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IV.—SCHEME FOR TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION
IN ESSEX, PUT FORWARD BY THE COUNCIL
OF THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
( Under the Technical Instruction Act, 1889 ; the Local Taxation
Act, 1890 ; and in accordance with the regulations of the Science and
Art Department)
[In response to an advertisement by the Clerk of the County Council of Essex,
requesting that applications for grants for Technical Education should be sent
in for consideration of the County Council, a formal application for a grant,
giving particulars of the work of the Club and the purposes for which the
money was required, was sent by the Secretary to the Clerk, and subsequently
the detailed scheme, as below, was also submitted to the County Council]
The Council of the Essex Field Club proposes to establish, at the cost of the
Club, in Chelmsford (chosen not only as the county town but also as being a
central position in Essex) a Public Museum to illustrate the natural productions,
the geology and physiography, and the industries and manufactures of Essex,
together with an Educational Series of specimens and preparations, which may be
employed for teaching purposes. The Museum will also contain a Library of
books, maps, parliamentary papers, pictures, &c., treating of the natural history,
geology, topography, history and industries of Essex, as well as a general library
of books necessary for the study of the before-mentioned subjects.
As a special department the building will include Chemical and Biological
Laboratories and a Class-room, for the purpose of giving practical instruction in
science and its applications.
The Council of the Club is very desirous that the Museum shall be of the
greatest possible service in promoting the study and love of science and its appli-
cations to industries and manufactures, and as a subject of general education. In
the endeavour to carry out these objects the Club most respectfully asks for the
aid of the County Council of Essex, in accordance with the powers given by the
above-mentioned Acts.
The leading features of the Technical Education Scheme of the Essex Field
Club are as follows :—
1st, The establishment of a central institution in Chelmsford in connection
with the Club's Museum, with large Laboratories and Class-room, furnished with
apparatus and preparations for practical teaching, and in which, as occasion may arise,
examinations could be conducted the institution being also amply provided with
lecturing and class-teaching appliances (lanterns, slides, diagrams, apparatus,
models, materials, and specimens) so arranged in travelling cases that they could
be easily sent to any part of the county for use at local lectures and classes.
2nd. The arrangement of peripatetic courses of classes and lectures, conducted
by specially qualified teachers (either supplemental to local efforts, or at the sole
instance and cost of the institution) for imparting instruction in science and
technology in any parts of the county, particularly in rural and maritime districts.
The teaching given to be either elementary or more advanced, but always, as far
as possible, of a thoroughly practical character, and such as will give a knowledge
of things rather than words, and develop the faculties of seeing and doing.
(Special facilities might easily be arranged in the way of reduced fees to teachers
and to scholars from local schools attending the classes or lectures in numbers.)