Civil engineering

“ But while I point to the conduct of irrigation, and to hydraulic engineering as one prominent field for the Indian engineer, yet it is by no means the only one. The line which separates architecture from Civil Engineering is but indistinctly drawn. Indeed, in all structural work the combined skill of both branches is essential to perfection. Without a considerable amount of engineering knowledge the architect will find himself in constant difficulty, while a shapelessness and absence of all grace in the outlines will mark the works of an engineer devoid of architectural skill and taste. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the ordinary way the term civil engineering is not used in the technical sense explained above, but is the name given to one of the sections into which the whole group is divided. The 'civil' engineer undertakes the design and erection of constructional works, such as harbours, docks, railways, buildings, bridges, &c. A person entering the profession of civil engineering usually receives a technical education at a technical school, or at a university, and then enters the office of a practising civil engineer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A complete discussion of the century’s progress in civil engineering would require a treatise on all modern practice as well as a description of nearly all of the great engineering masterpieces in existence, but the limitations of this article utterly preclude the possibility of even a short discussion of all the branches of the science, to say nothing of a detailed description of all of the examples. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These noble words seem to anticipate the famous definition of civil engineering, embodied by Telford in the charter of the British Institution of Civil Engineers: “Engineering is the art of controlling the great powers of nature for the use and convenience of man.”
The seed sown by Bacon was long in producing fruit. Until the laws of nature were better known, there could be no practical application of them. Towards the end of the eighteenth century a great intellectual revival took place. In literature appeared Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Hume, and Goethe. ”

“ Civil engineering is another subject of importance, the advantages of which, as a profession, are gradually becoming known to the natives of India; and while we are inclined to believe that instruction of a practical nature, such as is given at the Thomason College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee, is far more useful than any lectures could possibly be, professorships of civil engineering might perhaps be attached to the universities, and degrees in civil engineering be included in their general scheme. ”

“ They wish here to acknowledge, therefore, the help secured from many engineers and contractors, from the volumes of Engineering News, Engineering Record and Engineering-Contracting, and from the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the proceedings and papers of various other civil engineering societies and organizations of concrete workers. The work done by these journals and societies in gathering and publishing information on concrete construction is of great and enduring value and deserves full acknowledgment. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Includes The history of a word will sometimes supply the key to the gradual development of an art. “Engineering” was originally used to describe a mere branch of military science, the construction of fortifications and the trenching and sapping needed for their capture. Then about a century and a half ago the use of the phrase “civil engineering” came into use to indicate the broadening of the engineer’s functions to civil pursuits, but even then it served for a long time chiefly to describe surveying, road-making and bridge building. ”

“ To give students training in the fundamentals of civil engineering, so that they may qualify for employment in any of the lines of work above mentioned, a problem in municipal engineering is used, providing much of the instruction of Junior and Senior years. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Another great department bearing on a multitude of industries, directly and indirectly, is Civil Engineering. Take one among the fields of its activity. We have in the United States about seventy thousand miles of railway, and every year thousands of miles are added. I do not at all exaggerate when I say that millions on millions of dollars are lost every year by the employment of half-educated engineers. ”

“ But it will be shown that even in these cases there has been an enormous advance, not only in the character and magnitude of the work done, but also in another feature of civil engineering which is frequently overlooked, namely, the economy of labor and material. Civil engineering has been defined as the art of doing well with one dollar what any bungler can do somehow with two dollars. ”

“ In the faculty of Civil Engineering, I confess I have been surprised that so small a number comparatively appear for degrees therein. In a country where from its climate and its circumstances, engineering knowledge is essential to the management with profit and safety of almost every farm where the one problem of the cul- tivator is how to economise, and how best to utilise the essential fertilising element of water ”

“ No other branch so overlaps the other branches as does mechanical engineering. The work of the mechanical engineer is seen in almost every piece of construction reared by the civil man, just as it is seen in every bit of construction work of the mining and the electrical engineers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nor will any one branch be occupied to the exclusion of any other branch or branches. Civil and structural engineers will, as a matter of course, have the first call; but with the work of these men well under way—consisting of the reconstruction of towns and cities—mechanical and electrical men will necessarily be called upon, with, no doubt, liberal demand for mining engineers. Each branch will have its place and serve its usefulness in the order as the reconstruction work itself will fall, with the result that all branches of the profession will be busily occupied. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So rapid has been the development that, out of the earlier comprehensive type of engineering, to-day dozens of specialized types of engineering education and specialization have been evolved, covering such related fields as civil, mechanical, mining, metallurgical, electrical, architectural, chemical, electro-chemical, marine, naval, sanitary, biological, and public-health engineering. ”

“ His essay is in every way worthy of the attention of civil engineers and architects.
Engineering Construction. By J. E. Shields, C. E. New York: Van Nostrand. Pp. 138. Price, $1.50.
The four general heads under which the author of this work distributes his subject matter are: "Foundations," "Masonry," "Tunnels," and "Engineering Geodesy." His aim is to expound the true principles of construction, as ascertained by the highest authorities in that branch of science; but no theory, he assures us, is here set forth which has not received confirmation from practical test. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ Food and Water; Industrial; Medical and Pharmaceutical; Sugar.
CIVIL ENGINEERING
5A Unclassified and Structural Engineering.
5B Materials and Mechanics of Construction, including; Cement and Concrete; Excavation and Earthwork; Foundations; Masonry.
5C Railroads; Surveying.
5D Dams; Hydraulic Engineering; Pumping and Hydraulics; Irrigation Engineering; River and Harbor Engineering; Water Supply.
5E Highways; Municipal Engineering; Sanitary Engineering; Water Supply. Forestry. Horticulture, Botany and Landscape Gardening. ”

“ 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. ”