July 19, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



89 



strated that an electric current could be 

 artificially produced. How it could be con- 

 trolled and applied to practical use did not 

 yet appear, but a new direction had been 

 given to the minds of those engaged in 

 physical research. 



As it became manifest that chemical 

 affinity and heat and light could be con- 

 trolled and directed and converted into 

 Energy, as Young termed it, the men who 

 had been trained in utilizing the force of 

 gi'avity turned their attention to the 

 development of these newly understood 

 sources of power. Fitch and Fulton, with 

 the aim of reducing the cost of water trans- 

 portation, succeeded in applying the steam 

 engine to the propulsion of boats, and 

 Trevithick made successful application of 

 steam propulsion to vehicles on land. Mur- 

 dock had proved that illuminating gas 

 could be produced and distributed to con- 

 sumers. The civil engineers of the day had 

 seized on all these inventions and dis- 

 coveries, and in both Europe and America 

 were designing and constructing works to 

 render them useful to the greatest number 

 of people. 



Reviewing then what had been accom- 

 plished during the first quarter of the cen- 

 tury, Tredgold could not but perceive that 

 civil engineering was something broader 

 and more comprehensive than the mere 

 construction of harbors, breakwaters and 

 canals, and he presented on January 4, 

 1828, in response to the request of the In- 

 stitution, this ever-memorable definition of 

 civil engineering : 



" Civil Engineeriug is the art of directing the great 

 sources of power in Nature for the use and conven- 

 ience of man ; being that practical application of the 

 most important principles of natural philosophy which 

 has, in a considerable degree, realized the anticipa- 

 tions of Bacon, and changed the aspect and state of 

 affairs in the whole world." 



After a brief sketch of the objects of 

 civil engineering, he added : 



"The real extent to which it may be applied is 



limited only by the progress of science ; its scope and 

 utility will be increased with every discovery in phi- 

 losophy, and its resources with every invention in 

 mechanical or chemical art, since its bounds are un- 

 limited, and equally so must be the researches of its 

 professors."* 



A more concise and comprehensive defi- 

 nition of a great truth can hardly be con- 

 ceived. From a physical and intellectual 

 standpoint, a nobler aim for the exercise of 

 the mental powers cannot be imagined than 

 the direction of the great sources of power 

 in nature for the use and convenience of 

 man. Psychology deals with mind alone, 

 Physics considers the nature and the laws of 

 matter, but Civil Engineering treats of the 

 intelligent direction of the laws governing 

 matter so as to produce efifects which will 

 reduce to a minimum the time and physical 

 labor required to supply all the demands of 

 the body of man and leave more opportunity 

 for the exercise of the mental and spiritual 

 faculties. Philosophy, Physics and Civil 

 Engineering must work hand in hand. The 

 philosopher must imagine, the physicist 

 prove by experiment and mathematical 

 computation, and the engineer apply to 

 practice, the laws of matter. Each must 

 keep himself informed of the progress made 

 by the others and must aid them by sugges- 

 tions as to the lines on which research 

 needs to be carried forward. The civil en- 

 gineer, in attempting to solve some problem 

 of construction, finds that he needs a ma- 

 terial which shall possess a certain quality 

 which he cannot discover that any natural 

 product possesses. He calls the chemist to 

 his aid, and he, from a study of the com- 

 binations of existing forms of matter which 

 most nearly approach the desired ideal, 

 reasons that some special combination of 

 elements will entirely fulfill the conditions, 

 and he experiments to find whether such 

 combination can be made. Sometimes he 

 is successful in his first attempt and some- 



* Minutes of Proceedings, Institution of Civil En- 

 gineers, Vol. XXVII., p. 181. 



