Civil engineer

“ Sometimes one group will lap over upon another group, in certain kinds of construction work, but even then the branches will hold sharply each to its own.
Civil engineering embraces, roughly, all work in the soil. The surveyor is a civil engineer. ”

“ The real object of the civil engineer is to promote the civilization of the world, by the proper application of all the great mechanical means at his command, and to take a high, independent position as a scientific man, thoroughly versed in his profession both theoretically and practically, and wholly independent of contractors, and all sinister influences. ”

“ We have a degree of civil engineer, regarded in its narrowest sense, of mining engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and by necessity it would seem as if we should shortly add some particular title to designate the engineer who flies. ”

“ I repeat, then, that an engineer who has studied only one department cannot be termed properly educated. And the question arises, what is the best mode of education for a pupil to obtain this multifarious, and, as I contend, absolutely necessary, information, to enable him to practise the profession of a civil engineer in the most enlightened, scientific, and practical manner? ”

“ By this means, if he [436] applies his mind to it properly, he may become a practical as well as theoretical mechanician, which is the soundest basis for good engineering; indeed, without this it is impossible for an engineer to be thoroughly successful, but being well grounded in this most important knowledge, all the others will become comparatively easy. Having gone through this apprenticeship, let him bind himself for three or four years to some well-known civil engineer, of large practice in railways, docks, harbours, waterworks, canals, drainage, rivers, &c. ”

“ As he is called upon to construct lines of transport, both underground and on the surface, works for water-supply and drainage, and buildings for the handling, storage and treatment of ore, he must be trained to some extent as a civil engineer. As a foundation his education must be thorough in the natural and physical sciences and mathematics. In addition there have been established in many countries schools for the education of workmen, in order to fit them for minor positions and to enable them to work intelligently with the engineers. ”

“ No matter in which branch a man may go, always he will find evidence of the presence some time of the mechanical engineer. The mechanical engineer dominates all the other branches,37 as has been said before. He is given second place in the order of the branches merely because the civil engineer happened to be the first and oldest kind of engineer to be given recognition as a profession. ”

“ The mining engineer needed, in addition to a knowledge of railway and mechanical engineering, the information requisite for sinking shafts, draining workings, excavating and raising minerals, and preparing them for market.
Mr. Fowler then turned to the preparation required by a civil engineer to enable him to perform his work efficiently. This he classed under four heads: (1) General instruction, or a liberal education; (2) special education as a preparation for technical knowledge; (3) technical knowledge; (4) preparation for conducting practical works. ”

“ Sheerness docks were finished altogether in the year 1826, and they have stood ever since.
I believe that I have now enumerated all the chief points to which the education of a civil engineer should be directed. Whilst he continues in an engineer’s office, whatever business is brought before him, he should always endeavour to thoroughly understand the reasons for which such and such a work is proposed to be made, and the principles upon which it is to be constructed ”

“ 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 City Engineer shall be in charge of the department engineering work of the City, and shall perform such services in connection with public improvements, or any work entered upon or protected by the City, or any department thereof, as may require the skill and experience of a civil engineer. ”

“ I asked myself what out-of-door employment is there in which I can profit by the education I have had. I decided that civil engineering gave the best promise of fulfilling that condition. Fortunately some of my friends knew Mr. E. S. Chesboro, a former resident of Providence, and then City Engineer of Boston. ”

“ The diversity of the mechanical work around a refinery is remarkable, and the engineer in charge must be a man of exceptional mechanical ability, as his duties include not only steam, electrical and civil engineering, but construction engineering of an advanced character. ”

“ No sooner had he qualified as civil engineer than he entered into some engineering contracts on his own behalf. His practice, modest and unassuming at first, grew gradually and unobtrusively into an extensive business. ”

“ The term ‘Consulting Engineer’ is a very vague one, and in practice has been too much used to mean a man who for a consideration sells his name, but nothing more. Now I never connect myself with an engineering work except as the Directing Engineer, who, under the Directors, has the sole responsibility and control of the engineering, and is therefore ‘The Engineer;’ and I have always objected to the term ‘Consulting Engineer.’ ...
In a railway the only works to be constructed are engineering works, and there can really be only one engineer ”

“ As the result we now have almost as many kinds of engineers as there are classes of industry. There is the civil engineer, the mining engineer, the construction, the irrigation, the drainage, the sewage disposal, the gas production, the hydraulic, the chemical, the electrical, the mechanical, the industrial, the efficiency, the production, the illuminating, the automobile, the aeroplane, the marine, the submarine, and who knows how many other kinds. Indeed, there are also social engineers, merchandising engineers, advertising engineers, and even religious engineers. ”

“ These reports are published in their ‘Transactions.’ Subsequent presidents have to some extent adopted a similar course; but with all due respect to them, they have not taken that large and scientific view of the profession of a civil engineer which it is imperatively necessary to adopt in order to keep the profession up to that high tone which its importance requires, not only for its own credit, but for the benefit of the world at large. Perhaps there is no profession (with all proper respect to others) that has conferred so much benefit upon mankind as that of the civil engineer. ”

“ This making of a choice is a momentous thing in a prospective engineer's life. It should be approached with all caution, and with due regard for the nature of the life he would lead after graduating from school. If he have a penchant for outdoor life, then the32 choice, in a way, is easy. He should select mining or civil engineering as his particular vocation. If he be of those who prefer to remain more or less indoors in the practice of his profession, mechanical or electrical engineering should be his choice. ”

“ He had done the social stunt, but he picked the fruit before it was ripe, and now it's hurting him inside.
He flew his kite in the rain!
He decided he would make good by being a civil engineer. He wanted to be a civil engineer right away, but when he started in he found that the first stages of civil engineering consisted in carrying a chain and a rod up and down hill in the heat and taking orders from a smart chap who looked through a telescope and made notes, so within a few days he quit ”

“ If you deliver this to the wife or the brother-in-law, tell them that the papers are very valuable and that they must not be given to anyone but Mr. Carson.”
“Yes, sir,” replied the young civil engineer. And to make sure of the names he put them down in the notebook he carried. ”

“ A youth leaves school about the age of seventeen or eighteen, without any previous training, and his parents, thinking that he has got a mechanical turn, as it is termed, decide at once to make him a civil engineer, whether he likes it or is fit for it or not. They then send him, with a considerable premium, to an engineer of some standing and practice, who, unless special conditions are made (and very few engineers will make them) , will not undertake to teach him the profession. ”

“ If he is a civil engineer, he may be required to determine the appliances to be used, and to order the work of large gangs of men in the shifting of thousands of cubic yards of earth or rock in cutting, dam, or embankment, and it has to be done to leave a margin of profit. ”

“ In reality there should be but two classes of engineers, and the distinction should be drawn only between civil engineers and military engineers. As a matter of fact, fate and inclination determine the specialty that a man takes up after his preliminary training, and so far as the degrees are concerned, the only one that has any right to carry weight, because it is a measure of accomplishment, is that which is granted by this Society to its corporate members. ”

“ We know that the larger requirements of modern Engineering demand that its practice should be classified237 under distinct branches, such as harbours, navigations, water works, gas works, lighthouses, or railways, not to mention electrical and sanitary engineering, and other branches of modern growth, all of which cannot possibly be advantageously practised by any one member of the profession; for no one mind can grasp the theoretical knowledge, and no one life can compass the practical experience, to enable a man to attain eminence in all these departments of modern Engineering. ”

“ For, in the simplest branch of construction, rules may be followed literally without any security as to the result. There is hardly a branch of engineering that could have been selected which in its present state is less capable of being made the subject of fixed laws or instructions than the application of iron to railway structures, and certainly there is no branch in which there is more room for improvement, or which offers so many different channels or directions for that improvement. ”

“ If during his pupilage he has made but little progress, nothing beyond mere routine, he is discharged with a certificate according to his merits, and sent into the world, to find his way forward as best he can.
Now it should be understood that the pupil only learns one part of his business, such as the construction of railways, canals, improvement of rivers, docks, drainage, harbours, and waterworks, and the buildings connected with them; but there is another and very important part of civil engineering, namely, the mechanical department, of which he remains totally ignorant. ”

“ The Superintendent of the Road has complete charge of the road-bed, superstructure, bridging, masonry, and buildings; also all removals, enlargements, and alterations. He should be a thorough civil engineer, able in every respect to build a railroad from beginning to end.
The Superintendent of Machinery has charge of the purchase, inspection, repair, and operating of all of the rolling and fixed machinery, of shops, engine houses, turntables, tanks, and weigh scales. He is responsible for the good condition, proper adaptation and efficiency of the entire equipment of engines and cars. ”

“ 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 ”

“ This was drawn up by a civil and mechanical engineer, which is a big-drum kind of title, and I should think covered corkscrews and manufacturing machinery, and everything else under the sun that can be handled at any time, including a 6-inch drain, the Forth Bridge, and the Channel Tunnel thrown in. It's too much, it seems to me, for one man to completely understand; and I once heard a celebrated engineer say that, with a few brilliant exceptions, such a man knew thoroughly neither civil nor mechanical engineering‌—‌life was too short. ”

“ The Civil Engineering course is planned to prepare young men for municipal engineering work, highway work, construction work, or work in the general field of scientific management. Because of the temporary slowing down of work in the civil engineering field, during recent years, streets, highways, water supply and sewage disposal systems, bridges, etc. have become seriously run-down or inadequate. Trained young men will be needed in the near future to take part in the repair, replacement, or enlargement of these necessities. ”

“ No longer are such labours classified and grouped in one field, called Civil Engineering, but they have been necessarily divided into great additional new and independent fields, known as Steam Engineering, Mining Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Marine Engineering. Within each of these fields are assembled innumerable appliances which are the offspring of the inventive genius of the century just closed. ”