MANUFACTURING CHEMIST : How to become a.—The applica tion of chemistry to industrial processes gives employment to many chemists who have undergone a thorough training for their work. They find em ployment in gasworks, breweries, chemical works, and other manufacturing concerns, while as analytical chemists they are chiefly employed in the examination of the qualities of food-stuffs, drugs, &c. There is undoubtedly a profitable field for the ambitious man who chooses to go in for chemistry from the manufacturing point of view. He may elect to take up pure science in the hope of getting a demonstratorship as a stepping-stone to a professorship. In that case he should do his utmost to secure a training at one of the older Universities, although, so far as mere scientific instruction is concerned, he might get instruction equally good in one of the many provincial Universities and University Colleges, where the cost would be at least ,C50 a year less. This article, however, is concerned largely with the man who decides to take up Applied Chemistry, and it is for such men that the following information is intended.
A wide general education is a necessity, including Latin, German or French. To the analytical chemist German is more important than French. Science, particularly Chemistry and Physics, should be studied ; but facts are of less importance than the power of demonstrating them. The boy who can perform ordinary experiments neatly, and who has been trained to observe the ordinary and extraordinary phenomena connected with them, is likely to make a more successful chemist than he who has a mere knowledge, very wide, of chemical facts and formulae. Mathematics is a very important subject, and graphical methods of solving algebraical problems should be thoroughly understood. The pupil should acquire the power of expressing himself in clear, terse English, which at school receives far less attention than its importance deserves. The school period should be prolonged to the age of seventeen, or at least sixteen, and the pupil should by this time have passed the Oxford or Cambridge Local Junior or an equivalent or higher Examina tion, and his certificate should state that he passed at one and the same time in (1) English, (2) Latin, (3) Arithmetic, (4) Algebra to Simple Equa tions, (5) the first three books of Euclid, (6) French or German.
There are three ways in which a young man may train himself for work in Applied Chemistry. He may spend about three years in a University or
University College and then seek a post as assistant chemist. He may spend half his time in the works—dyeing, brewing, gas, paper-making, &c.—and half in a class. He may spend all day in the works and get his general training in private study and evening classes. The man who can afford it should by all means take the first (University Course) and follow it up with a year or even two years in Germany. He will thus qualify himself for a far greater range of employments—technical or professorial—and such a training will fit him far better than others to be a leader of men, and possibly to combine the duties of manager and chemist. If he cannot afford one of the older Universities, one of the newer ones, or one of the University Colleges, Will serve his purpose well, and the cost away from home would not be more than .E100 a year. A year in Germany need not cost more than £100, including travelling expenses. The second (half-time course) is growing in favour. In Edinburgh, for instance, pupils in the City Gas Department may spend half their time in the works and half at the Heriot Watt College. The system, however, is not yet sufficiently developed for us to give more than the advice to adopt it if possible.
The third course is the one usually followed by those who cannot afford the first. Arrangements are made with the head chemist or the manager of some particular works to enter the chemical department as a pupil. The usual period of apprenticeship is three years, and the premium 1'150. A portion of this is, however, generally returned as wages. A really clever and hard working man may do as well in the end after such a training as many who have spent far more on their general education, but he is more or less tied to one branch of Applied Chemistry, and cannot have the same grasp of scientific principles as the more highly educated man. He tends to become "a rule of thumb " man. If, however, he is shrewd, he can widen his general knowledge by private study and attendance at evening classes. In the works he must make up his mind to keep his eyes more active than his tongue. If the student aims to become a Public Analyst, he should apprentice himself to one for a period of three years. The usual premium is 1100, and no wages are given.