Item 79 - Letter from M. Cowie

College for Civil Engineers, Putney - Poncelet's Mecanique Industrielle forms the groundwork of my lectures: Willis's Principles of Mechanism (1841) is the class book of the course of machinery: De Pambour's Theory of the Steam Engine is generally too hard for the students at present but MC hopes they will eventually master it. Poncelet's mathematics is well suited to the present capacities of his students. The College suffers from the neglect of mathematics taught at school, therefore he wants to establish a school connected with the College to teach more mathematics.