THE STATUS OF AN ENGINEER 5 



referred to) : " In the first place, it is a very dangerous 

 thing for you to own any patents in your own line, no 

 matter how ingenious they are, if you are going to take to 

 consulting work. You cannot put a patent of your own in 

 your specifications, and you cannot use it at all without 

 disagreeable things being afterwards said. If you are 

 going to advise the use of things to other people, you cannot, 

 as professional men, advise the use of things out of which you 

 are going to make money ; and it is very undesirable, on many 

 grounds, therefore, that you should be the financial owners, or 

 the beneficial owners, of such patents. Of course, if you are 

 engineers to works, the matter may be different, although in 

 every case it requires to be definitely arranged with your 

 directors." 



5. Suggested rules of professional etiquette. A special 

 committee of the Institution of Civil Engineers suggested the 

 following rules for members in 1902 : 



1. No consulting engineer should solicit employment as 

 consulting engineer verbally, by letter, by agent paid by 

 commission or otherwise, or by any other means. 



2. No consulting engineer should answer advertisements 

 for consulting engineers. 



3. No consulting engineer should advertise for employment. 



4. No consulting engineer should pay by commission or 

 otherwise anyone who introduces clients. 



5. No consulting engineer should receive trade or other 

 discount, or surreptitious commissions or allowances in 

 connection with any works which he superintends. 



6. A consulting engineer who is also directly or indirectly 

 interested in any contracting or manufacturing business 

 should inform his client in writing what his connection is 

 with such contractor. (As to the origin of these rules, see 

 note in Preface.) 



Assuming that all these rules, which appear to follow 

 the lines suggested by Sir Alexander Kennedy, were to be 

 incorporated in the bye-laws of the Institution, they could 

 only be enforced as against members of that body. To other 

 engineers, the first three are mere suggestions for the 

 guidance of members of an honourable profession. The 

 last two rules above referred to are in quite a different 

 category. With regard to (5), an engineer acting in 



