July 21, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



07 



The membership of these bodies, divided 

 into the several classes according to their 

 last official reports, is given in the following 

 table ; as a matter of genel-al interest there 

 is also added a tabulation of the more im- 

 portant European engineering societies. 



FOREIGN ENGINEEKING SOCIETIES. 



Name and Date of 

 Orgauization. 



Institution of Civil 

 Engineers (of Great 

 Britain), 1818 



Institution of Me- 

 chanical Engineers, 

 1847 



Iron and Steel Inst., 

 18G9 



3 Institution of Elec- 

 trical Engineers, 

 1889 



Verein Deutsctier In- 

 genieure, 1891 



Soci(5te des Inge- 

 nieurs Civil de 

 France, 1848 



Jan. 1, 1905 



Mar. 1, 1905 

 Jan. 1, 1905 



Aug. .31, 1904 

 Apr. 24, 1903 



16597 



23977 

 1909 



54303 

 17549 



A study of the annual reports of these 

 bodies from year to year and of their con- 

 stitutions and by-laws is of considerable 

 interest, showing their progressive expan- 

 sion, growing influence, and higher profes- 

 sional standing from year to year, and the 

 lines along which these developments take 

 place. We will not undertake a retro- 

 spective analysis, however, but rather con- 

 fine ourselves to a comparative study of 

 the methods of organization and business 

 administration of the four national engi- 

 neering societies as revealed in their last 

 annual reports. It should be stated at the 

 outset that this study is not undertaken 

 with a view of criticizing the methods fol- 

 lowed or results accomplished by our sister 

 societies, but for the purpose of profiting 

 by their experience and, if possible, avoid- 



^ Not including 1,114 students or graduates. 

 - Not including 450 students or graduates. 

 ^ Originally organized as the Society of Tele- 

 graph Engineers and Electricians in 1871. 

 * Includes 1.36 foreign members. 

 ^ Xot including 1,107 students or graduates. 



ing in our own rapidly growing body any 

 abnormal development which may detract 

 from its efficiency as a whole, or result in 

 purely local development at the sacrifice of 

 general usefulness and national standing. 



One of the very first questions we en- 

 counter is that of the grades of member- 

 ship, then the requirements of admission to 

 them, and the method of election. These 

 questions are of fundamental importance 

 and WiQj are worthy of the closest atten- 

 tion, as upcn them more than npcn any 

 other feature of the organization will de- 

 pend the professional standing of the so- 

 ciety and its healthy growth in member.'-hip 

 and influence. There is no honor within 

 the gift of the society which requires the 

 exercise of so much judgment, such fidelity 

 to its interests, such conscientiousness, im- 

 partiality and impersonality, as member- 

 ship on the Board of Examiners or Com- 

 mittee on Admissions, and it is deserving 

 of the highest recognition. 



The requirements for honorary member- 

 ship demand no lengthy discussion, as the 

 practise of all of the societies is essentially 

 identical in this respect. 



The requirements for full membership 

 vary greatly in the four societies, as we 

 shall see from abstracts from their con- 

 stitutions. 



AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 



Constitution — Article II. — Memhership. 

 2. A Member shall be a Civil, Military, Naval, 

 Mining, Mechanical, Electrical, or other profes- 

 sional Engineer, an Architect or a Marina Archi- 

 tect. He shall be at the time of admission to 

 membership not less than thirty years of age, 

 and shall have been in the active practise of his 

 profession for ten years; he shall have had re- 

 sponsible charge of w^ork for at least five years, 

 and shall be qualified to design as well as to di- 

 rect engineering works. Graduation from a school 

 of engineering of recognized reputation shall be 

 considered as equivalent to two years' active prac- 

 tise. The performance of the duties of a Pro- 

 fessor of Engineering in a technical school of 



