566 CIVIL ENGINEERING 



civil engineering. Not only must the would-be engineer study the 

 various pure and applied sciences and learn a great mass of tech- 

 nical facts; but he must also have in advance of all this instruction 

 a broad, general education -- the broader the better, provided 

 that no time be wasted on useless studies, such as the dead lan- 

 guages. 



The science of education is so important a subject for civil en- 

 gineers that all members of the profession in North America, more 

 especially those of high rank, ought to take the deepest interest 

 in the development of engineering education, primarily by join- 

 ing the special society organized for its promotion, and afterwards 

 by devoting some of their working time to aid this society in ac- 

 complishing its most praiseworthy objects. 



The science of economics and that of civil engineering are, or 

 ought to be, in the closest possible touch; for true economy in 

 design and construction is one of the most important features of 

 modern engineering. Every high-class engineer must be a true 

 economist in all the professional work that he does, for unless one 

 be such, it is impossible to-day for him to rise above mediocrity. 



True economy in engineering consists in always designing and build- 

 ing structures, machines, and other constructions so that, while they 

 will perform satisfactorily in every way all the functions for which 

 they are required, the sum of their first cost and the equivalent 

 capitalized cost for their maintenance, operation, and repairs shall 

 be a minimum. The ordinary notion that the structure or machine 

 which is least in first cost must be the most economical is a fallacy. 

 In fact, in many cases, just the opposite is true, the structure or 

 machine involving the largest first cost being often the cheapest. 



Economics as a science should be taught thoroughly to the stu- 

 dent in the technical school, then economy in all his early work 

 should be drilled into him by his superiors during his novitiate in 

 the profession, so that when he reaches the stage where he designs 

 and builds independently, his constructions will invariably be 

 models of true economy. 



It has been stated that the relations between civil engineering 

 and many of the pure sciences are very intimate, that the various 

 branches of engineering, although becoming constantly more and 

 more specialized, are so interdependent and so closely connected 

 that they cannot be separated in important constructions, that 

 the more data the pure scientists furnish the engineers the better 

 it is for both parties, and that a broad, general knowledge of many 

 of the sciences, both pure and applied, is essential to great success 

 in the engineering profession. 



Such being the case, the question arises as to what can be done 

 to foster a still closer affiliation between engineering and the other 



