186 Transavtioks of the American Institute. 



compelled liini to telegrapli, in Gen. Lew Wallace's name, to Cincin- 

 nati, asking how many regular troops were in that city. Morgan 

 read by " sound," and, therefore, the operator did not dare to intimate 

 that he M'as under duress, and could only venture to add an extra 

 initial to his own signature. The receiving operator at Cincinnati 

 knew that Morgan was in that neighborhood, and suspecting, from the 

 extra initial letter, that all was not right, replied, greatly exaggerating 

 the force of regulars ; and the consequence was that Morgan changed 

 his route to a circuit of twenty miles beyond the city, and thus saved 

 it from a sack, and the prol)able loss of millions of dollars. 



Ancient and Modern Engineering Compared. 



The consideration of the subject requires me to contrast modern 

 engineering with that of former times. In the early ages the duties 

 of the architect and engineer were combined, and we must refer to 

 the works executed by the former for the practical exanqiles of the 

 latter. One of the results of a high degree of civilization is the 

 division of labor, by which a greater perfection is attained by those 

 who devote themselves to one pursuit, than when their studies arc 

 directed to several different, even though they are analagous ones. 

 It is this condition of society whi<?h has, in modern times, separated 

 these professions. As now understood, the former (the architects) 

 are men of educated taste, who apply themselves almost exclusively 

 to the designing of public and private buildings, while the latter (tli9 . 

 civil engineers) are men of scientific mechanism, who are chieflj 

 engaged in designing and constructing roads, railways, canals, water 

 works, and their necessary mechanical adjuncts. JLn a comprehensive, 

 Bense, engineering also includes architecture, as a mechanical art, in 

 distinction to it, as a fine art. While the duties of each run somewhat 

 into the field of study of the other, yet they are, and ought in practice 

 to be, separated, so as to give the highest degree of perfection to each. 

 The engineer is required to follow the exact rules of mathematics, 

 the stern deductions from science, and the rigid laws of mechanism, all 

 of which unfit him for the higher flights of taste and imagination, which 

 distinguish the architect. While the consideration of these laws, and 

 the details of construction dwarf the genius and taste of the architect. 

 The works which the engineers in both ancient and modern time*, 

 have been called upon to design and execute, are confined to thosa 

 which are required in a highly cultivated condition of society, and 

 where the accumulations of the profits of past industry furnish the. 



