Engineering by alienated design: The case of french‐speaking engineers in quebec

References

• Actually, the profession is just the most common social form of organization among engineers, but governmental or military corps also exist, as well as engineering unions under certain circumstances
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• Shinn , Terry . 1980 . L'École polytechnique , Paris : Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques . On this point, see
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• Weiss , John H. 1982 . The making of Technological Man, The Social origins of French Engineering Education , Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press .
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• Shinn , Terry . 1978 . “Des corps de l'État au secteur industriel ‐genèse de la profession d'ingénieur” . Revue française de sociologie , 19 : 39 – 71 .
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• The first program in engineering that existed for about ten years at McGill after 1852 was motivated by the desire to provide local talent to the growing railroad industry. Meiji Japan also provides a good example of this desire to acquire foreign technology better to resist foreigners
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• Chauveau , P.‐J.‐O. 1925 [1852] . “ Our emphasis. It shows that this question had been on the mind of Quebec's first Prime Minister for a long time. ” . In Charles Guérin , 14 Montréal : Librairie Beauchemin .
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• Joseph Clovis‐Kcmmer Laflamme (1849–1910) taught geology, mineralogy and physics at Laval University in Quebec City. He also worked with the Canadian Geological Commission and was one of the founding members of the Canadian Royal Society
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• 1881 . “ Rapport de M. l'Abbé Laflamme sur l'état actuel des sciences en Canada et sur les moyens de les faire progresser,” . In Fête nationale des Canadiens‐français, célébrée à Québec en 1880 , Québec : Imprimerie Côté & Cie . Our emphasis
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• L.‐P Audet La fondation de l'École Polytechnique de Montréal . 1965 . Cahiers des dix , 30 : 149 – 92 . The history of the foundation of the École Polytechnique has been described in rather different terms by
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• Gagnon , Robert . 1991 . Histoire de l'École polytechnique 1873–1990: la montée des ingénieurs francophones avec la collaboration spéciale de Armand J. Ross , Montréal : Boréal . In both cases, the initial difficulties of the Ecole Polytechnique are essentially treated as the growing pains of an institution that could not fail, while the evidence shows, on the contrary, that the Ecole Polytechnique had a very uncertain future for at least its first thirty years..Moreover, it is its very fragility and vulnerability that makes it an interesting topic as it illustrates well what “dominated” engineering means
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• This request was. transmitted on December 10th, 1868. Chauveau's answer was polite but noncommittal. See Archives Nationales du Québec, Département de l'Instruction Publique, Lettres reçues, E0013, Article 469, pièce 2919.
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• Gouvernement du Québec . 1872 . Documents de la Session , 6 Rapport du Ministre de l'Instruction publique, p viii. My emphasis
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• John William Dawson (1820–1899), a geologist of renown in the nineteenth century, was McGill's Principal for 38 years (1855–1893). Under his guidance, McGill became one of the best universities in North America. Based as it was in Montreal McGill's success underscored all the more dramatically the educational lag between French and English C anadians
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• journal , His . L'opinion publique, which has the visual appearance of L'Illustration France i.e. makes a generous use of pictures, is typical of this kind of Liberalism that avoids at all costs direct confrontations with the Church while promoting a generally Capitalistic vision of society
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• There is a bit of a joke in this latter phrase as the Conservative party in Canada, in its latest reincarnation, is actually called the “Progressive Conservative Party"!
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• Although French‐Canadian, Cartier spelled his first name without the “s”, English style
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• Labarrère‐Paulé , Andre . 1965 . Les irstituteurs laïques au Canada français, 1836–1900 , 337 – 41 . Québec : Presses de l'Université Laval . Interestingly, Jules‐Paul Tardivel (1851–1905) was born in Kentucky. He incarnated a strict ultramontane and conservative stance. Réticius, a brother of the Christian Schools was born in France and arrived in Canada in the 1870's, literally traumatized by Jules Ferry
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• Recall J.‐Charles Falardeau's: “Nous sommes un peuple qui a beaucoup de souvenirs mais bien peu de mémoire.” Here, Falardeau stigmatizes the nostalgie recalling of past anecdotes as a substitute for serious historical interpretation.
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• The Académie's large and impressive building was erected in the Neo‐Renaissance style at the spot where, nowadays, the Place des Arts stands. Not far away, the Christian Brothers built a competing schooL Mont Saint‐Louis about a decade later. Ironically, Mont Saint‐Louis later provided quite a few students for the École Polytechnique, especially after the First World War. It taughtmathematics and science at a higher level than the Collèges classiques
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• See the inauguration speech by Montreal's mayor, Coursol, Archives de la Société Historique de Montréal, Fonds Archambault, Boîte 1, chemise 3, “Fondation de l'Aradémie commerciale du Plateau et de l'École Polytechnique de Montréal.”
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• Schools in Quebec had to be affiliated with the Catholics or the Protestants. A lay school, in this context, simply means a school with lay teachers
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• The exact name of the new programme was “Cours scientifique et industriel”
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• As years went on, requirements to enter the École Polytechnique de Montréal varied. At first, students that opted for the Polytechnique program had to do so in the penultimate year of study, i.e. the seventh year
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• McGivern , James G. 1960 . “First Hundred Years of Engineering Education in the United States (1807–1907)” . Washington State University . An interesting summary of the situation of American Engineering can be found in, unpublished Ph. D. dissertation
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• See note 21
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• The “scandale des Tanneries” quickly forced Ouimet to resign as Prime Minister of Quebec. He pursued the remainder of his political career as superintendent of education for the province. In that role, he had many opportunities to help and protect the young and fragile institution from a wide variety of dangers.
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• 1874 . Documents de la Session , 8 : X N° 3
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• Archives de la Commission des Écoles catholiques de Montréal (CECM), Archives de l'Académie commerciale catholique . 1874 . “Résumé du discours de l'Honorable Ministre de l'Instruction Publique Gédéon Ouimet . 1 30–6 : 184 See also Ouimet's speech onjune 30th, 1874 at the Académie commerciale
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• 1967 . “Le Québec à l'Exposition universelle de Paris en 1878,” . Cahiers des dix , 32 : 12 – 55 . Archives de la Société historique de Montréal, Fonds U.‐E. Archambault, Boîte 1, chemise 6. In his article
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• 1883 . Le Monde (Montreal) , August 10 L.‐P. Audet expresses surprise about this judgement but the length of studies explains the European evaluation. Indirect evidence leading to the same conclusion is actually provided by Urgel‐Eugêne Archambault himself, then director of the École Polytechnique. Involved in a defense of the Academy a few year later, he wrote in the daily
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• Gidney , R. D. and Millar , W. P. J. 1990 . Inventing Secondary Education . The Rise of the High School in Nineteenth‐Century Ontario , 287 – 92 . Montreal : McGill‐Queen's University Press . “Sous la dénomination d'enseignement supérieur, l'on comprend généralement universitaire. Or, l'académie commerciale ne s'occupe pas d'enseignement universitaire; elle n'aborde pas même l'enseignement secondaire; c'est donc une école purement primaire, et c'est ainsi qu'elle a été classée à l'exposition universelle de 1878.... Le cours complet dans les autre écoles est de sept ans, il est de huit a l'École du Plateau.” With this statement, Archambault clearly shows that the École Polytechnique teaching program was the prolongation of a primary education. A useful context to this question is provided by
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• Charles‐Eugêne Boucher de Boucherville was Prime‐Minister between 1874 and 1878.‐ Under Church pressure, his government abolished the Ministry of Education that Chauveau had created barely a few years before
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• L'école scientifique et industrielle qui porte le nom “École polytechnique de Montréal,” sera désormais désignée sous ce nom et elle est placée sous le contrôle du surintendant de l'instruction publique, conformément au programme arrêté le 20 novembre 1873, entre le ministre de l'instruction publique et les commissaires d'écoles catholiques romains de la cité de Montréal;...” This law received royal assent on December 28, 1876 under the name 40 Viet, chap. 22.
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• 1992 . “Marginalité professionnelle et modèles déportés: le cas des ingénieurs francophones du Canada, 1867–1920,” . Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'Études canadiennes , : 21 – 43 . On the relationship between Polytechnique and professional structures, see my own
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• Millard , J. Rodney . 1988 . The Master Spirit of the the Age. Canadian Engineers and the politics of Professionalism , Toronto : University of Toronto Press .
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• The Montreal branch of Laval University was not yet created in 1872–3
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• In 1873, the Catholic‐Protestant opposition is more important than the linguistic boundary. For example, courses in English were given at the Académie commerciale as many students of Irish descent would choose to study in that school. In fact, the Irish were well represented at that time in the Catholic school board of Montreal, in particular thanks to the Murphy, family
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• Archives Nationales du Québec, Département de l'Instruction Publique, Lettres reçues, E0013, Article 469, pièce 2919
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• This article, probably inspired by McGill, appeared in several English‐language newspapers, in particular in the Gazette of december 21st, 1876, one week before royal assent
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• Ibid. Emphasis is mine
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• Archives de la CECM. Coupures de presse 1871–80. p. 65. The exact source of this article is not identified but it is clear that it has must have appeared at about the same time as the Gazette article quoted above. Brummagen ware refers to an old Birmingham expression referring to counterfeit coins struck in this city in the 17th century
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• Lettre d'Emile Vanier à UE. Archambault, Principal, le 9/11/1895. Arch. U. de M., D35/1244, pièce 4
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• Including some of the French‐speaking bourgeoisie like Forget who contributed to McGill's endowment, buit not to Polytechnique's
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• This is further developed in Guédon “Marginalité professionnelle...”. See note 30.
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• My former student, Paul Tourigny, who graduated from Polytechnique in the late forties, is my source on this point
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