66 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 551. 



acquisition of that species of knowledge 

 which constitutes the profession of a civil 

 engineer, being the art of directing the 

 great sources of power in nature for the 

 use and convenience of man, as the means 

 of production and of traffic in states both 

 for external and internal trade, as applied 

 in the construction of roads, bridges, aque- 

 ducts, canals, river navigation, and docks, 

 for internal intercourse and exchange, and 

 in the construction of ports, harbors, walls, 

 breakwaters and lighthouses, and in the art 

 of navigation by artificial power for the 

 purposes of commerce, and in the construc- 

 tion and adaptation of machinery, and in 

 the drainage of cities and towns." 



It will be seen that this famous definition 

 of the field covered by the profession of the 

 civil engineer, as formulated by Telford, 

 covers broadly all of the branches of mod- 

 ern engineering science, excepting military 

 engineering, and includes within its scope 

 directly or by implication mechanical, mi- 

 ning, electrical and sanitary engineering 

 and naval architecture. It was not long 

 before important discoveries in the realm 

 of physical science and epoch-making in- 

 ventions and improvements in the mechan- 

 ical arts opened new fields of industrial 

 activity, and we find this broadening of the 

 field covered by the engineer reflected in a 

 differentiation of the profession, in Great 

 Britain resulting in the organization in 

 1847 of the Institution of Mechanical En- 

 gineers, in 1869 of the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute, and in 1871 of the Society of Tele- 

 graph Engineers and Electricians, which 

 became in 1889 the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers. 



Coming now to our own country, the 

 American Society of Civil Engineers was 

 organized in 1852, the American Institute 

 of Mining Engineers in 1871, the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1880 

 and the American Institute of Electrical 



Engineers in 1884. While these are the 

 distinctively national engineering societies, 

 there are other technical associations like 

 the Society of Naval Architects and Marine 

 Engineers, the American Society of Heat- 

 ing and Ventilating Engineers, the Amer- 

 ican Street Railway Association, Associa- 

 tion of Engineering Societies, etc., which, 

 although of national importance, do not 

 come within the scope of our subject. 



There are still many other professional 

 bodies in the United States identified with 

 the engineering profession, some of a na- 

 tional character, which in addition to pro- 

 fessional activities are also associated for 

 commercial relations and whose member- 

 ships consist largely of business corpora- 

 tions, such as the National Electric Light 

 Association and the Association of Edison 

 Illuminating Companies, and still others 

 largely local in character, such as the Pa- 

 cific Coast Transmission Association, the 

 Engineers' Society of Western Pennsyl- 

 vania, and the league known as the Asso- 

 ciation of Engineering Societies, represent- 

 ing a total membership of 1,766 in eleven 

 local engineers' clubs or societies. 



In this review we shall confine ourselves 

 to the four national engineering societies 

 first referred to, with some reference to the 

 corresponding bodies in Great Britain and 

 on the continent. 



NATIONAL ENGINEEBING SOCIETIES (U. S.). 



InclucTino- 27 fellows. 



