Royal Engineers

“ Some of these latter had family ties besides their considerable positions, but they gladly hastened to place their valuable services at the disposal of their Queen, and, in conjunction with the regular Royal Engineers, were destined to find glory, and in many cases death, at their perilous work. The task of the engineers is probably scarcely realized by people who have not seen actual warfare. ”

“ But apart from such carefully prepared devices the men of the Royal Engineers are past masters in the art of rigging up, according to the conditions of the moment, all sorts of makeshift apparatus whereby signalling over quite long ranges can be carried on by "wireless." ”

“ In 1755, the French engineers were formed into one corps, under the name of the royal corps of artillery and engineers; the principal officers of which communicated with the secretary of war, and received through him the king’s orders.
No country has ever paid so much attention to the art of engineering, as France has under all her vicissitudes ”

“ In 1888 he was a vice-president of the mechanical science section of the British Association, before which he read two papers, in 1887 on ‘The Improvement of the Access to the Mersey Ports,’ and in 1885 on ‘Some Points for the Consideration of English Engineers with Reference to the Design of Girder Bridges.’ He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical and other societies, and served upon the engineering standards committee as a representative of the crown agents for the colonies. ”

“ Engineers, the Corps of Royal, in the British army, instituted in 1763, consists of about 900 officers and 5000 non-commissioned officers and men, usually recruited from skilled artisans; their duties comprise the undertaking of all engineering operations necessary in the conduct of war, e. ”

“ The prestige of the Engineer Corps, upheld by the good work of the civil engineers, would have carried them through any crisis, if the latter class had seriously cared to continue the partnership longer, and if the scientific world had approved of so unequal a distribution of rewards as prevailed there. ”

“ The original function of the engineer, especially in the first days of his systematic training, was to deal scientifically with purely mechanical problems. Thus the oft quoted definition of the British Institution of Civil Engineers that “Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man” reveals quite clearly the legitimate field within which the engineer was supposed to operate. He was to harness the untamed energies of nature. ”

“ His foot once upon the ladder, the ascent is easy. There is only one more examination to pass compulsorily, that of chief engineer, although there is, as in the seafaring branch, a voluntary examination which all self-respecting engineers will take, "Chief Engineer Extra." Now he may rise to be chief engineer of the Oceanic or the Lucania, with twenty or thirty engineers under him, and a whole host of firemen and trimmers. ”

“ The annual report of Major-General William Black, chief of engineers, which was made public in December, stated that almost a billion would be needed for engineering work in France in 1919, if the work then in progress were to be concluded satisfactorily. ”

“ The chief engineer in charge of the erection of a bridge far from civilisation is a little king, for it is necessary for him to have the power of an absolute monarch over his army of workmen, which is often composed of many different races.
With so many thousand tons of steel and stone dumped on the ground at the bridge site, with a small force of expert workmen and a greater number of unskilled labourers, in spite of bad weather, floods, or fearful heat, the constructing engineer is expected to finish the work within the specified time, and yet it must withstand the most exacting tests. ”

“ Harry, don't you long to do some of the big things that are done by engineers? Don't you want to get into the real—-the big performances of our profession?"
"Of course," nodded Hazelton. "For that reason, aren't we doubly wasting our time here?"
"That's just as it turns out," Reade went on, with a vehemence that astonished his chum. "Harry, what's our office address? Where are our assistant engineers—-where our draftsmen? Where are our foremen that we could summon to great undertakings? Where is the costly equipment that we would need as a firm of really great engineers? ”

“ The men who have made electricity the handmaid of industry are nearly as widespread as the subtle force with which they have had to deal. The United Kingdom was the birth-place of the monarch of modern machinery—the steam-engine,—and also of the leading inventions in metallurgy which supply the framework of all our manufacturing machinery; but the pioneers and engineers of electricity have been of different nations and tongues. ”

“ Of late years the profession of engineering has called to the youth of the land with an almost irresistible voice. The development of steam and gasoline engines, of the electric current, and of a welter of machinery called for engineers. The specialization of engineering practice into production, chemical, industrial, municipal, efficiency, mining, construction, concrete, drainage, irrigation, landscape, and other phases, has still further increased the demand. ”

“ There is still a great scarcity of engineers. All branches feel the need—civil, mechanical, mining, chemical, automotive, electrical—the call goes out. It is a call just now, owing to the vast reconstruction period confronting the world, lifted in strident voice. ”

“ Then by the following steamers there would, it is stated, be despatched in succession an inspector of telegraphs, an engineer for making gas, an engineer to be charged with the fabrication of the iron way, an agriculturist-in-chief, a scientific commission for geology, mineralogy, meteorology, and natural history in general. And attached to all the engineers will come—or now long since should have come—the conductors of works and special masters of men, who are joined with them in their operations. ”

“ In recognition of the services which he rendered to the cause of mechanical science generally, and to this Institution in particular, he was presented with his bust at a conversazione held in the Corporation Galleries on 19th August, 1870, when the North of England Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers held a series of joint meetings with the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. ”

“ These men, for the most part, are engineers embracing all branches of the profession, and each is a man especially well qualified to serve in his branch. In a way he is a specialist. He may represent a giant structural organization, or a machine-tool manufacturer, or an electric-lighting and power concern—any one of the many fields of industrial enterprises whose product is needed to place demoralized France and Belgium back upon a productive basis. ”

“ The assignments of the few military engineers, who joined the Southern army at the commencement of the war, to duty with troops, has been a serious drawback to the engineer service, which has therefore been performed in a great measure by civil engineers, who have been appointed from time to time in the corps. ”

“ Then coal has to be brought from the bunkers to the furnaces, tons of it per day, and if the ship rolls too much for the barrows to be used, the fuel must be carried in baskets.
There is an engineer in charge of each stoke hole, and two on the platform in each engine room; as a rule, the staff are on duty in turns—four hours out of every twelve. But if the weather be bad they may have harder times.
No matter how hot the machinery becomes, the engineers must not reduce speed, except it be to prevent disaster. ”

“ The Engineer-in-Chief is a man whose duties have developed enormously during recent years. The telegraph and the telephone demand mechanical genius and considerable scientific attainments. A huge army of engineers is maintained to keep the telegraph and telephone plant in proper condition, and to organise new lines. The position of Engineer-in-Chief has been held by Sir William Preece and Sir John Gavey, and both men have big reputations in the scientific world. Sir William Preece has done much to popularise the knowledge of the working of electricity by his writings. ”

“ The officers of the engineer corps have the execution and care of structural works, docks and dock-yards, fortifications, military roads, and barracks, in addition to the ordinary military duties. One captain of engineers fills the office of hydraulic engineer to the Admiralty, and to his superintendence is intrusted the construction and repairs of all the docks, buildings, and other public works. ”

“ The consequence was that the demand for engineering surveyors and assistants was very great. Engineering was considered to be the only profession where immense wealth and fame were to be acquired, and consequently everybody [295] became engineers. It was not the question whether they were educated for it, or competent to undertake it, but simply whether any person chose to dub himself engineer; hence, lawyers’ clerks, surgeons’ apprentices, merchants, tradesmen, officers in the army and navy, private gentlemen, left their professions and became engineers ”

“ For when the construction period is over with there will be need for machine-tools and equipment for operating these tools, such as engines and boilers and motors, all of which come properly under the head of engineering productive enterprises.
Engineers—especially American engineers—will be in great demand, as they are already. ”

“ It was the business of this officer to superintend the construction of all sorts of military works, having several subordinate engineers under him to assist and put his plans into execution. In order to make some distinction between the man of skill and genius, and the mere pretenders to knowlege in this great branch of military acquirements, it was usual, during the monarchy of France, to call all engineers that were acknowleged by government, ingenieurs ordinaires du roi, engineers in ordinary to the king. ”

“ In the mines, the mills, the quarries, the foundry, the machine-shop, the pattern-shop, the drafting-room, the engineering offices, the consulting divisions—all these, necessitating as they do the employment of one or more engineers in at least a supervising capacity, will have urgent need for his services. Constructive work always, he will grow as his work grows, and because the growth of his work under these abnormal conditions will be of itself abnormal, his own growth under these conditions will be abnormal. He will find himself a full engineer before his rightful time. ”

“ But the development of engineering-works in America has been effected successfully by American engineers only because they have appreciated another side of the problem presented to them. A past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a man of rare judgment and remarkable executive ability, the late Ashbel Welch, said, in discussing a great undertaking proposed by an eminent Frenchman: "That is the best engineering, not which makes the most splendid, or even the most perfect, work, but that which makes a work that answers the purpose well, at the least cost." ”

“ Those men who became familiar with the natural sciences, and also with the shop methods of making machinery, and who brought both to bear on the problem of the production of machinery for specified conditions, combining the special knowledge of the scientist and the shop mechanic, were the first mechanical engineers; and the profession of mechanical engineering, which is the term applied to this sort of business, was created out of the efforts to improve power systems, so as to make them more efficient and adapted to all classes of service, and to render that service for the least cost. ”

“ The services of erecting engines, operating engineers, supervising engineers—known more properly as industrial engineers—following, as the need will, close upon the heels of the constructing and selling men—will keep the many branches alive and in foreign trade for much more than a decade—or so it seems to the writer. Other nations may, of course, whip into the field and in time crowd out the more distant—meaning American—engineers and engineering products. ”

“ The duties of an engineer are of much more importance and require a better knowledge of the operating of machinery than is generally understood. The responsibilities that rest upon him are very great; this applies to all engineers, but more especially to inexperienced men who take charge of small plants or farm engines, whose knowledge of machinery and the dangers connected with the improper handling of it, is limited. The proper management of boilers and engines is of as vital importance to prevent accident as their proper construction ”

“ The Chief Engineer is assisted by the Assistant Chief Engineer, who considers and reports upon all engineering questions submitted for final action. The Assistant Chief Engineers have charge of the designs of the locks, dams, and spillways, and the supervision of these particular parts of the work. There is also attached to the Chief Engineer an assistant who looks after mechanical forces on the Isthmus, and has supervision over the22 machine shops, the cost-keeping branch of the work, the apportionment of appropriations, and the preparation of the estimates. ”

“ As a thought, it probably reflected the secret opinion of every engineer present, for, however innocent of intended wrong-doing engineers assuredly are as a group in their work of scientific investigation and development, the statement that engineers2 were responsible for the conflict then raging in Europe was absolute truth. ”

“ Subordinate to him are the Superintending Engineers, who may either have general charge of all the public works of a large district, or, as is more generally the case, are in special charge of some large work, such as a Canal or a Railway. Under the superintending engineers are the Executive Engineers, who are, in effect, the working units of the system. ”