SECTION G.—ENGINEERING, 
SOME EXPERIENCES IN MECHANICAL 
ENGINEERING 
ADDRESS BY 
RICHARD W. ALLEN, C.B.E., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
THE variety and range of subject-matter selected for the addresses of 
this Section reminds me how vast a field of human endeavour is now 
occupied by the engineer ; how manifold are the branches of his pro- 
fession ; how diversified are the activities ; and with reflections such as 
these, I realised that I could not hope to range over the whole of the 
relatively limited though still vast field of mechanical engineering, though 
through a life of fifty years I came to the conclusion that for the purpose 
of this address ‘ Some Experiences in Mechanical Engineering ’ may be 
a suitable subject. 
While discussing the progress which has taken place it seems desirable 
to give some definition of what is meant by ‘mechanical engineering.’ The 
expression is often used loosely, and indeed it is not easy to sum up the 
scope of mechanical engineering in a few words. For electrical engineer- 
ing activities are almost inseparably interwoven with those of the 
mechanical engineer ; and the same may be said of civil engineering. 
There is in truth no hard-and-fast dividing line between the various 
branches of the engineering profession ; no one point at which we may 
confidently say, ‘ Here mechanical engineering ends, and there some 
other form of engineering activity begins.’ Nevertheless it is manifest 
that if engineering can best be defined as the adaptation of the forces of 
nature for the service of mankind, then, I suggest, mechanical engineering 
may be described as that branch which deals with invention, design, 
construction, and the installation and operation of machinery by means 
of which those forces are harnessed and applied. 
By the extent to which natural resources are thus utilised one may 
measure—materially, if not morally—the degree of civilisation of a people. 
The story of the progress of civilisation, in the use of machinery, is a 
fascinating but a somewhat neglected study. Just as the accumulations 
of succeeding ages have buried the remains of early man, so the rapid 
succession of new inventions and the modifications of old ones have 
heaped up a quantity of material that tends to diminish our appreciation 
of the labours of the past. We are apt to take most things for granted, 
and to pay little heed to the efforts of those earlier workers by whose 
labours we profit—notably in the use of machines. 
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