THIRD SESSION-FRIDAY MORNING.

WASHINGTON, February 20, 1880.

The department met pursuant to adjournment, and was called to order by the president, Mr. Newell, at 9 o'clock.

Mr. DICKINSON, of Massachusetts, read a paper on the high school question; after which

Rev. RUSSELL A. OLIN explained to the department the apparatus known as the

TIME GLOBE.

Gentlemen of the association, the apparatus which by the courtesy of the association we have the pleasure of introducing to your notice is made up of two very common instruments, a clock and a globe, with the value and uses of which everybody is supposed to be familiarWhatever title, therefore, this piece may have to your special attention and interest as representing the cause of education in its progressive demands, will not be found in the mere juxtaposition of these common instruments, but in their realized mechanical coöperation, the result of which, we shall hope to show, has been greatly to simplify some of the fundamental questions of geography as taught in our schools; in fact, as an eminent scientist has said, "to illustrate more problems connected with a rudimentary knowledge of this science and in a simpler manner than any other apparatus available at anything like its cost." The instrument is called the time globe, concerning the construction of which, before proceeding to speak of its uses, I ask your indulgence while I quote from the unqualified indorsement of Dr. B. S. Lyman, the well known professor of astronomy and physics in Yale College. After a critical examination he speaks of it, first, as "an admirable combination of a large globe and a good timepiece, each as convenient and as well adapted to its proper uses as if separate," and the two together as "forming a piece of apparatus both useful and ornamental, and a desideratum alike in the school room, office, and family."

He then calls special attention to "the excellent time movement, durable, powerful, easily wound and regulated, and of thorough workmanship throughout."

Next he notices the obvious fact that "all parts of the mounting are rigid and strong, yet light, and the whole at once firm, stable, elegant, and convenient, the entire globe surface being exposed to view, and the plate glass clock dial sufficiently conspicuous without cutting off a view of the globe or the globe of it."

And also that "the placing of the time movement inside of the globe, while it is conveniently wound and regulated from without, insures its

Mr. Dickinson's paper has not been furnished for publication.

protection from dust and injury and gives the whole apparatus compactness and symmetry."

And, finally, that "the clearness, fulness, and beauty of the mapping, as well as the many features of physical geography and climatology which it exhibits, are points well worth special notice."

Into each and all of these particulars the manufacturers invite the freest examination, for which purpose they have, in addition to this piece, provided among several others one not put together, which is open to the inspection of the association and of all others interested. And now the idea of the time globe may perhaps be more clearly stated by saying that, whereas the oldest clock of which we have any description preserved was constructed to represent the phenomenal aspects of the solar system, the sun, moon, and 'planets revolving around the earth, and thus indicating each hour of the day and night, the time globe is a miniature representation of the facts of the form and motion of the world as they have since been found actually to exist. It may be described as our own world, placed in its true siderial position and reduced to convenient size for observing the important results which follow upon its rotation.

For you will notice, first, that the time globe moves.

What Galileo blessed the world by so confidently realizing and affirming as a conclusion of reason, Mr. Juvet, the inventor, has here at last realized mechanically and submitted to the evidence of sight.

The time globe is a globe endowed with life, having an automatic diurnal revolution exactly corresponding to that of our earth.

I should not be competent, perhaps, to explain to your satisfaction how Mr. Juvet has accomplished this difficult result, but, as a practical teacher, I respectfully solicit your careful attention to the following important facts, rendering, it seems to me, the time globe the most desirable apparatus known for object teaching in geography:

(1) It obviously gives the completest illustration of the diurnal motion of the earth. What so desirable illustration of this can the pupil have as the sight of the earth itself, as it were, in continual rotation from hour to hour and from day to day?

And for this purpose it should be set up in the school room in some conspicuous place, exposed to the sun when practicable, that a repetition of the various results of the earth's daily and annual revolutions may be continually reproduced. It will thus be one of the most powerful aids to the teacher in explaining and to the pupil in comprehending the causes constantly at work to bring about the various changes connected with the progress of each day, month, and year.

(2) It appears to form the best known indicator of the cardinal directions.

North and south, instead of lying, as is generally supposed, in the plane of the visible horizon, are here shown, in whatever latitude the time globe may be set up, to be in a line parallel to the earth's axis.

Then, in regard to up and down, east and west, about which there is even greater general misapprehension, the time globe gives a continuous demonstration that these are not absolute but relative directions; up and down being always directly from and towards the centre of the earth, while east is always the direction of the earth's motion, changing at every point, west being its opposite. By contrasting the true east and west directions with the movement of the dial hands, the difference may at any time be readily seen between true and apparent east and west.

(3) We next call special attention to the fact that the time globe wonderfully simplifies, while at the same time it universalizes, the notation of time. The association will observe that the necessity for the extensive construction of clocks with complex machinery and a large number of dials to exhibit the time at different places on the earth is at once obviated by this significant achievement.

The most common of the natural indicators of time is the earth itself in daily rotation on its axis. What simpler mechanical representation of this fact can there be than a globe revolving at the same rate, with a scale appended by which to determine at a glance the extent to which, at any time, the daily revolution of the earth has proceeded at any and every point on its surface?

In accomplishing this the time globe becomes a universal timekeeper. Starting at 12 o'clock midnight, the 24 hours, each with its 60 minutes, are accurately marked off on the equatorial or universal dial. Then, as in the great clock of nature, the earth combines in every meridian an hour and minute hand; by tracing the meridian of any place to the equatorial dial, its true time will always be found accurately recorded. The local time, as indicated on the clock dial, may be verified for the meridian of the place on the universal dial, as also, in like manner, the corresponding time of every other place on the earth.

We submit that the pupil is entitled to the great benefit of this wonderful achievement as an important stepping-stone to the comprehension of the ordinary arbitrary and complex method of noting time. The ambiguous divisions of the ordinary time dial into twelve parts, each of these into five other, the movement of the minute hand twelve times as fast as the hour hand, and to the right rather than to the left, bear no resemblance whatever to nature, but, being purely arbitrary, have in most cases to be learned and used long before they are understood.

(4) As another interesting and instructive result of the time globe's realized automatic motion, the pupil is readily enabled to locate any place on the earth with reference to the daily phenomena of morning, evening, noon, midnight, sunrise, sunset, forenoon, and afternoon.

For it is evident that, as the earth turns on its axis to the east, these phenomena will have a corresponding reproduction upon the globe. The shading of the night half of the universal dial so facilitates this as to leave little for the imagination to do. The fact also of events taking

place on the eastern continent and announced to us on the western, as is frequently done, before their apparent real date, is readily comprehended by the help of this microcosmic exhibition of the daily phenomena.

(5) Another useful result for educational purposes, following from the peculiar construction of the time globe, is the great simplification it offers of the problem of converting difference in time into difference in longitude, and vice versa.

The universal dial being also a great circle, its time divisions bear fixed relations to its circular divisions, every fourth one of its 1,440 minute divisions coinciding with each degree mark, and, of course, every hour division with every fifteenth degree mark. The difference in longitudinal distance, therefore, between any two places, may be read off indifferently either in time or in longitudinal notation.

(6) By reason of its continual movement the time globe illustrates with great simplicity another difficult matter for the pupil to comprehend, viz, the change of date.

Having called attention to the fact that the maritime powers of the world have agreed to regard the 180th degree of longitude from Green. wich as introducing each commercial day by its passage under the midnight meridian of the celestial sphere, it will only be necessary to fix the fact in the mind of the pupil that this 180th terrestrial meridian leads on each new day; that, consequently, at the moment of coincidence there is but one commercial day on the earth, while at every other moment of the 24 hours there are parts of two days on the earth—one day in progress, and measured by all that part of the earth's surface included between the midnight meridian and the 180th terrestrial meridian, in the direction of the earth's motion, and the other the previous day, diminishing, and covering all the rest of the earth.

In this connection we beg leave to call attention to the ease with which the illustration may be conveyed of the cause of the long twilights in the vicinity of the poles, and of the comparatively sudden transitions between light and darkness on or near the equator. The increasing rapidity of the earth's motion from the poles to the equator is represented to the eye by the enlarging angle between any two meridians.

And, finally, the value of this piece as an apparatus for illustrating by object teaching the passage of the earth around the sun in the plane of the ecliptic, may be seen from the fact that, when standing in position through the year, the equinoctial and solstitial phenomena are accurately reproduced on its surface, as also the phenomenon of the unequal duration of the days and nights from one equinox to the other. At the time of the summer solstice the sun, standing over the Tropic of Cancer, will be observed to reach with its rays beyond the north pole to the Arctic Circle. Thence it will gradually approach the plane of the equator, pass it at the autumnal equinox, and proceed on its course until, at the winter solstice, standing over the Tropic of Capricorn, it embraces the south pole in its light, reaching beyond with its rays to

the Antarctic Circle, from whence these phenomena will be repeated in reversed order.

The great need of any additional simplification of the principles of geography by object illustration has been sorely felt by every conscientious teacher of this science. While in its descriptive parts geography is readily mastered, there is, perhaps, no science taught in our common schools which in its principles, especially those bearing upon its astronomical relations, is less understood; the usual computations in a common almanac of the results following upon the earth's motion, such as the ever changing hours of sunrise, sunset, the equinoxes and solstices, being to the great mass as cabalistic as the signs of the zodiac.

The importance of the time globe achievement-"following upon a multitude of failures"-as wonderfully simplifying the principles of practical geography, may not only be gathered from the eminent names of those who have so warmly indorsed it, but will be obvious to every teacher upon examination of the instrument.

(For a representation of the time globe, see last page of this circular.)

TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ITS RELATIONS TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

Dr. J. D. PHILBRICK, of Massachusetts, then read the following paper: Education of every kind and degree is comprised in two great classes: (1) General education, which includes in its scope at once the body, the intellect, and the heart. It strengthens, develops, and elevates the individual, and prepares for society vigorous, enlightened, and honest men; in the terse phrase of John Stuart Mill, "it makes capable and cultivated men."

(2) Technical education, which is designed to qualify persons for the exercise of a profession or trade. Its aim is to fit men for some special mode of gaining their livelihood. In its highest grades it is concerned with those professions which are called liberal; it forms in its lower stage the artisan or craftsman.

Both these kinds of education are indispensable, and where there is a lack of either there is imperfection and perhaps danger. The educational system of a country should, therefore, correspond to this division, and it will be complete or incomplete in proportion as it accomplishes the objects, for each individual, of both general and technical education. Nothing is more striking in the educational movements in the most advanced nations than what has been done in recent years, and is now doing, by governments, municipalities, industrial organizations, and private enterprise, to provide the means of technical education of every grade and description. This is done with the twofold view, first, to promote the well being of the individual, to render every man, however humble his condition, not only self-supporting, but comfortable and prosperous; second, to promote the general interests of productive industry, and to meet the increasing demands for higher professional skill which the progress of civilization creates.