In the third year students chose a specialization in a particular branch of engineering: mechanics, construction or metallurgy. Additionally, they received a special assignment to be completed during their holidays. The students carried out experiments and practical exercises and began working on projects. In the second year, subjects included applied mechanics, machine construction, analytical chemistry, metallurgy, geology and exploitation, public works and architecture and “industrial physics”.
They also applied themselves to experiments in chemistry, physics, machine design, construction and drawing. Ģ In the first year, students studied general subjects such as descriptive geometry, geometrical analysis, general mechanics, general chemistry, natural history and movement transmission 4. 5 These annuaires are to be found in the library of the École centrale des arts et manufactures.4 Programme of the year 1850, École centrale des arts et manufactures.Studies at the École lasted for three years, and only those who succeeded in all stages of evaluation received an engineer’s diploma the less successful merely obtained a certificate.
To attend the École centrale, candidates had to pass an exam that often required intensive preparation in special institutions or the help of a tutor, increasing costs for the young students’ families. The school was created and owned by private investors led by Alphonse Lavallée, but after the owners offered it to the French state in 1857 it became one of the top public engineering schools not only in France, but the world. At the same time, and unlike the English engineering tradition that the founders claimed to admire, the institution was to provide the kind of top-level scientific education that characterized the highest echelons of French engineering education of that time, referred to and imitated across the world 3.
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