Engineering Education Abroad

Abstract

THE conditions governing the competition among the great manufacturing countries for the markets of the world have, during the last thirty years, undergone profound modification. At the beginning of the latter half of last century British manufacturers held an unique position which secured for them what was practically the monopoly in some departments of the world's trade. The reasons for this fortunate position are too well known to require elaborate recapitulation. It is enough to remember that while other countries were on one hand; engaged in war and on the other in maturing a stable and enduring constitution, Britain was establishing flourishing manufacturing centres, which, with the assistance of her possession of coal and iron, supplemented as it was by the natural endowments of her citizens so far as perseverance and inventiveness were concerned, resulted in her becoming the world's workshop. In no direction was this supremacy more pronounced than in the several branches of the engineering trades. But since then great changes have taken place. By carefully laid plans and persistent effort, other countries have succeeded in overcoming their disadvantages, and as a result of the provisions they have made for the education of their young men in scientific technology, the British manufacturer has now to reckon with formidable German and American competitors.