APPENDIX III.

REPORT OF CAPT. BEVERLY W. DUNN, ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT, UPON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COURSE OF INSTRUCTION FOR ORDNANCE OFFICERS.

FRANKFORD ARSENAL,

Philadelphia, Pa.,

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report pursuant to instructions contained in the following order and letter:

23. By direction of the Secretary of War, Capt. Beverly W. Dunn, Ordnance Department, will proceed to the places hereinafter specified on official business pertaining to the establishment of a course of instruction at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground, Sandy Hook, N. J., in the design and construction of ordnance, under such special instructions as he may receive from the Chief of Ordnance, and upon the completion of this duty will return to his proper station: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. Rensselaer Polytechnic School, Troy, N. Y.

Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

The travel enjoined is necessary for the public service.

SIR: The following special instructions are given for your guidance in carrying out your order to visit certain technical schools, issued from the Adjutant-General's Office on 11th instant.

It is desired to establish at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground a course of instruction for officers of the Ordnance Department which it is supposed will extend over about one year. This instruction will be both theoretical and practical. The theoretical instruction will include such subjects as will, in connection with their experience, fit the officers taking it for all duties in connection with gun construction, carriage construction, and their attendant mechanical features, and will include general mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, the chemistry of explosives, and optics. Practical instruction will be had in connection with the test and proof work of the proving ground, with the machine shop in performance of its ordinary functions and of such special functions as may be imposed upon it by the course now contemplated, with the electrical plant required for different proving ground purposes supplemented by such machines and appliances as may be added, and with the chemical laboratory which it is proposed to establish at the proving ground.

Your own experience will inform you as to the subjects, now taught at technical schools, which officers of the Ordnance Department may be supposed to be already proficient in, and also as to the subjects upon which they may need a slight review of their previous training. It is expected that instructors for the officers taking the course will be other officers having duties in connection with the proving ground, possibly including some of the assistant officers themselves. It is expected also that all officers taking the course of instruction will have duties in connection with the regular work of the proving ground, which will occupy a part of their time and the experience of which will constitute part of their instruction.

You will make a careful study of the methods of teaching the subjects in which the Department has an interest at the schools visited by you, noting their equipment in machines and other appliances with reference to making recommendations as to what shall be added at the proving ground. You will also examine their textbooks, inform yourself as to their course of lectures, and generally make inquiries as to all the means which they employ to turn out from their establishments persons well prepared for the profession of engineering, especially in its mechanical branches. Bearing in mind the relative maturity, proficiency, and mental training of their students and our officers, you will submit a list of text-books, books of reference, machines and instruments required for the proposed course of instruction, together with any recommendations of a general nature which your visits and study of the subject may suggest.

In order that as early advantage as possible may be had of the result of your attention to this subject, it is desired that your report be submitted with as much promptness as is compatible with its being satisfactory to yourself.

Respectfully,

Capt. B. W. DUNN.

WILLIAM CROZIER, Brigadier-General, Chief of Ordnance.

(Through the Commanding Officer, Frankford Arsenal.)

Before examining the data collected and attempting to formulate a plan for the instruction of ordnance officers, it is advisable to state in their proper sequence some well-known facts that will materially affect the problem.

The design and manufacture of war material constitutes one of the largest industries in the world, and its successful prosecution requires a great variety of special knowledge and skill.

As a rule, the great powers have within their territories thoroughly equipped plants, run by private enterprise, to which the government plants are subordinate in capacity. The United States must depend almost entirely on her Government plants, and, even when assistance is obtained from her private firms, the ordnance experts of the Army and Navy must furnish the designs, working drawings, and specifications.

It is evident, therefore, that ordnance officers should possess technical education of the highest order, and that specialization is necessary; for the range of this education, covering as it does several distinct professions, is too great for one mind to compass.

The knowledge required can be obtained by educating officers or hiring civilians, or combining the two methods, and the course of instruction of the officers will depend on the method selected and the division of duties. It will also depend on the status of the officer. If his proper work is to be in the line of the Army, his ordnance education should extend only so far as it will be of assistance to him as a line officer, and vice versa. Manufacturing and soldiering are too radically different to be combined in one successful vocation. The natural interpretation of the law establishing the detail system is that an officer's ordnance service will be limited to four years, and yet, by repeated details, his service with the line could be limited to almost four years. As much time as that, and more, can be spent in educating him; but, if this were done, his service in the first case would be

nonproductive in ordnance work. Even if his education be limited. to one year, as proposed, instructors must be found, and the time of the capable officers of the Ordnance Department is now fully occupied. A visit to our first-class technical schools will emphasize the necessity for good instructors who can make the work of teaching their principal work. An officer already overloaded with work can not take up teaching as a side issue and pursue it successfully. Technical education is naturally divided into three stages:

1. A solid foundation in mathematics and applied mechanics. This is potential only.

2. A broad comprehension of a given science, such as comes from reading closely and understandingly a good text-book. This increases individual culture.

3. Familiarity with all machines, appliances, and instruments pertaining to industrial applications of the science, and thorough training in the ready solution of all problems pertaining to their use. This makes the student an expert and gives commercial value to his knowledge.

To illustrate, a man may know a great deal about electrical engineering, be fairly well versed in theory, be qualified even to teach, and yet be entirely incapable of earning his living as a consulting electrical engineer. The Johns Hopkins University discontinued, about two years ago, its regular course in electrical engineering because other universities were able to devote more attention to this particular profession and offered superior facilities to the student. It continues to teach the theory and practice of electricity, using its efficient equipment of electrical machines and instruments, but all it claims to do is to equip men as teachers. The graduates of the best schools work in subordinate positions for years before acquiring that experience which enables them to handle successfully large problems in electrical engineering. Their knowledge and skill in their profession are then relatively complete, but to maintain their positions their experience and mental concentration must continue in this line-a general law affecting all technical professions.

Experts in mechanical engineering are more essential in the Ordnance Department than electrical experts, and the requirements in this profession are, at least, equally exacting.

Mistakes in the original establishment of a large plant are very expensive, and a machine may waste many times its cost by being relatively inefficient to start with or by inefficient operation.

This profession is usually divided into specialties, such as (1) the designing and installation of steam power plants and machinery, and (2) the superintendence of their operation to secure the maximum efficiency in quantity, quality, and cost of product.

Ordnance officers occupy positions of authority in manufacturing plants, and their knowledge should include the three stages mentioned if practicable. Heretofore it has been, in the average case, limited to the first stage, and the conditions have been unfavorable for rapid advance.

These conditions are:

1. The course at the Military Academy is practically limited to the first stage, and after several years' service in the line the most favorable assumption is that the young ordnance officer has reviewed his mathematics and mechanics, and so reacquired his scientific potential.