376 



NATURE 



[February 15, 1900 



its acme. It has taken 3000 years to mature this invention. 

 The alphabet we use to-day is a direct descendant of that first 

 Phfenician attempt to indicate the elementary sounds of speech 

 by letters. But what a change has occurred since the next great 

 invention in this direction — printing I The brain is now excited 

 by the publication of every new fact extracted from Nature's 

 storehouse. Inventions spring up like mushrooms. They are 

 published by the Press to the wl ole world at once. Innumerable 

 minds of all nations are thus set to work to utilise, develop and 

 improve them. Advance is rapid, and progress proceeds at a 

 compound interest rate. I said it took 3000 years to mature the 

 alphabet. It has taken 450 years to perfect printing, but sixty 

 years in our days have matured telegraphy and photography, 

 and only sixty months have been sufficient to apply Rontgen 

 rays to assist the physician to apply his gentle art to restore to 

 health the maimed and wounded. Such is the advantage of 

 publicity ! 



Why such marvellous constructive skill and scientific progress 

 should have been developed on the banks of the Euphrates and 

 the Nile on the old, and in Mexico and Peru on the new con- 

 tinent, so early in the history of the world, is a mystery of the 

 development of the mind that remains to be satisfactorily ex- 

 plained as much as the persistent conservatism of the negro and 

 the gipsy of the present day. The wicker hut depicted on 

 Egyptian bas reliefs 3000 years ago is the same dwelling-place 

 of the same race in the present day ! 



The luxurious, roomy, and well-warmed southern villa of their 

 Roman conquerors failed to commend itself permanently to the 

 mind of the unrefined ancient Briton. Nevertheless, the Roman 

 taught us the arch, showed us how to build a bridge, and left us 

 his straight and admirable road. The words arch, pont and 

 street remain in our languages historical memorials of those early 

 colonists. 



The rapid progress of modern engineering is phenomenal. 

 Practice grows by leaps and bounds. Take any form of energy 

 and examine its utilisation in any field of industry. Take only 

 one instance of the application of electricity. See how it comes 

 to the aid of the sailor ! It controls the rudder, it ventilates the 

 interior and the living space of the ship, it forces the draught 

 and assists the raising of steam, it revolves the turrets, it trains 

 and controls the guns, it handles the ammunition, it purifies the 

 drinking water, it lights up the ship internally, it enables the 

 captain to sweep the horizon with the brilliant rays of the 

 search-light, and to communicate with his tender, or with his 

 commanding officer across space independent of weather, night, 

 season, fog or rain. It would lengthen this address too much to 

 illustrate this point further. Light, sound, heat, chemism and 

 mechanics have been equally active in the service of man, and 

 have helped to specialise in many directions the functions of the 

 engineer. 



The Making of the Engineer. — It is idle to ignore the fact 

 that the modern engineer is the outcome of high-class and long- 

 sustained education, either imparted or self-acquired. Educa- 

 tion means generally the training of the intellectual, moral and 

 physical faculties of youth, but the education of the engineer 

 never ceases as long as he remains in active practice. I am 

 still in school, and rarely fail to acquire some new fact each day 

 of my life. The first foundation is clearly a broad, solid, general 

 education, not specialised in any way until the pupil has reached 

 the stage when he can work and think for himself. But from the 

 very earliest years — in fact, from infancy — I advocate the cultiva- 

 tion of the powers of observation, a systematic training of the 

 memory, and an encouragement of the exercise of thought. This 

 is, in reality, the scientific method. Many people advocate the 

 early teaching of science, but I do not. I advocate the collec- 

 tion and naming of plants, the love of animals and knowledge of 

 their habits, the observation and explanation of the daily occur- 

 rences in the house, the air and the ground. The fire, a candle, 

 the teapot, cooking, blacking b(Jots, the dewdrop, clouds, rain, 

 wind and storm, the ebb and flow of the tide, the performances 

 of tops and bicycles, familiarly explained, excite a love of 

 nature and of science, and train the mind to observe, to think 

 and to remember. Cramming the young mind with ill-digested 

 text-book science, illustrated by experiments that generally fail, 

 excites ridicule — the common accompaniment of ignorance. 



The engineer must be a scientific man. Science deals with 

 the facts of nature, their laws and their theory. The engineer 

 applies this knowledge to the uses of mankind. His practice 

 means the correct design and due execution of works. The 

 present President of the British Association, in his inaugural 



address delivered at Dover, drew no distinction between natural 

 knowledge (science) and applied science (engineering). His 

 illustrations to glorify the former were drawn from the triumphs 

 of the latter. Sciences are experimental, such as chemistry, 

 mechanics and physics, and observational, such as botany, 

 zoology geology, geography, astronomy, biology, &c. They 

 are very numerous, and, as engineering is only another term for 

 applied science, it is clear that an engineer would waste his time 

 in acquiring abstruse sciences that would be of no subsequent 

 use to him He must confine himself to those branches of 

 science which will be of service to him in his future career, so as 

 to enable him to apply them to living, industry and commerce. 

 Mathematics, the shorthand of thought and the purest form oi 

 logic, experiment, the handmaid of observation, measurement, 

 the instigator of accuracy and precision, and reasoning, the organ 

 of common sense, are the tools that shape his store of knowledge 

 which memory brings to his help when he has to practise what 

 he has learnt. The boy who has passed well through the ordi- 

 nary curriculum of school, and proceeds thence into a university, 

 from which he emerges as a young man not only well imbued 

 with the refining influences of literature and art, but with a well- 

 earned degree of science, is fully prepared to commence his 

 engineering training, and to enter the workshop or the drawing- 

 office, where alone he can acquire that combination of knowledge 

 and skill, and that training of the brain and the hand for mutual 

 aid which is called technical education. 



The Institution of Civil Engineers will now admit into their 

 body only those who can produce the certificate of such an edu- 

 cational career as I have indicated above, or who can pass an 

 examination which will give evidence of his possessing similar 

 qualifications. A scientific man can become an engineer only 

 when he has become an expeit through practice and experience. 

 It is not a question between science and practice ; it is a 

 question between science land rule of thumb. Practice is 

 always there, but rule of thumb means rule of error, until by 

 repeated failures rule of thumb becomes rule of right, which 

 means the victory of organised common sense. Organised 

 common sense is a very good term for science. Scientific men 

 talk nonsense when they observe differences between science and 

 practice, and so-called practical men act foolishly when they 

 ignore science, and assert that an ounce of practice is worth a 

 ton of theory. Practice based on true science means immediate 

 success and economy ; practice based on rule of thumb means 

 error, delay and excess of estimates. The engineer cannot 

 neglect the laws of nature, any more than the scientific man 

 can ignore the success of practice. The science of the Chair 

 has, however, often been obsolete or behind the day. The 

 professor is not sufficiently in touch with the industrial and 

 economical interests of the country. It happens that in my own 

 special branch of the profession practice has always l)een irv 

 advance of theory. The progress of telegraphy and telephony 

 owes nothing to the abstract scientific man. The fundamental 

 principles and natural facts that underlie the practice of electrical 

 engineering are the teachings of actual experience, and not the 

 results of laboratory research or professorial teaching. The 

 science is, however, now established, and those who are 

 academic students have the advantage of acquiring a knowledge 

 of facts and principles in the class-room before they commence 

 their practical career. Their path is thus much cleared and 

 their progress expedited. They start well equipped mentally to 

 grasp and comprehend the art of their profession. 



Smeaton, Watt, Telford, Stephenson, Fairbairn, Whitwortb, 

 and all our early engineers had to acquire their own natural 

 knowledge by their own individual investigations. They had to 

 seek out and determine first principles for themselves. All that 

 is now changed. The science of to-day is the science of the 

 Victorian era. The engineer is not now required to research as 

 much as his predecessors. There are now physical laboratories 

 where it can be done for him, but this must not tempt him to 

 lessen his enthusiasm in verifying the facts of nature by experi- 

 ment. Doubt must always be transformed to faith. 



The civil engineer of eminence has not only to know 

 thoroughly the science, but to conduct the practical operations 

 of his profession. The lives of human beings are entrusted to 

 his designs. People have faith in the safety of his ships, long 

 tunnels, bridges and railway trains. He is called upon to advise 

 on policy, to deal with commercial management, to act as arbi- 

 trator or judge in many important intricate judicial cases, and 

 to appear in courts of law and committee rooms of Parliament 

 as an expert witness. The mental qualities of the engineer 



NO. 1581, VOL. 61] 



