. This is the post-school training of the merchant. That neither it
nor his previous education renders him skilful we know, since he fails
ninety-three to ninety-seven times in a hundred trials. That
subjective training does not and never can promote rectitude has
been shown in a former chapter of this work. That merchants who
compromise with their creditors, and subsequently accumulate
fortunes, very rarely repay the debt formerly forgiven is a notorious
fact. A Chicago merchant who himself repaid such a composition
debt early in his career, states, at the end of twenty-five years’
experience, that of compromises involving several hundred thousand
dollars, made by him in favor of debtors, not one dollar has ever
been repaid.
Upon leaving school or college the lawyer, the judge, and the
legislator at once apply themselves to books; their subsequent
training is exclusively subjective. Their ideas receive color from, and
are verified only by reference to, consciousness. Subjective truths
have no relations to things, and hence are susceptible of verification
only through consciousness. They are, therefore, mere speculations
after all, often ingenious but always problematical. The result of
such training is selfishness—selfishness of a very intense character;
and, as has been already shown, selfishness is merely another name
for injustice.
On the other hand the artisan devotes himself to things. His
training is exclusively objective. His ideas flow outward; he studies
the nature and relations of things. In this investigation he forgets
self because his life becomes a grand struggle in search of truth;
and the discovery of truth in things, if not easy, is ultimately sure of
attainment, since harmony is its sign, and its opposite, the false, is
certain of exposure through its native deformity; for however
alluring a lie may be made to appear in the abstract, in the concrete
it is a monster unmasked.
From the false the artisan intuitively shrinks. He can only succeed
by finding the truth, and embodying it in some useful or beautiful
thing which will contribute to the comfort or pleasure of man. Hence
his watchword is utility, or, beauty in utility. Of the engrossing
character of this struggle the story of Bernard Palissy affords a
splendid illustration. Palissy was an artist, a student, and a naturalist,
but poor, and compelled to follow the profession of surveying to
support his family. At the age of thirty he saw an enamelled cup, of
Italian manufacture, which fired his ambition. Ignorant of the nature
of clays, he nevertheless resolved to discover enamel, and entered
upon a laborious course of investigation and experiment with that
end in view. After many years of Herculean effort and indescribable
privation, which beggared and estranged his family, and rendered
him an object of ridicule among his neighbors, he achieved a grand
success. At a critical period of his experiments, in the face of the
indignant protests of his almost starving family, having exhausted his
credit to the last penny, he consigned to the flames of his furnace
the chairs, tables, and floors of his humble cottage, and continued to
watch his chemicals with all-absorbing attention, while his wife in
despair rushed through the streets making loud proclamation of the
scandal.
But Palissy was more than a potter; he was a Christian, a
philosopher, and an austere reformer. Notwithstanding he had been
petted and patronized as an ingenious artisan by the royal family of
France, he was finally cast into prison under charge of heresy. It was
there that the remarkable interview with King Henry III. occurred,
which immortalized Palissy as a hero. “My good man,” said the king,
“you have been forty-five years in the service of the queen, my
mother, or in mine, and we have suffered you to live in your own
religion, amid all the executions and the massacres. Now, however, I
am so pressed by the Guise party and my people that I have been
compelled in spite of myself to imprison these two poor women and
you.” “Sire,” answered the old man, “the count came yesterday on
your part, promising life to these two sisters upon condition of the
sacrifice of their virtue. They replied that they would now be martyrs
to their own honor as well as for the honor of God. You have said
several times that you feel pity for me; but it is I who pity you, who
have said, ‘I am compelled!’ That is not speaking like a king. These
girls and I, who have part in the kingdom of heaven—we will teach
you to talk royally. The Guisarts, all your people, and yourself,
cannot compel a potter to bow down to images of clay!”[63] And
Palissy the potter and heretic, at the age of seventy, died in the
Bastile, proudly defying a king.
[63] “Palissy the Potter,” Vol. II., pp. 187, 188. By Henry Morley. Boston:
Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1853.

The more absorbing the struggle for the discovery of truth the less
room there is in the mind for selfishness; and as selfishness recedes,
justice assumes its appropriate place as the controlling element in
human conduct. The hero is an honest man, that’s all,—
“Though love repine, and reason chafe,
There comes a voice without reply;
’Tis man’s perdition to be safe,
When for the truth he ought to die.”

If all men were heroes—honest—there would be no occasion for

heroism. If all education can be made scientific, all men can be
made honest. The struggle to find truth is more natural than the
struggle to succeed regardless of, or against, truth. The reason why
what we call heroism appears so grand is this: the standards of
public judgment have become so perverted by long custom in the
abuse of truth, that normal conduct appears strange.
When Palissy burned his chairs and tables in the cause of art, his
family and his neighbors derided him, and denounced him as a
madman, and in prison the king urged him, as a friend, to save
himself from death by recanting his assertion of the right of freedom
of religious opinion. Palissy was a hero neither to his family, his
friends, nor his king;[64] but he was right, and his discovery and his
firmness rendered him immortal. We now know, three hundred years
farther down the course of time, that Palissy’s struggle over the
furnace in the cause of art was mentally and morally normal, while
the opposition he encountered was abnormal; and that his defiance
of the king was mentally and morally normal, while his persecution
was abnormal and cruel.
[64] “I had nothing but reproaches in the house; in place of
consolation, they gave me maledictions. My neighbors, who had heard of
this affair [the failure of an experiment], said that I was nothing but a fool,
and that I might have had more than eight francs for the things that I had
broken; and all this talk was brought to mingle with my grief.”—“Palissy the
Potter,” Vol. I., p. 190. By Henry Morley. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields,
1853.

Palissy’s mind was trained naturally in the direction of rectitude,

while the minds of the millions of men who permitted him to die
unfriended, a prisoner in the Bastile, were developed unnaturally.
Their education was unscientific, and their characters were hence
deformed. The one symmetrical character was that of Palissy, the
lover of truth, who was ready to starve, if need be, for his art, and
ready to die for his faith. The thin ranks of the so-called heroes of
the ages of history constitute the measure of the poverty of the
systems of education that have prevailed among mankind. These so-
called heroes are merely normally developed men—men who search
for the truth, and having found it, honor it always and everywhere.
They are peculiar to no clime, to no country, to no age. They are
cosmopolitan, and the fact that they are honored, after death, by
succeeding ages is proof positive of the world’s progress, or rather of
the progress of moral ideas.
The civilization of Italy in the middle of the fifteenth century
presents the most violent possible contrast to that of America in the
last half of the nineteenth century. But the one produced
Savonarola, the hater of abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, and
the other John Brown, the stern, uncompromising hater of human
bondage. Four hundred years is a long period in the history of
civilization; but the priest of the fifteenth century, and the farmer of
the nineteenth, are as near of kin in spirit, as if they had been born
of the same mother, and reared in the same moral atmosphere.
The true hero is always inexorable—as Savonarola in the presence
of the majesty of a dying, remorse-stricken, half-repentant prince,
and John Brown in the presence of his exultant but half-terrified
captors. When Lorenzo di Medici lay terror-stricken, on his death-
bed, Savonarola demanded of the dying prince, as the price of
absolution, a restoration of the liberties of the people of Florence;
and this being refused, the priest departed without one word of
peace.
When John Brown, wounded and bleeding, lay a captive at
Harper’s Ferry, listening to the taunts of angry Virginians, he said,
calmly and firmly, “You had better—all you people of the South—
prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question. It must come
up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it, and the
sooner you commence that preparation the better for you. You may
dispose of me very easily—I am nearly disposed of now—but this
question is still to be settled—this negro question, I mean. The end
of that is not yet.”[65]
[65] “The Public Life of Captain John Brown.” p. 283. By John Redpath.
Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860.

There is nothing grander in history, whether real or mythological,

than the picture of the humble priest of the fifteenth century, with
no power except the justice of his cause, shaking thrones and
making proud prelates, and even the Pope himself, tremble with
fear! And the exact parallel of this picture is found, four hundred
years down the stream of time, in the person of the farmer, John
Brown, defying the Constitution, law, and public sentiment of his
country in the interest simply of the cause of justice.
It has been shown through citations from the Walton report, as
well as by the opinions of many competent witnesses, that the New
England system of education, whether correct in theory or not, is, in
actual operation, very defective. But at the time of its establishment
it was the best system in existence. To it this country owes the
quality of its civilization. The neglect of education by the
Government of the United States is the most astonishing fact of its
history. It is incomprehensible how, with a comparatively excellent
educational system in operation, and in full view in the New England,
Middle, and Western States, the National Government could calmly
and inactively contemplate the almost entire neglect of popular
education in the States of the South, and ignore, from year to year,
the steadily accumulating horrors of ignorance and vice which were
destined to lead to such deplorable political and social results.
The difference between the civilization of New England and that of
South Carolina, for example, is exactly measured by the difference
between their respective educational systems. New England
undertook, at a very early day, to educate every class of its citizens;
South Carolina made a monopoly of education, confining it to a
single class.
It must be admitted that the American statesmanship of the whole
period of our history has been scarcely less short-sighted than that
of England under the Georges, which resulted in saddling upon her
people a debt that they can never pay. If England had provided a
comprehensive and scientific system of popular education at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, who doubts that the wars
through which her debt was incurred would have been averted? If
the Government of the United States had compelled the adoption of
a scientific educational system by the States of the South, who
doubts that slavery would have peaceably passed away, and the
occasion for war passed away with it?
The conspicuous failure of American statesmanship consists in a
failure to appreciate the value of scientific education, it shows that
good citizenship is impossible without good education—for good
education and good citizenship are convertible terms. And it is easy
to show, by the past, that to hesitate on the subject of education is
to be lost.[66]
[66] “If you examine into the history of rogues, you will find that they
are as truly manufactured articles as anything else, and it is just because
our present system of political economy gives so large a stimulus to that
manufacture that you may know it to be a false one. We had better seek for
a system which will develop honest men than for one which will deal
 cunningly with vagabonds. Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little
reform needed in our prisons.”—“Unto This Last,” p. 50. By John Ruskin.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1883.

Why do we provide for popular education? Is it out of pure

generosity that the rich citizen consents to be taxed to pay for the
education of his poor neighbor’s children? Does the man who has no
children willingly surrender a portion of his estate for the education
of the children of others, as an act of benevolence? Not at all. There
is no security for property in a community devoid of education and
consequent intelligence. Intelligence alone confers upon property a
sacred character. In one of two ways only can property be rendered
secure in the owner’s hands. It may be protected by a hired soldiery,
through the force of arms,[E13] or through the force of public
sentiment enlightened by education. The reason why the poor but
educated citizen would not lay violent hands on the rich citizen’s
property is the fact that he indulges the intelligent hope of himself
acquiring property. Besides, the morals of a community are in the
ratio of its intelligence. The indulgence of hope promotes self-
esteem, and self-respect, and these qualities react ethically.
It should be borne in mind that while one of the main purposes of
all governments is to preserve property rights, nearly all the
governments of history have been shattered in pieces in the effort to
fulfil this function of their existence. It may be said that there is
never anything sacred about property unless it is honestly acquired.
All the force of our own government was exerted in a vain effort to
protect property in slaves. England has been compelled to disturb
the property rights of the Irish landlords, and this is only the prelude
to an attack upon the property rights of her own landlords. It was
the ignorance of the English people hundreds of years ago that
permitted the establishment of a land system which is now about to
crumble in pieces, and in its fail wreck certain property rights.
There is nothing sacred about property unless it is honestly
acquired and honestly held; and property can only be honestly
acquired and honestly held, in communities intelligent enough to
guard its acquisition, and continued possession, by just and
adequate laws. It follows that education is the sole bulwark of the
State, and so of property.
The question of the first consequence is, therefore, always, What
is the best system of education? It is obvious, also, that the subject
of cost should not enter into the discussion; that the best education
is the cheapest, is an indisputable proposition. We have seen that
the New England system of education, which has spread over the
whole country, is very much better than the system which prevailed
in those States of the Union where slavery continued to exist down
to 1864. But we have seen, also, that that system is very defective;
that it is automatic, and hence not natural, not practical, not
scientific. It does not produce great merchants, great lawyers, great
judges, or great legislators. That it does not, is abundantly shown by
the fact that in mercantile life there are ninety-three to ninety-seven
failures in every one hundred experiments; by the fact that there is
notoriously a general failure of justice; and by the fact that here, as
in Great Britain, the chief business of statesmen is the undoing of
vicious legislation.
There is a system of training which produces a much higher
average of culture than that of the public schools and the
universities. We allude to the training received by the students of
special mechanical and technical institutions, and by the apprentices
in trade-shops. The proof of this is found in the world’s railways,
ships, harbors, docks, canals, bridges, telegraph and telephone lines,
and in a thousand and one other manifestations of skill in art. In the
adaptation of means to an end, and in nicety of construction, the
mechanic and the civil engineer show, in innumerable ways, with
what thoroughness both their minds and their hands have been
trained. If mercantile operations were governed by such excellent
rules in projection, and by such precision in execution, ninety-seven
merchants in a hundred would not go to the wall.
A story has lately gone the round of the public prints to the effect
that, during a visit to a needle factory by the Emperor of Germany, a
workman begged a hair of his head, bored an eye in it, threaded it,
and handed it back to the monarch, who had expressed surprise that
eyes could be bored in the smaller sizes of needles. It does not
matter whether or not this story is literally true; it illustrates the
delicacy of modern mechanical operations. Hundreds of similar
illustrations might be given, showing how marvellously skilful the
hand has become.
It is not claimed that the hand is a nicer instrument than the
mind. As a matter of fact, in drilling the hole in the hair the mind
and the hand work together—the mind directs the hand, we will say.
The mind devises or invents a watch—every wheel, pinion, screw,
and spring—and directs the hand how to make it, and how to set it
up, and it ticks off the time. Why does the mind succeed so
admirably when it employs the hand to execute its will, but so ill
when it devises and attempts, itself, to execute? How is it that the
mind invents a watch which, being made by the hand, records the
hour to a second, ninety-nine times in a hundred, but fails ninety-
three to ninety-seven times in a hundred to devise and carry into
execution a mercantile venture? How is it that the mind invents a
steam-engine consisting of a hundred pieces, so that, each piece
being made by a different hand, the machine shall, when set up,
ninety-nine times in a hundred, at once perform the work of five
hundred horses without strain or friction, but when it grapples with
law and fact in the chair of lawyer or judge produces a most pitiable
wreck of justice? How is it that the mind devises and the hand
executes with such nice adaptation of means to the end in view, a
bridge, that resembles a spider’s web, and yet bears thousands of
tons and endures for ages, but when it undertakes to legislate
evolves statutes that wear out in a year? The first iron bridge
constructed spanned the Severn, in England. It was opened to traffic
a hundred years ago, but it is still a stanch structure likely to stand
for centuries. Where are the English statutes of that time? Repealed
to give place to a long line of others which in turn have been
repealed. When the famous iron bridge across the Severn was
constructed, English legislators were passing bills to compel the
American colonies to trade only with the mother country, and to tax
them without their consent. Lord Sheffield said, with charming
frankness, that the colonies were founded with the sole view of
securing to England a monopoly of their trade; and Lord Chatham
declared that they would not be permitted to make even a nail or a
horseshoe.
In 1516 Sir Thomas More denounced the criminal law of England,
declaring that “the loss of money should not cause the loss of man’s
life.”[67] But this humane and enlightened sentiment had so little
weight that during the reign of Henry VIII. seventy-two thousand
thieves were hanged—at the rate of two thousand a year. In 1785
twenty men were executed in London at one time for thefts of five
shillings. The Lord Chief-justice and the Lord Chancellor agreed that
it would be dangerous to repeal the law punishing pilfering by
youths. In 1816 the Commons passed a bill abolishing capital
punishment for shoplifting—stealing the value of five shillings—but
the Lords defeated it, Lord Ellenborough, Chief-justice, observing,
peevishly, “They want to alter these laws which a century has proved
to be necessary, and which are now to be overturned by speculation
and modern philosophy.”[68]
[67] “The History of England,” Vol. II., p. 83. By Harriet Martineau.
Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.
[68] “The History of England,” Vol. II., p. 85. By Harriet Martineau.
Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.

The cause of these failures—of mercantile ventures, of justice, and

of legislation—is this: Subjective mental processes are automatic,
and hence they neither generate power nor promote rectitude; they
enfeeble rather than energize the brain. Men whose characters are
formed by such educational processes never originate anything.
They become selfish, they venerate the past, their eyes are turned
backward; hence, if they sometimes make a feeble effort to move
forward they stumble. The lawyer, the judge, and the legislator are
examples of this class. Their guide-books are musty folios in a dead
language; they look for “precedents” in an age whose civilization
perished with its language, and whose maxims and rules of life were
long ago exploded. Such men can be compelled to move forward
only by the lash of public opinion. Buckle, speaking of the reforms
extorted from the legislators of England, says,
 “But it is a mere matter of history that our legislators, even to the
last moment, were so terrified by the idea of innovation that they
refused every reform until the voice of the people rose high enough
to awe them into submission, and forced them to grant what without
such pressure they would by no means have conceded.”[69]
[69] “History of Civilization,” Vol. I., p. 361. By Henry Thomas Buckle.
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1864.

On the other hand, the inventor, the discoverer, and the artisan
are always in the advance, and always moving forward. They never
look back except to catch the vital principle of the invention or
discovery of yesterday for utilization in the improved machine of to-
day. Their acts are never repealed because they never become
odious. They never become odious because they contain the germs
of imperishable truth. They are never false; they are suitable to their
time and the stage of development; they constitute links in the chain
of progress. While the legislator is horrified at the thought of
innovation, the inventor, the discoverer, and the artisan are
electrified by the discovery of a new principle in physics, and
delighted at its application in a new invention, and its practical
operation in a new and useful machine.
The difference in effects upon the mental and moral nature,
between purely mental training and mental and manual training
combined, is susceptible of logical explanation. It is only in things
that the truth stands clearly revealed, and only in things that the
false is sure of exposure.[70] Hence exclusively mental training stops
far short of the objective point of true education. For if it be true
that the last analysis of education is art, progress can find
expression only in things—in the work of men’s hands. And it is true;
for ideas are mere vain speculations until they are embodied in
things. Nor is this materialism unless all civilization is material; for
the prime difference between barbarism and civilization consists in
the presence, in a state of civilization, of more things of use and
beauty than are found in a state of barbarism. To exalt things is not
materialistic; they are both the source and issue of ideas, and the
measure of civilization. Ideas and things are hence indissolubly
connected; and it follows that any system of education which
separates them is radically defective.[71] Exclusively mental training
does not produce a symmetrical character, because at best it merely
teaches the student how to think, and the complement of thinking is
acting. Before thoughts can have any influence whatever upon the
world of mind and matter external to the mind originating them they
must be expressed. They may be expressed feebly, through the
voice, in words; more durably, and therefore more forcibly, with the
pen, on paper; more forcibly still in drawing—pictures of things; and,
with the superlative degree of force, in real things.
[70] “To know the truth it is necessary to do the truth.”...
“We rightly seek the meaning of the abstract in the concrete, because we
cannot act in relation to the abstract, which is only a representative sign;
we must give it a concrete form in order to make it a clear and distinct
idea; until we have done so we do not know that we really believe—only
believe that we believe it. A truth is best certified to be a truth when we live
it and have ceased to talk about it.”—“Body and Will,” p. 49. By Henry
Maudsley, M.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1884.
[71] “Prof. Huxley seems to hold that zoology cannot be learned with
any degree of sufficiency unless the student practises dissection. In support
of this position there are strong reasons. In the first place, the impression
made on the mind by the actual objects, as seen, handled, and operated
upon, is far beyond the efficacy of words or description. And not only is it
greater, but it is more faithful to the fact. While diagrams have a special
value in bringing out links of connection that are disguised in the actual
objects, they can never show the things exactly as they appear to our
senses; and this full and precise conception of actuality is the most
desirable form of knowledge; it is truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth. Moreover, it enables the student to exercise a free and
independent judgment upon the dicta of the teacher.”—“Education as a
Science,” p. 303. By Alexander Bain, LL.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co.,
1884.

The object of education is the generation of power. But to

generate and store up power, whether mental or physical, or both, is
a waste of effort, unless the power is to be exerted. Why generate
steam if there is no engine to be operated? Steam may be likened to
an idea which finds expression through the engine—a thing. Why
store the mind with facts—historical, philosophical, or mathematical
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