engineering education the university of adelaide 1889 - 1980 a registrar's retrospect

100 Pages·2015·17.78 MB·English

RC
620.00711
E23e
ENGINEERING EDUCATION
in
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
1889 - 1980
A REGISTRAR'S RETROSPECT
V.A. EDGELOE
Registrar Emeritus of the University
ENGINEERING EDUCATION
in
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
1889 - 1980
A REGISTRARS RETROSPECT
R.W. Chapman
Academic founder of
professional education
in engineering in
South Australia.
William Barlow
// was during his
Vice-Chancellorship
(1896-1915) that the
University's provision
of professional education
in engineering matured
into the degree of Bachelor
of Engineering.
ENGINEERING EDUCATION
in
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
1889 - 1980
A REGISTRAR'S RETROSPECT
V.A. EDGELOE
Registrar Emeritus of the University
© V.A. Edgeloe 1989
All rights reserved.
Published by Kinhill Engineers Pty Ltd,
200 East Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000.
Printed by STCC Reprographics,
299 Coronation Drive, Milton, Queensland 4064.
ISBN 0 949397 31 8
CONTENTS
Preface i
Chapter I Birth to the Eve of Maturity 1
Background 1
Conception 2
Birth 3
The Eighteen Nineties and Early Nineteen Hundreds 4
The World War I Years 6
The Early Twenties 7
The Years 1926 to 1937 8
The World War 11 Years 10
Chapter II The Post-World War II Era 15
The Post-war Quinquennium 15
Two Decades of Growth and Change 18
The Seventies: Mild Drought, Brief Sunshine,
Darkening Clouds 24
Chapter III The Early Teachers: A Mixture of History
and Biography 29
Chapter IV Achievements 43
Teaching 43
Testing 43
Consulting 44
Publications 44
Appendices
I Deans of Faculties 51
D Academic Staff 52
in Scholarships and Prizes 59
IV EndowmenLs and Gifts 66
V Some Miscellaneous Statistics 68
PREFACE
There were two principal stimuli behind my decision some little time after my
retirement to write an administrator's histories of various academic schools in the
University of Adelaide. One was an unwillingne.ss to let my mind 'sit back' and
slide into .somnolence. The other — and more powerful stimulus — was an
increasing awareness that the po.st-World War II generations of students and (as the
years pa.ssed) staff were, in general, largely ignorant of the early history and growth
of the University and, in particular, of the personalities and achievements of the
staff. The final incentive to turn to engineering, small though it was, was a
document containing .several inaccuracies that came to my attention.
This brief history is not intended to be in any sense an academic or
professionally historical work. It therefore avoids the precision in detail appropriate
to such a thesis. What it does aim to be is a readable account, giving a broad general
picture of its subject, not a photographic delineation. It is ba.sed in large measure on
the official records and publications of the University and, to a lesser extent, on
personal knowledge acquired over nearly half a century, confirmed when necessary or
desirable by reference to the official records. In addition, 1 am indebted to Professor
R.E. Luxton and Mr Robert Culver for many friendly and helpful comments on the
original draft, and suggestions for additional material that 1 might include.
There are several omissions from this history to which I should refer here.
The first is the absence of the professional records of graduates who have achieved
distinguished careers in education, in the advancement of engineering knowledge
and/or practice, in industry, or in public service. The reputation of any university
school or discipline is ultimately determined, of course, by the quality and
performance of its graduates. To refer specifically to those whom I know to have
achieved distingui.shed careers would be unjust to those of whose careers 1 am ill-
informed or ignorant.
A second omission is that the history contains practically no reference to
ancillary staff. As Adelaide professors from Bragg and Stirling onwards could
confirm, the skill of competent technical assistanLs conu-ibutes valuably not only to
the teaching programme but also — and even more valuably — to research
investigations. There have been a number of highly skilled technicians attached to
the engineering laboratories since World War II, some for long terms, but I am
unable without extensive consultation with relevant members of the academic staff
to list them and their contributions.
Thirdly, there is the inadequate treatment of research in Chapter IV. Even
when I understand what the title of a paper or article indicates to be the subject, I am
unqualified to assess its merits. Additionally, I am unable to translate into non
technical language the technical terms used in many of the titles. A professional
engineer or .scientist who seeks information in some detail of the scope of
publications emanating from the engineering school should therefore consult the
i
bibliographies published in ihe annual reports of the University up to 1978 and the
annual ijesearch reports since then.
q. ./'finally, 1 should like to thank the ancillary staff of the engineering school
wTic^* typed and word-processed the much-amended original version of this
monograph; the editorial, graphics and word-processing staff of Kinhill for their
assistance in the final production; and Kinhill and the Chapman Association for their
financial support.
June 1989 V.A. EDGELOE
ii
BIRTH TO THE EVE OF MATURITY
BACKGROUND
Economic
In ihc first hundred years or so of South Australia's existence, the economy of the
province/State was based on the land and its products: agricultural, pastoral and
mineral. Industry, as generally understood in the term '.secondary industry' today,
was largely confined to relevant machinery and ius service, railways and other means
of transport, and the provision of community goods, equipment, and services in
general. Although, over the years, mining products ranked below those of the
agricultural (in the broadest sense of the term) and pastoral industries in monetary
terms, the mining industry was of great value both economically and in spreading
the base of the province's material resources.
The early mines covered a fairly wide range of products: gold, silver-lead,
gypsum, limestone, bismuth and so on. Many of them were small and relatively
short-lived, but nevertheless promoted awareness of the infant province beyond its
boundaries and attracted migrants. The discovery of copper at Kapunda in 1842, and
of a much greater body of the ore at Burra in 1845, heralded the birth of a mining
product of long-term importance, greatly enhanced by the di.scovery in 1861 of the
rich and extensive copper deptjsits in the Wallaroo-M(X)nta area. Indeed, for .some
eighty years or so copper formed, in monetary terms, more tlian sixty per cent of
South Ausu-alia's mineral prcxlucts. As copper's predominance began to wane at the
turn of the century, great new industries developed: the smelting at Port Pirie of the
silver-lead ores produced at Broken Hill, and the mining and shipping interstate of
the vast iron ore resources of the Iron Knob. It was therefore only natural that, when
provision for the inauguration and development of technical education and training at
a modest tertiary level was eventually made, priority should be given to mining and
its intimate associate, metallurgy.
Technical
In keeping with normal British practice at the time, mechanics institutes were
formed; the first in 1838. The need for professional education in various aspects of
engineering was emphasized in a very compelling way in 1878 by John Howard
Angas, who gave the University £4,(X)0 to endow both a substantial postgraduate
scholarship and undergraduate exhibitions 'to encourage the training of scientific
men, especially engineers'. The exhibitions, each worth £60 a year for three years
(later reduced to £30 a year for four years), were tenable in the University for studies
in science subjects, preferably tho.sc relevant to later studies in engineering. The
postgraduate scholarship, worth £2(K) a year for three years (later reduced to two
years, with a travelling allowance of £KX)), was specifically to support studies in
1
engineering. Effectively it meant studies overseas, though one scholar, C.C. Fair,
was allowed to study electrical engineering at the University of Sydney for reasons of
health.
The range of technical training within the province, albeit at a modest level,
was expanded in 1882 by the creation, under the direction of the distinguished artist
and commercial practitioner H.P. Gill, of a School of Design, which rapidly grew to
embrace building construction, machine design, relevant drawings and associated
services.
And then in 1886 the provincial government appointed a board 'to inquire into
and report upon the best means of developing a general system of technical . . .
education in the province'. Two members of the Board were J. Langdon Bonython,
of the then politically and socially cenu-e-left or Icft-cenue newspaper 77ie Advertiser,
and Edward H. Rennie, the recently appointed Professor of Chcmisu-y in the
University of Adelaide.
CONCEPTION
After reasonably extensive interrogation of, and consultation with, a number of
union and business officers and representatives, the Board reported in June 1888.
The report recommended, inter alia, development along two lines: firstly,
instruction at post-primary school level in scientific principles and technical and
manual training of a broad general nature that would serve 'in any branch of
industry'; and, secondly, the provision of a combination of theoretical and practical
knowledge at a post-secondary school level designed specifically to serve the mining
industry. The latter would, in the Board's opinion, require a special technical school
to provide it. Two other recommendations of the Board in relation to the special
school were that there should be maximum co-operation between it and the
University of Adelaide and the School of Fine Arts (as the School of Design had
become by then), thus avoiding duplication and thereby keeping to a reasonable
minimum the School's needs for teaching staff and accommodation; and that the new
School's resources and responsibilities from its foundation should include the
creation and maintenance of a technological museum of material relevant to mining
education.
It may reasonably be assumed that the Board envisaged, firstly, that the
University should provide the necessary teaching at tertiary level in the sciences such
as mathematics, physics, chemistry and the relevant branches of 'natural science';
secondly, that there should be no duplication between the new school and the School
of Fine Arts in the teaching, at the appropriate standards, of subjects common to the
functions of both; thirdly, that the new school should undertake the teaching of the
remaining subjects necessary for the provision of professional education in various
branches of engineering; and, finally, that the new school also should undertake
education and training at tradesman, craftsman and similar levels in other fields (e.g.
bookkeeping). The last-mentioned was confirmed later by the inclusion of
'Industries' in the school's official title.
The Government, under the premiership of Thomas Playford, adopted the key
proposals of the Board, approved the establishment forthwith of a School of Mines
and Industries, and appointed a council, of which Dr. Alexander Cockburn was
chairman and Professors Rennie and Tate and Dr Stirling from the University were
members, to inaugurate, govern and develop it
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