SECTION G.— ENGINEERING. 



RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING 



ADDRESS BY 



SIR ALEXANDER GIBB, G.B.E., C.B., F.R.S., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Engineering started as an Art ; at a later stage it developed into a some- 

 what scientific but purely empirical Practice ; it is now the final stage of 

 Applied Science. 



That Engineering is a science has not always — and still in some 

 quarters is not — recognised or appreciated, even among engineers them- 

 selves. For that we have no one to blame but ourselves. Too long were 

 we content to act by the light of accumulated experience, not always fully 

 assimilated. But Engineering has now for some time past realised that, 

 without research, progress and improvement are impossible. 



Engineers have sooner or later always made use of the discoveries of 

 science ; but the connection with science has been casual and haphazard. 

 ' It seems exceedingly doubtful if Watt or any other inventor,' wrote 

 Professor Lea, ' would have thought of the independent condenser, if it 

 had not been for the fundamental work of a purely scientific character 

 done by Toricelli, Boyle and others, on' the pressure of the atmosphere, 

 and that by Black and Watt which led to the discovery of the latent heat 

 of fluids, and thus to a quantitative appreciation of the heat units involved 

 in changing water into steam.' 



But organised research was then something still unknown. For the 

 first fifty years of its life the Royal Society had to bear the jeers and sneers 

 of the pulpit, the platform, and the literary world. When Harvey pub- 

 lished his tract describing the circulation of the blood it was received 

 with ridicule, as the utterance of a crack-brained impostor, and he was 

 deserted by almost all of his friends. This attitude of distrust on the part 

 of the public lasted into the nineteenth century. But scientific research 

 was at last becoming a matter not only for the individual crank and 

 dilettante, but for scientific co-operation. The encouragement of research 

 and the advancement of useful knowledge were indeed among the objects 

 of the foundation of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1818. 



It may be interesting at this stage to remind ourselves very briefly of 

 the history of research, and how very recent is its growth. 



The Royal Commission, appointed to administer the surplus of ^^2 13,000 

 made by the Great Exhibition of 185 1, used the money to purchase a large 



