IN TOUCH WITN CHINA’S SCNOLARS SUPPLEMENT By WM. WILSON, M.B., C.M. WITH PREFACE BY JOHN R. MOTT, M.A. In Touch with China's Scholars SUPPLEMENT CONTAINING : Details of a somewhat scientific and technical character which for the sake of the general reader have been deliberately excluded from the body of the booklet, but being at the same time such as may appeal strongly to some minds as of special interest have been collected into a separate section and thus appear in the form of a Supplement. By TO. WILSON, M.B., CM. ponton : CHINA INLAND MISSION, Newington Green, N. MORGAN & SCOTT, Ltd., 12, Paternoster Buildings, E.C. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/intouchwithchinaOOwils_O PREFACE. % BY JOHN R. MOTT, M.A. JpOR two thousand years the literati have wielded larger influence in China than in any other nation. They continue to dominate that land of largest possibilities in Asia. The stupendous educational changes now in progress there increase, rather than diminish, the importance of the educated classes in China, because the first generation of modern Chinese students will, more than any other one factor, determine the character of the New China. Until recently the educated classes have been comparatively unreached by Christianity. The methods employed by Dr. Wilson afford favorable access to these future leaders. It would be difficult to overstate the possibilities of the new work he contemplates, now that it is affiliated with the Young Men’s Christian Association—a movement which has demonstrated such marked ability to reach, for Christ and the Church, the students of the non-Christian world. Correction: On page 23, line 5, lor “New York Committee” read “International Committee.” Science Hall—Interior. This building is 50 ft. long by 30 ft. wide, with gallery all round. It is shown as seated for students, with lecture table covered with electrical apparatus. Apparatus in the centre of the table represents three systems of telegraphy (to the left) Wheatstone’s Needle Instrument; (to the right) a Sounder Instrument; (below) a Morse Inker ; (in the middle) a 3-way switch for putting any of these into action. One of the Earliest Students and his Collection of Apparatus. (Some, merely for effect, are represented in multiple.) SUPPLEMENT. PHE work described in the booklet, to which the following pages form a supplement, has had for its object the ob¬ taining a friendly intercourse with the Literati or educated class in China, so that, with the removal thereby of ignorant prejudice, the way might be prepared for the advance of missionary work among this important section of the community. The newly aroused thirst for Western knowledge seemed to indicate the road by which this friendly intercourse might be obtained, and the institution of courses of lectures on scientific subjects to supply the key by which this door of access might be opened. The work developed along these lines thus came to comprise the following features -.—The delivery of elementary lectures on science, the institution of a museum of apparatus and models, and the establishment of a workshop, where the students were encouraged and helped to make their own apparatus. In a description of such work it is obviously impossible to eliminate all reference to technical subjects, names of apparatus and instruments, methods of construction, etc., etc. Yet the undue intrusion of such details would, to the general reader, detract from, rather than increase, his or her interest and pleasure in the perusal of such a record. But, on the other hand, there is a large and increasing number of persons, who, while primarily deeply interested in all missionary work, would feel a special interest in any effort designed to reach the educated class, and the very fact, in many cases, that they are themselves interested in, and, perhaps, personally occupied with, matters of an educational and scientific character would lead them to regard with real sympathetic interest every detail that they could gather with regard to such work. To such readers the deliberate avoidance of all such technical detail from the record would not be regarded in the least as a recommendation, but, rather, as a distinct loss and dis¬ appointment. The aim has, accordingly, been to meet the requirements of these two classes of readers. The general reader will be able to peruse the booklet without the distraction due to the intrusion of technical details which do not specially appeal to him, while in the case of others the perusal of the booklet and the general account therein contained may with interest and advantage be followed by the reading of the more detailed and technical matter contained in this supplement. 3 The subjects referred to in the following pages may be con¬ veniently divided into three sections:—First, the Lectures and their Scope ; second, the Museum and its Contents; and third, the Workshop and its Methods. The Lectures and their Scope. HE particular branches of science which have in the main formed the subject matter of the lectures have been Chemis¬ try and Electricity, and to a less extent Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Heat and Steam. Several considerations had their influence in this selection of subjects. Among the educated Chinese, although little may be known of any science except the name, there is a general impression that of all the physical sciences the most important are Chemistry and Electricity, and, consequently, their desire to understand these subjects is proportionately great, and to lecture on such matters would specially appeal to them. Again, the apparatus necessary to illustrate the lectures is more easily prepared in the case of these two subjects than in the case of others. As regards Chemistry, most of the chemicals required were to be found in the dispensary already constituting an integral part of the Mission station, and in the preparation of apparatus a few flasks and glass and india-rubber tubing go a long way. The same applies, though to a less extent, in the case of apparatus for illustrating lectures on Electricity and Magnetism. Quite a large number of pieces of apparatus can be prepared without the necessity for good lathes or other tools of precision, and using only the common materials everywhere obtainable and workmanship of only average quality. In a six weeks’ course of 36 lectures the plan usually was to devote 15 lectures to Chemistry and 15 to Electricity, and the remaining six were apportioned to such subjects as Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Heat and Steam; and this only so far as to enable the students to understand some of the more obvious practical applications of these sciences. While space forbids any attempt to give a synopsis of the lectures on Chemistry and Electricity, a few words may not be out of place as illustrating the general line taken in connection with those subjects which were treated of more briefly: Lecture 1.—Pneumatics. Illustrated by the diving bell, of which a model was arranged capable of being raised and lowered by a crane, lit up inside with electric light, and, of course, supplied with air by a tube from an imaginary pumping engine. 4 Lecture 2.—Pneumatics (continued). Illustrated by the Forth Bridge, of which a drawing was shown and a description given as to its size and general method of construction, and then most of the lecture was devoted to a series of models illustrating the method of sinking the giant cylinders, and excavating for and building the foundations far below the water level and far below the river bed. All these operations, it was explained, necessitated the adoption of the plan of working with a high air pressure within the cylinders and the employment of the air-lock by which men and material could pass to and fro between the ordinary atmospheric pressure outside and the high pressure in the cylinder. Lecture 3.—Heat. Artificial ways of producing heat and cold. Ice made before the students by the evaporation of ether spray. Experiments to prove that solids, liquids and gases expand by heat and contract by cold and the many practical applications of these facts. Lecture 4.—Hydrostatics. Suction pump, force pump and fire engine—the last two illustrated by working models which acted perfectly, and in the construction of which the only things used were two glass syringes, an empty bottle (for the air chamber), india-rubber tubing, glass tubing, corks, india-rubber for valves, and the ex¬ penditure of about three hours’ time. Lecture 5.— Hydrostatics ( continued ). Hydraulic press, illustrated by a model, and then a description of how Robert Stephenson raised the tubes of the Menai Straits Tubular Bridge by means of two hydraulic presses, one standing on the top of each masonry pier, 130 ft. above the water level, each ram carrying an iron beam, from the ends of which hung chains by which the tubes were suspended. Each tube thus raised measuring 460 ft. long and weighing 1,500 tons. Lecture 6.—Steam. The boiling point of various liquids and their variation according to altitude above or below sea level. The relative volume of water and the same converted into steam. The con¬ struction of a steam boiler (illustrated by a model). Steam pressure shown by its power to balance a column of water or mercury. Vacuum produced by condensation of steam and its influence in the action of low pressure engine. Detail descrip¬ tion from a model of the construction and action of an ordinary steam engine and also of a turbine steam engine. 5 2. The Museum and its Contents. S regards the contents of the Museum the interest centres, 1 not so much in the number and quality of the pieces of apparatus gradually accumulated, as in the fact that with very few exceptions they have all been made in the place, and that place 1,500 miles from the coast—a far inland city in China. When the writer returned to China seven years ago it was with no expectation of doing any work of this kind, nor, indeed, of doing anything in the way of educational work, but simply the further prosecution of the two-fold work of preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, which as a medical missionary had occupied him during the previous 18 years. When the circumstances led to the commencing of this student work, the fact that no apparatus was available suggested the advisability of proceeding at once to make what was required rather than delay seven or eight months till such ordered from home could reach us in the interior, Three Chinese artisans were engaged—a joiner, a blacksmith and a tinsmith—and though not one of these men had ever seen any scientific apparatus they simply Avorked to instructions and sketches given and accomplished their part of the work very well indeed. From the city of Chungking, eight days distant, copper wire could be obtained drawn to any gauge required, and after some simple machines had been made for covering this wire with cotton, and two boys had acquired proficiency in working the machines, we were quite independent of outside sources as regards this sine qua non of electrical apparatus, insulated wire (except the finest gauge such as was used for secondary coils and telephones ; this we had to buy from England). These two boys (quondam patients) covered in all over ten miles, their piece-work wages for the same amounting to about a penny for 100 feet; and yet out of this they were able to pay for their board and make quite a little fortune ere they returned to their homes. The construction of this machine for insulating the wire can be seen from the print, where a disc carrying a reel of cotton thread is made by means of a driving wheel and belt to revolve on its own axis ; this axis is hollow and permits of the wire being slowly drawn through. When first made and used care was exercised to maintain an exact relation between the speed at which the driving wheel was worked by the one hand and the wire drawn through by the other. Subsequently it was found by the boys during the working of the machine that, provided a right 6 Joiner, Blacksmith and Tinsmith doing the preliminary work for the making of apparatus by the students. Machines for Insulating Copper Wire. Three of these machines were made for the covering of copper wire with cotton. 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