September 19, 1895] 



NATURE 



D"-'0 



small transverse widtli (if llie piers in proportion to their height, 

 which were further weakened by Ijacl workmanship in the 

 bracing of their columns. The bursting of the Bouzey masonry 

 (lam in France this year must be attributed to an inadequate 

 thickness at part of the cross-section, producing a tensional 

 strain on the inner face with the reservoir full, aided by the 

 instability resulting from a fissured foundation. The overthrow 

 of the outer arms of the Madras breakwaters, during a cyclone 

 in 1S81, may be traced to an inadecjuate estimate of the force of 

 the waves in a storm, in deep water, and with a great fetch 

 across the Indian (Jcean, beating against the portions of the 

 breakwaters directly facing their course ; for these outer 

 portions, running nearly parallel to the coast-line, 

 were not made any stronger than the inner portions 

 placed at right angles to the shore and the direction of the waves, 

 and situated for the most ]iart in shallower water. The erosion 

 of the bed of the danges Canal on the first admission of the 

 water, necessitating the erection of weirs at intervals to check the 

 current, resulted from an error in the calculated discharge of the 

 channel with the given inclination, and the consequent undue 

 velocity of the stream, producing scour. The failure of the jetty 

 works at the outlet of the Rhone to efl'ect any permanent 

 deepening of the channel over the bar, was due to the unsuit- 

 able direction given to the outlet channel in view of the physical 

 conditions of the site, and the concentration of all the discharge, 

 and consequently all the alluvium carried down, into a single 

 mouth, whereby the rate of deposit in front of this outlet has 

 been considerably increased. The excessive cost, and conse- 

 quent stoppage, of the Panama Canal works, though due to a 

 variety of causes, must be partly attributed to want of due con- 

 sideration of the strata to be excavated ; for a cutting of 300 feet 

 in depth, which may be possible in rock, becomes impracticable 

 when a considerable portion has to be executed in very 

 treacherous clay. 



Occasionally failures of works may be attributed to excep- 

 tional causes or peculiarly unfavourable conditions ; but in most 

 cases, as in the instances given above, they are the result of 

 errors or deficiencies in design, which might have been avoided 

 by a more correct appreciation of the physical conditions 

 involved. 



Scientific Trainini^ of Engineers. — In most professions, pre- 

 liminary training in those branches of knowledge calculated to 

 fit a student for the exercise of his profession is considered indis- 

 pensably necessary ; and examinations to test the proficiency of 

 candidates have to be passed as a necessary qualification for 

 admission into the .Army, Isavy, Church, Civil Service, and both 

 branches of the law. Special care is taken in securing an 

 adequate preliminary training in the case of persons to whom the 

 health of individuals is to be entrusted, not merely by experience 

 in hospitals, but also by examinati(ms in those branches of 

 science and practice relating to medicine and surger)', before 

 the medical student can become a qualified practitioner. If 

 so much caution is exercised in protecting individuals from being 

 attended by doctors possessing insufficient knowledge of the 

 rudiments of their profession, how nuich more necessary should 

 it be to ensure that engineers are similarly qualified, to whom 

 the safety and well-being of the community, as well as large 

 responsibilities in regard to expenditure, are liable to be 

 entrusted ! The duty of the engineer is to apply the resources of 

 nature and science to the material benefit and progress of 

 mankind ; and it, therefore, seems irrational that no gtiarantee 

 should be provided that persons, before becoming engineers, 

 should acquire some knowledge of natural laws, and of the 

 principles of those sciences which form the basis of engineering. 

 The Institution of Civil Engineers has, indeed, of recent years 

 re<juired some evidence of young men having received a good 

 education before their admission into the stutlent class ; but some 

 of the examinations accepted as sufficient for studentship, such as 

 a degree in any British university, aftbrd no certainty in them- 

 selves that the persons who have piissed them possess any of the 

 qualifications requisite for an engineer : and it is quite unnecessary 

 to become a student of the Institution in order to become an 

 engineer. The Council of the Institution has no doubt been 

 hitherto deterred from proposing the establishment of an 

 examination in mathematics and natural science, as a necessary- 

 preliminary to becoming an engineer, by the remembrance that 

 some of the most distinguished engineers of early days in this 

 1 'luntry were self-taught men ; but since those days engineering 

 ind the sciences upon which it is based have made marvellous 

 idvances ; and in view of these developments, and the excellent 



theoretical training given to foreign engineers, it is essential that 

 British engineers, if they desire to retain their present |)osition in 

 the world, should arrange that the recniits to their profession 

 may be amply qualified at their entrance in theoretical know- 

 ledge, in order to preserve the standard attained, and to 

 be in a |X)sition to achieve further ]>rogress. No amount 

 of preliminary training will, indeed, necessarily secure 

 the success of an engineer, any more than the greatest pro- 

 ficiency would be certain to lead the medical student to renown 

 as a physician or sitrgeon ; but other conditions being equal, 

 it will greatly promote his prospects of advancement in his 

 profession, and his utility to his colleagues and the public. 

 The engineers of the past achieved great results in the 

 then early dawn of engineering knowledge, by sound common 

 sense, a ready grasp of first principles and of the essential points 

 of a question, capacity for acquiring knowledge, power of 

 managing men and impressing them with confidence, and 

 shrewdness in selecting competent assistants. These same 

 qualities are still needed for success in the present day, coupled 

 with an ojjportunity of exhibiting them ; but far more knowledge 

 of mathematics and other sciences is required now-, owing to the 

 enormous advances effected, if the progress of engineering science 

 is to be maintained. Even though in some branches, engineers 

 in large practice may not have the time, or retain the requisite 

 facility, for solving intricate mathematical problems, they should 

 be able readily to comprehend the full bearing of the principles 

 presented, and to understand the nature of the solutions put before 

 them, which nothing but the scientific faculty implanted by early 

 training in mathematics and physics can adequately secure. 



-A. qualifying examination for engineers would usefully stop 

 persons at the outset from entering the profession, who failed to 

 evince the possession of the requisite preliminary- knowledge : it 

 would indicate, by the subjects selected, the kind of training 

 best calculated to fit a person to become a useful engineer ; and 

 it would protect the public, as far as practicable, from the in- 

 juries or waste of money that might result from the mistakes of 

 ill-qualified engineers. 



Sfeciaiisini; in Engineering. — Some branches of engineering 

 have for a long time Ijcen kept distinct from others, such as the 

 construction of steam-engines, locomotives, and marine engines, 

 ship-building, hea\y ordnance, hydraulic machinery-, and other 

 purely mechanical works, one or more of which have been 

 treated as specialities by certain firms, and also gas lighting, 

 and, more recently, electric lighting. In the department, how- 

 ever, of civil engineering in its narrower signification, as distin- 

 guished from mechanical engineering, engineers of former 

 times were regarded as eepially cpialified to undertake any of 

 the branches of public wo^ks ; and the same engineer might 

 be entrusted with the execution of roads, railways, canals, har- 

 bours, docks, sewerage works, and waterworks ; while even 

 steamships were not excluded from the category in Brunei's 

 practice. The engineer of to-day, indeed, would be lacking 

 that important factor for success, common sense, if he declined 

 to execute any class of w orks which he might be asked to under- 

 take : and a variety of works is very useful to the engineer in 

 enlarging his views and experience, as well as in extending the 

 range of his practice. The tendency, however, now in 

 engineering, as in medicine, is for the engineer's practice to be 

 confined to the special branch in which he had had most 

 experience ; a result which cannot fail to be l>eneficial to the 

 public, and calculated to promote the progress of each branch. 

 The powers of the human mind are too limited, and life is too 

 short, for engineers to be able to acquire, in the present day, 

 equal proficiency in the theory and practice of the several 

 branches of engineering science, with their ever-widening .scojie 

 and development ; and, as in the domain of abstract science, 

 general progress will be best achieved in engineering science by 

 the concentration of the energies of engineers in the advancement 

 of their special line of practice. 



J'aine of Congresses on Special Branches of Engineering. — 

 The scope of engineering science is extending so fast that it is 

 impossible for the Institution of Civil Engineers, which, a.s the 

 parent society, embraces every branch within its range of 

 subjects, to give more than a very limited time for the con- 

 sideration and discussion of [lapers relating to the non- 

 mechanical branches of the profession comprised in public 

 works. Mechanical, electrical, and gas engineers have special 

 societies of their own for advancing their knowledge and 

 publishing their views and experience, while sharing equally 

 with the other branches in the benefits of the older Institution. 



NO. 1351, VOL. 52] 



