The course consists of,—
1. The nature and construction of case.
2. Mode of mooring.
3. Mode of arranging and laying insulated cables.
4. Mode of testing fuzes, also testing cables for conductivity and insulation and for the detection of faults.
5. Modes of firing at will and by self-acting arrangements.
[PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION FOR COMMISSIONED OFFICERS]
[HISTORICAL NOTICE.]
Although examinations preparatory to promotion had been instituted by the Duke of Wellington in 1850, no attempt was made to provide any general machinery for affording to officers of the army means of instruction, even in those subjects a knowledge of which was by the regulations of the service required of them. The Department of Artillery studies at Woolwich, originally instituted on a small scale in 1850, and the Royal Engineer Establishment at Chatham, supplied to the officers of the scientific corps, though to a much more limited extent than at the present day, opportunities of carrying on their professional studies after entering the army. But to officers of other branches of the service no means of instruction were afforded in any subjects beyond the mere routine of drill and regimental duties, except by the Senior Department at Sandhurst and the School of Musketry at Hythe. The state of the former institution, the advantages of which extended only to a very small proportion of the officers of the army, is described in the accounts of the Royal Military College and of the Staff College. The school at Hythe was first established in the year 1853, for the purpose of training a certain number of officers and soldiers in the new system of musketry, which was adopted on the introduction of rifled arms into the service.