The Thesis examines the development of technical education from the Great Exhibition (1851). Against the background of educational thought and practice and working class demand for educational facilities, it shows how changing economic conditions rendered-the growth of technical education an urgent necessity. Expressed through such agencies as were provided by International exhibitions, the demand for technical education was articulated through middle and working class agencies and experimentally met through such educational agencies as Schools of Design. Intensified foreign competition indicated the need of this development and depression after 1873 intensified it. The Technical Education Act of 1889 has its origin in growing pressure thus engendered and represents an acceptance by Parliament of a need demonstrated through half a century of working class and middle class discussion and pressure.