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VOCATIONAL SERIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 E. HERSHEY SNEATH, Ph.D., LL.D., Yale Ukiveksity 
 
 THE YOUNG IVIAN AND 
 CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
VOCATIONAL SERIES 
 
 Edited By 
 E. HERSHEY SNEATH, 
 
 Ph.D., LL.D., Yale University. 
 
 The Young Man and the Law. Simeon E. 
 
 Baldwin. 
 The Young Man and Teaching. Henry 
 
 Parks Wright. 
 The Young Man and Civil Engineering. 
 
 George Fillmore Swain. 
 
THE YOUNG MAN AND 
 CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE FILLMORE SWAIN 
 
 Gordon McKay Professor of Civil Engineering in Harvard Uni- 
 versity; Past-President of the American Society of Civil 
 Engineers; formerly Chairman of the Boston Transit 
 Commission, etc.; ConsiJting Engineer 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1922 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 -^'tl'^ 
 
 CtoPTEIGHT, 1922, 
 
 bt the macmillan company. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1922. 
 
 Press of 
 
 J. J. Little & Ives Company 
 
 New York. U. S. A. 
 
 MAY 1 7 1922 
 
 8)n!.A674145 
 
"There be three things which make a nation great 
 and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, and 
 the easy conveyance of men and commodities from 
 one place to another." Bacon. 
 
 "Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing 
 press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge 
 distance have done most for the civilization of our 
 species." Macaulay. 
 
 "What is vulgar, and the essence of all vulgarity, 
 but the avarice of reward? 'Tis the difference of 
 artisan and artist, of talent and genius, of sinner and 
 saint. The man whose eyes are nailed, not on the 
 nature of his act, but on the wages, — whether it be 
 money, or office, or fame, — ^is almost equally low." 
 
 Emebsox. 
 
EDITOR'S PROSPECTUS 
 
 One of the most important decisions a young man is 
 called upon to make relates to the determination of his 
 life-work. It is fraught with serious consequence for 
 him. It involves the possibilities of success and fail- 
 ure. The social order is such that he can best realize 
 his ends by the pursuit of a vocation. It unifies his 
 purposes and endeavors — making them count for most 
 in the struggle for existence and for material welfare. 
 It furnishes steady employment at a definite task as 
 against changeable eifort and an unstable task. This 
 makes for superior skill and greater efficiency which 
 result in a larger gain to himself and in a more genuine 
 contribution to the economic world. 
 
 Sut a man's vocation relates to a much wider sphere 
 than the economic. It is intimately associated with 
 the totality of his interests. It is in a very real sense 
 the center of most of his relations in life. His intel- 
 lectual interests are seriously dependent upon his vo- 
 cational career. Not only does the attainment of skill 
 and efficiency call for the acquisition of knowledge and 
 development of judgment, but the leisure that is so 
 essential to the pursuit of those intellectual ends which 
 are a necessary part of his general culture is, in turn, 
 dependent, to a considerable extent, upon the skill and 
 efficiency that he acquires in his vocation. 
 
 vii 
 
VIU EDITOR S PROSPECTUS 
 
 Nor are his social interests less dependent upon his 
 life-work. Men pursuing the same calling constitute 
 in a peculiar sense a great fraternity or brotherhood 
 bound together by conunon interests and aims. These 
 condition much of his social development. His wider 
 social relationships also are dependent, in a large 
 measure, on the success that he attains in his chosen 
 field of labor. 
 
 Even his moral and spiritual interests are vitally 
 centered in his vocation. The development of will, the 
 steadying of purpose, the unfolding of ideals, the 
 cultivation of vocational virtues, such as industry, 
 fidelity, order, honesty, prudence, thrift, patience, per- 
 sistence, courage, self-reliance, etc. — all of this makes 
 tremendously for his moral and spiritual development. 
 The vocationless man, no matter to what class he be- 
 longs, suffers a great moral and spiritual disadvantage. 
 His life lacks idealization and is therefore wanting in 
 unity and high moralization. His changeable task, 
 with its changeable efforts, does not afford so good an 
 opportunity for the development of the economic and 
 social virtues as that afforded the man who pursues a 
 definite life-work. It lacks also that discipline — not 
 only mental, but moral — which the attainment of vo- 
 cational skin and efficiency involves. 
 
 But notwithstanding the important issues involved 
 in a man's vocational career, little has been done in 
 a practical or systematic way to help our college young 
 men to a wise decision in the determination of their 
 
EDITOR S PROSPECTUS . IX 
 
 life-work. Commendable efforts are being put forth 
 in our public schools in this direction, but very little, 
 indeed, has been done in this respect in the sphere of 
 higher education. To any one familiar with the strug- 
 gles of the average college student in his efforts to 
 settle this weighty question for himself, the perplex- 
 ities, embarrassment, and apparent helplessness are pa- 
 thetic. This is due largely to his ignorance of the 
 nature of the professions and other vocations which 
 appeal most strongly to the college man. Conse- 
 quently, he does not know how to estimate his fitness for 
 them. He cannot advise to any extent with his father, 
 because he represents only one vocation. Neither can 
 he advise advantageously with his instructor for he, 
 too, is familiar with the nature of only one profession. 
 For this reason, a series of books, dealing with the 
 leading vocations, and prepared by men of large ability 
 and experience, capable of giving wise counsel, is a 
 desideratwm. Such men are competent to explain the 
 nature and divisions of the particular vocations which 
 they represent, the personal and educational qualifica- 
 tions necessary for a successful pursuit of the same, 
 the advantages and disadvantages, the difficulties and 
 temptations, the opportunities and ideals ; thus, in an 
 adequate way, enabling the student to estimate his own 
 fitness for them. They are also able to make valuable 
 suggestions relating to the man's work after he enters 
 upon his vocation. 
 
X EDITOR S PEOSPECTUS 
 
 Fortunately, in the present Series, the Editor has 
 been able to secure the services of some of the most 
 eminent experts in the country to prepare the respec- 
 tive volumes — men of large knowledge and experi- 
 ence, who have attained wide recognition and genuine 
 success in their " callings." It is a pleasure to be 
 able to place at the command of the many thousands 
 of students in our American colleges the wise counsel 
 of such experienced and distinguished men. 
 
 The "Vocational Series" will consist of twelve books 
 written by representatives of different vocations, as fol- 
 low: 
 
 1. The Young Man and the Law 
 
 Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin, LL.D., Professor of Law, 
 Emeritus, Yale University, ex-Governor and ex- 
 Chief Justice of Connecticut 
 
 2. The Young Man and the Ministry 
 
 Rev. Charles R. Brown, D.D., LL.D., Dean of the 
 School of Religion, Yale University 
 
 3. The Young Man and Teaching 
 
 Professor Henry Parks Wright, Ph.D., LL.D., Pro- 
 fessor Emeritus and formerly Dean of Yale College 
 
 4. The Young Man and Medicine 
 
 Lewellys F. Barker, M.D., LL.D., Professor of 
 Medicine and Chief Physician, Johns-Hopkins Uni- 
 versity 
 
 5. The Young Man and Journalism 
 
 Chester Sanders Lord, M.A., LL.D., formerly Man- 
 aging Editor New York Sun 
 
EDITOR S PROSPECTUS XI 
 
 6. The Young Man and Banking 
 
 Hon. Frank A. Vanderlip, M.A., LL.D., President 
 of the City National Bank, New York 
 
 7. The Young Man and Business 
 
 8. The Young Man and Mechanical Engineering 
 
 Lester P. Breckenridge, M.A., Eng.D., Professor of 
 Mechanical Engineering, Sheffield Scientific School, 
 Yale University 
 
 9. The Young Man and Electrical Engineering 
 
 Charles F. Scott, Sc.D., Eng.D., Professor of Elec- 
 trical Engineering, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale 
 University 
 
 10. The Young Man and Civil Engineering 
 
 George F. Swain, LL.D., Professor of Civil Engi- 
 neering, Harvard University 
 
 11. The Young Man and Farming 
 
 L. H. Bailey, M.S., LL.D., formerly Director of 
 College of Agriculture, Cornell University, and Ed- 
 itor of Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, Rural 
 Science Series, Garden Craft Series, Rural Text- 
 Book Series, Cyclopedia of Agriculture, etc. 
 
 12. The Young Man and Government Service 
 
 Hon. WilUam Howard Taft, D.C.L., LL.D., ex- 
 President of the United States, and Chief Justice 
 of the United States Supreme Court 
 
 E. Hershey Sneath. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER rAOB 
 
 I Historical Introduction 1 
 
 II Branches of Civil Engineering .... 27 
 
 (a) Surveying, Topographical Engineering and 
 
 Geodesy 
 
 (b) Railroad Engineering 
 
 (c) Highway Engineering 
 
 (d) Hydraulic Engineering 
 
 (e) Sanitary Engineering 
 
 (f) Structural Engineering 
 
 (g) Municipal Engineering 
 (h) Valuation of Properties 
 
 III Qualifications Necessary or Desirable for 
 
 THE Civil Engineer 90 
 
 IV The Education of the Civil Engineer . . 113 
 
 V Characteristics of Civil Engineering as a 
 
 Profession 153 
 
 VI The Outlook for the Civil Engineer . . 177 
 
 VII Concluding Suggestions 188 
 
THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL 
 ENGINEERING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The field of engineering is so large, and its extent 
 and limitations so little understood by the layman, 
 that it is necessary at the outset to consider briefly 
 the history of engineering and of the development of 
 its various branches, in order that the reader may 
 clearly perceive the proper meaning of the term "en- 
 gineering," as well as of the narrower terms "civil en- 
 gineering," "mechanical engineering," etc. 
 
 Engineering may perhaps- be most briefly and at the 
 same time most broadly described as the science and 
 art of construction. Whoever constructs a thing, 
 whether it be a bridge, a railroad, a steam engine, or 
 a watch, is in the broadest sense an engineer. But 
 there are obvious limitations and extensions of this 
 definition, and these, as we shall see, lead to a more 
 accurate definition. Engineering involves not merely 
 manual or mechanical skill, but intelligent application 
 of the laws of nature. Something more is required 
 
 1 
 
2 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 than mechanical proficiency in the use of tools or 
 materials. The man who runs the engines in a mill, 
 or the workman who fashions the parts of a locomotive, 
 is not an engineer in the true sense. A knowledge of 
 the reasons why certain mechanical operations have to 
 be performed, and an intelligent adaptation of the laws 
 of nature to the attainment of those ends, is necessary, 
 and this involves the distinction between an art and a 
 science. 
 
 A science teaches us to know and an art to do. A sci- 
 entific man studies the reasons for things, investigates 
 the laws of nature, and designs the means of adapting 
 them to the end in view. The merely mechanical rou- 
 tine work of performing the operations necessary for 
 the production or construction of the object or agency 
 desired, is not engineering. A skilled mechanic, there- 
 fore, is not an engineer ; neither is a skillful roadmaster 
 of a railroad, though he superintends the laying and 
 maintenance of the track ; unless these men, in addition 
 to being skilled in doing, are also skilled in knowing, 
 so that they understand the reason why, and can adapt 
 means to ends ; modifying, if need be, their usual prac- 
 tice to meet particular emergencies. 
 
 In a similar manner, the scientist who, in the solitude 
 of his study or laboratory, investigates the laws of 
 nature, and perhaps discovers new ones, is not neces- 
 sarily an engineer, unless he has the capacity of also 
 showing how his discoveries may be made useful, though 
 perhaps he may not himself have the mechanical skill 
 necessary to put them into actual use, or to fashion 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 the tools or instruments necessary for that purpose. 
 An art, therefore, is, or should be, founded upon a 
 science, the science teaching what to do, how to do it, 
 and why, while the art develops the specific means of 
 accomplishment. 
 
 Engineering is, therefore, both a science and an art. 
 The engineer must know and must also be able to do. 
 The important thing is the knowing, or the science. 
 The engineer may not actually do a great deal with 
 his hands, but he must at least know how to do it, 
 should it be necessary; and, strictly speaking, he is 
 not an engineer unless he is engaged to some extent in 
 actually doing, whether with his own hands or by 
 directing the hands of others. In a similar manner, the 
 mechanic who is skillful with his hands, if he also knows 
 the scientific principles governing the things which he 
 does, and is able to coordinate intelligently the science 
 and the art, may not be denied the title of engineer, 
 provided he actually does use science and is not merely 
 a workman, even a skillful one. The work of the engi- 
 neer, therefore, involves the command and use of prin- 
 ciples, and the ability to apply them in a way which 
 will lead to the definite construction of some work. The 
 engineer is not a mere mechanic or workman, though a 
 mechanic or workman may well have the capacity to 
 become an engineer if opportunity is offered. 
 
 What we know as the "learned professions" are those 
 in which brain work is necessary and not merely skill. 
 Engineering, therefore, should rightly be considered as 
 one of the learned professions and not merely an art, 
 
4 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 since it requires for its exercise a knowledge of the 
 laws of nature, and their application. 
 
 The profession of engineering is as ancient as any 
 of the occupations of man. No doubt from the earliest 
 times man has been subject to disease, and the healing 
 art in more or less crude or imaginary form has long 
 been practiced; man, naturally a quarrelsome animal, 
 has also from the earliest time engaged in disputes with 
 his neighbor, and in more or less imperfect form, the 
 law has long had to be administered. Once more, from 
 the most primitive times, man has realized the presence 
 of some supernatural power which the priest, if only 
 under the title of "medicine man," has endeavored to 
 propitiate. But clearly, man has always required water 
 and food, and has dug wells and employed crude means 
 for raising water and for growing crops. He has also 
 in the earliest stages of civilization required some sort 
 of shelter and made use of some of the laws of nature 
 for purposes of offense and defense, and for the fashion- 
 ing of weapons, tools, and implements, even before the 
 principles of law were formulated and perhaps before 
 anything was known or even imagined with reference 
 to the healing art; so that the engineer and architect 
 (who so far as his work is constructive and not wholly 
 artistic is also an engineer) may fairly claim that their 
 profession is as old as any. 
 
 In the Lake Dwellers' village of Wangen, in Switzer- 
 land, fifty thousand piles are said to have been driven 
 into the bed of the lake, to support the dwellings. This 
 was in the Late Stone Age, between 10,000 and 3,000 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 years B. C. In Egypt, the pyramids were built about 
 2,900 years B. C, and great mechanical skill must have 
 been possessed by the builders in quarrying, transport- 
 ing, and raising the immense blocks of stone that were 
 used. Buckle, quoting from Diodorus, says that "to 
 build one of the pyramids required the labour of 360,- 
 000 men for 20 years," and that 2,000 men were occu- 
 pied for three years in carrying a single stone from 
 Elephantine to Sais. A little later, but fully 4,000 
 years ago, the Egyptians anticipated the construction 
 of the Suez Canal by building a canal from the head of 
 the Red Sea or Gulf of Suez westward to the eastern- 
 most branch of the Nile, so that vessels of that time 
 could pass from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea by 
 this route ; and this work is said by Buckle to have cost 
 the lives of 120,000 Egyptians. Thus early were ac- 
 complished engineering works which to-day would be 
 called great, though done with a prodigal waste of 
 human life and labor. The wonder is, however, that 
 they could have been accomplished at all, . considering 
 the primitive state of scientific knowledge. 
 
 Many people, even those well informed, appear to 
 have the idea that engineering is not a profession in the 
 proper sense of the term, and that the engineer is 
 neither a scientist nor professional man, nor yet a busi- 
 ness man, strictly speaking, but that he is something 
 betwixt and between, perhaps more nearly a mechanic. 
 According to the dictionary, a profession is defined as 
 "A vocation in which a professed knowledge of some 
 department of science or learning is used by its practi- 
 
6 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 cal application to the affairs of others, either in ad- 
 vising, guiding, or teaching them, or in serving their 
 interests or welfare in the practice of an art founded 
 on it. Formerly, theology, law, and medicine, were 
 specifically known as the professions; but as the appli- 
 cations of science and learning are extended to other 
 departments of affairs, other vocations also received 
 the name. The word implies professed attainments in 
 special knowledge, as distinguished from mere skill; a 
 practical dealing with affairs, as distinguished from 
 mere study or investigation; and the application of 
 such knowledge to the uses of others as a vocation, as 
 distinguished from its pursuit for one's own purposes." 
 According to this definition engineering is clearly both 
 a science and an art. 
 
 Up to the present time the art involved in the work 
 of engineering has probably been more recognized than 
 the science. The engineer has been considered rather a 
 builder than a scientific man, pursuing an occupation 
 or avocation, rather than a profession. As civilization 
 developed, the work of the engineer and builder de- 
 veloped correspondingly. The Assyrians and Baby- 
 lonians built canals and bridges; the inhabitants of 
 India, great reservoirs ; the Egyptians, pyramids ; the 
 Romans, roads, bridges, aqueducts, baths, and other 
 important works, many of them of great extent, and 
 requiring unusual skill. The builders of these works 
 were engineers. 
 
 During the early development of the profession, en- 
 gineering came to be divided into two kinds, civil and 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 military; the latter being concerned with the construc- 
 tion of fortifications, and with all other means of de- 
 fense and offense; while civil engineering included all 
 other applications of the constructive art. The uncer- 
 tainties, however, with regard to the precise meaning 
 of the term civil engineering, and the desirability of 
 having it accurately defined, led the Council of the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain on De- 
 cember 29, 1827, to pass the following resolve : 
 
 "RESOLVED, That Mr. Tredgold be written to, re- 
 questing him to define the objects of the Institution of 
 Civil Engineers.* and to give a description of what a civil 
 engineer is, in order that this description and these ob- 
 jects may be embodied in a petition to the Attorney Gen- 
 eral in application for a charter." 
 
 At the following meeting of the Council on January 
 4, 1828, a communication from Mr. Tredgold was 
 read and entered in the Minutes, bearing the title 
 "Description of a Civil Engineer, by Thomas Tredgold, 
 Hon. M. Inst. C.E.," as a result of which the charter of 
 the Institution described the profession of the civil 
 engineer as "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 con- 
 struction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river 
 navigation, and docks, for internal intercourse and ex- 
 
 * The Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain was 
 founded in 1818, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1828; 
 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was formed nineteen 
 years later, with George Stephenson as the first President. 
 
8 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEEEING 
 
 change; and in the construction of ports, harbors, 
 moles, breakwaters and light houses ; and in the art of 
 navigation by artificial power for the purposes of 
 commerce, and in the construction and adaptation of 
 machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns." 
 
 Tredgold's definition of Civil Engineering as "the 
 art of directing the great sources of power in nature 
 for the use and convenience of man," is the definition 
 still generally given. It is suggestive in various ways ; 
 it emphasizes, as has been done on a previous page, that 
 engineering properly involves the application of the 
 laws of nature. It also involves a concrete application 
 of those laws "for the use and convenience of man" 
 and not merely for abstract or useless purposes. It 
 may be criticized, however, in defining engineering as 
 an art. It would perhaps be proper to consider engi- 
 neering to be an art founded upon some branch or 
 branches of science, such as the science of mechanics 
 or of physics or of chemistry, but the art and the sci- 
 ence cannot always be clearly differentiated; it is not 
 easy to tell where the science ends and the art begins. 
 If we adhere strictly to the conception that engineering 
 is an art and therefore limited strictly to the doing, 
 this would lead us to conclude that a man is only an 
 engineer when he is executing the work, and that while 
 he is designing it or studying the principles governing 
 its design, he is .a scientist. It seems more proper to 
 consider engineering as both a science and an art, and 
 not simply as an art depending upon a science. 
 
 Furthermore, engineering is concerned not only with 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 directing the sources of power in nature, but in utiliz- 
 ing and applying all the laws of nature and all the 
 materials of the external world. Tredgold's definition 
 was formulated at a time when the minds of engineers 
 were filled with the new discoveries relating to power, 
 which will hereafter be briefly referred to — with the 
 steam engine, the steam boat, and the steam locomotive. 
 The subject of power was, therefore, foremost in men's 
 minds, and it is natural that this should have been 
 emphasized in the definition. 
 
 Recently, the late Mr. Henry G. Stott, in his address 
 as President of the American Institute of Electrical 
 Engineers, proposed as an improvement upon Tred- 
 gold's definition, the following: 
 
 "Engineering is the art of organizing and directing men, 
 and of controlling the forces and materials of nature for 
 the benefit of the human race." 
 
 This definition, however, is also incomplete in that 
 it terms engineering an art. Furthermore, it would ap- 
 ply the term to any activity in organizing and directing 
 men, such for instance, as in military or political 
 operations, and while this use of the term is often sug- 
 gested, as when we speak of "engineering a deal," such 
 use is a corruption or slang expression. Furthermore, 
 neither of the definitions quoted puts any emphasis on 
 one of the most important functions of engineering, 
 namely, the regard for economy. The organizing and 
 directing of men does not seem to be properly engineer- 
 ing, though we may sometimes refer to it as such; nor 
 should a clumsy and wasteful and useless application 
 
10 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 of the laws of nature be termed engineering, though 
 perhaps we should recognize it as simply bad engineer- 
 ing. A man, who by no stretch of the imagination could 
 be called an engineer, migiit, if he were given sufficient 
 time, men, and money, construct works similar to or 
 identical with some of those built by engineers. It is, 
 of course, plain there will always be differences of effi- 
 ciency between engineers, and both good and bad en- 
 gineering, and yet it would seem that some emphasis 
 should be laid upon economy. Indeed, an engineer has 
 been wittily defined as a man who does with one dollar 
 what any fool can do with two, 
 
 James Nasmyth, the great English engineer and 
 inventor, defined engineering as "common sense applied 
 to the use of materials." 
 
 In view of the above considerations the following 
 definition is suggested, namely : 
 
 Engineering is the science and art of applying, eco- 
 nomically, the laws, forces, and materials of nature, for 
 the use, convenience, or enjoyment of man. 
 
 The proper practice of engineering clearly requires 
 both knowing and doing, and it is this combination, to- 
 gether with the character of the work done by the 
 engineer, that leads to the somewhat peculiar position 
 of the profession. It is not, of course, an art in the 
 sense of being one of the fine arts. The engineer, as 
 such, has little or nothing to do with questions of 
 beauty, although every member of the profession should 
 aim to possess such knowledge of the canons of beauty 
 as to lead him to construct works which are not only 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 useful, but beautiful as well, with due regard to 
 economy. The engineer must know the laws and forces 
 of nature and the properties of materials, and must be 
 able to apply them economically. The laws and forces 
 of nature with which he must be familiar, will depend 
 upon the specific branch of the profession which he 
 practices. Tredgold, after giving his definition of civil 
 engineering, in which he specified many branches of 
 the profession, concluded with the prediction that the 
 extent of the profession was "limited only by the 
 progress of science, and that its scope and utility would 
 be increased with every discovery in philosophy, and 
 its resources with every invention of the mechanical or 
 chemical arts, since its bounds are unlimited and equally 
 so must be the resources of its professors." 
 
 This prediction has been abundantly justified. Since 
 Tredgold's time great fields, then unsuspected, have 
 been added to the profession of engineering, resulting 
 in the development, from the original root of civil en- 
 gineering, of numerous branches, each of which is now a 
 profession by itself. A knowledge of these develop- 
 ments, as well as of some which took place even before 
 Tredgold's definition was formulated, is essential in 
 order that the reader may clearly see the relation of 
 civil engineering to other branches of the profession. 
 
 Up to nearly the end of the eighteenth century the 
 sources of power in nature were little understood and 
 could be utilized only to a comparatively small degree. 
 Up to that time engineering comprised mainly the con- 
 struction of roads, canals and bridges, the improvement 
 
12 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 of harbors, river works, the construction of docks, and 
 the supplying of towns and cities with water. The 
 state of the art only allowed of the construction of 
 bridges of very short span, either of stone or wood, 
 since iron had not yet been brought into use, and ferries 
 were generally employed in crossing streams too deep 
 for fording. The steam engine was known only in a 
 very crude and uneconomical form; the weaving of 
 cloth was almost all done by hand; there was little 
 transportation except by sea; cities were not drained, 
 or lighted by gas ; the applications of electricity were, 
 of course, unknown; navigation by water was entirely 
 by means of sailing vessels or with oars ; and the only 
 form in which iron was used to any large extent was 
 in the form of cast iron. 
 
 But before the end of the eighteenth century there 
 came a remarkable series of mechanical inventions — the 
 spinning jenny by Hargreaves, the spinning frame by 
 Arkwright, the mule by Crompton, the power loom by 
 Cartwright, the modern steam engine by Watt, the 
 puddling process for making wrought iron by Cort, and 
 others. These were followed, in the first third of the 
 eighteenth century, by the development of the steam 
 locomotive by Stephenson, of the steamboat by Fulton, 
 by the inauguration of the era of railroads, beginning 
 for all practical purposes with the victory of the 
 "Rocket" in the competition at Rainhill in 1829, and 
 by further great improvements in manufacturing, and 
 in the production of iron and steel. 
 
 It was just at this time, when the minds of all were 
 
INTEODUCTION 13 
 
 filled with the inventions of Watt and of Stephenson, 
 that Tredgold gave his definition, clearly showing the 
 tremendous influence held at that time by the subject 
 of power., These great developments much enlarged 
 the field of engineering, and gave birth to a new class of 
 engineer — the railroad engineer. They led also to the 
 differentiation of the mechanical engineer from the civil 
 engineer. Since that time the mechanical engineer has 
 claimed as his special field the development and use 
 of power in all its forms, including the generation 
 of power from the combustion of fuel or the flow of 
 water, by means of the various types of engines and 
 water wheels, the transmission of that power from point 
 to point by belting, shafting or other means, and the 
 utilization of that power by machinery. There is 
 hardly a field of human industry, therefore, which is 
 not dependent upon the mechanical engineer, because 
 all manufactured articles depend upon power in some 
 application, and upon machinery operated by power. 
 
 The field of the modern mechanical engineer, however, 
 not only covers the department of power and its appli- 
 cations — in manufacturing, in the steam locomotive, in 
 the steamship — but it is also held to include the con- 
 struction of mills, and all applications of steam 
 and heat such as heating, ventilation, lighting, and so 
 on. 
 
 But notwithstanding the diff*erentiation from it of 
 the field of the mechanical engineer, the field of the 
 civil engineer was itself enlarged by the progress of 
 science and invention. The great impetus given to 
 
14 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 manufacturing rendered necessary the distribution of 
 the raw material and of the manufactured products. 
 Transportation engineering was enormously increased 
 in its scope and the new profession of the railroad 
 (civil) engineer was brought into existence. Roads, rail' 
 roads, canals, harbors and docks, were built with unex- 
 ampled rapidity, and river improvements were exten- 
 sively carried on. At this time the increasing use of 
 canals gave occasion for the celebrated remark of 
 Brindley, the great canal engineer of England, himself 
 an untutored genius, who, when asked what the use of a 
 river was, replied "to supply canals with water." At 
 the same time the economical production of wrought 
 iron rendered possible the construction of bridges of 
 considerable span. 
 
 By this time had begun one of the greatest socio- 
 logical movements which characterizes the present time, 
 namely, the increasing congregation of people in cities. 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century only three 
 per cent, of the population of the United States lived in 
 cities, while at the present time the urban population 
 is over fifty per cent, of the total. This phenomenon, 
 during the last half of the century just passed, has led 
 to the differentiation of another field of engineering, 
 namely, that of the sanitary engineer, whose specific 
 province it is to deal with the problems of water supply, 
 drainage, the disposal of refuse, the purification of 
 water and sewage, the sanitation of dwellings, and the 
 various other problems resulting from this congestion 
 of population. 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 Improvements, also, in chemistry and in metallurgy, 
 have given rise to still other distinct branches of engi- 
 neering, namely, mining engineering and metallurgy, the 
 scope of which it is not necessary here to sketch. 
 
 Again, the field of the mechanical engineer has during 
 the past quarter of a century become subdivided, owing 
 to the discoveries in electricity. Steam and water are 
 no longer used simply to propel steam engines or water 
 wheels, producing power to be used on the spot. Steam 
 or other engines, and water wheels, now drive electric 
 generators, the currents from which are transmitted 
 long distances, sometimes as great as 200 or even 300 
 miles, by means of transmission wires, to be again 
 transformed by electric motors and used for the pro- 
 duction of light or for the operation of machinery. 
 The telephone and the telegraph have been discovered, 
 electric cars have replaced the horse cars, and the 
 traffic of our steam railroads is in 'some cases being 
 hauled by electric locomotives. Almost everything 
 nowadays is done or can he done by electricity, even 
 to preparing our food, washing our clothes and dishes, 
 and heating our houses. The electrical engineer, with 
 a field already so wide that it is divided into specialties, 
 is a product of the last twenty-five years. 
 
 By the last third of the nineteenth century, there- 
 fore, there had grown out from the original stem of civil 
 engineering, three professions so differentiated from 
 it and from each other, that they have ever since been 
 and are still regarded as separate professions, namely: 
 (1) Mechanical engineering, (2) electrical engineer- 
 
16 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 ing, (3) mining' engineering and metallurgy. A fourth 
 stem, namely, architecture, may be said to have been 
 differentiated from civil engineering at a still earlier 
 date. 
 
 These five professions are represented by the five 
 great national engineering societies in the United 
 States, namely : 
 
 (1) The American Society of Civil Engineers (Insti- 
 tuted Nov. 5, 1852). 
 
 (2) The American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
 (Organized 1880^ Incorporated 1881). 
 
 (3) The American Institute of Electrical Engineers 
 (Organized 1884^ Incorporated 1895), 
 
 (4) The American Institute of Mining Engineers (Or- 
 ganized 1871). 
 
 (5) The American Institute of Architects (Incorpo- 
 rated 1857). 
 
 These professions have many points of contact and 
 cannot be sharply differentiated from each other. 
 There are overlapping or twilight zones which may be 
 considered to belong to either of two or more. In the 
 last analysis, members of all these professions belong 
 to the one great profession of engineering, but for 
 practical purposes it is desirable and usual to consider 
 them as distinct. Indeed, each of these professions has, 
 with the development of science, become divided into 
 a number of specialties. This is particularly true of 
 civil engineering for, notwithstanding the differentia- 
 tion from it of the fields of architecture, mechanical 
 engineering, electrical engineering, mining engineer- 
 ing and metallurgy, the field of the civil engineer keeps 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 on ever increasing in scope. Coasts have to be pro- 
 tected from the sea, swamp and marsh lands reclaimed, 
 large areas irrigated by artificial means, requiring the 
 construction of great dams, the storing of immense 
 quantities of water and the distribution of that water 
 by means of canals into the uplands. Novel problems 
 of urban transportation present themselves and must 
 be solved by the construction of subways and tunnels ; 
 great railroad terminals have to be provided ; and tow- 
 ering sky-scrapers are constructed by the engineer, 
 who here trenches upon the domain of the architect. 
 Also the possibility of electrical transmission, and the 
 increasing scarcity and waste of fuel, have increased 
 enormously the importance and value of water powers. 
 The question of the discharge of rivers, the means of in- 
 creasing it, of storing it so as to make it more regular 
 from month to month, thus avoiding the damage due 
 to floods, and increasing the power during dry seasons, 
 the construction of dams and of the various works 
 incident to the development of water powers, all these, 
 together with other problems, now constitute a separate 
 field, that of the hydraulic engineer. Water, at once 
 the most valuable and necessary of the gifts of nature, 
 and at the same time an enemy to be dreaded and feared, 
 must be controlled and governed, so that communities 
 may be supplied adequately with this necessity of life 
 and the power generated by the rivers turned to the 
 service of man. The laws of water flowing in conduits, 
 through pipes and in open channels must be studied 
 and experimented upon, and the science of the laws of 
 
18 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 water — ^hydraulics — is steadily increasing in value and 
 in importance. 
 
 Of recent years, in addition to the five main branches 
 of the profession of engineering above enumerated, 
 others may fairly be said to have been developed. The 
 increase in transportation by sea, the use of steel 
 ships, and the ever increasing size of vessels, has led 
 to the profession of the naval architect, itself a large 
 field, dealing with the applications of steel and other 
 materials to the construction of vessels. Another 
 specialty of mechanical engineering is that of the 
 marine engineer. The naval architect builds the vessels, 
 the marine engineer equips them with machinery and 
 provides them with ventilating and other apparatus 
 necessary to fit them for use. Still another branch or 
 specialty of mechanical engineering has been developed 
 by the construction of large and high buildings, namely, 
 the profession of the heating and ventilating engineers, 
 which deals with the methods and means of heating and 
 ventilating buildings of all kinds. Indeed, the architect 
 may be said to produce the mere shell of a great build- 
 ing. The equipping it with machinery and apparatus 
 for heating and ventilating, with elevators, water sup- 
 plies, plumbing, and fire protection, is a large problem 
 in itself, and belongs to engineering rather than to 
 architecture. 
 
 Finally, investigations in the various fields of applied 
 chemistry, as for instance in the production of gas and 
 oil, in the manufacture of rubber goods, soap, glue 
 and other materials too numerous to mention, have 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 led in recent years to the formation of still another 
 branch of the profession, namely, that of chemical 
 engineering, which deals with the application of chem- 
 istry to the useful arts. To even enumerate the appli- 
 cations of this science would tax the patience of the 
 reader. 
 
 From the above brief sketch it will appear that civil 
 engineering is the parent stem which at first included all 
 branches of the constructive art, with the exception 
 of military engineering, which may perhaps be con- 
 sidered to be, in its objects, more destructive than con- 
 structive; that from this parent stem four to six new 
 branches may be said to have grown, which now consti- 
 tute professions in themselves and»are not the subject 
 of further consideration, except incidentally, in this 
 book. What remains in the field of civil engineering 
 is, however, even now much larger than it was in Tred- 
 gold^s time, and it is continually growing as new ap- 
 plications of science are discovered and new lines of 
 practice are founded upon them. 
 
 In its restricted meaning, civil engineering may be 
 said to include the following branches, although some 
 of these specialties may be claimed to be entitled to 
 rank as separate professions : 
 
 (1) Surveying and Geodesy, which deals with the 
 measurement and dehneation of large or small portions of 
 the earth's surface and the objects found thereon. 
 
 (2) Hailroad Engineering, which deals with the lo- 
 cation and construction of railways, and their maintenance 
 and operation so far as engineering principles are con- 
 cerned. 
 
20 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 (3) Highway Engineering, which deals with the loca- 
 tion, construction and maintenance of highways, including 
 city streets and pavements. 
 
 (4) Hydraulic Engineering, which deals with the laws 
 governing the flow of water in all kinds o£ channels, and 
 with the principles governing the flow of water upon the 
 surface of the earth, both in surface and underground 
 channels; with the discharge of rivers, the methods of con- 
 trolling it and of protecting banks and preserving navi- 
 gable channels; with the location and construction of dams 
 and their appurtenances, for retaining bodies of water, for 
 the water supply of communities and for the production of 
 power; with the construction of canals, harbors, light 
 houses and other works in which the control of water is the 
 main problem. This branch of the subject includes what 
 is known as canal, river, and harbor engineering, water 
 power engineering, irrigation engineering, and water-sup- 
 ply engineering. 
 
 (5) Sanitary Engineering, which deals with problems 
 relating to the protection and preservation of the health 
 of communities, involving many aspects of water supply 
 engineering; the sanitation of dwellings and other build- 
 ings; the sewerage of cities and towns; the drainage of 
 land; the disposal of sewage, refuse, garbage; and in gen- 
 eral with works for the preservation of the public health. 
 
 (6) Structural Engineering, which finds its applica- 
 tion in all of the other branches, and which deals with the 
 details of design and construction of fixed structures of 
 all kinds, and their foiindations, such as bridges, roofs, 
 buildings, dams, retaining walls, tunnels, subways, and 
 many other types of fixed structures. 
 
 To these may be added municipal engineering, which 
 is a combination of several of the above; and the newer 
 branch of valuation of properties. 
 
 Having attempted to give some idea of what civil 
 engineering is, it is desirable to call attention to what 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 it is not. The word engineering is often used very 
 vaguely and is made to include occupations which 
 should be designated by another title. The man who 
 runs a locomotive, or who superintends a stationary 
 engine plant, is frequently termed an engineer, though 
 seldom a civil engineer. Strictly speaking, this desig- 
 nation is a misnomer. Such a man should be termed 
 an engine-man, for while it is undoubtedly true that 
 many men of this class have acute common sense and 
 thorough knowledge of the machinery entrusted to their 
 charge, both as regards its construction and its opera- 
 tion, so that they may be in fact intellectually and tech- 
 nically superior to many men who claim the title of 
 engineer, yet there should be a distinction made between 
 the man whose business it is to design as well as to 
 construct, who understands the science as well as the 
 art, and the man whose occupation it is simply to 
 superintend the running of a machine or a plant. 
 Similarly, a plumber sometimes styles himself a sani- 
 tary engineer, although his work is purely mechanical 
 and concerned with the fitting together of the various 
 pieces of apparatus which are involved in the plumbing 
 or water supply of a building, and he may be entirely 
 ignorant of the scientific principles involved, and en- 
 tirely incapable of designing the plant which he puts 
 together. 
 
 The lines of demarcation between the above branches 
 of the profession are more or less indefinite and in- 
 distinct, as wiU be fully pointed out in later pages, just 
 
22 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEEEING 
 
 as the line of demarcation between civil engineering and 
 mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, archi- 
 tecture, or even economics, is more or less indistinct. 
 
 A little reflection upon the foregoing review will 
 make clear the enormous extent of the field of engineer- 
 ing as a profession, and even of what is still left as prop- 
 erly comprised in the province of civil engineering; 
 and will probably justify the statement that this field 
 is more extensive than that of any of the three profes- 
 sions which from time immemorial have been known as 
 the learned professions. The different branches of the 
 engineering profession differ from each other to such 
 an extent that in some cases they have little in common, 
 except a knowledge of the general principles of physics, 
 chemistry, mechanics, or other sciences. The profes- 
 sion of the physician, it is true, is divided into many 
 specialties, but while the throat specialist deals with 
 the throat, the heart specialist with the heart, and 
 the stomach specialist with the stomach, they are all 
 dealing with the human body, in which all parts and 
 functions are closely interconnected. The lawyer, too, 
 no matter which of the many specialties of the profes- 
 sion he pursues, is always dealing with the law and its 
 administration. But even within the narrower field of 
 civil engineering, the railroad engineer and the irriga- 
 tion engineer, or the railroad engineer and the achitec- 
 tural engineer, deal with the application of entirely 
 different laws of nature and their work may have little 
 in common. Assuredly, Tredgold was right when he 
 said that the bounds of the profession are unlimited. 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 Attention has been called to the fact that, as civiliza- 
 tion advances, the various branches of engineering 
 developed, resulting in the differentiation of many 
 specialties. It may, however, be fairly claimed that 
 the development of engineering was not a result of the 
 advance of civilization, but the principal cause of it. 
 There has been much discussion by historians and so- 
 ciologists as to the causes of the progress of civiliza- 
 tion, and whether it has been due mainly to moral or to 
 material advances. Those who are accustomed to look 
 always at the moral aspect of phenomena, and who con- 
 trast the improved attitude toward moral questions 
 which exists in general to-day, as compared with past 
 centuries, are apt to believe that moral progress has 
 been the main element in the progress of civilization; 
 but when it is rememberd that in the teachings of the 
 ancient Greeks, Romans and other peoples there may 
 be found laid down as high standards of morality as 
 those that are now recognized; that the moral teach- 
 ings of the religions of the world to-day had their 
 origins centuries ago ; that human nature to-day, not- 
 withstanding all these moral teachings, remains essen- 
 tially the same as it has always been ; and that in fact 
 moral standards necessarily vary according to circum- 
 stances, such as time and place; it will probably be 
 perceived that what we call progress in civilization 
 has been mainly due to the advances in the applications 
 of the laws of nature, that is, to the work of the en- 
 gineer, and that any improvement in moral standards 
 and ideals follows as a result of these advances. 
 
24 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 No profession is, therefore, more important for the 
 welfare of the human race than engineering, not even 
 that of medicine, which has done so much for the alle- 
 viation of the physical suffering of mankind. None 
 has done more to promote the well-being and to advance 
 the best interests, material and moral, of the human 
 family. Preeminent among the agencies which have 
 been developed by the engineer and which have operated 
 for this advancement, are the invention of the printing 
 press and of the telegraph and the telephone, which 
 provide the means of the registration, communication, 
 and transmission of ideas ; the development of transpor- 
 tation, by railroad, highway and steamship; and the 
 various developments in manufacturing and industry 
 which make possible the economic production of the 
 fruits of the earth and the materials of mines and quar- 
 ries, and their fashioning into forms serviceable for the 
 use of man. It is these inventions and developments 
 which have quickened the moral tone of mankind and 
 led to such moral improvement as may have been 
 achieved. They have made the whole world kin. An 
 occurrence in almost any part of the world may now be 
 made known everywhere within a few hours. The prod- 
 ucts of one land are spread broadcast. No nation is 
 now isolated, but not only is it commercially in touch 
 with the whole world, but its acts, good or bad, are 
 quickly known, and arouse moral approbation or in- 
 dignation, as the case may be. 
 
 The engineer is, therefore, the true civilizer of man- 
 kind or the advance agent of civilization. If all that he 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 has accomplished in the last few centuries could be 
 wiped out, what would remain of our civilization? 
 That progress is primarily due to material and not to 
 moral causes, is evident from the fact that even the 
 advances due to the applied scientist do not prevent 
 the commission of grievous crimes, but are even seized 
 upon and made to serve in this twentieth century, in 
 the perpetuation, by so-called civilized nations, of as 
 great crimes as the history of the world can show. 
 
 A good illustration of the development of the en- 
 gineering profession is found in the history of the 
 noted French corps of government engineers known 
 as the Corps des Fonts et Chaussees. It was in the 
 time of Charles V that professional engineers were 
 first employed by the king to supervise public works, 
 particularly roads, which were known as the king's 
 highways. The corps experienced many vicissitudes, 
 some rulers appreciating their work while others did 
 not. In the time of Louis XIV, the engineers were 
 pushed into the background, the king reserving his 
 favor for the court architects. The architect. Man- 
 sard, was entrusted with the building of a bridge across 
 the Allier at Moulins, but he was unacquainted with 
 the principles of hydraulics, could not calculate the 
 volume and force of the water, and did not know how 
 to protect his bridge against floods, so that it collapsed 
 a few years later. This disaster was favorable to the 
 engineers, who pointed out that while it was the duty 
 of architects to build fine palaces, engineers should be 
 entrusted with the construction of public works where 
 
26 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 convenience and stability were of more importance 
 than elegance. The Corps des Fonts et Chaussees was 
 definitely and permanently organized between 1712 
 and 1716; and under Louis XV the noted Ecole des 
 Fonts et Chassees was constituted by royal decree 
 dated February 14, 1747. It was placed under the 
 direction of the engineer, Ferronet, who besides other 
 great works had built the beautiful Font de la Concorde 
 at Faris. At the beginning of the French Revolution, 
 it was proposed to abolish the corps, but this move 
 was defeated by Mirabeau, and instead the corps was 
 reorganized by several decrees. The corps is now 
 under the Department of Fublic Works. Five-sixths of 
 its engineers come from the Ecole des Fonts et Chaus- 
 sees, while one-sixth come from foremen, who, after ten 
 years* experience, are entitled to enter a competitive 
 examination and if successful may be appointed en- 
 gineers. 
 
 Ferronet remained director of the school for 47 
 years after it was founded in 1747. He died February 
 27, 1794. The following year the Ecole Folytechnique 
 was founded, giving a general scientific training pre- 
 paratory to the engineering school. The course in the 
 engineering school extends over three years, offering 
 free tuition in all courses, and state pupils are chosen 
 exclusively from those leaving the Ecole Folytechnique 
 and receive a salary during their stay in Faris. Dur- 
 ing each vacation they are required to spend three 
 and one-half months in practical work under the super- 
 vision of one of the engineers of the corps. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 In the previous chapter the development of the 
 various branches of engineering was discussed, and the 
 general field of civil engineering indicated. It should 
 be remarked that by some the field of civil engineering 
 is still considered to include all branches of engineering, 
 with the exception of military engineering. In Eng- 
 land, the "Institution of Civil Engineers'* includes 
 practitioners in all branches, and its discussions cover 
 subjects in mechanical engineering, electrical engineer- 
 ing, naval architecture, etc., perhaps to an almost 
 equal degree with civil engineering in its more restricted 
 sense. Nevertheless, it seems proper at this stage of 
 the development of the engineering profession, to re- 
 strict the field of civil engineering. In the present 
 chapter the various branches constituting civil en- 
 gineering in this restricted sense will be discussed, and 
 their extent and the character of the problems which 
 they offer will be pointed out. These fields, according 
 to the enumeration already given, are the following: 
 
 (1) Surveying and Geodesy 
 
 (2) Railroad Engineering 
 
 (3) Highway Engineering 
 
 (4) Hydraulic Engineering 
 
 27 
 
28 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 (5) Sanitary Engineering 
 
 (6) Structural Engineering 
 
 (7) Municipal Engineering 
 
 To these may be added the consideration of certain 
 branches which involve the relations between engineer- 
 ing and various economical and sociological problems, 
 which are now attracting considerable attention, such 
 as valuation and city planning. 
 
 1. Surveymg and Geodesy 
 
 Since engineering deals with works executed on the 
 surface of the earth, which works must be designed, 
 laid out, and constructed, it is clear that at its founda- 
 tion must lie the ability to measure and delineate cer- 
 tain portions of the earth's surface; in other words, to 
 make a survey and to represent the results upon a map. 
 
 Surveying is one of the first steps in any engineering 
 project. If a building is to be built, an accurate sur- 
 vey must be made of the land upon which it is to be 
 placed. The map showing the result of this survey, 
 should indicate all necessary measurements and should 
 show the relative elevation of different portions of the 
 area, and if necessary, the character of the surface and 
 of the objects upon it. The architect can then plan the 
 location and elevation of his building, and the engineer 
 can set the necessary stakes and lines preliminary to 
 the beginning of the work of construction. Surveying 
 involves, therefore, the measurement of areas supposed 
 to be projected upon a flat surface, also the mxasure- 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 29 
 
 ment of elevations. The notes of these measurements 
 are plotted upon a map with the degree of detail which 
 the conditions require. 
 
 A similar procedure must be followed if a bridge is 
 to be built, in order that the abutments and piers may 
 be located in precisely the desired places, and accurate 
 dimensions obtained for their design and that of the 
 superstructure. If the bridge is to cross a river, direct 
 measurements of the length may not be possible, and 
 measurements must be made upon one or both banks, 
 from which, by mathematical computations, the neces- 
 sary dimensions across the stream may be ascertained. 
 In the course of construction, the surveyor must be at 
 hand to see that the proper lines and grades are ob- 
 served. If a pier is to be built in mid-stream, the loca- 
 tion of the works must be indicated to those in charge 
 of the floating equipment, by observers stationed upon 
 the banks, who make the necessary measurements and 
 observations. 
 
 Extreme accuracy is sometimes required in the work 
 of the surveyor. If he is giving the lines or making 
 the surveys for a building where land is very expensive, 
 as for instance, in the business section of a great city, 
 an error of a small fraction of an inch may be a serious 
 matter, for if an owner proceeding to erect a building 
 on Wall Street in New York should discover that an ad- 
 joining owner had built his building so that it en- 
 croached even by a fraction of an inch upon the adjoin- 
 ing lot, an adjustment of the matter might involve 
 thousands of dollars. If the engineer is locating a 
 
30 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 bridge pier in mid-stream, extreme accuracy is equally 
 important in order that when the pier is built, the steel 
 superstructure which has been designed and built in 
 the bridge shop, may rest upon it in exactly the proper 
 position. 
 
 The work of the surveyor often involves extended 
 travel and severe exposure. In the construction of a 
 line of railroad, for instance, the first step is to make 
 a survey in order to ascertain where the line should be 
 placed. This decision is usually made by a locating 
 engineer, who, equipped with the necessary instruments, 
 travels on foot or on horseback, or by some other means 
 of conveyance, over the country in which the line may 
 be located, observing elevations, distances, and topo- 
 graphical configuration, and as a result of his decision, 
 the surveyors lay out the line, indicating the center 
 line by means of stakes, and when this line has been 
 finally located in a position satisfactory to the engineer, 
 it serves as a base for the work of construction. This 
 will be referred to later under the head of railroad en- 
 gineering, but it is here evident that where a line has 
 to be located in mountainous and otherwise difficult 
 country, the work of the surveyor may be arduous and 
 difficult. It should be noted, however, that the term 
 "surveyor" does not usually include an engineer who 
 does work of this kind, who is rather termed a railroad 
 engineer, although the operations which he performs 
 are those of surveying. The point to be observed is 
 that work of surveying is an essential preliminary to 
 almost any engineering project, that it involves ac- 
 
BRANCHES OE CIVIL ENGINEERING 31 
 
 curate and painstaking work in the open air, in which 
 an error of measurement may be attended by serious 
 consequences. The proper prosecution of this work, 
 and its representation upon paper, requires a knowl- 
 edge of mathematics, principally of the branches of 
 geometry and trigonometry. It also requires re- 
 sourcefulness on the part of the surveyor in order that 
 difficulties which are encountered may be properly met. 
 In laying down a straight line upon the ground, for 
 instance, if a building is encountered, the surveyor 
 must be able to pass around it and continue the straight 
 line on the other side. If he is laying out a railroad or 
 an irrigating flume through a ravine with precipitous 
 sides, he must be able to make the necessary measure- 
 ments and place the proper marks upon the ground. 
 The surveyor must, therefore, be active, athletic, 
 healthy, as well as resourceful and possessed of the 
 requisite mathematical knowledge. 
 
 The work of the surveyor, properly speaking, is 
 principally requisite in measuring or laying out par- 
 cels of land. The public lands of the United States are 
 laid out in sections of definite area, bounded by lines 
 running north and south and east and west. For the 
 proper laying out of these sections, county surveyors 
 are appointed by the government. In order to carry 
 on their work properly, it is frequently necessary for 
 them to be able to make such observations as will enable 
 them to determine the true meridian and also the posi- 
 tion of a given point on the earth's surface. They 
 must, therefore, have some knowledge of astronomy, 
 
32 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 so that they may be able to make observations at night 
 by the aid of the stars, and may run the lines in the 
 true directions. 
 
 An important branch of surveying is mine sur- 
 veying, which enables the surveyor, by dropping a 
 plumb line through a shaft, to run lines along subter- 
 ranean channels and drifts and to know just where these 
 lines lie below the surface, so that he can locate another 
 shaft on the surface, which may be carried down to meet 
 the underground workings. Similar operations are 
 necessary in the construction of tunnels for railroad 
 lines and other purposes. A survey of the surface of 
 the ground having first been made, it is decided that a 
 tunnel shall be built between two points fixed in position 
 on the map and on the ground. The surveyor must be 
 able, starting at these points on the surface of the 
 ground, to indicate the direction of the line for the 
 tunnel with such accuracy, both as to line and grade, 
 that it will be directed between the two desired points. 
 Sometimes the tunnel is begun at both ends, and the 
 construction carried on toward the center. If the sur- 
 vey is correct and the lines and grades properly given, 
 the two drifts come together with great accuracy. 
 Sometimes an intermediate shaft is located upon the line 
 of the tunnel and excavated from the surface to the 
 proper grade, and drifts carried from this shaft in one 
 or both directions to meet the drifts from the ends. 
 Inaccuracy in this work may have serious results, for 
 if the two tunnels from the two entrances should not 
 meet at the same elevation, or on the same line, but with 
 
BRA.NCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 83 
 
 a considerable lateral and vertical divergence, or either, 
 then the discrepancy would have to be corrected by ad- 
 ditional excavation, inasmuch as the size of the tunnel 
 is made only large enough to afford the requisite clear- 
 ance for the vehicles which are to pass through it. If 
 the tunnel should be in soft material, built with so- 
 called shields, and finished and lined as they progressed, 
 the adjustment of any considerable discrepancy might 
 be extremely difficult. Great accuracy is, therefore, 
 necessary in work of this kind, and when it is remem- 
 bered that the work underground must be based upon 
 measurements on the surface, and that in some cases 
 these surface measurements are indirect, as for instance, 
 where a tunnel passes under a body of water, the 
 seriousness and importance of accuracy is evident. 
 
 In the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel on the 
 Fitchburg Railroad in Massachusetts under Hoosac 
 Mountain a shaft was sunk from a point nearly mid- 
 way between the two ends, and the tunnel was built in 
 each direction from this shaft, as well as from the 
 two ends. The total length of the tunnel is 15,74<3 
 feet, or very closely 3 miles. When the drifts met, the 
 deviation at one meeting point was 5-16 of an inch and 
 at the other 9-16 of an inch, a remarkable example of 
 accurate underground surveying. 
 
 The East Boston Tunnel which passes under the 
 Harbor of Boston, connecting the city proper with 
 East Boston, is 5,176 feet long between the nearest 
 stations on each side. It is not straight, but on the 
 Boston side there is a curve 1,789 feet long with a ra- 
 
34 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 dius of 2,000 feet. The tunnel was built with a so-called 
 shield, which was pushed forvrard through the clay 
 of which the bottom of the Harbor consists, and behind 
 the shield, as it was pushed forward, the concrete which 
 formed the lining of the tunnel was placed. When con- 
 nections were made there was a deviation of 0.84* inch in 
 grade and 4* inches in line, which was considered satis- 
 factory. 
 
 Even in the early days remarkably accurate work 
 was done. In the construction of the Erie Canal, some 
 100 years ago, one of the engineers. Judge James 
 Geddes, made a survey between Rome, N. Y., and the 
 east end of Oneida Lake, embracing nearly 100 miles of 
 levelling, and the difference at the junction of the 
 levels was said to be less than 1 1-2 inches. 
 
 The accuracy which can be attained by skilled sur- 
 veyors, as evidenced by the above instances, is remark- 
 able, particularly when it is remembered that their work 
 is based upon measurements made on the surface of 
 ground, which is often undulating, and in which such 
 accuracy as may be obtained in a physical laboratory 
 is, of course, out of the question. Fog and smoke, also, 
 sometimes make accurate measurements difficult, as in 
 the case of the East Boston Tunnel. 
 
 When the operations of the surveyor cover such an 
 extended area that the curvature of the earth's surface 
 must be taken into account, that is to say, the figure 
 of the earth, the work is said to belong to the field of 
 geodesy. All ordinary surveying operations cover such 
 areas that they may be considered as projected upon 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 35 
 
 a horizontal plane, but where very large areas have 
 to be considered, the fact that the earth is a spheroid 
 has to be taken into account. The field of geodesy 
 involves some of the most complex and intricate opera- 
 tions and computations in the whole field of engineering, 
 and constitutes in reality a distinct science. In the 
 survey of a state, for instance, a base line has to be 
 measured with the utmost accuracy by the use of ap- 
 pliances such as micrometers, etc., like those used in 
 physical measurements in the laboratory. Such a 
 physical phenomenon as the temperature has to be 
 taken into account and corrected, and measurements 
 must be repeated again and again in order to eliminate 
 errors. This base line is located, if possible, on land 
 which is nearly level, so that errors due to differences 
 of elevation, may be, so far as possible, eliminated. 
 From this base line angular measurements are made to 
 distant points on mountain tops or on buildings, until 
 the entire state is covered by a net-work of triangles. 
 By means of the necessary computations, the state 
 boundaries may be marked by monuments, and the 
 sub-divisions, such as counties, may be also laid out. 
 Precise methods of leveling and other refinements, to- 
 gether with mathematical computations of great com- 
 plexity, are often necessary. 
 
 The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey has 
 in its charge the carrying on of measurements of this 
 kind, with the object of providing accurate maps of the 
 coasts and of the various parts of the country. The 
 United States Geological Survey also carries on much 
 
36 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 work of this kind, cooperating with the various states 
 in making state surveys. Among other problems upon 
 which the work of the Coast Survey throws some light, 
 and which have been the subject of its investigations, 
 is that of the precise shape or figure of the earth con- 
 sidered as a spheroidal body. 
 
 Geodesists have at various times, aided by astronom- 
 ical observations, computed the length of a degree of 
 latitude at different parts of the earth's surface. A 
 comparison of the results of such measurements show 
 that the length of a degree of latitude is not every- 
 where the same, and by studying the variations, as well 
 as by other measurements, the shape or figure of the 
 earth is found with considerable accuracy. 
 
 The work of the U. S. Coast Survey affords good 
 examples of the accuracy attainable at reasonable cost. 
 Greater accuracy would be possible, but the cost would 
 not justify it. This illustrates how the economic ele- 
 ment should enter into all engineering work. The 
 policy of the Coast Survey is to attain such accuracy 
 as is justified, and no greater. The following examples 
 may be given, for which I am indebted to Professor 
 John F. Hayford of Northwestern University, long 
 connected with the Survey, and to Messrs. William 
 Bowie and R. L. Faris, of the Survey. 
 
 In running a line of levels, determining the elevation 
 of different points and coming back to the starting 
 point, the line will generally not close, that is to say, 
 the level of the starting point will not be found at the 
 end to be what was assumed at starting. For precise 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 37 
 
 work in running levels between two points, each short 
 section of the line is run once in the forward direction 
 and once in a backward direction. The mean of the two 
 results is accepted if within the allowed tolerance. 
 
 In the loop San Diego-Brigham-San Francisco, the 
 closing error, as given by the unadjusted levels, is 
 0.2612 meters (about 0.86 ft.). The correction which 
 would close this circuit of 3,027 kilometers is 0.086 
 mm. per kilometer (about 0.0054 inch per mile). 
 Similarly, the correction which would close the circuit of 
 2,474 km. Reno-Brigham-Las Vegas-Reno, is 0.03 mm. 
 per km. Nearly all the precise levelling done by the 
 Survey in recent years closes loops with an average 
 of very little over 0.00052 ft. per mile (0.00624 in. per 
 mile). In triangulation, the average closing error of 
 a triangle for 66 sections of primary triangulation was 
 1.04 seconds. In measuring base lines, the probable 
 error of a modem base is 1 part in 3,000,000. 
 
 The topographic surveys made by the states, in 
 connection with the U. S. Geological Survey, which 
 show contour lines, are of great value to engineers in 
 connection with the location of roads and railways, 
 and also in studies of projects for water supply and 
 water power. 
 
 In connection with surveys, photography is playing 
 a more and more important part, and aerial photo- 
 graphs are also being used. A complete map of a city 
 may be made by taking aerial photographs and putting 
 them together. This is a promising future development. 
 
 The work of the surveyor or geodesist often involves 
 
38 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 public matters of importance, as in laying out town, 
 state, or national boundaries, as laid down in grants, 
 statutes, or treaties. In 1789, Major Andrew EUicott, 
 one of the early American surveyors, surveyed the 
 western boundary line of the State of New York, the 
 main object being to ascertain whether or not the town 
 of Erie, Pa. (then Presque Isle), was in New York. 
 The line was found to pass some twenty miles east of 
 Presque Isle, and the area in which that town was 
 situated was afterward purchased by Pennsylvania 
 from the United States. The same engineer, in 1790, 
 surveyed a large tract of land which had been sold to 
 one Robert Morris, adjoining a tract which had been 
 illegally leased from the Indians and the lease of which 
 had been declared void by the State of New York. 
 There was a dispute as to the boundaries of this area, 
 the boundary line, as run by the surveyor of the Lease 
 Co., being west of the present city of Geneva. Ellicott 
 found the true line to be as far east of Geneva as the 
 previous survey had found it west of that place, and 
 the difference made 84,000 acres in favor of Robert 
 Morris in what is now a very valuable and beautiful 
 portion of New York. In 1811 Ellicott ran the north- 
 em boundary of Georgia, and in 1817, by order of the 
 government, he made astronomical observations near 
 Montreal to aid in carrying into effect some of the 
 articles of the Treaty of Ghent. 
 
 In recent years, American topographical engineers 
 have been called upon to make surveys of territory in 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 39 
 
 dispute between Costa Rica and Panama, and more re- 
 cently to lay out the line as fixed by treaty. 
 
 2. Railroad Engineering 
 
 Of all branches of engineering, none are of more 
 benefit to the human race than those which improve 
 means of transportation. Macaulay in his History of 
 England, long ago, made the following striking state- 
 ment to this effect. He said: 
 
 "The chief cause which made the fusion of the different 
 elements of society (in 1685) so imperfect, was the ex- 
 treme diflSculty which our ancestors found in passing from 
 place to place. Of all inventions, the alphabet and the 
 printing press alone excepted, those inventions which 
 abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our 
 species. Every improvement in the means of locomotion 
 benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well as ma- 
 terially, and not alone facilitates the interchange of the 
 various productions of nature and art, but tends to remove 
 national and provincial antipathies and to bind together 
 all the branches of the great human family." 
 
 It is very important for the young man contemplat- 
 ing the choice of a profession to perceive clearly its 
 larger opportunities for service to the human race. It 
 is also important for all of us, old or young, to realize 
 the blessings which lie at our hand rather than to com- 
 plain that we do not possess others, or to criticize those 
 who have been the means of furnishing us with those we 
 have, because, like all human beings, they made some 
 mistakes. 
 
40 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 Prior to the railroad era, land transportation was 
 entirely by horse-drawn vehicles over roads which were, 
 in most cases, of miserable character. Macaulay gives 
 a striking description of the condition of the English 
 highways in the seventeenth century. He says: 
 
 "Those highways appear to have been much worse than 
 might have been expected from the degree of wealth and 
 civilization which the nation had even then attained. On 
 the best lines of communication^ the roads were deep^ the 
 descents precipitous, and the way often such as it was 
 hardly possibly to distinguish in the dusk from the un- 
 closed heath and fen which lay on both sides. Ralph 
 Thoresby, the antiquary, was in danger of losing his way 
 on the Great North Road of Barnby Moor and Tucksford, 
 and actually lost his way between Doncaster and York. 
 . . . Often the mud lay deep on the right and on the 
 left and only a narrow track of firm ground rose above 
 the quagmire. ... It happened almost every day that 
 coaches stuck fast until a team of cattle could be pro- 
 cured from some neighboring farm to tug them out of 
 the slough. But in bad seasons the traveler had to en- 
 counter inconveniences still more serious. Thoresby, who 
 was in the habit of traveling between Leeds and the 
 capital, has recorded in his diary such a series of perils 
 and disasters as might suffice for a journey to the frozen 
 ocean or to the Desert of Sahara. . . . The great road 
 through Wales to Holyhead was in such a state that in 
 1685 a viceroy going to Ireland, was five hours in traveling 
 fourteen miles from St. Asaph to Conway. Between Con- 
 way and Beaumaris he was forced to walk a great part of 
 the way and his lady was carried in a litter. In gen- 
 eral, carriages were taken to pieces at Conway and borne 
 on the shoulders of stout Welsh peasants to the Menai 
 Straits. In some parts of Kent and Sussex none but the 
 strongest horses could in winter get through the bog in 
 which at every step they sank deep. The markets were 
 often inaccessible during several months. It is said that 
 
BRANCHES OF CIYIL ENGINEERING 41 
 
 the fruits of the earth were sometimes suffered to rot in 
 one place, while in another place, distant only a few 
 miles, the supply fell far short of the demand. . . . 
 
 "When Prince George of Denmark visited the stately 
 mansion of Pelworth in wet weather, he was six hours in 
 going nine miles, and it was necessary that a body of 
 sturdy hinds should be on each side of his coach in order 
 to prop it. Of the carriages which conveyed his retinue, 
 several were upset and injured." 
 
 We do not now realize the difficulties of transpor- 
 tation in this country a generation ago or a hundred 
 years ago. About 1770 President Quincy, of Harvard 
 College, described a stage journey between Boston and 
 New York; — it required a week of hard traveling. 
 In 1775, when Washington came to take command of 
 the American Army, he was twelve days in coming from 
 Philadelphia to Cambridge. 
 
 The stages in those days left very early in the morn- 
 ing, usually at 5 o'clock, but sometimes at 4, and 
 sometimes even at 2. In 1826, Josiah Quincy traveled 
 from Boston to New York in 4 days, and from New 
 York to Washington in 4 more. At this period there 
 was a law in New England prohibiting traveling on 
 Sunday, except from necessity or charity, and this 
 law was not repealed until 1887. There is an interest- 
 ing story with regard to the enforcement of this law 
 in the town of Andover, Mass. 
 
 "The good people of that town being very much disturbed 
 by wicked violations of the law, determined to have it 
 strictly enforced, and appointed a worthy deacon to see 
 that the officers performed their duties. He accordingly 
 denied himself the privilege of going to church, and sta- 
 
42 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 tioned himself with the officers at a toll gate just outside 
 the town. A gentleman traveling in a carriage was 
 stopped and told that he could go no farther. With great 
 courtesy he said: 'Gentlemen, I am fully aware of the 
 provisions of law, and, of course, it is proper that you 
 should enforce them, but you must remember that those 
 people are excepted who travel from necessity or charity. 
 Now, gentlemen, the fact is that my mother is lying dead 
 in Boston and I ask that I may be permitted to pass.' 
 After consultation they allowed him to pass. When he had 
 reached a safe distance, he stopped and called back, 'Don't 
 forget to tell the good people of Andover that you per- 
 mitted me to pass because my mother is lying dead in 
 Boston, and you may add, also, if you please, that she has 
 been lying dead there for some twenty years.' " 
 
 When General Grant left his home in Georgetown, 
 Ohio, in 1839, to go to West Point, there were no tele- 
 graphs, no railroads west of the Allegheny Mountains, 
 and but few east. He went by boat on the Ohio to 
 Pittsburgh in three days, although he suffered no vexa- 
 tious delays, which were common, sometimes lasting 
 two or three days. From Pittsburgh he went to Harris- 
 burg by canal, the canal boats being carried over the 
 mountains on inclined planes. At Harrisburg he took 
 the railroad and proceeded at a speed averaging 12 
 miles an hour, which to him "Seemed like annihilating 
 space." The roads of those times, at any rate in New 
 England, were almost without exception absolutely 
 straight, veering neither to the right nor to the left. 
 When a hill was in the way, they went over it. The 
 charters of the turnpike corporations, in defining the 
 route, generally required that the road should be built 
 nearly straight, or as straight as possible. It 
 
BRANCHES OF CIYIL ENGINEERING 43 
 
 was not realized that it is sometimes as far, and almost 
 always a great deal harder, to go over a hill than 
 around its base. On the Salem Turnpike a very small 
 but peculiarly deep pond was encountered. The build- 
 ers would not go around it, but built a floating bridge 
 over it, which is still in use.* 
 
 The facilities for traveling were not as great as in 
 the time of the ancient Romans. Gibbon tells us of the 
 excellence of the Roman roads and of a magistrate, 
 who, in the time of Theodosius, traveled from Antioch 
 to Constantinople, a distance of 665 English miles, in 
 6 days. Gibbon says, "Houses were everywhere erected 
 at a distance of only 5 or 6 miles, and each of them 
 was constantly provided with 40 horses, and by the 
 help of these relays it was easy to travel 100 miles a 
 day along the Roman roads.'* 
 
 Yet in 1826, as Mr. Quincy tells us, when the journey 
 from Boston to New York required 4 days, travelers 
 "congratulated themselves upon living in the days of 
 rapid communication" and "looked with commiseration 
 upon the condition of our fathers, who were wont to 
 consume a whole week in traveling between those 
 cities." 
 
 During the era just preceeding the advent of the 
 railway, many canals were built in the United States. 
 In 1792, a charter was granted for a canal from the 
 
 * A good deal of very interesting information regarding these 
 matters is contained in a 'paper by Hon. George G. Crocker, pub- 
 lished in 1900, entitled "From the Stage Coach to the Railroad 
 Train and the Street Car." This paper has been largely used in 
 the preparation of this article. It will well repay study. 
 
M THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 Connecticut River to Boston, but it was not built. In 
 the following year, a charter was granted for a canal 
 from the Merrimac to near Boston. This Middlesex 
 Canal was opened in 1803 and continued in use for 
 about 50 years. It was 27 miles long, 30 feet wide, 
 and 4 feet deep, and boats traveled at the rate of about 
 2 miles per hour. The opening of the Erie Canal in 
 1825 revived the agitation in favor of canals, and the 
 legislature of Massachusetts appointed a committee 
 to consider the feasibility of a canal, not simply be- 
 tween Boston and the Connecticut River, but between 
 Boston and the Hudson River. The Committee reported 
 that such a canal was feasible and advisable. The 
 estimated cost was $6,000,000. The committee recom- 
 mended that the funds should be raised by a lottery 
 run by the state. 
 
 In 1826, Gridley Bryant obtained a charter from 
 the Legislature of Massachusetts to build a railroad 
 from the granite quarries in Quincy to the Neponset 
 River, for the purpose of carrying the stone to be used 
 in the construction of Bunker Hill Monument. This 
 road was built and put in operation in October, 1826. 
 It was built with stone ties and was operated by horses. 
 It was not the first railroad in America, some small 
 ones having been built previously by laying scrap rails 
 on wooden stringers, all for horse operation. In 
 1827-28 some short lines were built for carrying coal 
 in Pennsylvania. In 1829, Horatio Allen made a re- 
 port to the Directors of the South Carolina Railroad 
 recommending operation by locomotive steam power. 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 45 
 
 This was, consequently, the first railroad which was 
 authorized to be built expressly for locomotive steam 
 power. The directors of the Livei-pool and Manchester 
 Railroad in England had not determined at that time 
 what power should be used. 
 
 The charter of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was 
 granted in 1828 and a portion of the road was opened 
 in 1830, operated by horses. In 1829 a commission 
 reported to the Massachusetts Legislature recommend- 
 ing the construction of a railroad to the Hudson 
 River, the tracks to be laid on two parallel stone walls 
 surmounted by a rail of granite with a bar of iron on 
 the top to form the tracks. This commission recom- 
 mended operation by horses and suggested that a plat- 
 form on wheels be provided for long down-grades, 
 on which the horse himself might ride down hill. The 
 same expedient has been actually used on one or two 
 short roads in the United States within 20 years, in 
 which a tram car was provided with a rear platform 
 on which the horse could ride down hill. 
 
 Some of these early roads contemplated the opera- 
 tion of railroads in a manner similar to that of turn- 
 pikes, the idea being that any person could drive his 
 cart or carriage on this road, only horse-power being 
 thought of. 
 
 Mr. Crocker gives an interesting brief account of 
 the development of the steam locomotive, which is as 
 good a brief account as the writer is acquainted with. 
 
 The modem railway is thus less than a century old. 
 The earliest English railways, namely, the tramways 
 
46 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 on the Tyne and Tees, were built to carry coal. The 
 first passenger line was that between Stockton and 
 Darlington, a distance of 12 miles, which was opened 
 for traffic in 1825. When this line was first considered 
 passengers were not thought of, and it was only while 
 the works were in progress that the starting of a pas- 
 senger coach was seriously contemplated. A coach 
 called "The Experiment" was built and drawn by one 
 horse. The first act providing for the construction of 
 this line required that it should be free to all parties 
 who chose to use it at prescribed rates, and that any- 
 one could put horses and wagons on the railway and 
 carry for himself. The first considerable passenger 
 line was that between Liverpool and Manchester, which 
 was opened in 1830. Before its opening there was much 
 dispute as to whether it should be operated by loco- 
 motives or by stationary engines. Finally the direc- 
 tors decided in favor of locomotives and offered a prize 
 of £500 for a locomotive which should best fulfill cer- 
 tain requirements, the chief of which were that the 
 engine must consume its own smoke, attain a speed of 
 10 miles an hour with a boiler pressure of not over 
 50 pounds, and must haul a load fixed in proportion to 
 its weight. A memorable competition was held at 
 Rainhill in October, 1829, and was won by Stephenson's 
 "Rocket," which hauled a coach containing 30 passen- 
 gers at the rate of 26 to 30 miles an hour. The 
 *'Rocket'* weighed, with coal and water, 4% tons. 
 
 The first locomotive built in the United States and 
 operated on a track without a rack rail was the "Tom 
 
BRANCHES OF CITIL ENGINEERING 47 
 
 Thumb," which was run upon the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Railroad in 1829. On its first trip it had a race with 
 a car drawn by a horse, which was won by the horse. 
 
 From these early days of the railroad, within the 
 short space of less than a century, the modern railroad 
 has been developed by the genius of engineers, until 
 to-day, as everybody knows, every civilized country is 
 traversed by these iron roads, on which locomotives 
 operate, that weigh, with their tenders, over 200 tons, 
 and run at speeds of over 60 miles per hour. The con- 
 struction and operation of these roads is a field of the 
 civil engineer. 
 
 Although most civilized countries are now adequately 
 provided with railroads, there are still many more to 
 be built in undeveloped countries, and even the existing 
 roads must be enlarged and provided with increased 
 facilities in the way of additional tracks, terminals, 
 equipment, signals, etc. South America has but few 
 miles of railroad in proportion to its area, and it is 
 not long since a line over the Andes connecting Chile 
 and the Argentine Republic was completed. Even in 
 our neighboring country of Canada two new transcon- 
 tinental lines have been built within about 10 years, one 
 of them aff'ording a continuous line of rails across the 
 continent with a grade of not over 0.4 per cent from 
 Winnipeg to the Pacific Coast. The great Canadian 
 Pacific line from Montreal to Vancouver, a distance of 
 2,906 miles, was begun in 1874 and formally opened 
 in 1886. This line, as most people know, was at first 
 built with heavy grades, but within recent years, by the 
 
48 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 construction of tunnels, some of these built in loops 
 so that there is a corkscrew within a mountain, this 
 line has reduced its grades to reasonable modem limits. 
 On some of our mountain roads these loops, twists and 
 turns are very common because of the necessity of 
 rising a considerable vertical distance in a very short 
 horizontal distance, and sometimes four levels of rail- 
 way can be seen from a single point. 
 
 Not only does the engineer build railroads over 
 mountain ranges by means of tunnels, spirals, and 
 loops, but he carries the iron horse to the very tops 
 of mountain peaks, by means of the so-called rack 
 rail. A continuous rack is laid between the two rails, 
 and a pinion on the locomotive engages with this rack, 
 so that the locomotive is able to haul a light load up 
 a very steep incline. Everybody is familiar with the 
 rack railroad leading to the top of Pike's Peak, and 
 travelers in Europe are familiar with similar roads up 
 the Rigi and Mount Pilatus, and other Swiss moun- 
 tains. The engineer goes further. He carries passen- 
 gers in suspended cars carried by wheels overhead 
 running on a cable or a track, not only over the city 
 streets, as in Elberfeld in Germany, but to the lower 
 summits in Switzerland. 
 
 With the expansion of transportation, and especi- 
 ally with the need of rapid transportation in cities, 
 elevated and underground roads have been built, as 
 in Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin, London, Paris, 
 and other cities. In New York City the subway system 
 is very extensive, and near the Grand Central Station 
 
BRANCHES OF CIYIL ENGIiNTlERING 49 
 
 there are four levels of transportation, one above the 
 other. Tunnels are built to carry high speed trains 
 under the Thames at London, the Mersey at Liverpool, 
 the Hudson at New York, the St. Clair at Detroit, 
 and with the advent of electric power, there is no doubt 
 that at some time there will be a tunnel under the 
 English Channel. The St. Gothard Tunnel in Switz- 
 erland is 9-1/3 miles long; the Mont Cenis Tunnel is 
 8-1/4 miles long, and the latest tunnel, the Simplon, 
 is 12-1/4 miles long. There are 52 tunnels on the 
 line between Florence and Bologna, and more than that 
 on some of the mountain roads in the United States. 
 
 When the Union Pacific Railroad was built and ar- 
 rived at Salt Lake, it found that great body of water 
 lying directly across its path. The possibility of 
 carrying the line across the lake was considered but 
 given up, and the road was diverted to the north 
 around the shores over a steep and crooked route. 
 When Mr. Edward H. Harriman obtained control of 
 the road he approved a project to build the so-called 
 Lucin Cut-off, which runs straight from Ogden over the 
 lake on a trestle nearly 12 miles long and on 20 miles 
 of fiU. This cut-off saves 43 miles of distance and 
 eliminates much curvature and many steep grades, but 
 it was not constructed without many difficulties and 
 much discouragement, over all of which the engineer 
 triumphed, until in 1903 the new line was opened. 
 
 Notwithstanding the substantial completion of our 
 lines of railroad, they still require the expenditure of 
 almost as much money on new construction, for im- 
 
50 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 provements and enlargements, as at any time in the 
 past. The civil engineer is the man who designs and 
 carries through this work. He must have the vision 
 to see possibilities; he must have the financial acumen 
 to determine whether they are worth while; he must 
 have the power of convincing others, which will enable 
 him to secure the approval of his plans ; he must have 
 the executive ability and the power of controlling 
 other men, to enable him to carry them to a successful 
 completion. 
 
 One of the greatest wonders in connection with rail- 
 roads is the safety with which they are operated. We 
 occasionally hear of a railroad wreck in which many 
 people are killed, and we are thrilled with horror ! We 
 do not stop to think or to learn that more people are 
 killed by street cars, by automobiles, or even by light- 
 ning, than are killed by railroads. The safety of their 
 operation is remarkable when fairly considered. By 
 means of automatic signals, by means of brakes which 
 can stop a train moving at 60 miles per hour within a 
 distance of 1,060 feet, and by safety appliances of many 
 kinds, the danger of railroad travel has been so reduced 
 that it is almost negligible, and yet there is still abun- 
 dant opportunity for providing greater safety. Many 
 lines are inadequately provided with signals and other 
 safety appliances. The field and the prospects for the 
 railroad engineer are continually growing. Moreover, 
 the civil engineer, who engages in railroad work, may 
 now look forward, if he is deserving, of being called 
 upon, not only to construct, but to direct and manage 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 51 
 
 the operations of our railroads. Not a few railroad 
 presidents have come up from the corps of engineers, 
 and if the civil engineer, instead of confining himself to 
 narrow technical details, as he too often does, will study 
 the questions of railroad management and financial 
 policy, he will find abundant opportunity for the exer- 
 cise of talents of the highest order. 
 
 3. Highway Engineering 
 
 The construction of roads is one of the oldest 
 branches of engineering. The Romans built an elabo- 
 rate system of roads, having a roadbed which is said to 
 have been in some cases 4 feet thick, with large stones 
 at the bottom. This is much thicker than is even now 
 necessary. The Romans also built stone arches and 
 aqueducts that have endured until the present day. 
 
 Gibbon tells us that all the cities were connected with 
 each other, and with the capital, by public highways ; 
 the great chain of communication from the wall of 
 Antoninus in Britain, to Rome, and thence to Jerusa- 
 lem, having a length of 3,74*0 English miles. 
 
 In the middle ages the roads were neglected, and 
 even up to the middle of the 18th century the roads in 
 every country of Europe were in a frightful condition. 
 About that time, Tresaguet, in France, began the con- 
 struction of the modem system of roads which have be^ 
 come famous ; and McAdam and Telford, in England, 
 gave their attention to the subject. Tresaguet used 
 a foundation of large stones, with a surface of smaller 
 
52 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEEEING 
 
 stones. McAdam placed his surface of broken stone 
 directly upon the prepared ground, without stone foun- 
 dation, a surface known by his name, modified to 
 *'macadam." Telford modified McAdam's construction 
 by adding a foundation similar to that which Tresa- 
 guet had used earlier. Since then the construction 
 of roads has steadily increased, and it is recognized 
 that the excellence of its roads is a good measure of 
 the civilization of a country. The growth of cities, too, 
 has led to the introduction of many forms of street 
 pavement. 
 
 The business of the highway engineer is to know how 
 to locate, construct and maintain roads and pave- 
 ments. Many roads have been badly located, running 
 in too nearly straight lines, up hill and down, without 
 sufficient reference to grade. It was not realized that 
 a road over a hill may be longer, as well as much harder 
 than one around its base. Since a grade limits the load 
 that can be hauled, many roads have had to be re- 
 located, or the grades have been made easier by cut- 
 ting the summits and filling the hollows. 
 
 The proper construction and drainage of a road is 
 important, and the engineer must know how to make use 
 of available materials in a way to secure economy of 
 original cost and of maintenance. He must know the 
 physical and chemical qualities of the various materials, 
 and how to test them. The kinds of materials and of 
 roads are numerous. First there is the ordinary dirt 
 or gravel road, which, if properly constructed and 
 
BRANCHES OE CIVIL ENGINEERING 53 
 
 maintained, is about as pleasant as any to ride over, 
 except for dust and sometimes mud; then there is the 
 macadam road with a surface of broken stone, properly 
 screened and rolled, and with a surface binder; then 
 there is the same with a Telford foundation of heavy 
 stones, which is better suited for severe trafSc; then 
 there is the concrete surface which has recently come 
 into use; and finally there are the various bituminous 
 materials now used for roads. The use of these bitu- 
 minous materials has come within recent years, and has 
 practically opened an entire new field to the highway 
 engineer, requiring a knowledge of the chemical prop- 
 erties of these materials in order to secure proper re- 
 sults. For city streets there are numerous materials 
 and forms of construction, such as wood blocks, stone 
 blocks, brick, macadam, asphalt, bituminous concrete, 
 and cement concrete, each applicable under certain con- 
 ditions and varying in cost and wearing power. 
 
 Since the advent of the automobile the interest in 
 good roads has received a great impetus, and great 
 sums are being expended by the states and by the na- 
 tional government for road construction. The first 
 state to create a state Highway Commission was Mas- 
 sachusetts, which established such a commission in 
 1893, though other states had previously appropriated 
 money for road construction. Many states now have 
 such Commissions, which cooperate with the U. S. 
 Government in the expenditure of money for road con- 
 struction. Massachusetts has expended for road con- 
 
54 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 struction approximately the following' sums in the 
 years specified, which give an idea of the increasing 
 importance of this subject: 
 
 In 1895 construction $400,000; 
 1900 " 500,000; 
 
 1905 " 450,000; maintenance $60,000 
 
 1910 " 500,000; " 503,627 
 
 1915 " 1,000,000; " 1,004,006 
 
 1920 " 1,000,000; " 2,916,650 
 
 "In 20 years the State has expended for the construc- 
 tion of state highways and local roads $23,000,000, and 
 for maintenance $15,000,000, a total of $38,000,000. The 
 cost of state highways has increased from $6,800 per mile 
 in 1895 to an average cost for the modern road in 1921 
 of approximately $45,000 per mile." 
 
 The Bureau of Public Roads of the Department of 
 Agriculture gives the following table of funds reported 
 as available for highway construction in 1921, which 
 will give some idea of the magnitude of the road con- 
 struction program: 
 
 Funds Available for Road 
 State and Bridge Expenditures, 1921 
 
 Alabama $9,000,000 
 
 Arizona 8,000,000 
 
 Arkansas 12,000,000 
 
 California 26,000,000 
 
 Colorado 7,000,000 
 
 Connecticut 8,000,000 
 
 Delaware 3,500,000 
 
 Florida 7,725,000 
 
 Georgia 10,000,000 
 
 Idaho 4,500,000 
 
 Illinois 20,000,000 
 
 Indiana 9,500,000 
 
BBANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 55 
 
 State 
 Iowa 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Montana 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New Mexico 
 
 New York 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 North Dakota 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Oklahoma 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Utah 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Washington 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 Fxmds Available for Road 
 and Bridge Expenditures, 1921 
 
 $37,000,000 
 20,000,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 7,500,000 
 
 4,800,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 20,000j000 
 20,000,000 
 11,000,000 
 15,000,000 
 
 8,500,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 2,500,000 
 16,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 55,000,000 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 7,000,000 
 35,000,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 10,000,000 
 30,000,000 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 7,000,000 
 10,275,000 
 
 60,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 10,000,000 
 14,000,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 19,500,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 Total 
 
 $622,000,000 
 
5Q THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 The approximate total cash expenditures for roads 
 and bridges, for all the states, is stated as follows : * 
 
 In 1904 
 
 $59,527,170 
 
 1914 
 
 240,263,784 
 
 1917 
 
 279,915,332 
 
 I9I8 
 
 286,101,198 
 
 1919 
 
 389,455,932 
 
 Many states have now hundreds or thousands of 
 miles of magnificent roads of concrete, bituminous ma- 
 terial, or macadam, over which not only a vast pleasure 
 traffic passes, but a large tonnage in trucks, some of 
 these trucks weighing as much as 20 tons loaded. 
 
 These figures will serve to show the growing impor- 
 tance of road construction, and the magnitude of the 
 field it opens to the civil engineer. 
 
 It is sometimes claimed that the motor truck should 
 replace the freight car for freight transportation for 
 short hauls, and that it can economically do so. The 
 writer considers this a great mistake. The cost of 
 transportation by truck is much greater per mile than 
 the cost by rail, especially if the cost of road con- 
 struction and maintenance is considered, as, of course, 
 it should be. It is easy to prove any statement if 
 suitable elements of the problem are omitted from con- 
 sideration. The interest and amortization charged on 
 the cost of roads, and the cost of maintenance, should, 
 of course, be apportioned to the traffic carried, in 
 order to estimate properly the cost of transportation. 
 These charges are high, and there is no doubt that 
 
 * "Public Roads," September, 1920, p. 12. 
 
BRANCHES OI! CIVIL ENGINEERING 57 
 
 traffic by heavy truck is largely responsible for the 
 wear of a road. 
 
 Transportation of freight by rail, unless freight is 
 loaded directly from its source at one end into a freight 
 car on a siding, and similarly unloaded at the other 
 end, involves trucking at each end, the cost of which 
 must be considered. A manufacturing establishment 
 may, therefore, distribute its products more economic- 
 ally by truck than by rail within a certain limited 
 distance. The question is, what is the cost from source 
 to destination? In estimating this cost, the cost of 
 roads and their maintenance should not be omitted, or 
 the estimate may be grossly in error. This error is 
 sometimes made in comparing the cost of transporta- 
 tion by canal with that by rail, and the cost by canal 
 is sometimes taken as the mere cost of haulage, the 
 interest on the cost of construction and the mainte- 
 nance charges being entirely omitted, because they are 
 paid by the state or the government. The railroad 
 company has to pay its overhead charges and the in- 
 terest on its fixed obligations, so that such a com- 
 parison is, of course, of no value. 
 
 The heavy motor truck has its proper functions, 
 but with the popular enthusiasm for automobiles, we 
 are apt to go too far, and to overestimate their im- 
 portance and economy. The railroad is and will always 
 remain, under normal and proper conditions, the most 
 modern and economical method of transporting freight. 
 While this does not detract from the importance of 
 good roads, there does seem some danger that the road- 
 
58 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 building program will be over-extended, as was the case 
 with canal building a hundred years ago, as will be 
 noticed, and that some states will find themselves unduly 
 and unhappily overburdened with financial obligations 
 for such construction. Balance and a clear vision are 
 necessary in this, as in all things. The sum of $622,- 
 000,000 for road construction, as given in the table on 
 page 55, is an enormous sum, and it may well be that 
 it is in part extravagant and unreasonable, though 
 the writer cannot prove that it is. Especially at the 
 present time, when the world is trying to recover from 
 the greatest cataclysm in history, it is necessary to 
 practice economy — individual, municipal, and state — 
 to keep our feet on the ground, and to indulge in no 
 schemes of public expenditure that cannot be proved to 
 be self-supporting or fully justified by benefits to be 
 received. 
 
 4?. Hifdraidic Engmeering 
 
 This branch of the profession, as its name implies, 
 deals with problems involving the use and control of 
 water. Certain branches, such as water supply and 
 sewerage, which deal largely with questions of the 
 public health, and those involving chemistry and bac- 
 teriology in their relations to disease, are properly in- 
 cluded in the field of sanitary engineering, and are 
 described under that head. What is left of hydraulic 
 engineering, however, is still a very extensive field, 
 covering : 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 59 
 
 (a) The development of water power. 
 
 (b) The regulation of rivers, including the control and 
 
 prevention of floods. 
 
 (c) Canals. 
 
 (d) Coast and harbor works. 
 
 (e) Irrigation engineering. 
 
 (f) Reclamation of marsh lands. 
 
 (a) The development of water power is one of the 
 most important branches of hydraulic engineer'ing, 
 and one of the most important for the progress of 
 civilization. This is an age of power, in which almost 
 every industry is dependent upon the use of power. 
 The only methods of generating power are by the 
 combustion of fuel and the utilization of water power. 
 Every pound of fuel which is burned is lost forever, 
 and can never be replaced; nevertheless, the consump- 
 tion of fuel, including coal and oil, has been increasing 
 at a tremendous rate, and if this rate of increase 
 continues the available supplies, so far as are now 
 known, will certainly be exhausted at some future time, 
 which is perhaps not very far off, historically speak- 
 ing. What the world will do when that time comes is 
 problematical ; perhaps other supplies will be discov- 
 ered, or other methods of generating power, as, for in- 
 stance, from the sun or by some chemical means. The 
 patent fact, however, is that fuels are exhaustible and 
 cannot be replaced. 
 
 On the other hand, every pound of water that falls 
 over a rapid or waterfall generates a power which, if 
 not used, is lost forever; but other pounds of water 
 
60 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 will continue to fall over that rapid to supply the place 
 of that which has been lost. It may therefore be said 
 that every pound of fuel which is burned is lost forever, 
 while every pound of falling water not utilized is lost 
 forever, though other pounds of water take its place. 
 The desirability of developing water power and con- 
 serving our fuel supply is, therefore, evident. Such 
 development should be encouraged in every possible 
 way. Unfortunately, the fixed investment in a water 
 power plant is larger than that of the steam plant of 
 the same capacity, so that the fixed charges are greater, 
 although the operating expenses are less in the case 
 of water power. The large fixed charges, and the fact 
 that a water power plant can only be used for one pur- 
 pose, have been the causes of the lack of success of 
 some water power developments. Then, too, the atti- 
 tude of some states and of the United States Govern- 
 ment, instead of encouraging the development of water 
 power, has distinctly discouraged it by placing upon it 
 various restrictions, burdens and taxes. With the in- 
 creasing cost of fuel, however, and a more enlightened 
 public sentiment, it is probable that in the future the 
 development of water power will be encouraged. It is 
 now possible to transmit power by electricity for a dis- 
 tance of some 500 miles from its source. Therefore, 
 although a water power may be located in an inacces- 
 sible mountain district, it may be transmitted and uti- 
 lized a long distance away, or it may be used for electri- 
 fying railroads passing through the mountains. 
 
 The development of water power requires a thorough 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 61 
 
 acquaintance with the laws of hydrology, that is to say, 
 of rain fall, the flow of streams, and the effect of reser- 
 voirs ; it requires a great deal of structural work in 
 connection with the construction of dams, canals, flumes 
 or aqueducts ; and it also requires the work of the 
 electrical and mechanical engineer in the planning of 
 the machinery for power development and the trans- 
 mission lines. Sometimes, by taking advantage of a 
 bend in a river, the building of a short canal will 
 permit the development of a very large power. In 
 France and other foreign countries the development 
 of water power is receiving much attention, and a 
 project has been prepared for making the River Rhone 
 navigable from its mouth to Lake Geneva, and for de- 
 veloping, incidentally, a very large amount of water 
 power, which can be transmitted to the manufacturing 
 cities of France or used for electrifying the railroads. 
 This branch of civil engineering is most interesting and 
 will offer increasing opportunities. 
 
 (b) The next three branches which have been named 
 have largely to do with transportation by water. 
 Rivers may be made navigable by the construction of 
 locks and dams ; canals may be built for inland naviga- 
 tion, as well as for sea-going vessels, as in the case of 
 the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal; and coast and 
 harbor works are needed for the protection of shores 
 and for facilitating commerce. 
 
 The various uses of a river are in a measure interde- 
 pendent. The development of a water power on a river 
 may be connected with rendering it navigable, with 
 
62 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 regulating its flow, with the use of the water for irri- 
 gation, and for the water supply of cities. The proper 
 use for one of these purposes may be consistent or in- 
 consistent with its proper use for another. The proper 
 regulation of a stream for the development of power 
 requires that the reservoirs, if there are any, should 
 be drawn upon in such a way as to permit an equable 
 flow. The best use for irrigation may require a some- 
 what diff^erent utilization of the reservoirs. All these 
 various uses of water must be understood by the 
 hydraulic engineer, and he must be able to study a large 
 project or carry on a given work in such a way as 
 to permit of the best development. 
 
 The prevention and control of floods is an important 
 subject for the hydraulic engineer. Some rivers have 
 an equable flow and rise but little in times of flood ; 
 others, like the Ohio River, have a difference of level of 
 60 or 70 feet between high water and low water. In 
 1913 large areas in the states of Ohio and Indiana were 
 visited by an extraordinary flood which destroyed great 
 amounts of property. Since that time a Flood Com- 
 mission has been created to study the problem and de- 
 vise means for regulating the flow of the streams and 
 controlling the floods so that there will be as little 
 danger from them as possible. Movable dams are 
 used on some streams, which may be raised or lowered 
 as required. 
 
 (c) Canals are an important branch of engineering 
 for the hydraulic engineer. The most obvious oppor- 
 tunity for a canal is, of course, to cut across a narrow 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 63 
 
 isthmus separating two seas on which vessels of deep 
 draft navigate. Instances of this are the Suez Canal 
 and the Panama Canal ; similar instances are the Wel- 
 land Canal between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and 
 the Sault Sainte Marie Canal between Lake Superior 
 and Lake Michigan; all of which connect bodies of 
 water of considerable depth. Tihe construction of 
 such a canal may save several thousands of miles of 
 deep water transportation. 
 
 The Pharaohs dug a canal from the northern ex- 
 tremity of the Red Sea or the Gulf of Suez westward to 
 the nearest branch of the Nile in the eastern Delta 
 where the river divides into a number of mouths, so that 
 ships from the Mediterranean could sail up the eastern- 
 most mouth of the Nile, enter the canal, pass through 
 it and reach the Red Sea. Thus the Suez Canal was 
 anticipated some 4,000 years ago by the ancient Egyp- 
 tians. As everybody knows, the present canal was 
 carried through largely by the efforts of the French 
 financier, De Lesseps, not on the location above de- 
 scribed, but straight across from the northern ex- 
 tremity of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. This 
 canal shortened the distance from London or Liverpool 
 to India by several thousand miles, and was a monument 
 to the engineers who carried it out. It is interesting to 
 note, however, that Robert Stephenson, perhaps the 
 most noted engineer of the last century, opposed its 
 construction, maintaining that it was impracticable. 
 It is obvious that even the greatest engineers sometimes 
 make mistakes. 
 
64 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 The Panama Canal was first projected by French 
 engineers, but after several attempts, was given up by 
 them and completed by the United States Government. 
 Like the Suez Canal, it saves thousands of miles of 
 ocean transportation, between ports of the North At- 
 lantic and ports in the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Canals for inland navigation have at times been very 
 extensively constructed, and have required the services 
 of many engineers. Before the era of the railroad the 
 only means of transportation were by common road and 
 by water. Transportation by canal was cheaper than 
 by road, and in the early part of the last century 
 many canals were constructed both in England and in 
 this country. Some of the states of the Union appro- 
 priated large sums for canal construction, believing 
 that they were laying the foundations for future 
 greatness. Most of these canals, however, have now 
 been abandoned. The only canal for internal naviga- 
 tion — aside from those connecting deep waters — ^which 
 has survived in the United States is the Erie Canal. 
 The first Erie Canal was 28 feet wide at the bottom, 
 40 feet wide on top, and 4 feet deep, with locks 90 feet 
 by 12 feet. At the time it was built it was the longest 
 canal in the world, built in the shortest time, with the 
 least experience, for the least money, and to the 
 greatest public benefit. By affording a means of trans- 
 portation between the Hudson River and the Great 
 Lakes it may even be said that some of the states be- 
 yond the Mississippi River almost owed their existence 
 to it. At one time, in the amount of its transportation 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 65 
 
 and tonnage, it far exceeded the whole foreign com- 
 merce of the United States. 
 
 The construction of this canal was followed by the 
 construction of others, and by surveys for the construc- 
 tion of others still. Pennsylvania had a system of 
 canals which, in connection with inclined planes, enabled 
 canal boats to pass over the Allegheny Mountains. 
 The boats were run upon a truck or car which, by 
 means of cables, was hauled up a comparatively steep 
 incline to the summit and allowed to go down a similar 
 incline on the other side. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal 
 was built to connect the Atlantic seaboard with the 
 Ohio River. Virginia had canals, and so did Ohio and 
 Indiana ; but all of these are now abandoned. The 
 advent of the railroad provided a means of transpor- 
 tation so much easier and quicker, and also less expen- 
 sive, that the canals proved useless, and the money 
 expended for them was wasted. Several states ex- 
 perienced serious financial difficulties on account of 
 the appropriation of large sums of money for canal 
 building. 
 
 As already stated, the only canal which survived 
 was the Erie Canal, but this proved inadequate and the 
 traffic upon it greatly diminished and at last became 
 practically nil. The state of New York, however, 
 undertook to enlarge it, and has constructed the so- 
 called Barge Canal in its place, extending from the 
 Hudson River to Lake Erie, with a depth of 12 feet. 
 Whether this investment will prove profitable is at least 
 doubtful. 
 
66 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 (d) The construction of coast and harbor works 
 is a growing field for the hydraulic engineer. A coast 
 city must have docks, piers, dry-docks; its channel 
 must be kept dredged; light houses must be built; 
 loading and unloading devices must be provided at the 
 piers; and the interchange of freight must be facili- 
 tated, if commerce is to increase. The study of port 
 development has engaged the attention of a number 
 of commissions and the services of many engineers. 
 
 In improving harbor entrances, not only dredging 
 but sometimes submarine mining and blasting are neces- 
 sary. At Hell Gate, N. Y., in making a suitable chan- 
 nel between Long Island Sound and the East River, 
 a network of galleries was excavated under the reef, 
 having a total length of nearly a mile and a half; 
 the roof, from 6 to 20 feet thick, resting on pillars of 
 rock. About 4,460 holes were drilled in the roof and 
 filled with explosive, and in 1876 all these were exploded 
 simultaneously, blowing off the entire roof. The Mid- 
 dle Reef was afterward blown off (in 1885) in the 
 same way, by means of over 4 miles of galleries and 
 12,560 holes. 
 
 The improvement of the mouths of large rivers 
 often gives rise to great engineering undertakings. A 
 large river may bring down great quantities of sedi- 
 ment which are deposited as a bar across its mouth. In 
 some cases the river may have several mouths as, for 
 instance, the Mississippi, the Danube, the Nile, the 
 Ganges and others. If the river is navigable, it is 
 necessary to keep one mouth open with a sufficient 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 67 
 
 depth of water. This may be done by dredging or by 
 making the river do its own dredging by confining the 
 channel between jetties and so making it scour out a 
 channel for itself. Probably everyone has heard of 
 the improvement of the Southwest Pass of the Missis- 
 sippi River which was undertaken by Captain James 
 B. Eads almost half a century ago. In this case 
 jetties were built, which have been successful in main- 
 taining the required navigable depth, so that large ves- 
 sels may proceed up the river to New Orleans and 
 other ports. English or American engineers have fre- 
 quently been called up by foreign countries to advise 
 and draw plans for improvements of this kind, as in 
 the case of the mouths of the Danube and the Rio de la 
 Plata. 
 
 Harbors are frequently protected by breakwaters 
 or jetties within or between which vessels may lie or 
 discharge at wharves or in basins. The construction 
 of harbors is a very important field of civil engineering 
 and involves a study of the ocean currents and their 
 effects. Sea-walls and jetties are exposed to the force 
 of the waves, which, in the case of heavy storm, may 
 be very great. The construction of lighthouses also 
 involves a consideration of these forces and of many 
 difficult and trying engineering problems. The con- 
 struction of such lighthouses as Eddystone Light- 
 house in England is generally considered one of the 
 triumphs of engineering. 
 
 The difficulty of building a lighthouse on a limited 
 ledge of rock, frequently submerged, and only ap- 
 
68 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 proachable in calm weather, may perhaps be appre- 
 ciated even by the layman. The Eddystone Lighthouse, 
 in the English Channel, is 9 miles from the nearest 
 coast of Cornwall, and had been the scene of frequent 
 wrecks. Four lighthouses have been successively built 
 there. The first was of wood, and was completed in 
 1700, and washed away in 1703. The second was also 
 of wood, completed in 1709, and destroyed by fire in 
 1755. The great engineer, Smeaton, built the third, 
 of stone, completed in 1759, and although the waves 
 sometimes dashed over the lantern, it remained in- 
 tact: but the sea began to undermine the rock on 
 which it stood, and it was decided to take it down 
 after erecting another on an adjacent rock. The new 
 one was of stone, completed in 1881. The range of 
 the light from this lighthouse is 17% miles. 
 
 (e) Irrigation engineering is so extensive as to 
 constitute almost a field in itself. In the western 
 states, where the rainfall is insufficient for growing 
 crops, there are large areas of fertile land which only 
 require the application of water to make them blossom 
 like the rose. Therefore, irrigation projects were early 
 developed for utilizing the streams by turning the water 
 upon the land. Similar works have been necessary in 
 Italy, India, Egypt, and elsewhere. In India there are 
 thousands of reservoirs, and large areas are irrigated, 
 for, while the rain fall in northern India .is greater than 
 anywhere else on the globe, in other sections of that 
 country it falls so low in some seasons that irrigation 
 must be depended upon to support the people. 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 69 
 
 (f) The reclamation of marsh lands is an increas- 
 ing" field for the hydraulic engineer. Large rivers, 
 like the Mississippi, when in flood, overflow great areas, 
 which, when the flood subsides, are only partly dry and 
 cannot be cultivated unless they are reclaimed by 
 being enclosed with embankments which will keep the 
 river from overflowing them and protect the crops. 
 Everybody knows that a large part of Holland has been 
 reclaimed from the sea. It was originally under water 
 or partly so, but the construction of dikes and proper 
 protective works have brought under cultivation areas 
 now inhabited by many thousands of industrious peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Enough has been said to show conclusively that the 
 field of hydraulic engineering is a most important and 
 extensive one ; that it is a clean and interesting branch 
 of the profession; that it requires great ability and a 
 thorough knowledge of hydraulics, structures, ma- 
 terials, and hydrology; and that as long as civilization 
 advances and commerce increases, as long as power is 
 used, and as long as our rivers flow down hill, there will 
 be always abundant opportunities for the hydraulic en- 
 gineer to construct works for the benefit and conven- 
 ience of man. 
 
 5. Sanitary Engineering 
 
 It is impossible to overestimate the importance of 
 this branch of engineering as a contributing factor to 
 modern civilization. It deals with the following sub- 
 jects: 
 
70 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 (a) Water Supply, of the individual and of com- 
 
 munities. 
 
 (b) Sewerage Systems, for the individual and for com- 
 
 munities. 
 
 (c) The Purification of Water and Sewage (including 
 
 Trade Wastes) and the Disposal of the latter. 
 
 (d) Street Cleaning and the Disposal of Garbage. 
 
 (e) Heating and Ventilating. 
 
 (f) Swamp Drainage. 
 
 The importance of providing supplies of pure drink- 
 ing water for communities, and of disposing of their 
 sewage and garbage, are self-evident; and with the in- 
 creasing size of cities these problems increase in number 
 and in difficulty. At the beginning of the last century 
 only about 3 per cent, of the population of the United 
 States lived in cities; in 1910, 45.8 per cent, of our 
 population was urban (i.e., living in cities and towns 
 of over 2,500 population), and in 1920, 51.4 per cent; 
 our largest city, New York, has a population of 5,621,- 
 151. The number of cities having a population exceed- 
 ing 100,000 is 68, and the number having a population 
 exceeding 25,000 is 288. There are 3 cities having 
 over a million inhabitants, 12 having over 500,000, and 
 a number of instances where several large cities are 
 close together, forming a metropolitan district of enor- 
 mous size. The population of the so-called Metropoli- 
 tan District of Boston was 1,070,256 in 1910, and 
 1,252,903 in 1920; and it is said that 6 per cent, 
 of the population of the country lives within a radius 
 of 25 miles of New York, and 12.5 per cent within a 
 radius of 100 miles, this limit including Philadelphia. 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 71 
 
 The problem of supplying these immense congrega- 
 tions of people with the necessaries of life — with water, 
 milk, ice, provisions, and transportation — is almost 
 appalling. In regard to some of these it is a question 
 of transportation, by rail or by highway. In regard to 
 water it is a question of finding an adequate and suffi- 
 ciently pure source of supply, bringing it to the city 
 by gravity or by pumping, and distributing it by pipes 
 under the streets. 
 
 Equally great are the problems of disposing of the 
 wastes and garbage of these great cities, in such a way 
 that they will not be a menace to the health or comfort 
 of other communities. 
 
 While the growth of urban population may be de- 
 precated, and even though it may be proved that health 
 and civilization will be promoted by a life in the coun- 
 try, the phenomenon is one of the most striking socio- 
 logical facts of the past century, and it shows no ten- 
 dency to change its trend, notwithstanding the cry of 
 "back to the country"; although the rate of increase 
 of urban population between 1910 and 1920 is generally 
 less than the rate of increase between 1900 and 
 1910. 
 
 Before the discovery of the Germ Theory of Disease, 
 and the proof that typhoid fever and other diseases 
 were due to the introduction of bacteria into the human 
 system, and that these bacteria could be carried by 
 water, food, or air, water supplies were ordinarily ob- 
 tained from rivers, lakes, or wells, notwithstanding that 
 such sources had in some cases received the sewage of 
 
72 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 other communities but a short distance from the point 
 where the supply was taken. Thus the city of St. 
 Louis obtained its water supply from the Mississippi 
 River, although other cities had discharged their sewage 
 into it but a short distance above. The city of Law- 
 rence took its supply from the Merrimac, but a few 
 miles below the sewer outlets of Lowell. Water was 
 taken from wells which in many cases were close to 
 cesspools or other sources of contamination. Dilution, 
 filtration, deposition, or a flow of certain number of 
 miles in a river, were supposed to effect sufficient purifi- 
 cation. It was recognized, of course, that it was not 
 desirable to take a supply of water from a source that 
 had been contaminated by sewage, but the objection was 
 based upon a sentimental repulsion rather than upon 
 scientific grounds. Water was sometimes filtered before 
 using, but it was mainly to remove objectionable sedi- 
 ment or color. 
 
 The discovery of the relation between micro-organ- 
 isms and disease, some fifty years ago, changed all this, 
 and the subjects of water supply and sewage disposal 
 were brought into close and immediate contact with 
 the subjects of chemistry and bacteriology. Chemical 
 and bacteriological analyses of water and sewage were 
 invoked as guides in answering the question whether 
 a given water was suitable for use, or whether a given 
 sewage could safely be disposed of in a certain manner ; 
 and chemical and bacteriological processes were devised 
 for treating water and sewage and removing or reduc- 
 ing the contamination. 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 73 
 
 The sanitary engineer, therefore, though he need 
 not be a chemist or bacteriologist, must yet know 
 enough about chemistry and bacteriology to be able to 
 understand the processes used in those sciences, and to 
 interpret and use the results. 
 
 The problem of water supply is to obtain an ade- 
 quate supply of suitable water. The future growth 
 of the city and the quantity of water required must be 
 estimated. Seasonal and yearly fluctuations in the 
 source of supply must be studied, and reservoirs pro- 
 vided in such manner that the supply will always be 
 great enough even for an exceptional demand, as in 
 case of a great fire. The waste of water in our cities, 
 by careless use, leakage, and faulty plumbing fixtures, 
 is often enormous, and must be studied, and methods 
 of reducing it provided. Sometimes it is desirable, or 
 even necessary to meter each house supply, so that 
 each householder shall pay for what he uses. Dams, 
 conduits, and tunnels must be designed, to conduct the 
 water to the city, and pumping stations, if pumping is 
 necessary. The water shed must be protected from 
 contamination if possible, or sometimes large plants 
 for filtering or chemically treating the water must be 
 provided. The right of way for the conduit must be 
 bought, and aqueduct bridges built to carry the water 
 over depressions ; or pipe siphons installed to carry it 
 underneath. The system of pipe distribution in the 
 city must be carefully designed, based on the principles 
 of hydraulics and the experimental results regarding 
 the flow of water in pipes and conduits. Stand-pipes 
 
74 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 or reservoirs must be provided at suitable points and 
 elevations. 
 
 It is obvious that the sanitary engineer must be 
 familiar with hydrology — the laws of rainfall and of 
 the flow of streams, and the methods of measuring 
 these quantities — with theoretical and experimental 
 hydraulics, and with the theory and design of struc- 
 tures. He should also know how to deal with statistics 
 and to' draw valid conclusions from them. 
 
 The first municipal water supply was introduced 
 into Boston in 1848 from Lake Cochituate, less than 
 20 miles distant. The event was celebrated with 
 much rejoicing. But by 1878 the supply was found 
 inadequate, and it was necessary to increase it by going 
 to the Sudbury River, where a series of basins was con- 
 structed from time to time. By 1892, even this source 
 was found inadequate, and a new source of supply was 
 sought, this time not for Boston alone, but for the 
 Metropolitan District, by going to the Nashua River, 
 where a large reservoir was created by building a dam 
 with a maximum height of 207 feet. This work re- 
 quired the relocating of 6% miles of railroad track, 
 completely flooded the sites of several towns and 
 villages, and necessitating the removal of 6 mills, 8 
 school houses, 4 churches, and 360 houses which had 
 been occupied by 1700 people. The work was com- 
 pleted in 1905 at a cost of $43,287,875.89, and was 
 connected with the Sudbury supply, so that both are 
 available. Provision was also made for still further in- 
 creasing the supply when demanded. 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 75 
 
 Other large cities have had a similar experience, 
 particularly those which cannot take a supply from a 
 large river or lake which is almost inexhaustible. Some 
 of the cities on the Great Lakes take their supply from 
 the lake, by laying a pipe or driving a tunnel to an 
 intake some distance out. In such cases, as the water 
 near the shores becomes more and more polluted by 
 the discharge of sewage, it is necessary from time to 
 time to extend the intake further out, or to treat the 
 sewage, or even — as in the case of Chicago — to divert 
 the sewage from the lake, and discharge it into an- 
 other channel. Chicago, by building the Drainage 
 Canal, discharged its sewage into the Illinois River, 
 through which it flows into the Mississippi, — not to the 
 satisfaction of the cities on either river. The result 
 was serious, and extended law suits followed, to deter- 
 mine claims for damages. 
 
 Los Angeles has recently completed an elaborate 
 water supply system, by which the water is brought 
 from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 259 miles 
 distant, where the melting snows supply an adequate 
 quantity for many years to come. San Francisco, 
 which had previously obtained its supply from surface 
 and ground waters within a comparatively short dis- 
 tance from the city, both on the peninsula and on the 
 opposite side of the bay, is now beginning works to ob- 
 tain a supply from the Hetch-Hetchy valley in the 
 Sierras, 190 miles distant. 
 
 New York has just completed the largest work for 
 water supply that has ever been executed, in ancient 
 
76 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIYIL ENGINEERING 
 
 or modem times, by bringing water from the Catskills, 
 120 miles distant, with provision for still further ex- 
 tension. In connection with this work the Kensico 
 dam has been built, one of the greatest masonry dams 
 in the world, 1850 feet long, with a maximum height 
 of 307 feet above the foundation. Some further refer- 
 ence to this great work is made in Chapter VII. 
 
 These illustrations will serve to show the magnitude 
 of works of water supply, and to demonstrate the fact 
 that there will always be a great field for the civil 
 engineer in this branch of the profession. 
 
 Of coordinate importance with works of water sup- 
 ply are works for the disposal of sewage. Almost all 
 the water brought into a city as water supply, after 
 fulfilling its purpose, flows away as sewage. Compara- 
 tively little is permanently changed into solid or gase- 
 ous form. In addition, the sewers must carry a consid- 
 erable proportion of the rain which falls over the city 
 area, depending upon the ratio of impervious to per- 
 vious surface; and there is also sometimes considerable 
 leakage of ground water into the sewers, as well as some 
 leakage out of them under some circumstances. There 
 must in general be a sewer in each street, properly pro- 
 portioned and laid out at a suitable grade, and in this 
 way the sewage is gathered into main sewers which lead 
 to the point of discharge, or often to a pumping sta- 
 tion, or to a plant for treating the sewage chemically, 
 or by filtration, or by bacteriological action, to make 
 it innocuous. Sometimes, in inland cities the sewage 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 77 
 
 is disposed of on land, either without or after treat- 
 ment, for irrigation. 
 
 In addition to the sewerage system itself, the design 
 and arrangement of the sanitary appliances in dwell- 
 ings and in commercial buildings come within the field 
 of the sanitary engineer. The designs of the water 
 supply and sanitary appliances for a large building, 
 with provision for fire protection and for heating and 
 ventilation, are often very complex. 
 
 The disposal of garbage is one of the problems of 
 sanitary engineering. Probably few of us have ever 
 stopped to think what becomes of the ashes and garbage 
 from our homes. The ash man comes at intervals and 
 takes the ashes away. In some cases they may be 
 useful for filling, but if the city is built up, it may be 
 necessary to carry them long distances before a proper 
 place to dispose of them can be found. The garbage 
 must be treated in such a way as to recover, if possible, 
 any valuable ingredients, while the remainder is dis- 
 posed of by burning, or otherwise, so as to be inoffen- 
 sive. The problem of its disposal is, by no means, a 
 simple one, and requires chemical, mechanical and sani- 
 tary knowledge and experience. In New York City 
 the amount of garbage amounts to about 2,000 tons 
 a day. 
 
 An aUied subject is that of street cleaning, which 
 forms an important part of municipal administration, 
 and requires great executive ability on the part of the 
 engineer. It is largely a problem of organization, for 
 
78 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 which an engineering training is an excellent prepara- 
 tion. When Col. George E. Waring, an eminent sani- 
 tary engineer, was made Commissioner of Street Clean- 
 ing of New York City, some 30 years ago, he introduced 
 engineering methods into this work and set a standard 
 which has been largely followed ever since. 
 
 The subject of heating and ventilation has in itself 
 become of late years a specialty, and there is a large 
 society composed of engineers practicing in this field, 
 which is generally considered as belonging to mechani- 
 cal engineering rather than to civU engineering, as it 
 is intimately connected with the development of power. 
 
 The drainage of swamps is not only a problem of 
 reclaiming land for cultivation, but largely one of 
 sanitary engineering, by exterminating mosquitoes. 
 Everyone knows to-day that mosquitoes, which breed in 
 swamps, are carriers of disease, and that yellow fever 
 is caused in this way. Swamp drainage, as a sanitary 
 measure, is sure to increase in importance. The Pon- 
 tine marshes, in Italy, were for centuries known as 
 sources of pestilence, though the cause was not under- 
 stood. The conditions in various parts of Europe, due 
 to the presence of swamps, is very serious. Some parts 
 of the Danube valley are almost uninhabitable on this 
 account. It is safe to say that the prosperity of 
 Cuba is largely due to the elimination of yellow fever; 
 and it is very certain that the construction of the 
 Panama Canal was made possible by the efficient work 
 of Surgeon-General Wm. C. Gorgas, who had previously 
 eliminated yellow fever from Havana, in controlling 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 79 
 
 that disease on the Isthmus. Here is an instance of the 
 cooperation of the physician, the administrator, the 
 bacteriologist, and the engineer, and such cooperation 
 is sure to increase. 
 
 American engineers are sure to be called upon to 
 assist in sanitary work in other countries. Recently 
 Professor George C. Whipple, of Harvard University, 
 was sent to Europe by the League of Red Cross Socie- 
 ties to study questions of sanitary engineering in vari- 
 ous countries. 
 
 It is obvious from this description that the field of 
 the sanitary engineer touches at many points the fields 
 of chemistry, bacteriology, and preventive medicine. 
 The sanitary engineer must be informed in regard to 
 the general subject of Public Health, or the control and 
 prevention of disease. 
 
 6. Structural Engineering 
 
 Structural engineering is one of the most important 
 fields for the civil engineer, and it is one of the broadest 
 fields, because structures occur in every one of the 
 branches which have been thus far discussed. 
 
 Structural engineering deals with the design, con- 
 struction, and maintenance of fixed structures ; as dis- 
 tinguished from machines, the whole or parts of which 
 are in motion. The railroad, highway, and municipal 
 engineer has to deal with the construction of bridges, 
 retaining walls, etc. The structural engineer has also 
 to design the construction of buildings. The hydraulic 
 
80 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 engineer deals with the construction of dams, reser- 
 voirs, stand-pipes, water towers, movable dams in 
 rivers which are made navigable, and many other struc- 
 tures. The railroad engineer also deals with the con- 
 struction of tunnels, of coal handling plants, water 
 tanks, trestles. The electrical engineer constructs 
 towers for electrical transmission lines. Further, the 
 engineer builds oil and gas tanks, elevators for the 
 storage of grain, and many other structures. 
 
 In problems of rapid transit in cities, elevated rail- 
 ways must be built, or subways underground. These 
 structures call for innumerable problems in design, 
 involving the computation of the pressure of the earth 
 and the arrangement and size of the walls, roofs, and 
 columns. 
 
 Structural engineering is sometimes supposed to 
 deal mainly with bridges. This, of course, is a large 
 part of the subject. There are many kinds of bridges, 
 varying from the simple beam which spans a short 
 opening to enormous cantilever bridges, arches, or 
 suspension bridges, like the structures over the East 
 River, the St. Lawrence River, or the Firth of Forth. 
 There are movable bridges of many kinds, some of 
 which revolve about a central pier, some of which are 
 lifted bodily into the air, some of which are bascule 
 bridges, either single or double, which revolve about 
 horizontal pivots at the ends. Some of these structures 
 are of great complexity and size. And while they are 
 designed by means of methods and formulae based upon 
 the principles of the strength of materials and the 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 81 
 
 laws of mechanics, these formulas are often far from 
 accurate, so that judgment and experience are quali- 
 ties of the highest importance. The failure of such 
 structures may involve great loss of life and property. 
 For many years the bridge of longest span in the 
 world was that over the Firth of Forth in Scotland, 
 which has two spans of 1,710 feet each. When a 
 bridge across the St. Lawrence at Quebec was proposed, 
 the engineer in charge decided to surpass the Forth 
 Bridge in dimensions, and designed a structure with a 
 span of 1,800 feet. The bridge which he designed, how- 
 ever, collapsed before it was completed, owing to faults 
 and carelessness in the design, involving the loss of 
 74* lives. Many tons of steel now lie at the bottom 
 of the St. Lawrence River, the wreck of this first 
 Quebec bridge. After this accident, a second bridge 
 of the same span was designed by other engineers. 
 While the first bridge was planned to be erected by 
 building out over the river from two piers near the 
 water line, the second bridge was designed to be erected 
 by building out only part way and supporting upon 
 the ends of the cantilevers so constructed a central 
 span built separately and hoisted from pontoons into 
 its final position resting on the cantilever arms. While 
 this central span was being raised, the support at one 
 corner gave way and the entire span was precipitated 
 into the river, where it now lies. A new central span 
 was constructed in its place and was successfully put 
 into position, and the bridge is now in operation. The 
 failure of the central span involved the curious para- 
 
82 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 dox that by increasing the material in a structure or 
 a part of a structure, the strength could be decreased. 
 These two failures have shed much light on certain 
 problems in bridge construction. Recently a suspen- 
 sion bridge with a span of 1,750 feet has been proposed, 
 to cross the Delaware River at Philadelphia. 
 
 The construction of high buildings affords another 
 important example of structural engineering. It also 
 illustrates the relation between engineering and archi- 
 tecture. The completion of a building involves really 
 three distinct branches ; first, its construction ; second, 
 its arrangement from the point of view of conveni- 
 ence of use; and third, its architectural appearance. 
 The architect is generally concerned more with the 
 last two of these functions than with the first, 
 except for buildings of a common type. The first, 
 however, is fully as important as the others, if not more 
 important; and the modem skyscrapers, are really 
 engineering structures of enormous magnitude. The 
 building of such structures again illustrates the neces- 
 sity for experience and judgment as well as theory. 
 The mere determination of the loads to be assumed on 
 such a building is very uncertain. Shall a building 
 be designed on the supposition that every floor is 
 simultaneously loaded with the maximum load that 
 can never come upon it, and that at the same time a 
 tornado is blowing, in which the wind has the greatest 
 velocity ever recorded; or shall some allowance be 
 made, and if so, what, for the fact that these circum- 
 stances would never occur at the same time.? This 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 83 
 
 illustrates the fact that structural engineering, al- 
 though it may appear to depend upon formulae and 
 theories which can be worked out mathematically, is 
 in reality in a large measure uncertain, on account of 
 the uncertainty of the data to be assumed. There are 
 also uncertainties regarding the workmanship and the 
 effect of workmanship upon the stresses which will 
 exist in the material. An error of a fraction of an 
 inch in the length of a member of a bridge may 
 make a very great diff'erence in the stresses existing 
 under a given load. A blind adherence to formulae 
 is just as bad as a blind trust in experience. The two 
 must be combined with judgment and the ability to get 
 the results desired. 
 
 High structures have had a fascination to mankind 
 from the earliest times, since the building of the Tower 
 of Babel or earlier. The Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze 
 statue 105 feet high, erected about 280 years before 
 the Christian era, is said to have required 12 years in 
 construction, and was regarded as one of the seven 
 wonders of the world. The Pyramid of Cheops, with 
 a height of 484 feet, was of much greater antiquity 
 and exceeded in height all other structures erected by 
 man up to the year 1240, when the spire of the old 
 St. Paul's Cathedral in London reached a height of 
 520 feet; this was destroyed in, 1561. The Cathedral 
 of Cologne was completed in 1880 with a height of 511 
 feet, and the Washington Monument in 1884 with a 
 height of 555 feet, and this was the highest structure 
 until the construction of the Eiffel Tower, completed 
 
84 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 in 1888, which reached a height of 984* feet. Soon 
 after this time, however, the construction of sky- 
 scrapers began in the United States, culminating in the 
 erection of the Woolworth Building, which has 51 
 stories and reaches a height of 792 feet, being the 
 highest structure in the world with the exception of the 
 Eiifel Tower. In New York City alone there are 35 
 buildings above 300 feet in height and 5 over 500 feet 
 in height. The frame-work of such a building is, of 
 course, the province of the structural engineer. 
 
 The recent great extension in the use of concrete 
 has greatly enlarged the field of structural engineering. 
 Many structures which in the past would have been 
 made of steel or wood are now made of this new mate- 
 rial, which acts according to laws determined by a 
 combination of theory and experiment, and very differ- 
 ent from those governing the use of the older mate- 
 rials. Indeed, some structural engineers now make a 
 specialty of concrete work, which is used in the con- 
 struction of bridges, even those of considerable span, 
 and in buildings of all kinds. 
 
 Grain elevators aiford an example of a kind of struc- 
 ture which may even become a specialty in structural 
 engineering. A former student of the writer happened 
 to be drawn into this kind of work, and is now engaged 
 as a consulting engineer in the design and construction 
 almost exclusively of grain elevators in all parts of this 
 country and in foreign countries as well. 
 
 It will be seen from this outline that the field of 
 structural engineering is very large and is constantly 
 
BEANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 85 
 
 expanding. It is one of the specialized branches of 
 engineering, and the speciaHst in it finds opportunities 
 for the application of his ability in connection with all 
 branches of engineering and constructive work. 
 
 7. Municipal Engineering 
 
 This is not a distinct branch of the profession, but 
 is a combination of several of those that have been 
 described. The business of a municipal corporation, 
 like that of any other, — or even more so than that of 
 most corporations — is largely engineering. This is evi- 
 dent upon consideration, and it is further indicated by 
 the fact that under the city manager form of opera- 
 tion the city manager is often, if not in the majority of 
 cases, a civil engineer. The first city of large size to 
 adopt this form of operation, Dayton, Ohio, chose as 
 city manager Mr. H. M. Waite, whose training and 
 practice had been that of a civil engineer ; and his suc- 
 cessor, Mr. J. E. Barlow, is another. Both are former 
 students of the writer. 
 
 The municipal engineer generally has charge of all 
 city engineering work, including water work, sewers, 
 sewage disposal, bridges, streets, roads and pavements, 
 and sometimes urban transportation, generally with 
 assistants who are specialists in different departments. 
 The city engineer should therefore be a man of broad 
 outlook, and large experience. His work is very varied. 
 If he needs special advice on any of his problems, he 
 calls in consulting engineers who are specialists ; but 
 he must have a broad grasp upon all of his problems. 
 
86 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 The position of city engineer is often not recognized 
 as it should be, politics often governs the selection of 
 the man, and he is subject to the vicissitudes of poli- 
 tical changes. Hence the postion is not generally 
 sought by engineers of eminence. Yet there are notable 
 exceptions; and not infrequently the city engineer is 
 the official least likely to be affected by a change in ad- 
 ministration, holding his position continuously no mat- 
 ter what party is in power. The late William Jackson, 
 of Boston, was such a man, having been continuously 
 in the employ of the city for 37 years, the last 25 years 
 as City Engineer. 
 
 The city engineer frequently has a leading part to 
 play in city planning, which has to do with the laying 
 out of streets, the restriction of occupations to certain 
 districts, and city improvements in general. In such 
 ways the city engineer often has the opportunity to do 
 things of the greatest benefit to the city, though they 
 may not be fully appreciated at the time. The director 
 of City Planning of Rochester, N. Y., Mr. E. A. Fisher, 
 for many years city engineer, has recently presented 
 a plan whose adoption he urges, by which the city 
 should purchase the abandoned Erie Canal, which pur- 
 chase is provided for by law; and he shows that by 
 acquiring the canal the city will become possessed of 
 a right of way strip through the city which can 
 easily be utilized for an urban rapid transit line for 
 passenger traffic, and which can also be made to con- 
 nect with all the railroads entering the city, and may so 
 serve for freight distribution and collection as well. By 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 87 
 
 this plan the transit problem will be practically solved 
 for Rochester for many years to come, and if justice 
 is done, Mr. Fisher will be looked upon as a public 
 benefactor. 
 
 So important is the work of the municipal engineer 
 that a separate engineering association, The Society 
 for Municipal Improvements was organized in 1894 
 and now has some 500 members, the majority of whom 
 are engineers. 
 
 The work of the city engineer deals not only with 
 construction, but also with maintenance. It also has 
 to do with economic questions, such as methods of 
 assessing taxes for improvements, as for streets and 
 sewers, methods of condemning land, etc. ; and so it 
 contributes to the cultivation of breadth of view on the 
 part of the engineer, 
 
 8. Valiuition of Properties 
 
 Within the last two decades, what is practically a 
 new branch of engineering has been developed, namely, 
 that concerned with the valuation of public utility 
 and other properties. This cannot be said to be a 
 branch of civil engineering any more than of electrical 
 or mechanical engineering, for engineers of all kinds 
 are called upon to engage in it; but as civil engineers 
 have gone into it to a large extent it may be referred 
 to here. 
 
 For many years it has been necessary to have ap- 
 praisals made of the value of properties, either for 
 
88 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 purposes of raising money by the issue of securities^ 
 or for purposes of sale. During the last few decades, 
 however, during which time the public utilities have 
 been subject to regulation by public commissions, which 
 have the power to fix the rates which those utilities shall 
 charge for their service, it has become necessary in 
 many cases to ascertain the fair value of the proper- 
 ties upon which they should be entitled to earn a fair 
 return. This question has become a leading one in the 
 economic discussion of the day and before courts. It 
 is a question of economics and justice, as well as of 
 engineering. In this field, engineering comes into con- 
 tact with accounting, with economics, with law, and 
 with the general question of the relations between the 
 utilities and the public. It has required the services of 
 a great many engineers in ascertaining the physical 
 value of the properties, requiring an inventory of the 
 property and the fixing of a fair price for each ele- 
 ment of it. It also involves the question as to what is 
 the value of a property completed and in operation 
 as compared with the value of the physical items which 
 make up the property, or the "bare bones" of the plant. 
 
 This work requires the possession of a judicial atti- 
 tude of mind and of the ability to analyze accounts, 
 and to deal with economic questions of a somewhat 
 intricate nature. 
 
 Civil engineers have taken part largely in this work, 
 and it oifers an interesting and remunerative field for 
 an engineer possessed of the necessary experience and 
 knowledge, and with the proper temperament. The 
 
BRANCHES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 89 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commission has for several years 
 been engaged in finding the physical value of the rail- 
 roads of this country. In the prosecution of this work 
 the services of 1,400 engineers have been required by 
 the Commission. Furthermore, the public service com- 
 missions of the various states generally have engineer- 
 ing departments in which there are engineers, who not 
 only have to deal with questions of construction and 
 maintenance and the approval of plans for new work, 
 but who also have to make appraisals where needed for 
 purposes of valuation. The writer has for a number of 
 years given a course on this subject in Harvard Uni- 
 versity, and in some other institutions instruction is 
 given in it. It is not a proper field for a young and 
 inexperienced man, except that a good many such men 
 are often required in making the inventory of physical 
 material and in collecting the other data, historical and 
 otherwise, upon which a proper final judgment is to be 
 passed. The subject offers a good field, however, for 
 men of experience in construction who can deal with the 
 economic problems which it presents. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 
 FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEER 
 
 For the successful practice of Civil Engineering, 
 as of other occupations, specific qualifications of a pro- 
 fessional and of a personal kind are requisite, or if not 
 absolutely necessary, are at least desirable. Profes- 
 sional qualifications are those qualities or acquirements 
 which affect mainly his knowledge, and which, therefore, 
 supply the basis for his intelligent dealing with the 
 problems to be solved. Personal qualifications are 
 those qualities which fit him to apply his knowledge 
 properly, economically, and effectively, and so to ac- 
 complish the result which his professional knowledge 
 and skill indicate to be desirable or necessary. The 
 two kinds of qualifications do not always go together, 
 yet their union is necessary for the highest success. An 
 engineer may have great professional ability, yet on 
 account of the lack of some personal quality, such as 
 tact or promptness, may be a miserable failure in 
 certain kinds of work. On the other hand, an engineer 
 possessed of all the personal qualities necessary, but 
 lacking professional knowledge, such as of the prop- 
 erties of the materials to be used, or the laws of nature 
 applicable to the case, may find his plan or his struc- 
 ture a costly failure. 
 
 90 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 91 
 
 Professional Qualifications 
 
 Remembering that civil engineering consists in ap- 
 plying the laws, forces, and materials of nature, eco- 
 nomically, for the use and convenience of man, it is 
 at once evident that the knowledge, or professional 
 qualifications of the engineer, must include: 
 
 1. A knowledge of the forces of nature, and of the 
 laws governing them; in other words, a knowledge of 
 natural science, logic, and mathematics. 
 
 2. A knowledge of the materials applicable in con- 
 struction. 
 
 3. A training in those branches of knowledge which 
 have to do with the economical adaptation of means to 
 ends. 
 
 4. A perception of the true relations of things, or a sense 
 of proportion, which will indicate what measures or proj- 
 ects that are physically possible will really conduce to the 
 use and convenience of man. 
 
 1. It will be abundantly evident, from what has 
 been presented in the last chapter, that engineering 
 is not an abstract science, which can be followed by a 
 recluse in his study, but an intensely practical affair, 
 indeed, a kind of business. The engineer must be a 
 business man, not a theorist, and must conduct his 
 work on business principles. As applied to any con- 
 templated project, the work of the engineer consists, in 
 most cases, of four parts: first, to determine whether 
 anythimg should be done, and, if so, what ; second, to 
 design and formulate the means to be employed in doing 
 It ; third, to select and test the proper materials ; fourth, 
 to carry the actual work through its various stages 
 
92 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERIN& 
 
 to completion. It is therefore clear that the engineer 
 should be scientifically trained, and should possess a 
 knowledge of natural science and mathematics. Dif- 
 ferent branches of science are required in varying 
 degrees in the different branches of the profession, but 
 every engineer should know, and know thoroughly, the 
 fundamental principles of chemistry, physics, mathe- 
 matics, and mechanics, with such knowledge of geology, 
 astronomy, and biology, etc., as may be requisite for 
 his particular specialty. Moreover, in order to know 
 these subjects as he ought to, and to be able to draw 
 his conclusions with accuracy, he must be possessed of 
 the true scientific spirit and attitude of mind, loving 
 the study of science for its own sake as well as for its 
 applications and the material benefit they may bring 
 him. 
 
 It is particularly important that the engineer should 
 possess the scientific attitude of mind. By this is 
 meant the attitude which leads him to approach a 
 problem entirely without prejudice, without precon- 
 ceived ideas, intent only on seeking the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth; and the willingness 
 to accept the truth, when found, even if it is unpalat- 
 able or may lead to the abandonment of the project 
 on which he is engaged. He must even be without 
 ideals, except the simple personal ones to do right, to 
 injure no one, to judge not, and to do what proves 
 to be best under the circumstances. He must first of 
 all clearly perceive the problem which is to be solved, 
 in its full extent, and without neglecting to see all the 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 93 
 
 elements involved, in their proper proportion. Then 
 he must assemble all the facts which have a bearing 
 upon the solution. Then he must apply the proper 
 scientific principles to those facts, and by a process 
 of logical reasoning arrive at the truth. The idealist 
 too often, if not generally, starts out with a precon- 
 ceived idea of the result which he desires to reach. He 
 omits or minimizes facts or conditions which conflict 
 with those ideals, and not seldom simply succeeds in per- 
 suading himself that he has demonstrated the truth of 
 his preconceived ideas. Such a course is fatal. 
 
 It must not be inferred that the engineer should 
 have no imagination, for this quality, as will be here- 
 after shown, is one of the most important for the 
 engineer. The point is, that he must not approach his 
 problem with any preconceived ideas or ideals except 
 the simple ones already stated, which, indeed, should 
 be the ideals or aims of every man at all times and 
 under all conditions. 
 
 Especially important is it that the engineer should 
 have a logical mind so that he may reason logically 
 from facts and principles. In some callings this 
 quality may not he so important ; for instance, in some 
 branches of business, where if a man reasons illogically 
 and makes an error the injury will be suffered by him- 
 self alone. But in engineering, where illogical reason- 
 ing may result in the collapse of a bridge, a building, 
 or a dam, with great resulting loss of life and property 
 to innocent persons and not to the engineer, or in the 
 failure of the project, such as a railroad or an irriga- 
 
94 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 tion scheme, by which many innocent investors may 
 suffer great financial loss, the responsibility of the 
 engineer is such that logical reasoning is of the first 
 importance. The engineer must, therefore, as in the 
 profession of medicine and the law, where similar 
 responsibilities are present, be a logical man, and 
 trained in the principles of logical thinking. 
 
 The civil engineer must also be proficient, to the 
 necessary extent, in mathematics. He should know 
 thoroughly the fundamental principles of that branch 
 of learning through the calculus, that is to say includ- 
 ing arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, algebra, 
 trigonometry, analytic geometry and the differential 
 and integral calculus. But this does not mean that he 
 must necessarily be what would be termed a fine mathe- 
 matician, for many eminently successful engineers have 
 been very far from this. Indeed, there are real dangers 
 in excessive proficiency in mathematics. Mathematics 
 and logic comprise the abstract sciences, that is to say, 
 the sciences which may be reasoned out in the abstract, 
 in the solitude of the study, without the need of ex- 
 perience or contact with the concrete problems of life. 
 Mathematical truths and processes may be perceived 
 by the mind without experiment. The data being as- 
 sumed, or the quantities to be dealt with being rep- 
 resented by letters, the processes of mathematics are 
 rigidly correct, and enable necessary consequences to 
 be deduced from those data. 
 
 Mathematics is a somewhat curious subject of study. 
 It is a machine, and works with unerring accuracy. 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 95 
 
 Into one end of the machine are put the data, the 
 crank is turned, the machine works, and the result 
 comes out with absolute correctness. But this cor- 
 rectness depends entirely upon the data. It is only 
 really correct if the data are correct. Put in correct 
 data and a correct result will be reached; put in in- 
 correct data and the result will be correspondingly in- 
 correct. Moreover, a small error in the data may 
 lead to a large error in the result; just as a small di- 
 vergence from a straight line, when a railroad train 
 takes the switch at the beginning of a curve may 
 shortly direct the train in just the reverse direction. 
 The mathematical machine is very interesting, in con- 
 struction and operation, and the danger is that the stu- 
 dent of mathematics may become so absorbed in its 
 construction and operation that he loses sight of the 
 importance of the data. The engineer, however, must 
 be sure that his data are correct, he must see all the ele- 
 ments of the problem, and must therefore see to it that 
 he puts the mathematical machine to work upon correct 
 and complete data. If the data are either incorrect 
 or incomplete, the most elaborate mathematical analy- 
 sis may be worthless. Yet the study of abstract mathe- 
 matics tends to lead the mind away from a proper 
 attention to data ; it tends to educate away from 
 common sense. This is the reason why the finest mathe- 
 maticians sometimes make the poorest engineers. The 
 engineer must look upon mathematics merely as a ma- 
 chine, or tool, which, with judgment, common sense, and 
 clear purpose, he uses for the end in view. He must 
 
96 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 never be mastered or governed by it, but must make his 
 own intellect its master. So in deductive logic, the 
 laws governing correct reasoning are abstract and inde^ 
 pendent of actual conditions. Inductive reasoning is 
 based upon a collection of facts obtained by other 
 means, as by observation or experiment, but the pro- 
 cesses of reasoning employed are abstract, like those 
 of mathematics. But engineering deals with the facts 
 and problems of actual life, in which data are uncertain, 
 exactness impossible, conditions shifting and variable, 
 and premises generally more or less doubtful. The 
 engineer must perceive the relation of these uncertain- 
 ties to his problem and the results of his analytical 
 deductions. In studying mathematics, as John Stuart 
 Mill said, the mind must not "go to sleep over mathe- 
 matical symbols.'* 
 
 For the engineer, therefore, mathematics and logic 
 must be studied as tools, and with regard to the shifting 
 and uncertain character of the data. The excessive or 
 improper study of mathematics in the abstract, by 
 emphasizing the process rather than the broader prob- 
 lems which these processes aid in solving, may therefore 
 cultivate an abstract turn of mind which makes the 
 student impractical or visionary, and distorts his 
 point of view, leading him to suppose that a multitude 
 of figures or equations constitute an accurate solution, 
 rather than to cultivate the power of gaining a clear 
 and practical view of the problem as a whole. In other 
 words, mathematics studied in the abstract tends to 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 97 
 
 diminish that most important faculty for the engineer, 
 or, for that matter, for any one who deals with the 
 actual problems of life, common sense. This is the 
 reason why so many eminent engineers have known little 
 of mathematics, while they have invariably possessed 
 common sense in high degree. Nevertheless, mathe- 
 matics is one of the most important tools of the en- 
 gineer, and he should have a mathematical mind, that 
 is, a mind capable of perceiving and utilizing the 
 relations with which mathematics deals. He should 
 certainly have a "head for figures." The great en- 
 gineers who have not been mathematicians have pos- 
 sessed such minds, and in many cases would have made 
 good mathematicians even in the abstract sense, if they 
 had been trained in this direction. 
 
 The object of the preceding remarks has not been 
 to discourage the cultivation of mathematics, or to 
 disparage the great usefulness of that wonderful 
 science, but to urge the point that the engineer must 
 not allow his study of mathematics to become too ab- 
 stract, and must continually perceive the uses and the 
 practical bearings of the science. If he does not do this, 
 but allows the abstract mathematical point of view to 
 dominate his mind, he may become a fine mathematician 
 or theorist, but he will probably find himself always oc- 
 cupying subordinate positions, doing the routine work 
 of calculation, or in other words, turning the crank, 
 for those who have the greater grasp which enables 
 them to tell him what to do. Our industries are 
 
98 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 full of men of this class, who are employed to do the 
 routine work for the leaders who have the vision, 
 imagination, common sense, and initiative. 
 
 2. No work of engineering construction is carried 
 out except by the use of some of the materials of nature, 
 such as steel, wood, stone, cement, brick, paint, etc. 
 These materials vary greatly in kind and quality, and 
 some may be suitable for the purpose in view while 
 others may be entirely unsuitable. One of the most 
 important problems of the engineer is to determine the 
 kind of material which is suitable for his purpose, and 
 a second is to select that quality of material, of the 
 kind chosen, which will be most economical. Again, he 
 must know how to test the materials to be used, in 
 order to assure himself that he obtains the desired 
 material and so that he may reject materials that are 
 inappropriate or do not conform to his specifications. 
 For these reasons, a knowledge of the materials avail- 
 able for engineering structures or machines is of great 
 importance. This requires a knowledge of chemistry, 
 physical properties, and methods of manufacture. 
 
 Suppose a bridge is to be built. It may be of steel, 
 wood, stone, or concrete, and if of steel it may be of 
 steel cables or of rolled steel shapes, of carbon steel or 
 nickel steel. The design and form will depend largely 
 upon the material; and the resulting economy, dura- 
 bility, cost of maintenance, appearance, and suitability 
 for its purpose all depend upon the material selected. 
 The theoretical engineer or mathematician might be 
 able to make the necessary computations for any ma- 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 99 
 
 terial which might be selected, but far more important 
 is the professional and practical knowledge, together 
 with the experience, which is necessary in order to make 
 a proper choice of material. Further, in order to make 
 sure that suitable material specified is procured, cer- 
 tain physical and chemical qualities, such as strength, 
 ductility, hardness, percentage of foreign elements like 
 phosphorus, sulphur, etc., must be specified, and tests 
 made on specimens or full size pieces, to ensure the 
 desired results. All this calls for specialized knowledge, 
 and some engineers confine themselves to giving advice 
 and making tests of materials. 
 
 A large proportion of the failures of engineering 
 works, very likely a majority, are due to improper ma- 
 terial. In some cases an entirely different material 
 should have been used, while in others the particular 
 material used, though proper in kind, was defective in 
 some manner. Sometimes the fault lies in the workman- 
 ship, by which a proper material has been injured in 
 the process of manufacture or in the handling and plac- 
 ing. 
 
 So important is this branch of the science of con- 
 struction that a national society has been in existence 
 since 1898, which deals with it, known as the American 
 Society for Testing Materials. Also, an international 
 society, the Internationl Society for Testing Materials, 
 and embracing in its membership representatives of 
 over twenty nations, has been in existence since about 
 1882, and holds extended conferences every few years 
 for the discussion of methods of testing, standardiza- 
 
100 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 tion of tests and specifications, and the discussion of 
 problems relating to engineering materials. 
 
 The technique of this subject is difficult and compli- 
 cated, and always involves more or less uncertainty. 
 For instance, it has long been recognized that phos- 
 phorus tends to make steel brittle when cold, and should 
 be limited in amount in steel for structural purposes. 
 But just where should the line be drawn? How much 
 and no more is allowable? The answer cannot be stated 
 with definiteness, yet it is desirable that agreement 
 should be reached, in order that specifications should 
 be uniform, rather than that each engineer should fol- 
 low his own ideas. The same applies to many other 
 requirements, both chemical and physical. The work 
 of the societies above named is done through the medium 
 of committees, on which both manufacturers and users 
 are represented, and consists largely in formulating 
 standard requirements which conform to experience 
 and good practice, which are generally adopted, and 
 which are modified from time to time as experience and 
 the progress of the art may indicate. 
 
 This branch of the profession affords an illustra- 
 tion of the remarks above made with reference to mathe- 
 matics, for mathematics has little to do with this im- 
 portant part of the work of the engineer, which is gov- 
 erned mainly by experience, common sense, a knowledge 
 of chemical and physical properties, and the mechanical 
 ability to devise means and methods for making tests 
 which will adequately represent those properties. 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 101 
 
 3. The third professional requisite for the engineer 
 is that which will enable him to secure econoiny. 
 
 This is an essential for good engineering. Indeed, 
 the engineer has been described as a man who makes two 
 blades of grass grow where one grew before, but another 
 definition more applicable here is that he is a man who 
 does for one dollar what any fool can do for two. 
 Almost anyone can either do engineering work, or hire 
 it done; but in engineering, as in other things, few can 
 do just the right thing, and in the most economical 
 way. It may sound materialistic and unidealistic, but 
 the question of economy properly comes into almost 
 every affair of life, even into charity. 
 
 It is comparatively easy to build a bridge, although 
 it requires skill and knowledge, but more important 
 than the question — how to build it — are the questions 
 — where to build it, when to build it, and whether to 
 build it at all. If a bridge is built in an improper loca- 
 tion it may not only fail to serve its purpose properly, 
 but great expense and inconvenience may result. If an 
 irrigation or a hydro-electric project is embarked upon 
 without a careful consideration, not only of the cost, 
 but of the market and all the other economic elements 
 entering into the problem, it may prove unprofitable 
 and the investors may lose their money. 
 
 Not only must estimates of cost be made in connec- 
 tion with almost every engineering project, but the 
 study of engineering economics often requires that 
 facts be compared which can only be expressed in in- 
 
102 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 commensurable terms. Elements must be weighed 
 against each other which are entirely different in char- 
 acter. For instance, if we ask which is the greater, 
 6 feet or two meters, there is no difficulty in giving 
 an answer ; but if we ask which is the more important, 
 10 feet or five dollars, or which is the more valuable, 
 truthfulness or beefsteak, the reply is not entirely 
 obvious. These illustrations are not fanciful. In 
 engineering work it is frequently necessary to make 
 comparisons between things which have to do with 
 our physical well-being and those which have to do with 
 our economic, or even with our moral or spiritual well- 
 being. Although these things are incommensurable, 
 they must be compared and an opinion formed from the 
 comparison. In planning a station for a subway for 
 urban transportation, one design may require pas- 
 sengers to walk on the average a certain number of feet 
 and to climb a certain number of stairs, while another 
 design may cost more but require less walking and less 
 climbing. Here a comparison must be made between 
 dollars and feet, or between cost and physical exertion. 
 Engineers have sometimes endeavored to meet such cases 
 by a fanciful endeavor to express the comparison in 
 commensurable terms. It would be possible perhaps to 
 compute the value of the shoe leather that would be 
 saved in a year if all the passengers using the station 
 saved the given distance according to the more ex- 
 pensive plan and to compare this saving with the in- 
 terest on the added expenditure. It is not infrequent 
 in problems involving rapid transit, to compare the cost 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 103 
 
 with the time saved. One plan may cost a certain sum 
 more than another plan, but it may involve a saving, 
 let us say, of three minutes for each passenger. Some 
 people endeavor in such a case to compute the total 
 saving in time by multiplying three minutes by the total 
 number of trips in a year, alleging that this is the total 
 time saved; and then estimating the value of this time 
 on the basis of the average wage or earning power of 
 a passenger. In this case it is endeavored to make the 
 comparison between dollars and minutes by reducing 
 them to commensurable terms. 
 
 Such comparisons are generally made by those who 
 find their judgment unable to deal with the subject in 
 any other way — who cannot compare except by meas- 
 uring or weighing as they have been accustomed to do. 
 Such persons often do not realize that the comparisons 
 they make in that way may be entirely deceptive. A 
 Japanese, riding on the New York subway, and being 
 told that by making certain changes from one train to 
 another a saving of fifteen minutes might be made in 
 going from one point to another is said to have asked 
 his informant — "And what do you do with the fifteen 
 minutes.'"' If spent in the train it is not necessarily 
 lost, but may be utilized, if only in meditation, like 
 any other fifteen minutes in the day. Also such com- 
 parisons between cost and saving of time often make 
 the mistake of not considering whether the individuals 
 who make the saving in time are the same individuals 
 who would bear the increased cost. 
 
 No special directions or specifications can be given 
 
104 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 with reference to the economic sense which must be 
 possessed by the engineer. It may be called a special 
 sense and involves the use of judgment, and above all 
 things, a well balanced mind. If it is urged that an 
 escalator or moving stairway should be placed at a 
 subway station so that people would not have to walk 
 upstairs, and if the inconvenience suffered by an aged 
 or infirm person in climbing the stairs is portrayed in 
 vivid colors, it is necessary to decide how much con- 
 sideration should be given to such an argument, and 
 it may also be inquired whether such aged or infirm 
 persons have elevators in their own houses, or why 
 they go down town at all, or how far they walk or 
 climb in the department stores. If safety appliances 
 are urged for railroads or industrial establishments 
 because loss of life sometimes results if they are absent, 
 it is necessary to consider what expenditure is justi- 
 fiable in order to prevent the loss of 'a certain number 
 of lives per annum; in other words, what is the value 
 of a human life to the public, or to an employer. There 
 will always be found people who seem to think that any 
 expenditure is justified in such a case provided that 
 expenditure is paid by somebody else. 
 
 The economic sense, therefore, is intimately con- 
 nected with the fourth and last of the professional re- 
 quirements which have been named as requisite for the 
 engineer. 
 
 4. This requirement is, in brief, a sense of propor- 
 tion, or a proper mental balance. 
 
 This is an essential requirement in any walk of life, 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 105 
 
 but especially in the case of a man who has to do with 
 the consideration or management of large enterprises. 
 The ability to observe correctly, the faculty of getting 
 all the facts and of knowing when all of the pertinent 
 facts have been collected, the ability to reason from 
 those facts, the possession of conservatism and calm- 
 ness of mind, the lack of sentiment, the absence of a 
 stubborn persistence in holding to a previously formed 
 opinion in the face of proof of its error, and the faculty 
 of seeing different things in proper proportion and 
 weighing them fairly against each other are all essen- 
 tial to a well balanced mind. An engineer may possess 
 technical knowledge and great mathematical ability, 
 but without balance he ought never to be a leader, and 
 his judgment in large matters will be worth little or 
 nothing. 
 
 This faculty can be cultivated like any other. To 
 cultivate it requires reading, study, meditation and 
 contact with other men. The study of history and 
 biography are especially valuable, particularly the 
 study of human failures. The engineer may always 
 learn more from the study of failures than from the 
 study of successes, if he will carefully consider the 
 causes of the failure; and if he has the faculty of as- 
 similating that study in such a way that he can make 
 his own the experience of other men, he can go far to 
 develop a sense of proportion. Most men learn only 
 by experience, and while experience is the best teacher, 
 it is a very costly one. The advice given by old and 
 experienced men may be most valuable, but it is too 
 
106 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 often disregarded by the young, who think they know 
 it all and who can only learn by their own mistakes, 
 and so the old continue to warn and to advise and the 
 young continue to disregard and to suffer. 
 
 As the engineer deals with the applications of sci- 
 ence to the affairs of men, he must be above all a prac- 
 tical man. He must not be a pure theorist, a dreamer 
 or a visionary. He must see in a mathematical for- 
 mula a meaning and not simply an accumulation of 
 letters. He must know his scientific principles, but he 
 is not an engineeer unless he can apply them. 
 
 The engineer must also have a business sense, re- 
 membering that engineering is not simply utilizing the 
 forces of nature for the benefit of man, but utilizing 
 them economically and properly. His work requires 
 financial and business ability, combined with a clear 
 insight into the practical relations of things. If he 
 is to build a railroad, he must study the manufactur- 
 ing and economic conditions affecting the country 
 through which it is to pass ; he must consider the traffic 
 on existing roads, the relative importance of the cities, 
 whether there is a possibility of increasing the agri- 
 cultural or manufacturing product, whether his line 
 should run in a comparatively straight line between 
 two towns or whether it should be diverted in order to 
 tap smaller towns or whether those smaller towns 
 should be reached by branches from the main line. 
 He should have the large view. He has the opportu- 
 nity to do worse than waste the money of his employers. 
 
 After his work is decided upon, he must draw up 
 
QUALIEICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 107 
 
 contracts for its execution, make monthly estimates 
 of how much has been completed, certify payments to 
 the contractor, settle disputes, and in general attend 
 to all the business, excepting legal matters, connected 
 with the carrying out of the enterprise. He must be 
 an organizer, and must know how large a force is 
 necessary to carry on the work, and how to dispose 
 it to the best advantage and with the greatest economy. 
 He must, therefore, be a student of men and must know 
 how to get along with them smoothly and to get the 
 most work from them. 
 
 The engineer not only applies the materials and 
 resources of nature, but he must know how to conserve 
 -them. The natural resources of this country are being 
 wasted in an unexampled manner. Our forests have 
 been largely destroyed and our fuels are being rapidly 
 used up. Not only in applying the materials and 
 forces of nature to the use of man, but in conserving 
 them so far as is possible so that they may serve future 
 generations, the engineer acts as the main element in 
 the progress and permanence of civilization. 
 
 Personal Qualifications 
 
 In considering the personal qualifications which an 
 engineer should possess it is difficult to make a dis- 
 tinction between those which are particularly neces- 
 sary for the engineer, and those which are necessary 
 for success in any field of endeavor. Such qualifica- 
 tions as character, promptness, tact, good manners, 
 
108 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 patience, perseverance, system, power of concentration, 
 self-confidence, respect for others, and many others 
 that could be named, are requisite for the highest suc- 
 cess in any field. There are some, however, which, while 
 also requisite to greater or less degree in any field, may 
 be specially mentioned as desirable for the engineer. 
 These are the following: 
 
 (1) 
 
 Judgment 
 
 (2) 
 
 Balance 
 
 (3) 
 
 A trained mind 
 
 (4) 
 
 Experience 
 
 (5) 
 
 Initiative 
 
 (6) 
 
 Good health 
 
 (7) 
 
 Knowledge. 
 
 (1) Judgment. Judgment is one of the most im- 
 portant qualifications for any man. It is especially 
 so for the engineer who has habitually to decide be- 
 tween different projects or diiferent ways of doing 
 things. Its importance to him cannot be over-esti- 
 mated. It can be acquired but little through a college 
 course, but comes mainly from experience and an intui- 
 tive ability to see straight. 
 
 (2) Balance. The importance of balance has been 
 already referred to. It consists in ability to see things 
 of different kinds in the right proportion, neither ex- 
 aggerating the importance of unimportant things, or 
 minimizing the importance of important things. It 
 cannot be measured and the writer can give no rules 
 for its acquirement other than those which have been 
 briefly mentioned above. A balanced man must be 
 unprejudiced. He must have the mental courage to 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 109 
 
 arrive at any conclusion to which the facts necessarily 
 lead. Personal honesty is not a guarantee of balance. 
 As Lecky says, "There is such a thing as an honest 
 man with a dishonest mind. There are men who are 
 wholly incapable of willful, deliberate untruthfulness, 
 but who have the habit of quibbling with their convic- 
 tions and by skillful casuistry persuading themselves 
 that what they wish is right." The balanced man does 
 not pursue impractical ideals. He does not start out 
 by assuming the object at which he wishes to aim. He 
 realizes that he cannot determine upon the aim until 
 he has studied the facts and found out what is prac- 
 ticable. He is not the slave of any moral rules. He 
 realizes that every virtue, if misapplied, may become 
 a vice, or as Shakespeare says : 
 
 "Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied." 
 
 He realizes that circumstances alter cases — ^he is not 
 a slave of sentiment. He realizes the necessity of com- 
 promise, and that if he cannot get what he thinks is 
 the best, it is generally better to get the best thing 
 possible rather than to get nothing. He realizes that 
 the most honest and well intentioned men may be the 
 worst advisers and may do more real harm than the 
 self seeker. The French have a witty saying that 
 "Virtue is more dangerous than vice, because it is not 
 subject to the restraints of conscience," and there is 
 an old saying quoted by Cicero that the "extreme of 
 right is the extreme of wrong.'* 
 
 Mental courage, or the ability to face and accept 
 
110 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 unpalatable conclusions is essential for balance. The 
 balanced man is calm and quiet in speech, not argu- 
 mentative, and not disposed to express his opinions 
 with dogmatism. He realizes always the limitations of 
 his own knowledge and the uncertainties surrounding 
 every problem with which he deals, and he is not afraid 
 to alter his opinion when new facts which justify it 
 come to his attention. 
 
 (3) A Trained Mind. The engineer should have a 
 trained mind, that is to say, a mind which functions 
 logically and properly when directed to any subject 
 that it is necessary to consider. This means, as fre- 
 quently expressed, the ability to think straight. The 
 man with a trained mind is possessed of a machine 
 which he can direct to any problem that comes before 
 him. When directed to such a problem his mind will 
 know how to attack it, where to get the facts that are 
 requisite, when and where to get the advice and assist- 
 ance of other men, and will be able to arrive at correct 
 conclusions. The man with a trained mind is a safer 
 man, even in dealing with a problem that he has never 
 thought of before, than the expert in that subject if 
 without a trained mind. 
 
 A trained mind knows how to study. It can take up 
 a subject that it has never before approached and it 
 knows how to go about it to master it. The engineer 
 has to deal with so many different kinds of subjects, 
 and so many different considerations enter into the so- 
 lutions of his problems, that without a trained mind 
 
QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY OR DESIRABLE 111 
 
 he becomes a mere routine underling, simply carrying 
 out the directions of others. 
 
 (4) Experience. Experience is necessary for the 
 engineer. The young engineer must be prepared to 
 spend years gaining by experience the knowledge of 
 materials and of methods of handling men and doing 
 work that are necessary for his later success. There is 
 a great difference between men in their ability to as- 
 similate experience. Some can do so but slowly and 
 require to learn everything by paying for it at a high 
 price. Others can assimilate the experience of others 
 as if it were their own. For the cultivation of experi- 
 ence, as above stated, a study of history, biography 
 and engineering failures are especially valuable. 
 
 (5) Initiative. The engineer must have initiative. 
 He is often called upon to make a quick decision, to 
 meet a new problem, or to do something that he has 
 never done before. He must be resourceful. He must 
 not depend too much on books, but must realize the 
 limitations and even the danger of mere book learning. 
 
 (6) Good Health. Good health, while not essential, 
 is a very desirable quality for a civil engineer. His 
 work, as already stated, is largely in the open air. He 
 cannot gain the necessary experience in engineering 
 construction without as a rule undergoing some physi- 
 cal hardships, and often submitting to exposure. Good 
 health will be a great asset to him. It can be culti- 
 vated, of course, by abstemiousness, regular habits, 
 temperance and self-restraint. 
 
112 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEEEING 
 
 (7) Knowledge. It may seem strange to put knowl- 
 edge the last on the list of the qualities requisite for 
 the engineer, and yet John Locke stated the objects of 
 education in their relative rank as follows: 1, virtue; 
 2, wisdom ; 3, good breeding ; 4, learning. Our colleges, 
 and even our usual habit of mind, place learning in the 
 wrong position. It is really subordinate to many other 
 things, and while necessary for the engineer, as will 
 be discussed in the chapter on Education, it will not 
 alone go very far to make him successful. It is a 
 requisite, but without the other requisites it is of minor 
 importance. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 
 
 The engineer must be educated in the fundamental 
 principles which underlie the practice of his profes- 
 sion. He must get this education either in the college 
 or technical school or out of it. It is possible for him 
 to get it in either way. Probably a majority of civil 
 engineers have not had the benefit of a college tech- 
 nical training, but they have been men possessed of 
 unusual brains and common sense, and with the ability 
 to study by themselves, like Abraham Lincoln, who had 
 less than three months of schooling, all told, and like 
 Robert Stephenson, who had less than six months in 
 college. A technical college education, however, is a 
 great advantage, and at the present time is almost a 
 necessity, provided the student can take advantage of 
 what it offers. It offers only an opportunity. The 
 college cannot make a man an engineer, but it can 
 afford the opportunity to gain that knowledge and 
 discipline which will enable him to advance in his pro- 
 fession much more rapidly than he could without it. 
 President Draper finely expresses the value of a higher 
 education when he says: "With an independent, sane, 
 balanced character, having the elements of success any- 
 way, the advantage of a college training cannot be 
 overestimated." 
 
 113 
 
114 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 The first engineering school in this country was the 
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, which was 
 organized in 1824. The Lawrence Scientific School and 
 the Sheflield Scientific School were organized in 1847, 
 and these were followed during the next twenty years 
 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1865, 
 and some others. Since that time, the number of 
 schools at which an engineering training may be ob- 
 tained has greatly increased, and almost all our Uni- 
 versities have engineering departments. 
 
 In addition to a technical engineering education, it 
 is, of course, extremely desirable that the engineer, like 
 any other professional man, should have an acquaint- 
 ance, and not a superficial one, with history, language, 
 and literature, with economic and social problems, and 
 with the natural sciences. He will not get this ac- 
 quaintance properly without discipline. He will not 
 get it by taking college courses which he considers 
 easy, and doing just enough work in them to get 
 through. The true object of education cannot be 
 attained without eff^ort. When the work of a student 
 is easy for him, it should be changed. It should always 
 be within his powers, but it should require continued 
 effort. The easy path does not give discipline; it is 
 the steep and rugged path which requires the effort 
 that develops the powers of mind and body. And this 
 is not, as a rule, the path chosen by college students. 
 
 The case is different in the professional school. 
 There the young man, if he has good stuff in him, 
 seems to realize that he is laying the foundations for 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 115 
 
 his life work, and he works with energy and application. 
 It is not uncommon to hear young men who have gone 
 through the college of arts and the professional school 
 say that they did not work in college, but only began 
 to work when they reached the professional school. It 
 should not be possible to make such a statement truly. 
 The college should require work just as much as the 
 professional school, though of a different kind. The 
 late General Francis A. Walker, long President of the 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, comparing 
 the Institute course with the usual college course, used 
 to say that "the Institute is a place for men to work, 
 not for boys to play." The same ought to be true of 
 the college. 
 
 When Robert Stephenson's friends, observing his 
 fine mental qualities, urged his father, George Stephen- 
 son, to give him a college education, his father said 
 that it was not his wish "to make his son a gentleman." 
 He added "Robert must wark, wark, as I hae warked 
 afore him," indicating clearly his impression that the 
 college course did not mean "work"* Nevertheless, he 
 sent Robert to the University of Edinburgh for one 
 term, or a little less than six months, which was all the 
 college education that this man, probably the most 
 noted engineer of the last century, ever received; but 
 he knew how to study and did study almost every spare 
 minute. In college he was "resolute in his attendance 
 at lectures, and declined to enjoy for an hour the so- 
 
 * Some wit has given a definition of the term "college-bred" as 
 "a four-years' loaf." 
 
116 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 ciety of a friend who paid him a flying visit, in order 
 that he might be present at the address of the Pro- 
 fessor of Natural Philosophy." His biographer re- 
 marks, regarding the University of Edinburgh at that 
 time, "brilliant as the assembly of professors in Edin- 
 burgh then was, the educational system of the Univer- 
 sity was faulty and the students were allowed to pursue 
 their own courses, without discipline, and in some cases 
 without encouragement." This seems to justify the 
 father's impression, and the biographer has mentioned 
 the very thing which justified it, when he said that the 
 students were "allowed to pursue their own courses 
 without discipline." But even this could not spoil 
 Robert Stephenson, of whom his biographer says, "in 
 study he was perhaps intemperate, but in his diet he 
 was habitually spare and moderate." All through his 
 life, as we read of it, we find him studying, taking les- 
 sons at one time in Mineralogy and Assaying, prepara- 
 tory to going to South America as manager of a mining 
 company at the age of twenty-one; studying Mathe- 
 matics, Physics, and Mechanics at every opportunity; 
 and in this way laying the foundations for his success, 
 even without a college education, either in arts or in 
 engineering. 
 
 Engineering is a profession, and the students of engi- 
 neering are professional students. If they take a col- 
 lege technical course, they should be imbued with the 
 professional spirit and should not be permitted to in- 
 dulge themselves in the lax methods so common among 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 117 
 
 college students who are candidates for the A.B. 
 degree. 
 
 The professional school, however, deals as a rule 
 only with professional subjects, or those intimately re- 
 lated to them. How, then, is the engineer to acquire 
 the general knowledge of language, literature, history, 
 economics, etc., which is necessary in order that he may 
 be a broadly cultivated man, able to meet members of 
 any profession on equal terms? 
 
 Training for the other learned professions, divinity, 
 law, and medicine, has generally required students to 
 take a college course in arts, or part of such a course, 
 before entering the professional school, recognizing the 
 fact that the professional man should have broader 
 training than in the details or technique of his pro- 
 fession. There are, however, many schools of law and 
 medicine in which a college degree is not required for 
 entrance, and some of our most eminent professional 
 men are graduates of such schools. Engineering 
 schools, however, have as a rule not required a pre- 
 liminary college course, but have admitted young men 
 having essentially the same preparation as those en- 
 tering college, giving them an engineering degree after 
 four years. In order that the students in engineering 
 may be held up to the discipline of a professional school 
 and not allowed to acquire the lax habits so common in 
 college, the engineering school of a university has some- 
 times been segregated from the college of arts like the 
 other professional schools. Some of our most success- 
 
118 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 ful engineering schools, too, have been from the begin- 
 ning independent of any college, devoting themselves 
 almost wholly to technical training, like the Rensselaer 
 Polytechnic Institute, the Worcester Polytechnic In- 
 stitute, the Case School, the Stevens Institute of Tech- 
 nology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
 nology. 
 
 The fact that a preliminary college course in arts 
 has not generally been required for a degree in engi- 
 neering explains some things with reference to the sta- 
 tus of the engineer in society. Members of the other 
 professions, while frankly admitting that they did no 
 serious work until they reached the professional school, 
 nevertheless in many cases arrogate to themselves su- 
 perior qualifications on account of their college course, 
 and look down upon the engineer who has received his 
 degree after only four years of professional study. 
 This attitude, however, is clearly unjustifiable. It is 
 not the college course which makes a man, but only 
 what power, discipline, and inspiration he gets out of 
 it. And many a man with no college course at all is 
 far superior in every way to many college graduates. 
 The writer has taught in an independent technical 
 school and in a university, and he has not found that 
 graduates from a college of arts as a rule are able to 
 speak or write the English language more correctly, 
 or have any better disciplined minds, or fare any better 
 informed on general topics, than the graduates of our 
 engineering schools. Certainly, four years in college, 
 during which time a man fritters away his time and 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 119 
 
 acquires habits of indolence, injure him for future 
 work, notwithstanding the scraps of knowledge which 
 he may have succeeded in memorizing. 
 
 A young man who desires to fit himself for the engi- 
 neering profession has obviously three courses open to 
 him: (1) he may take a general college course first, 
 and then enter the engineering school, just as he would 
 the law school; (2) he may enter the engineering school 
 of a university, or an independent engineering school, 
 and complete his professional training in four years; 
 or, (3) he may enter an engineering school, and take a 
 course longer than four years, .either by taking the 
 regular four-year course first and then a post-graduate 
 course as a candidate for a higher degree, or by ar- 
 ranging his work to cover more than four years and 
 making it include such liberal studies as he may desire. 
 The writer is acquainted with a great number of men 
 who have pursued each of these courses, and it is not 
 at all apparent that those who have pursued the first 
 course have as a rule succeeded better in their profes- 
 sion, or attained positions of more influence in the 
 community, than those who have pursued the others. 
 
 The first plan — that of taking first a college course 
 in arts and following it by a professional course — ^is 
 considered by many eminent authorities to be the best 
 and the ideal arrangement. Admitting, as every one 
 must, the importance of acquiring a thorough ac- 
 quaintance and discipline in liberalizing studies, as well 
 as in strictly professional studies, it raises the ques- 
 tion whether it is better to take first a course in which 
 
120 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 these liberal studies are concentrated to the exclusion 
 of technical studies, and to follow it with a course in 
 which the latter are concentrated to the exclusion of 
 the former, or to take one course in which both kinds 
 of studies are carried along simultaneously. On the 
 one hand it is urged that when pursuing professional 
 studies the student should concentrate his attention on 
 them, and that liberal studies would distract him. On 
 the other hand it is urged that the pursuit of liberal 
 studies alone will not be undertaken with seriousness 
 and purpose, and that if such studies are to be of bene- 
 fit they should not be taken and then all interest in 
 them abandoned, but that interest in them should be 
 carried along simultaneously with strictly professional 
 work. Much depends, no doubt, upon the individual 
 student. Some like change of study, and can do better 
 work when their minds are relieved from the tension 
 of one subject by turning to an entirely different one: 
 while others can do better by concentrating for a long 
 time on one kind of subject. 
 
 The strongest objection to this first plan lies in the 
 unsatisfactory results of the usual college course in 
 arts. Those who urge this plan are generally idealists, 
 whose habit it is to form first in their own minds a 
 conception of what ought to be best, and then conclude 
 that it is best, without much regard to facts. If the 
 usual college course produced the results that it ought 
 to produce, this plan would perhaps be the best, for 
 those who can aff^ord the time. But unfortunately, the 
 lax habits too often acquired in college, and dissatis- 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 121 
 
 faction with the usual results achieved, have been ad- 
 mitted by some of the most eminent authorities. Sen- 
 ator Lodge, for instance, in his "Early Memories" says, 
 referring to Ms course in college, "But in all my four 
 years I never really studied anything, never had my 
 mind aroused to any exertion or to anything resem- 
 bling active thought until in my senior year I stumbled 
 into the course in mediaeval history, given by Henry 
 Adams." And again he says, "so it comes to pass that 
 I think with sorrow of my own folly and entertain 
 serious doubts as to the perfection of that unrestricted 
 freedom of election which gave my folly scope and 
 opportunity." 
 
 Abraham Flexner, in his volume, "The American 
 College," says, "Now as a matter of fact, the college 
 does not even rise to the accepted standards of the 
 commercial world, to whose demoralizing influence its 
 scholarly ideals are occasionally alleged to have suc- 
 cumbed. For college standards of success are actually 
 below those that prevail outside. A youth may win 
 his degree on a showing that would in an office cost him 
 his desk." And again, "the important thing is to 
 realize that the American college is deficient, and un- 
 necessarily deficient, alike in earnestness and in peda- 
 gogical intelligence; that in consequence our college 
 students are, and for the most part, emerge, flighty, 
 superficial, and immature, lacking as a class concen- 
 tration, seriousness, and thoroughness." 
 
 President Pritchett, of the Carnegie Foundation, 
 says, "The two objections generally brought against 
 
122 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 the college to-day are vagueness of aim and lack of 
 intellectual stamina." 
 
 President Jacob G. Schurman, of Cornell, in one of 
 his reports, said, "The college is without clear-cut no- 
 tions of what a liberal education is and how it is to be 
 secured, . . . and the pity of it is that this is not a 
 local or special disability, but a prevalency affecting 
 every college of arts in America." 
 
 Professor Charles M. Gayley, in his "Idols of Edu- 
 cation," is very severe, as the following extracts show: 
 "The boy enters our colleges *a badly damaged article,' 
 one-sidedly prepared, or not prepared at all, he goes 
 through college accumulating courses, but not educa- 
 tion; desperately selecting studies least foreign to his 
 slender capacity for assimilation, or most easy to slur, 
 or most likely to turn to superficial ends. He is by no 
 means always lazy, nor oblivious that now is the chance 
 of his life; but he has no core of knowledge to which 
 the facts he fumbles may cling, no keen-edged linguistic 
 or scientific tools with which to cut to the heart of the 
 matter; no memory trained and enriched, no taste, 
 no imagination, no judgment balanced by frequent 
 trial, no habits of remorseless application. He has 
 bluff but not confidence, he has promise but not power; 
 the subjects of his study have not been correlated. The 
 goal has been neither discipline nor intrinsic worth. 
 He has probably never studied one thing thoroughly. 
 He has not been guided; he has not been taught; he 
 has not conquered work. He has been distracted; he 
 has been amused." 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 123 
 
 And again, "Our graduates are characterized by 
 lack of information, lack of grasp, lack of culture. 
 This is no prejudiced account of the case. It is at- 
 tested by our leaders at the bar, on the bench, in the 
 pulpit and in the hospital, and by our captains of 
 industry. Also by educated foreigners." 
 
 And again, "Save so far as a general choice between 
 industrial or academic schooling is conceded, the pupil 
 should encounter no elective system until he is able 
 to enter upon the true university course which now 
 begins with the beginning of the junior year, and even 
 then a system so rationalized that the perils do not 
 outweigh the privileges." . . . "The long and short of 
 it is that we, educators, do not educate. We are fud- 
 dled with educational fads ; and we fuddle the schools 
 in turn." 
 
 Professor W. G. Sumner of Yale, said, "I never see 
 anything more pitiable than the helpless floundering in 
 a new subject of a young man far on in his education 
 who has never yet learned to use his mind." 
 
 Professor Charles H. Grandgent, of Harvard, in his 
 address entitled "The Dark Ages," says, "Students 
 are always ready to do anything but study. Study is 
 hard and distasteful, because our boys and girls have 
 never been used to mental concentration. Any other 
 activity, be it athletics or ^social service,' seems to them 
 less painful, hence more profitable. . . . You must 
 have noticed how very difficult it has become for col- 
 lege students not only to write but to read their 
 mother tongue. We give them books to study, and the 
 
124 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEEBING 
 
 boys, for the most part, obligingly plow through them, 
 for they are good fellows ; but they are no wiser after 
 than before. ... It is pitiful to see the agonies that 
 the ordinary college student has to suffer, if he is 
 obliged to learn anything outright. It is amazing to see 
 how readily he forgets the things which he is told, and 
 which, for the moment, he apparently understands." 
 
 According to the above testimony, and from the 
 writer^s experience of more than thirty years, in plain 
 English, the "thorough training" which is so often 
 claimed, by educators, to have been obtained by col- 
 lege and engineering graduates, is a fallacy. A few 
 men get it, all have the opportunity to get it, but the 
 majority do not get it. It depends on the student. 
 The diploma is no guarantee that he has it. 
 
 The historian. Gibbon, referring to the ignoble son 
 of one of the best of the Roman emperors, who had 
 given his son the best educational advantages, makes 
 the striking remark, "But the power of instruction is 
 seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispo- 
 sitions in which it is almost superfluous." In other 
 words, the men who will get an education anyway will 
 profit by schooling; others will seldom get much from it. 
 
 There is much misapprehension with regard to edu- 
 cation and to its aims. The word "education" means, 
 by derivation, drawing or leading out ; that is, it should 
 draw out and develop the inherent powers of the man. 
 By many, however, it seems to be considered to mean 
 to put in^ The teacher is supposed to put knowledge 
 into the mind of the student, and the student's work 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 125 
 
 is often gauged by the amount which he can retain or 
 remember. Such education is of little value. 
 
 The usual college course offers abundant examples 
 of this. The writer believes, after many years of ex- 
 perience, that only a small proportion of the students 
 taking such a course have their main interest in their 
 work. The}^ are there because their parents send them 
 and pay the bills. Their main interest is in other 
 things than their studies — in the social activities, in 
 athletics, in the football games, in the college life, in 
 having a good time, and so on. They have no plan 
 and seem to be wandering about aimlessly among the 
 courses that are offered. If, as is usually the case, they 
 can choose their courses, they too often select the easy 
 ones. They talk with other men who have taken these 
 courses and if they are told that a course is easy, they 
 will "take a chance" at it. Their object is, as a rule, 
 not to gain discipline but to get through; to do only 
 enough to "put it over." This is, of course, demoral- 
 izing, and such an attitude does not fit a young man 
 for the problems of life. A friend of the writer re- 
 cently said that his son, at college, had asked for an 
 automobile, and upon being refused had complained 
 and said that every boy in his fraternity had one. A 
 father who gives his boy in college an automobile to 
 play with commits a crime, and does not deserve to 
 have a son who amounts to anything. Moreover, he 
 is helping to demoralize many other boys who have 
 higher aims and real desire to profit by their college 
 course. 
 
126 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 The aim of the college course is frequently said to be 
 "culture." If I may define culture, I may admit that 
 it should be the aim, but if the word means only an 
 external smoothness and roundness of outline without 
 regard to intrinsic qualities, it is a sham. Professor 
 Sumner speaks of a kind of culture which he says 
 might be called sapolio culture "because it consists 
 of putting a high polish on plated ware." He adds, 
 "there seems great danger lest this kind may come to 
 be the sort aimed at by those who regard culture as the 
 end of education." If I may define culture as a system 
 of training which brings into intelligent activity all 
 the best powers of the mind and of the body, which 
 teaches how to study, and which develops in the stu- 
 dent the power of attacking a new subject or a new 
 problem, I would admit this sort of culture to be the 
 aim of education; but this is discipline and not what 
 is usually termed culture. 
 
 Professor Baynes said, "The true end of all higher 
 education is not so much to fill the mind as to quicken 
 and train its power, not so much to impart knowledge 
 as to awaken thought." 
 
 All this should not be considered necessarily deroga- 
 tory to the college itself. Much depends upon the par- 
 ticular college. In some, especially those not fre- 
 quented by large numbers of sons of wealtliy parents, 
 the standards of accomplishment and the earnestness 
 of the students may be high ; while in others they may 
 be low. What has been said is merely a statement of 
 what are believed to be facts. Moreover, if these facts 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 127 
 
 are as stated, the responsibility often rests more with 
 the students and their parents than it does with the 
 college, which really offers opportunity for discipline 
 and training which are not embraced. Not infre- 
 quently parents send their sons to college admitting 
 that they do so for social reasons ; and the bad habits 
 which young men frequently acquire are due largely to 
 lack of discipline at home. It is unquestionably easier 
 for a parent or a teacher to let a young man have his 
 own way rather than to enforce discipline, but parents 
 who pursue such a course are only laying up sorrow 
 for themselves as well as for their sons. And teachers 
 who pursue such a course are injuring their institu- 
 tion and their own reputation as well as their students. 
 There is, no doubt, much that is beneficial in the "col- 
 lege life" that a young man gets in college. The inti- 
 mate association with his fellows, the opportunities of 
 forming lasting friendships, the insight into individual 
 character, the atmosphere surrounding a body of 
 young men pursuing varying aims, all tend to broaden 
 and develop character. This is present in a less de- 
 gree (and sometimes almost lacking) in the independ- 
 ent technical schools, and is an argument in favor 
 of taking a college course before entering the profes- 
 sional engineering school. But this college life should 
 not be the main thing, and should be subordinate to 
 the acquisition of sound mental training and disci- 
 pline. In this, as in everything, it is a question of 
 proper balance; and too many young men in college 
 allow the college life and the outside activities, — social, 
 
128 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIYIL ENGINEERING 
 
 athletic, and others, — to become the main thing, to 
 the great detriment of the mental discipline and the 
 habits that are more important. 
 
 It is probably the realization of the laxity of the 
 usual college course, coupled with the fact that the 
 earliest engineering schools were modeled on the second 
 plan, by which a college course was not required as a 
 preliminary to the engineering course, that has led 
 our universities and technical schools to adopt the same 
 plan. The standards of work and the earnestness of 
 the students are undoubtedly greater in the engineer- 
 ing schools than in the colleges. The danger of this 
 second plan lies in the fact that the professional school 
 naturally tends to make its curriculum consist strictly 
 of professional or allied subjects. This has necessarily 
 led to a certain narrowness in engineering graduates, 
 and a certain habit on their part of devoting themselves 
 purely to the technical details of their profession. 
 This narrow course of study is, therefore, responsible, 
 in the writer's opinion, for the narowness of many en- 
 gineers which has been referred to elsewhere in this 
 book. Up to within a short time the curricula of most 
 of our engineering schools were almost entirely tech- 
 nical, though sometimes with a little instruction in 
 English, French, German, Economics, or some other 
 liberal studies. Of late, there has been a tendency to 
 introduce more liberal studies into engineering cur- 
 ricula, but their amount is still small in most cases. 
 
 The larger the proportion of time devoted to liberal 
 studies, the less remains for technical subjects, so that 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 129 
 
 the student cannot be carried as far into professional 
 details as he could if all the time were devoted to them, 
 unless the latter are further specialized. Engineering 
 schools generally offer a choice between the different 
 branches — civil, mechanical, electrical, sanitary, min- 
 ing, etc. One of these having been selected, the cur- 
 riculum is generally prescribed, with no options except 
 in minor matters. But the desire to carry students 
 farther in professional subjects, without extending the 
 course beyond four years, and also to permit the intro- 
 duction of additional liberal studies, has led in some 
 cases to further specialization of the courses named; 
 for instance, allowing a student in the senior year of 
 the civil engineering course to choose between hydraulic 
 engineering, railroad engineering, or structural engi- 
 neering. The breadth that is supposed to be given by 
 the introduction of liberal studies like history, eco- 
 nomics, language, etc., is thus counteracted by greater 
 narrowness in the professional studies. The writer 
 believes that this is a mistake, unless the professional 
 specialization is very slight. It is much better to offer 
 such professional specialization in post-graduate 
 courses. The young man entering an engineering 
 school is presumed to have decided upon a career in 
 applied science. He has a free choice between the pre- 
 scribed courses in the main branches. In most cases he 
 finds it difficult enough to decide between civil, mechan- 
 ical, or electrical engineering. Moreover, a civil engi- 
 neer should have a considerable acquaintance with me- 
 chanical and with electrical engineering; otherwise he 
 
130 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 will be a narrow civil engineer, and his success will be 
 much retarded. The converse is also true. It seems to 
 the writer a mistake to require or allow him to special- 
 ize still farther in civil engineering, itself, in an under- 
 graduate course. He should not be encouraged to 
 follow the whim of the moment, at the expense of a 
 broad knowledge of engineering in general. 
 
 This brings us to the third plan which may be fol- 
 lowed, namely, to take first an undergraduate engi- 
 neering course, and to follow with a post-graduate 
 course in such special professional studies as may be 
 desired. Instead of this, some urge that the under- 
 graduate course should be extended to cover five or 
 even six years, thus permitting the introduction of more 
 liberal studies, and also, perhaps, of carrying the pro- 
 fessional studies farther than they could be carried 
 in a four-year curriculum. This last plan has been 
 adopted by Columbia University, where the engineer- 
 ing courses require as a preparation, not less than 
 three years of college work, with specified training in 
 mathematics, physics and chemistry. The engineering 
 courses themselves cover three years, so that the entire 
 course is six years in length. What seems to the 
 writer a serious objection to this plan is that the great 
 majority of engineering students are not willing to 
 spend more than four years in an undergraduate 
 course. Most of them want to get to work, and they 
 want some kind of a degree at the end of four years. 
 If they are willing to spend six years in study, they 
 prefer to take an undergraduate degree in four years, 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEEE 131 
 
 either in college or in an engineering school, and then 
 return for two years more in the post-graduate school 
 as candidates for a higher degree. The Columbia plan, 
 therefore, it appears to the writer, will unduly re- 
 strict the number of students in the engineering school, 
 and will correspondingly lessen the influence of the 
 University in the great field of applied science. 
 
 All friends of education will watch the experiment 
 at Columbia with much interest. Undoubtedly New 
 York is the most favorable place for such an experi- 
 ment, because there are several institutions there, or 
 in the neighborhood, which offer the regular four- 
 years' course in engineering; and with the great popu- 
 lation within a few miles, it is well that there should 
 be one institution offering a more extended and elabo- 
 rate course. The Columbia course has further the 
 great advantage that it is practically a prescribed 
 course; not only in the three years in the engineering 
 school, but also in the pre-engineering course of three 
 years in the college. This college course of three years, 
 however, is devoted almost entirely to mathematics, 
 chemistry, physics and drawing. Of courses which are 
 known as the humanities, this curriculum only includes 
 a year and a half in English, a year in French, a year 
 in "Modem Civilization" and a year in Economics. 
 Counting the course in Modern Civilization as 1^ 
 courses, this is only two courses more in the humani- 
 ties than are offered in the Harvard Engineering 
 School course of four years, and really only one course 
 more, in view of the Harvard requirement that all 
 
132 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIYIL ENGINEERING 
 
 candidates for the degree must have a reading knowl- 
 edge of at least one modem language (and no more 
 than Harvard if its courses in Accounting, Business 
 Administration, and Commercial Law are considered 
 humanities). The principal advantage of the Columbia 
 course would, therefore, seem to be that it spreads the 
 engineering and scientific instruction over a longer 
 period, enabling the student to do more thorough work 
 and to reflect more on what he learns (if he will), and 
 perhaps also going somewhat furth&r in some of the 
 technical subjects than the ordinary four-years'^ engi- 
 neering course. This ordinary four-years' course, 
 however, if the student learns the fundamentals thor- 
 oughly, supplemented by one or two years in advanced 
 work, and including a course or two in some general 
 subject, would seem to give all the advantages that can 
 be claimed for the Columbia course. 
 
 The first class graduating at Columbia under the 
 new plan was the class of 1918, and the total number 
 of students in all courses has shown a falling off from 
 489 in 1914-15 to 185 in 1920-21. Columbia gives 
 the B.A. degree to students who have taken the college 
 preparatory course after they have completed the first 
 year of the engineering program, and the engineering 
 degree upon completion of the full engineering pro- 
 gram. 
 
 A similar plan has been followed since 1893 at the 
 Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, 
 where, after three years in college studying certain 
 specified. subjects, a student may enter the engineering 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 133 
 
 school, receive the B. A. degree after one year; then, 
 after about five months' engineering practice, he may 
 return for the second year in the engineering school; 
 that is to say, the fifth year of the course, when he 
 receives the degree of civil engineer. At this school 
 the maximum enrollment was in 1907-08, when there 
 were 40 students. In 1920-21 there were 9 students in 
 the engineering school and 1,888 students in Dart- 
 mouth College. 
 
 Considering these figures, it must, of course, be 
 borne in mind that the war has seriously deranged the 
 engineering schools, and that they are only just coming 
 back to a normal condition. It is also to be remem- 
 bered that there is much to be said in favor of a small 
 school of engineering, because in such a school the stu- 
 dent can receive more individual attention from the 
 Professors, and is not turned so much into the hands 
 of inexperienced assistants. 
 
 The first plan, by which the engineering school is 
 strictly a post-graduate school, requiring a college 
 course of four years as preparation, will also, in the 
 present state of development, unduly restrict the num- 
 ber of students and lessen the influence of the Univer- 
 sity in the field of applied science. This plan was first 
 tried at Harvard University from 1908-1914. After 
 1906 no new undergraduate students were admitted 
 to the Lawrence Scientific School, which was the under- 
 graduate engineering school of Harvard University up 
 to that time, but was then abolished and superseded 
 by the graduate school. In 1905-06 the number of 
 
134 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 students in the Lawrence Scientific School was 504. 
 As a graduate school, the engineering school never had 
 more than 152 students, which was the number in 
 1913-14, when an agreement was made to combine the 
 engineering work with that of the Massachusetts Insti- 
 tute of Technology. This agreement was declared 
 illegal by the Supreme Court, and Harvard University 
 then made its engineering school an undergraduate 
 school with a course of four years for the Bachelor's 
 Degree in Engineering and with advanced courses of 
 one or two years for students who desire them, leading 
 to advanced degrees. The number of students in 1920- 
 21 in this school was 233, and in 1921-22 it is ap- 
 parently 258. As a graduate school, the maximum 
 number of graduates was 24 in 1914. 
 
 It appears, therefore, as a result of this discussion, 
 that the engineering school should offer an under- 
 graduate course of four years, with an opportunity 
 of selection between the main branches of engineering; 
 and also, if its circumstances allow, post-graduate 
 courses leading to advanced degrees after one or two 
 years. The character of the undergraduate course 
 should be carefully considered, and it should not be 
 narrow, either by excluding all liberal studies, or by 
 specializing in professional subjects. Perhaps the fun- 
 damental facts on which it should be based may be 
 formulated as follows: 
 
 1. While the intrinsic differences between men must 
 be recognized in any scheme of education, engineering 
 students have decided that they wish to pursue, and pre- 
 sumably are fitted for, applied science. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 135 
 
 2. Few of them, however, before studying engineering, 
 can correctly judge in which branch of engineering their 
 main interest or ability lies, or in which fate will cast their 
 careers. 
 
 3. None of them can correctly judge what curriculum 
 is best fitted to prepare them for an engineering career. 
 
 The curriculum should not be entirely technical, but 
 should include at least the opportunity to take some 
 liberal studies. In Harvard University, therefore, the 
 students are offered the choice between nine curricula, 
 each in one of the branches of engineering. In each 
 of these the studies are prescribed, except for a few non- 
 professional options. The curricula in civil, mechan- 
 ical, and electrical engineering are identical up to the 
 senior year. If, therefore, a student takes the course 
 in civil engineering, and finds himself later called upon 
 to engage in mechanical or electrical engineering, he 
 will be able to do so, for he will have received instruc- 
 tion in the fundamental principles of all. The purely 
 technical studies are not carried so far, in the under- 
 graduate courses, as in some schools where there is 
 more specialization ; but post-graduate courses are of- 
 fered, leading to the Master's or Doctor's degree, in 
 which they may be pursued to any desired extent. In 
 the first two years there are three required or elective 
 studies in liberal subjects. The Harvard College course 
 requires for the bachelor's degree seventeen full courses 
 of a year. At least six of the courses offered in col- 
 lege are included as required courses in the engineering 
 programs, leaving eleven college courses not specifi- 
 
136 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 cally offered in the engineering school ; but two of these 
 may be taken by the engineering student as the elec- 
 tives of the first two years. It may therefore be said 
 that at least eight-seventeenths of the engineering pro- 
 gram consists of studies optional with college students, 
 but required in the engineering curricula, which may, 
 therefore, be considered to be about one-half strictly 
 technical. By this plan it is believed that the charge 
 of narrowness, in any sense, cannot be made; while at 
 the same time the fundamentals of engineering are 
 taught in the undergraduate course, quite far enough 
 to serve as a preparation for practice; and in the 
 graduate school a student may go as much farther as 
 he likes. 
 
 In its small degree of specialization, this Harvard 
 course is believed to differ from any other, and the 
 writer thoroughly approves of it. 
 
 Some engineers and educators no doubt believe that 
 an engineering course following a college course is 
 the ideal plan for those who can afford the time. This 
 may be true in certain cases, depending upon the stu- 
 dent, the parent, and the college. If the student can 
 get the most out of a college course, and avoid the 
 temptations to take the easiest way, it may be the best 
 for him. There is no reason, however, why such a man 
 could not follow the Harvard plan, extending his under- 
 graduate engineering course to any desired length, but 
 of course he would then receive only one degree. Some 
 men are degree chasers, and seem to think that their 
 success is made if they can attain the right to aflGix 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 137 
 
 some letters to their names. This, however, does not 
 seem a very worthy ambition; it is only what the let- 
 ters stand for that makes them of value, and sometimes 
 they stand for little — to those who know. "God will 
 not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, 
 but for scars." 
 
 A young man who decides to follow the first plan 
 should arrange his college course with great care, so 
 as to facilitate his subsequent professional work as 
 much as possible, and avoid gaps between professional 
 subjects and the preparatory subjects on which they 
 depend. The facility of students to forget what they 
 have been taught is one of the wonders of education. 
 The writer knows men who after four years in college 
 required four more years to complete an undergraduate 
 engineering course. They had devoted themselves en- 
 tirely to "culture" in college. 
 
 With reference to the temptations to desultory work 
 in college, it is a matter of surprise that if the criti- 
 cisms of high authorities are valid, nothing is done to 
 remedy the situation. The fundamental trouble seems 
 to be the great freedom that the student has in the 
 choice of studies, combined with laxity of discipline and 
 low standards of accomplishment. The elective system 
 had its origin in the perception of the fundamental 
 truth that men are not equal, and that all should not 
 be put through the same mill. To require the same 
 program of every man is obviously wrong. But in 
 correcting this by the unrestricted, or almost unre- 
 stricted, elective system, greater wrongs were intro- 
 
138 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 duced. It is always so with reforms. There are many 
 men who, when they perceive a wrong, think they must 
 at once set out to correct it. They see the wrong 
 clearly, and they see — or think they see — a way of 
 correcting it; but their minds are so fixed on the par- 
 ticular wrong that they seek to correct, that they do 
 not follow out the consequences of the remedy they 
 propose, and so frequently, while correcting one 
 wrong, they create a worse. Our legislation is full of 
 such instances. Of course this does not mean that 
 wrongs should never be corrected, but it does mean 
 that a reform should be introduced slowly, only after 
 a careful study of the proposed remedy and its con- 
 sequences, and by practical men rather than by theo- 
 rists and idealists. 
 
 We have seen that Professor Gayley thinks there 
 should be no electives in college below the junior year, 
 and few afterward. Professor A. G. Keller, of Yale, 
 argues very strongly, and to the writer's mind very 
 convincingly,* in favor of a required course in college 
 covering about three-quarters of the required work, 
 leaving one-quarter for electives. The writer has never 
 been able to imdestand why the colleges have not imi- 
 tated the programs of the technical schools, which have 
 been entirely successful, and are admittedly free from 
 most of the criticisms that have been directed against 
 the college course. While it is not always, or perhaps 
 often, possible to tell what career is the correct one for 
 
 * "The B.A. Degree in America," by Professor A. G. Keller, 
 Scientific Monthly, February, 1918. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 139 
 
 a boy entering college, yet it should be possible, if 
 parents and teachers would give attention to it, to tell 
 what general line of work he is fitted for; whether for 
 applied science, for the law, for business, for literature, 
 etc. The college might then offer to students a choice 
 between a number of courses, one leading to applied 
 science, one to pure science, one to the law, one to 
 medicine, one to divinity, one to literature, one to busi- 
 ness, etc. Each of these courses should offer a pro- 
 gram of studies largely prescribed, laid down by those 
 who know what course of training is best fitted to equip 
 a man for the general line chosen, with a relatively 
 small proportion of the time open for the choice of 
 electives. This is exactly what the engineering schools 
 have been doing, and doing successfully; and it may 
 be doubted if there is a college in the country which 
 has an engineering school and a college of liberal arts, 
 in which the engineering school — if it has been ade- 
 quately supported, and encouraged equally with the 
 college of liberal arts — ^has not outstripped the latter 
 in number of students and in influence; although the 
 students in the college of liberal arts, with their cus- 
 tomary self-conceit, sometimes look down on the engi- 
 neering students as "utilitarians," or as lacking in 
 **culture," because they are learning something that 
 they can make practical use of. Such a plan as sug- 
 gested, if accompanied by discipline — ^which, by the 
 way, is always easier to enforce in a technical school 
 than in a college, because the results are tangible — and 
 by greater discrimination in the selection of teachers, 
 
140 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 would in the writer's opinion go far to meet the criti- 
 cisms so often leveled at the college.* 
 
 There is and has long been a great neglect of natural 
 science in our colleges. A young man or woman may 
 graduate from almost any one of them with scarcely 
 any accurate knowledge of the phenomena of the 
 natural world in which we live. On the other hand, 
 there is a great exaggeration of the so-called human 
 element. Young, immature students crowd into the 
 courses in economic and social subjects, and in many 
 instances the importance of these subjects is exagge- 
 rated by the college authorities. Formerly, it was 
 thought that a college president must be a minister. 
 That belief, happily, has passed, but even now, if a 
 minister is not selected, the president is generally an 
 "educator," a psychologist, an economist — rarely a 
 scientist, a lawyer, a business man, or an engineer. f 
 
 These economic and social studies are no doubt inter- 
 esting and valuable, but the young men who study them 
 have no background of experience on which to base 
 their conclusions. The subjects themselves are uncer- 
 tain. The professor at one college may differ dia- 
 
 * See the books referred to previously. The reader who, like 
 the present writer, is inclined to smile at much of the modern 
 pedagogical writing, will also derive much amusement from "A 
 Joysome History of Education," by Welland Hendrick, published 
 by The Point of View, Nyack, N. Y. 
 
 t Probably every reader has heard the epigram: "Those who can, 
 do; those who cannot, teach." To which a college professor has 
 wittily added the following: "and those who can do neither are 
 made college presidents." Happily most cases are exceptions. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 141 
 
 metrically from the professor at another. There are 
 all sorts of opinions, and few of them can be sub- 
 mitted to scientific demonstration. The inevitable re- 
 sult is that many students, especially those who are 
 conceited and lacking in balance, are led to conclude 
 that, where doctors disagree, one opinion is as good 
 as another, and their own opinion as good as any- 
 body's. 
 
 Under the attractive guise of liberality, tolerance, 
 broad-mindedness, and looking at all sides of a ques- 
 tion, our young men and women are exposed, or expose 
 themselves, to the teachings or writings of many who 
 are merely unbalanced or crazy fanatics. It is as 
 though they should deliberately expose themselves to 
 the smallpox, in order to show liberality of mind and 
 a desire to see all sides of a question. Nobody should 
 expose himself to a contagious disease, trusting to his 
 powers of resistance to avoid infection, unless he is 
 obliged to do so ; nor should one voluntarily expose 
 himself to social disease germs. There are social as 
 well as biological germs of disease, which lurk in the 
 social body, and which, in a favorable environment, 
 will develop and spread with great rapidity and with 
 dire results. These social germs of disease are ideas, 
 not things. One favorable environment for germs of 
 social disease is found in the minds of well-meaning but 
 inexperienced and idealistic young men and women. 
 These facts form the basis for the charge which is fre- 
 quently made, and which is unfortunately truer than 
 
142 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 it should be, that our men's and women's colleges (not 
 engineering schools) are nurseries of socialism.* The 
 well-meaning but often idle rich and college-educated 
 people, who wish to appear progressive, broad-minded, 
 and tolerant, are also open to this charge. A United 
 States judge recently publicly said in Boston that the 
 spread of socialism and bolshevism was largely due to 
 the parlor Bolsheviks and the Harvard Liberal Club. 
 It would be much better for our young men and women 
 if, instead of studying these economic and social sul>- 
 jects so intensively in college, they should take but one 
 course in economics which would show them the scope 
 and methods of the subject, which should be taught by 
 a thoroughly well-balanced man; and if they should 
 study mainly science, mathematics, history, logic, and 
 the classics, learning to think straight and to know 
 the deeds and lives of great men; leaving for a later 
 time the further study of economics and social subjects, 
 when they would have some practical experience of life 
 to guide them. A very distinguished man not long ago 
 told the writer that when he graduated from college he 
 had a large and varied assortment of economic knowl- 
 edge; but about two years' experience in business 
 showed him that it was mostly wrong. Abstract 
 knowledge is of little value, except in the sciences which 
 are themselves purely abstract, namely, mathematics 
 and logic. Even these must be used merely as tools 
 if they are to be of practical service. In other sub- 
 
 * See an article by Vice-President Calvin Coolidge in The jD«- 
 Uneaitor for June, 1921, on "Enemies of the Republic." 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 143 
 
 jects a man cannot learn anything thoroughly unless 
 he can relate it to his experience. 
 
 For these reasons the writer has long believed that 
 an engineering training is the best preparation for any 
 walk of life, and that if a college course is taken it 
 should be mainly devoted to science, the classics, his- 
 tory, logic and mathematics. 
 
 In the pursuit of ideals it not infrequently happens 
 that to remedy Evil A will necessarily produce an 
 Evil B ; that to remedy Evil B will produce Evil C ; 
 and that to remedy Evil C will produce Evil A. There 
 may even be only two horns to the dilemma ; it may be 
 that Evil A may be remedied only by producing Evil B, 
 and that Evil B may be remedied only by producing 
 Evil A. In these cases a choice must be made of what 
 will be best on the whole. It is a question of balance. 
 Even if an evil exists it does not follow that it should 
 be remedied; it may be that it cannot be remedied with-v 
 out producing something worse, and that the best bal- 
 ance has already been struck. It seems to be so in 
 education. Evil A may be non-recognition of the dif- 
 ferences in individuals ; this was the. evil in the old pre- 
 scribed course, the same for every student. Evil B 
 may be the lack of discipline; this is the evil in the 
 unrestricted elective system. It is a question of bal- 
 ance, and the curriculum which will best balance these 
 evils will be the best curriculum. The writer believes 
 that the best balance will be by a course almost en- 
 tirely prescribed, but allowing the student to choose 
 between a number of such courses. 
 
144 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 It must never be forgotten, however, that more de- 
 pends upon how a subject is taught than upon the sub- 
 ject itself, and that the greatest discipline may come 
 from a subject supposed the least capable of it, if it 
 has the right teacher. In Europe, students used to 
 move from one university to another, in order to study 
 certain subjects with certain leading men. This has 
 seldom been done in this country, and cannot well be 
 done, except in graduate work, owing to differences in 
 the curricula. It might be an improvement if it could 
 be done more. 
 
 The education of the engineer is never finished. He 
 must be a student all his life, like the physician or 
 lawyer. The fundamental bases of mathematics and 
 science are of course immutable, but the applications 
 change rapidly. The methods of purifying drinking 
 water, of treating and disposing of sewage, have been 
 revolutionized within comparatively few years. The 
 automobile, the aeroplane, the steam turbine, are all 
 recent inventions. A new form of road surface has 
 come into use within a few years. New properties of 
 materials, new methods of treatment, and new mate- 
 rials themselves, are being discovered. New experi- 
 ments in hydraulics are leading to modifications of old 
 methods and formulas. New forms of construction are 
 being introduced. Applied science is in a constant state 
 of flux. It is most important, therefore, that the engi- 
 neering student should learn How to Study. The col- 
 lege graduate who cannot by himself pursue farther a 
 subject that he has begun, or take up an entirely new 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 145 
 
 subject and master it alone, has largely failed in his 
 education. It is not necessary to teach everything in 
 college. Yet strangely enough, little attention is given 
 to training students how to study. It seems to be 
 assumed that because they study, they know how to 
 study. It might as well be assumed that because they 
 can sing, they know how to sing correctly. The con- 
 sequence is that whenever any subject of any human 
 interest presents itself, educational theorists think it 
 should be taught in the schools. They seem to go on 
 the theory that nothing can be learned that is not 
 taught in school; and our college and preparatory 
 school programs are crowded with subjects that are 
 no doubt of interest and importance, but that had bet- 
 ter be left for the student to study by himself, confining 
 the school work — limited in time as it is — to the teach- 
 ing of fundamentals, to giving the student mental disci- 
 pline, high aims, mental vision and perspective, mental 
 courage, and the power to study by himself.* 
 
 It is not necessary to give here a complete discussion 
 of what a curriculum in Civil Engineering should com- 
 prise. Nevertheless, for the benefit of any young men 
 who may read this book, especially those who may con- 
 template taking a college course preparatory to a pro- 
 fessional course, a few remarks may be desirable. 
 
 The civil engineer must have a thorough training in 
 several branches of natural science. It is sometimes 
 said that civil engineering is a three-legged stool rest- 
 
 * See the writer's pamphlet, "How to Study," published by 
 McGraw-Hill Book Co.,.191T. 
 
146 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 ing upon a knowledge of chemistry, physics, and mathe- 
 matics. These, indeed, are fundamental, but other 
 things, especially mechanics, are equally necessary. 
 The civil engineering curriculum should comprise a 
 course of at least one year in chemistry, of at least one 
 year and preferably two in physics, both chemistry and 
 physics including laboratory work, two years of mathe- 
 matics extending through the calculus, and at least 
 one year in mechanics. A student preparing for civil 
 engineering should also acquire a reading knowledge of 
 French and German, and it may be to his advantage to 
 acquire some knowledge of Italian and Spanish. He 
 should have a course of at least one year in history, 
 at least one year in English, one year in economics, and 
 it will be greatly to his advantage if he can gain some 
 knowledge of accounting. As the civil engineer deals 
 with topographical features of the earth's surface and 
 with stones, cement, and other materials, he should 
 have a good knowledge of geology. The work of the 
 surveyor, also, requires for some of its operations a 
 knowledge of astronomy. All of the above subjects 
 can, as a rule, be covered in a college course, and they 
 should be covered by the college student who intends to 
 take an engineering course later, and who desires to 
 economize time in his later professional studies. More- 
 over, a knowledge of mechanical drawing is necessary 
 for the engineer, which is usually given in the freshman 
 year of engineering courses and is necessary for the 
 proper understanding of the professional courses 
 which follow. The college student should, if possible, 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 147 
 
 either in college or outside, obtain the equivalent of 
 such a course in drawing. Descriptive geometry is a 
 very important study for the engineer, but it is diffi- 
 cult for most students, and with the modern tendency 
 towards making everything easy and shunning every- 
 thing which is difficult the courses in descriptive geom- 
 etry, even in the engineering schools, have in the last 
 few decades, in the writer's opinion, been largely weak- 
 ened or emasculated. It may be difficult to get a good 
 course in this subject in college, but it should be done 
 if possible. To this list may be added the subject of 
 mechanism and the general subject of power develop- 
 ment. Some colleges offer opportunity for courses in 
 these subjects which should be embraced by students 
 contemplating a career in any branch of engineering. 
 
 If the college student can cover in his four years* 
 course in college the subjects above enumerated, he 
 will still have time to include a goodly number of other 
 courses from among those offered by the college, which 
 will round out his general education and at the same 
 time help him in his profession, and upon the comple- 
 tion of such a course he will as a rule be able to obtain 
 an undergraduate engineering degree in two years in 
 an engineering school. 
 
 The curriculum of the technical engineering studies 
 need not be described in detail. The curricula of the 
 different engineering schools are very much alike — on 
 paper. They may differ greatly, however, in thorough- 
 ness, in the manner in which the courses are given, and 
 in the attention which can be given to the individual 
 
148 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 student, the latter depending upon the size of classes 
 and the number of instructors. The technical subjects 
 in a civil engineering course should cover those outlined 
 in Chapter III of this book, beginning with surveying, 
 which is now frequently given as a continuous course 
 for about two months during the summer. The college 
 student will do well, and will save some time, if he will 
 take such a course while in college, and he can easily 
 arrange to do so by attending during a summer one 
 of the engineering summer schools, provided he has the 
 proper preparation in mathematics and drawing. 
 
 Following surveying, the engineering curriculum in- 
 cludes a study of railroads in the different branches, 
 of highway engineering, a comprehensive course in hy- 
 draulics, courses in the different branches of hydraulic 
 engineering, and a course in structural engineering 
 extending as a rule through two years ; these courses 
 being combined with laboratory work to a sufficient 
 extent to enable the student to appreciate the theoreti- 
 cal and technical principles which he is taught in the 
 class room. 
 
 The sanitary engineer should follow his study of 
 chemistry with a study of bacteriology, biology, the 
 chemistry of waters, and the chemical principles gov- 
 erning the purification of water and the disposal of 
 sewage. He should also have instruction in public 
 hygiene and in physiology. 
 
 Whether it is best for a young man contemplating 
 the career of a civil engineer to take a college course 
 first or to enter the engineering school at once will 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 149 
 
 depend largely upon the individual and upon the col- 
 lege. The atmosphere and the incentives to work vary 
 in different colleges, and of course individuals differ 
 greatly, as well as the influences that they are under 
 at home. The writer believes that most college students 
 are desirous of doing hard work, and regret the dis- 
 tractions and the laxity which prevail so often in col- 
 lege. Some of them would like to be rescued from these 
 distractions and encouraged to do more serious work, 
 but the atmosphere of the college and perhaps the 
 influence of their teachers is in some cases against it. 
 If a large number of students in a college come from 
 families of small or moderate means, and especially if 
 many of these students are paying their own way, they 
 will be apt to be more earnest and more desirous of 
 doing hard work than if they come from wealthy fami- 
 lies, whose sons are too often sent to college for social 
 reasons, to have a good time, and to belong to a high- 
 class social club. The writer believes that if one of 
 our colleges should successfully remove the charges so 
 often brought against the college course, whether in 
 the way suggested in this chapter or in some better 
 way, it would meet with immediate and great success, 
 and with approval on the part of the students them- 
 selves, or at least of the better class of students ; and 
 to the young man who contemplates taking a college 
 course before entering the engineering school, he would 
 offer the advice to choose his college with the greatest 
 discrimination. 
 
 To the great majority of young men who wish to 
 
150 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 follow a career in engineering, my advice would be 
 this: Enter an engineering school as soon as you are 
 prepared, and get the habit of work at once : — and not 
 only the habit of work, but train yourself to work 
 effectmely. Hard work will not help you much if it is 
 ineffective and does not lead to results. Perseverance 
 is not a virtue if misdirected toward unworthy aims, 
 or toward impossible aims, no matter how good in 
 the abstract. 
 
 Broaden yourself as much as possible. Acquaint 
 yourself with the great men who have gone before ; 
 learn what they did and said and thought, and relate 
 all this to your own experience and aims. Read the 
 classics in the best translations you can find. Learn 
 to use the English language well and to speak in public 
 without embarrassment. Extend your technical educa- 
 tion over more than four years if you can do so profit- 
 ably, but not too long, for too much school education 
 is as bad as too little, and probably worse. Your real 
 education will come later anyway. 
 
 To young men who enter college with no definite aim, 
 my advice would be: No matter what career you may 
 decide to follow, study the sciences upon which engi- 
 neering is based, and as much of engineering as you can 
 consistently get in your college course. These things 
 will be useful to you in any career — more useful than 
 many so-called cultural subjects. Select courses that 
 will call forth your most serious effort, not those that 
 are easy for you. Do not aim for culture, whatever 
 you may understand that to mean, but for training. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE ENGINEER 151 
 
 Acquaint yourself with the principal fields of human 
 thought, and learn thoroughly the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of those you select. Do not go too deeply into 
 any one, but study the fundamentals thoroughly. You 
 cannot become a specialist or an expert in four years. 
 If you try to become an expert in college you will more 
 likely turn out a sham or a narrow bigot. If you aim 
 for culture, you will be likely to turn out a conceited 
 ass ; if you aim for wisdom, you will be likely to turn 
 out a pedant. If you work hard, take advantage of 
 your opportunities, follow good advice, culture and 
 wisdom will come of themselves in due time, if they 
 are meant for you. Select as your guides men who are 
 broad-minded and tolerant of differing opinions in con- 
 troversial subjects, rather than those who are dog- 
 matic and mentally arrogant. Give little time to con- 
 troversial subjects in which your teacher may hold 
 views very different from those held by equally good 
 authorities elsewhere, and in which your own view — 
 whether based on prejudice or not — cannot be proved 
 either right or wrong; but rather study subjects in 
 which, while there is room for independent thought, 
 if you are wrong you can be shown to be wrong, and 
 the reasons stated. Train your mind to be a reliable 
 logical instrument, which you can turn upon any sub- 
 ject and be sure of reasoning correctly, leaving contro- 
 versial subjects for later study, when you will have 
 experience to give you the data. Learn to have respect 
 for those who have not had the opportunity for a col- 
 lege education, and realize that many such men are 
 
152 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 making more of themselves than you will ever make of 
 yourself. Above all, learn intellectual modesty even 
 while sure of your ground, and remember that when you 
 graduate your education will have been only begun. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 AS A PROFESSION 
 
 Every profession or occupation has features which 
 might be termed unfavorable, and others which might 
 be termed favorable; yet what one person might con- 
 sider favorable, another might think unfavorable. It 
 is a question of personal adaptation. If a young man 
 is distinctly adapted for a certain profession, it may 
 have no disadvantages for him. But few young men 
 are distinctly fitted for but one occupation. Most 
 men would succeed equally well in any one of a number, 
 if their training and discipline were directed toward 
 the one chosen. Every occupation has characteristics, 
 and, therefore, instead of having one chapter on the 
 advantages of Civil Engineering as a profession, and 
 another on its disadvantages, the present chapter will 
 discuss the Characteristics of Civil Engineering as a 
 Profession. Each reader may then decide which are 
 to him advantages and which disadvantages. 
 
 First among the attractions of Civil Engineering 
 may be placed the opportunity that 'it offers of doing 
 constructive and enduring work. If, as has been 
 claimed in this book, engineering in its broadest sense 
 is the main element in advancing civilization, it is ob- 
 
 153 
 
154 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 vious that the engineer who builds a railroad, furnishes 
 a city with water, develops by irrigation a tract of land 
 previously useless, constructs a port or a canal for 
 handling the commerce of the world, or completes or 
 aids in completing any other large and useful engi- 
 neering work, is a direct agent in doing good to his 
 fellow-men. The engineer can look upon his completed 
 work with pride and satisfaction, and can see before his 
 eyes the fruits of his labor. His work is a permanent 
 monument to his skill and diligence; it does not dis- 
 appear as soon as it is done and paid for. 
 
 It is, of course, too often true that the credit for the 
 engineer's work is given to others ; but this is not con- 
 fined to engineering. Ask who built any of our trans- 
 continental railway lines, and the reply will probably 
 give the name of some financier or promoter who car- 
 ried the project to completion, and not that of the 
 engineer who designed or superintended the work. That, 
 however, is merely an illustration of the fact that 
 justice is not always done in this world. And often, 
 too, the real credit may be due to the promoter, who 
 had the vision, the command of capital, the energy, 
 and the perseverance to push the project. But these 
 faculties are not beyond the command of the trained 
 engineer, who should not confine himself to mere tech- 
 nical details, but should cultivate other qualities if he 
 would make the most of himself. And it is certainly 
 true that the financier who endeavors to carry out en- 
 gineering undertakings without the advice and judg- 
 ment of a trained engineer to guide him, is apt to make 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 155 
 
 costly failures rather than successes, as the history of 
 such projects clearly shows. 
 
 The second attraction of engineering is that it tends 
 to train and develop character. The true engineer is 
 a scientific man, and should be imbued with the true 
 scientific spirit. He deals with the applications of the 
 immutable laws of nature. He cannot violate those 
 laws without the inevitable penalty being visited on 
 somebody. His work develops the habit of seeking only 
 the truth. He is not concerned to make the worse 
 appear the better reason. The engineer, as a rule, 
 does not deal in bluff; he has nothing to "put over;'* 
 though there are no doubt bluffers and charlatans in 
 the profession. 
 
 Engineering is impersonal, dealing, as it does, with 
 the laws of nature. Of the four learned professions, 
 law, medicine, theology, and applied science or engi- 
 neering, it has been remarked that all except the last 
 are mainly concerned with the sorrows, sufferings, and 
 quarrels of mankind. This may be considered, from 
 one point of view, an advantage of the first three: for 
 surely it is a privilege to be able to relieve suffering, 
 to alleviate sorrow, and to compose fairly the quarrels 
 of mankind. But the habitual contact with and con- 
 templation of suffering, sorrow, and contention, while 
 it may develop feelings of gentleness, kindness, sym- 
 pathy, or justice, may sometimes lead to a certain cal- 
 lousness and indifference, and even to hardness, cold- 
 ness, and lack of sympathy. However this may be, engi- 
 neering is impersonal. But the laws of nature can only 
 
X 
 
 156 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 be applied through human agency, and the engineer 
 must study men and learn to deal with and direct their 
 efforts, without being concerned professionally in their 
 sorrows, sufferings, or quarrels. 
 
 Speaking to a group of young consular appointees 
 the other day Secretary Hughes said : "I confess that in 
 my experience with young men the capacity I have 
 found least often is the capacity for accuracy." Engi- 
 neering trains the habit of accuracy. The engineer 
 deals with measurable quantities, and his conclusions 
 are often or generally based upon careful calculations, 
 comparisons, and studies. The applications of science 
 are superior to pure mathematics in this respect, be- 
 cause, while mathematics is accurate, its results depend 
 entirely upon the data introduced into the problem. 
 With these the pure mathematician has nothing to do ; 
 he deals with a machine which takes those data and 
 produces a result. But the engineer is first of all, and 
 often mainly, concerned with the data; and having 
 decided upon them he uses the mathematical machine 
 with a conscious realization of the relation between data 
 and result. Mathematics is but one of the tools he 
 uses; the others are judgment, experience, observation, 
 knowledge of the properties of materials, and so on. 
 
 Engineering also trains habits of logical thought, 
 though perhaps the law may be superior and other 
 vocations equal in this respect. Engineering has the 
 advantage over many other subjects that, while it 
 offers ample opportunity for the use of judgment, and 
 while many things in it may be largely matters of 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 157 
 
 opinion, it deals mainly with matters in which some 
 degree of demonstration is possible. To deal entirely 
 with matters that are certain, as we do in mathematics 
 (the data being assumed) does not necessarily develop 
 the power of logical thinking, but more often merely 
 the skillful use of the machine. Neither does the study 
 of subjects which are much involved in doubt, in which 
 authorities differ widely, and in which experiment and 
 demonstration are difficult or impossible. Such are 
 certain parts of economic theory, and such, largely, 
 is history. Facts may be difficult or impossible of 
 attainment in these subjects; and experiment, in the 
 scientific sense, in which one element only is varied, 
 is impossible. You cannot experiment scientifically in 
 economics or history. You may put on a high tarijff ; 
 but the sequence of events will not prove the eff'ect of 
 that tariff", because other elements are never the same. 
 But the engineer who wishes to study the eff'ect of 
 carbon on the tensile strength of steel has only to pre- 
 pare a series of samples alike in everything except the 
 carbon content, and the resulting diff^erences in tensile 
 strength will be necessarily due to the carbon. It is 
 true that it may be difficult to get the samples identical 
 in all other respects ; and it is also true that very 
 slight differences in another element, such as nickel, 
 may produce large differences in the results obtained. 
 Before the discovery of the relations between bacillas 
 and disease, two samples of water might have been 
 as nearly identical as the minutest chemical analysis 
 could disclose, and yet one might have been the cause 
 
158 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 of typhoid fever, and the other not. In this case a 
 microscopic organism, before undiscovered, made all 
 the difference in the world. But these instances only 
 illustrate the difficulty of attaining absolute certainty, 
 and do not at all invalidate the conclusion that the 
 power of logical thinking is best developed by the study 
 of subjects, like engineering, in which crucial experi- 
 ments are possible, in which reasonable certainty may 
 be attained, and yet in which there is enough oppor- 
 tunity for the use of judgment and for differences of 
 opinion to encourage the use of the imagination and the 
 use of hypothesis and verification. 
 
 By its combination of the practical and the scientific, 
 of business, administration, and the direction of men, 
 engineering may serve to develop a breadth of view 
 which is of great benefit. Many engineers, however, 
 devote themselves so closely to technical details that 
 they lose this advantage ; but that is the fault -of the 
 individual, and not of the profession as such. 
 
 For reasons already referred to, the practice of 
 engineering develops, or tends to develop, mental cour- 
 age, resource and decision. No two engineering prob- 
 lems are exactly alike. Conditions differ, and contin- 
 gencies arise which call for not only technical knowl- 
 edge, but for quick decision, fertility of resource, initia- 
 tive, and courage. Not infrequently something has to 
 be done that was never done before by that engineer, or, 
 so far as he knows, by any engineer. These are valu- 
 able qualities in any walk of life. 
 
 Engineering also develops a sense of responsibility, 
 
CIYIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 159 
 
 perhaps to a greater degree than most occupations. 
 The writer recalls hearing the late Joseph H. Choate 
 wittily refer to the difference in this respect between 
 engineering, medicine, and the law, somewhat as follows : 
 If a doctor loses his patient, it is never his fault. He 
 can always ascribe it to disobedience of his orders or 
 to the incurability of the case. He goes on — ^he lives 
 on — and acquires new patients and new fame. If the 
 lawyer loses his case, it is never his fault. He can al- 
 ways ascribe it to the prejudice of the jury, the per- 
 verseness of witnesses, or the unfairness of the judge. 
 He goes on, and acquires new clients and new fame. 
 But if the engineer '^s structure* collapses, he had better 
 be under it. He is held 'responsible, and his reputation 
 may be ruined. This has not infrequently been illus- 
 trated. The collapse of the Ashtabula bridge, in Ohio, 
 in 1876, led to the loss of some reputations and to 
 one suicide. The collapse of the first Quebec bridge 
 caused the loss of some reputations, including that of 
 the principal engineer, who had been considered the 
 leading bridge engineer in this country. He had ex- 
 pected that this structure would be his greatest work, 
 and the fitting culmination of his creditable career ; but 
 instead it filled his closing years with sorrow. All this 
 may be considered an objection to the profession of en- 
 gineering, rather than an advantage. And yet a man 
 who shirks responsibility lacks courage, and to cultivate 
 a sense of responsibility goes far to make a strong man. 
 Every act has its result. An unwise or ignorant or 
 careless act may bring disaster, whether in engineering, 
 
160 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 finance, or administration. One great difficulty of our 
 present social system is that the results of unwise acts 
 of one man are visited on innocent people who have not 
 deserved the penalty. If all penalties could be visited 
 upon those who have incurred or deserved them, it 
 would be a great improvement, but it is impossible. 
 
 One of the greatest attractions of an engineering 
 training is the advantages that it gives, and the oppor- 
 tunities that it affords, in the various lines of business. 
 We live in an age of engineering, of power, of applied 
 science. Not a day passes that does not bring a man in 
 contact with some phase of applied science. Wars are 
 decided now by engineers, not by knights in single 
 combat. Every industry depends upon the engineer. 
 Therefore, a training in applied science, if not narrow, 
 but combined with training in language, history, eco- 
 nomics, and other things essential to the cultivated 
 man, cannot fail to be of great value. The execu- 
 tives of many of our great corporations began as en- 
 gineers. Indeed, the writer has had in his classes men 
 who have afterward been led into very different occu- 
 pations ; men who have become lawyers, doctors, artists, 
 and even clergymen ; and he has never met one who has 
 not expressed himself as greatly indebted to his engi- 
 neering training. All have said that they would not 
 willingly relinquish what it did for them. Of course, 
 in regard to ultimate success, all depends upon the in- 
 dividual. A man who wills to succeed cannot be kept 
 under. But there is no question in the writer's mind 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 161 
 
 that a proper engineering training is one of the surest 
 roads leading to a successful and useful life. 
 
 Coming to more material considerations, an engineer- 
 ing career is a healthful one. Some engineering work 
 is confining, and does not require out-door exercise; 
 but most engineering work, particularly in civil en- 
 gineering, requires a good deal of out-door work. 
 Sometimes, indeed, it requires more than is pleasant, 
 and calls for exposure, risk, and danger in severe 
 weather. Generally speaking, however, it may be said 
 with truth that civil engineering is a healthful and phy- 
 sically stimulating occupation. 
 
 Much of what has been said applies to other branches 
 of engineering, and not alone to civil engineering; but 
 no distinction between the different branches of the 
 profession has been deemed necessary or desirable. 
 
 Engineers, and more particularly their wives, often 
 complain that their work takes them about the country 
 so much that they are unable to settle down and have 
 a home in one place. A civil engineer may be engaged 
 for some years on a piece of work in Massachusetts, 
 but his next job may be in the far west, or even in a 
 foreign country. This may be true whether he is work- 
 ing for himself or for an employer or corporation. 
 Even if a civil engineer has a fixed position on a rail- 
 road, his work may be liable at any moment, as in an 
 emergency, to call him away for days or weeks to dis- 
 tant parts of the company's system, if it is a large one. 
 He cannot count, as most business men can, upon 
 spending every night at home with his family; and he 
 
162 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 may be obliged, at short notice, to change his place of 
 residence. 
 
 While the above criticism undoubtedly has force, yet 
 it may be questioned whether the civil engineer neces- 
 sarily has to lead a more nomadic life than most men 
 in other occupations. A salesman for a commercial 
 house may have to be on the road, away from home, 
 practically all the time; and even a high officer in a 
 business concern often finds it necessary to change 
 his place of residence, if the business of the concern is 
 not concentrated in one place. A minister often has 
 to move. Methodist ministers used to do so every year. 
 The officer of the army or navy is notoriously nomadic 
 and never knows to what post he may be ordered. Rail- 
 road officers frequently go from one road to another, 
 and move their places of residence. The business of 
 a lawyer, also, often requires extended absences from 
 home, if not a change of domicile. The engineer, too, 
 may, if he wishes to practice in one place, open an office 
 there, like a doctor or lawyer, and go away as little 
 as he may choose. 
 
 Generally speaking, however, it may be admitted that 
 the business of engineering is so spread out over the 
 earth's surface, and work in one locality is so often 
 done by or under the direction of engineers whose 
 principal place of business is in an entirely diff'erent 
 locality, that the civil engineer is less able to establish 
 a home in one place and count upon occupying it per- 
 manently and continuously, than men in most other 
 occupations. By some this will be considered an ob- 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 163 
 
 jection, by others an advantage. If a man is very 
 domestic in his tastes, has little love for travel or 
 adventure, and is unhappy unless he can spend his eve- 
 nings regularly by his own fireside and in the same 
 house, he would probably not select the career of an 
 active civil engineer. Some, however, will consider the 
 necessity of more or less change of location as an 
 advantage. Certainly it makes a man acquainted with 
 different parts of the country, enlarges his acquaint- 
 ance, teaches him that there are fine people anywhere, 
 acquaints him with different points of view, and so 
 necessarily broadens him, makofs him tolerant, and 
 prevents him from falling into a narrow rut and be- 
 coming prejudiced and provincial. 
 
 Moreover, if an engineer desires, he may attach him- 
 self to some branch of the profession, or to some con- 
 cern, where there wiU be the minimum chance of moving 
 about. Many civil engineers have lived their whole lives 
 in one place. Nevertheless, as already stated, the like- 
 lihood of a change of location, and the necessity of 
 absence from home for periods more or less long, are 
 probabilities or possibilities that the prospective engi- 
 neer must face. 
 
 Another objection sometimes urged against civil en- 
 gineering is the fact that the work of the engineer is 
 often done out of doors, under severe conditions of 
 weather and exposure, and sometimes at considerable 
 risk of accident. It is true that works of construction 
 must be done out of doors, and that some engineering 
 work, like railroad location and construction, hydraulic 
 
164 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 works of some kinds, especially if in remote or inacces- 
 sible regions, tunnel work, some kinds of foundation 
 work, coast works, and other works, may involve the 
 necessity of severe exposure, and some risk of injury or 
 accident, or even of life. This is not true, however, of 
 all kinds of civil engineering-work. Some kinds require 
 work in the office only, and give too little out-door ex- 
 ercise. The young engineer, while gaining his exper- 
 ience and making a place and reputation for himself, 
 should expect and desire to do location and construc- 
 tion work in the field, for in that way he will best gain 
 the practical knowledge of materials, their handling 
 and use, and the control of men, which will be necessary 
 for his success in higher positions. To gain this neces- 
 sary experience should not require many years, and 
 afterwards he may be able to avoid serious exposure 
 or risk if he desires. In this case, however, as in the 
 case previously discussed, there are advantages. Ex- 
 posure and hardshi;^, and even strenuous work out 
 of doors, develops stamina, courage, and health, and 
 will not be shunned by the strong, ambitious man who is 
 otherwise fitted for an engineering career. It may, 
 however, perhaps fairly be said that civil engineering 
 in general is not a favorable occupation for a young 
 man who is physically weak. Perhaps this would be 
 better expressed by saying that such a man, if other- 
 wise fitted for the profession, should direct himself 
 along professional lines that will not require severe 
 physical exertion; and this can easily be done. Such 
 a man, for example, should aim to secure work, not in 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 165 
 
 connection with new construction, but in conection with 
 the management of completed enterprises. As already 
 stated, much of the highest kind of civil engineering 
 work, as, for instance, structural designing, calls for 
 little or no out-door exposure, and scarcely any risk 
 of physical injury. 
 
 Another objection sometimes urged against civil en- 
 gineering is that the demand for engineers is very 
 variable, being very great in times of prosperity, when 
 much construction is being done, while in times of 
 business depression many engineers are unemployed. 
 This is true, but it is not confined to engineering, 
 though that profession is perhaps more subject to 
 variation in demand than some others. Medicine is 
 probably the most naturally stable of the professions ; 
 that is, the least subject to fluctuations due to business 
 depression or prosperity. People will always be sub- 
 ject to sickness, and perhaps when business men are 
 worried by hard times there is more likelihood of sick- 
 ness than in times of prosperity, when everybody is 
 optimistic. Ministers, too, do not lose their positions 
 in times of depression, for at such times people most 
 need encouragement, faith, and hope. And probably 
 thera is as much quarreling, and as many law suits, at 
 one time as at another, though with less business there 
 will generally be less legal business to be done. There 
 is, therefore, little doubt that civil engineering is open in 
 some degree to the objection just referred to. 
 
 Re-ference has been made to the fact that civil en- 
 gineering does not, as a rule, deal with sentiment. It 
 
166 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIYIL ENGINEERING 
 
 is concerned with cold facts, while with the doctor and 
 lawyer, sentiment enters largely into the feelings of 
 their clients. For this reason, the doctor and lawyer 
 can charge larger fees than the engineer, even though 
 their services may be of less real value. When a man 
 thinks he is going to die, he may be very glad to pay his 
 physician or surgeon a large fee if he can be made to 
 believe that this practitioner has saved his life. In 
 reality, the medicine given him may have been bread 
 pills, or the operation may have been unnecessary. It 
 is a matter of sentiment. So if a man is sued for a 
 large sum, gets frightened nearly to death, and his law- 
 yer gets him out of his scrape, he may be delighted to 
 pay the lawyer a good part of what he stood to lose 
 or thought he stood to lose. 
 
 There are of course many noble physicians who 
 obtain their main satisfaction from the consciousness 
 that they are relieving human suffering and bringing 
 comfort and cure to the afflicted, with little thought of 
 their own personal profit — or with no more than a 
 due regard for such profit ; I say with no more than a 
 due regard for such profit, because a due regard for 
 one's personal interest in any walk of life, if combined 
 with the strictest regard for the rights of others, is a 
 fundamental moral duty. 
 
 "Self love, my liege, is not so vile a sin 
 As self -neglecting." 
 
 We all know such physicians. The "grateful patient" 
 is a pleasant and cheering accompaniment of medical 
 practice of the highest kind. 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 167 
 
 There are also many lawyers who practice their pro- 
 fession in a similar spirit and strive to compose quar- 
 rels rather than to prolong them. Nevertheless, there 
 are physicians and lawyers who are quick to take ad- 
 vantage of the opportunity of making use of sentiment 
 in fixing their charges, and some have used it in a way 
 contrary to what seems to the writer sound economic 
 principles. Some physicians delude themselves into 
 thinking that they are charitable because they treat 
 poor people free ; but charity implies self-denial, and if 
 a doctor who treats poor people free makes up for it 
 by charging higher prices to his wealthy patients, he is 
 not practicing charity at all, but is a socialist and is 
 merely making his wealthy patients pay the bills of 
 poor patients by hiring him to treat them for nothing. 
 Some surgeons have the practice of charging for an 
 operation a certain percentage of the income of the 
 patient, and they criticize severely such a principle as 
 that laid down recently by the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
 sity, by which the maximum charge for an operation is 
 fixed. But it is obvious that if a very wealthy man is 
 forced to pay five per cent, of his income for a simple 
 operation, while a man with little or no income pays 
 nothing, the doctor is not benevolent, but is simply 
 forcing the rich man to pay the bills of the poor man, 
 without any regard to the question whether the poor 
 man*s poverty has been the result of extravagance, in- 
 temperance, or lack of thrift. Such a practice penal- 
 izes thrift and saving, and encourages the opposite 
 qualities. There is no more reason why the rich man 
 
168 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 should be forced to pay the doctor's bills for a poor 
 man than there is for forcing him to pay the poor man's 
 grocery or clothing bills. And doctors who practise 
 this method should logically expect that their chauf- 
 feurs and domestic servants, the engineer or architect 
 who builds a house for them, or all who render them 
 service, should charge them on the same principle. The 
 poor who have communicable diseases should, of course, 
 for the protection of the health of the community, be 
 treated free, or isolated, if they cannot or will not 
 provide treatment for themselves. But it is a serious 
 question how far free medical treatment should be car- 
 ried, and undoubtedly there is much hypocrisy in con- 
 nection with it. It is all right for the rich to give to 
 the poor if they wish to do so, but it is all wrong for 
 an individual or for the State to force a rich man to 
 give to the poor, directly or indirectly, against his will. 
 When done by the State it is socialism, pure and sim- 
 ple; when done by an individual it is just as bad. Some 
 lawyers, also, are extortionate in their charges because 
 they can take advantage of sentiment in making them. 
 
 This may all be summarized by saying that there is 
 much more opportunity for the quack and fakir and 
 charlatan in the medical and legal professions than 
 in the engineering profession. This, however, will 
 hardly be considered a disadvantage of the engineering 
 profession except by a man who wishes to be himself 
 a quack or a fakir. 
 
 While it is probably true that the engineer, for rea- 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 169 
 
 sons which have been explained, cannot to the same ex- 
 tent take advantage of sentiment in making his charges, 
 yet the talk which is sometimes heard among engineers 
 about the disadvantage of the engineer as compared 
 with the lawyer or the physician arises from envy, 
 generated by occasionally hearing of lawyers or doc- 
 tors who receive very large fees for services requiring 
 but little time. It is the same feeling which leads the 
 union agitator to declaim against capital and the large 
 salaries paid to captains of industry. It does not 
 mean that the engineer has any lower standing, or that 
 his services are any less valuable, measured by a proper 
 standard. 
 
 The point is, that the services of the physician or 
 the lawyer are more often personal services than those 
 of the engineer. The engineer, in general, works for 
 the public or the community rather than for the in- 
 dividual. Now, the individual is always more responsive 
 and appreciative than the public. An aristocracy or 
 a small body of men, such as the directors of a corpora- 
 tion, may appreciate services done them or to those 
 they represent, but this will not, in general, be true 
 of a democracy. This is one reason why Public Service 
 in this country is not more attractive to able men. 
 Too often their services, though great, may be unap- 
 preciated, and they may be rewarded only by criticism 
 and contumely. Nevertheless, while the "grateful pa- 
 tient'* does not exist for the engineer, it is perhaps 
 even a greater satisfaction for him to feel that he is 
 
170 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 constructing works which add to the convenience and 
 comfort, or even furnish the necessities, for thousands 
 and millions of his fellow men every day. 
 
 As a matter of fact, while it is true that the engineer 
 does not generally receive fees as large as those often 
 paid in law or surgery, it is probable that the aver- 
 age earning is as large in civil engineering as in the 
 law or medicine. This statement cannot be proved 
 or disproved, as the writer knows of no available 
 statistics. The lawyer who defends or prosecutes a 
 suit involving millions, or who breaks or sustains a 
 will involving a large estate, may receive an enormous 
 fee, much larger than that ever gained by an engineer, 
 but the average earnings of lawyers are probably 
 moderate. An engineer who puts through a large en- 
 terprise generally does so as an employee, on a salary, 
 and if a large profit is made, it is apt to go to the pro- 
 moter or financier who employs the engineer. But en- 
 gineering fees are often large, and the willingness to 
 pay such fees is increasing. The writer knows of one 
 fee of $125,000 paid to an engineer, and this is large 
 enough to satisfy most people.* 
 
 Some engineers complain that their profession has 
 not the standing of the law and medicine in the public 
 estimation, and that the engineer is not as highly re- 
 spected or influential as the lawyer. This is certainly 
 untrue, as a general statement. It is a question of the 
 individual. The writer is sure that leading engineers 
 
 * See Judge Baldwin's interesting work in this series, on "The 
 Young Man and the Law," pp. 44-53, in which he says that law- 
 yer's fees are generally overestimated. 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 171 
 
 have quite as high a standing as any other members of 
 the community. There are, of course, engineers of 
 low standing and low merit ; but there are many more 
 lawyers and doctors who are considered beneath con- 
 tempt. And as to earnings, that should be an entirely 
 subordinate question in any intelligent consideration 
 of the matter of choosing a profession. The main ques- 
 tion is as to the opportunities it offers for service, and 
 for the performance of valuable and enduring work, 
 and in these respects engineering is unexcelled by any 
 other field. Let the young man who wishes to become 
 an engineer fully prepare himself for the work, and 
 to meet life's problems, and he need not worry as to 
 whether he will be recognized as he deserves, or as to 
 whether he will be able to support himself. Let the 
 reader reflect on the words of Emerson, quoted as a 
 motto at the beginning of this book. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is true that the engineer often does 
 find that his services seem less appreciated than they 
 ought to be, and there are reasons for this, as there 
 are for everything. 
 
 One of these reasons is that the engineer is often a 
 narrow man, occupied mainly with the technical details 
 of his profession. He is often not a good mixer, and 
 not apt to be so interested in general aff^airs, or so con- 
 versant with literature, history, art, or music, as men 
 in other walks of life. This is unfortunately a common 
 characteristic of the engineer, but it is his own fault, 
 and partly that of his training, as has been referred to 
 in Chapter IV. There is no necessity for it. 
 
172 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIYIL ENGINEERING 
 
 If the engineer concerns himself with technical de- 
 tails entirely, does not mix in society, take part in 
 public affairs, belong to social clubs, or take part in 
 social activities, it is very natural that such a man 
 should come to be regarded as a high-class workman 
 rather than as a highly trained professional man, but 
 this is a question of the individual. 
 
 It is also a fact that engineers are often lacking in 
 the power of expression. They often lack the ability to 
 speak easily, forcibly, or correctly in public, and fre- 
 quently they lack the power to express themselves in 
 writing. This again diminishes the regard in which 
 such a man will be held in popular estimation, but there 
 is no necessity for it. The fact that such conditions 
 exist and that the engineer is often handicapped, shows 
 the necessity of a broader education than the engineer 
 usually receives, and the necessity for self-cultivation 
 in these matters throughout life. This condition of 
 things cannot fairly be considered a disadvantage of 
 the profession. It is probably true, however, that the 
 practice of engineering, dealing as it does with technical 
 details largely, and less with affairs of the day and 
 matters of business than the profession of law, should 
 tend to cultivate in the engineer this lack of breadth. 
 
 The engineer is generally a modest man, frequently 
 too modest. He does not assert himself enough. The 
 study of science, the possession of the scientific attitude 
 of mind, the realization of the uncertainties involved 
 in most problems, all tend to cultivate this trait. On 
 the other hand, men who study uncertain subjects like 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 173 
 
 many branches of economics are often the most dog- 
 matic and intellectually arrogant, and such men, 
 though they may be charlatans or bluffers, sometimes 
 make their way for a time and succeed in deceiving peo- 
 ple into believing that they are reliable guides. 
 
 The engineer is frequently a poor salesman, es- 
 pecially of his own services. This is largely due to his 
 modesty, combined with a frequent lack of business 
 capacity. This again, however, is no fault of the pro- 
 fession. The doctor and the lawyer seem to have no 
 difficulty in learning how to charge for their services. 
 The engineer should learn the same lesson. 
 
 It will be seen from the above that most of the dis- 
 advantages that have been claimed to exist with ref- 
 erence to civil engineering are disadvantages of the in- 
 dividual, rather than disadvantages of the profession. 
 It has no doubt been true in the past that, taking a 
 college class, a larger proportion of the best and 
 strongest men have gone into law rather than into 
 engineering. It is also still true that it is impossible 
 to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If weak men 
 go into the practice of engineering they cannot expect 
 to make any greater success in it than in any other 
 profession. If, however, strong men go into it, men 
 possessing breadth, justifiable self-confidence, a 
 thorough knowledge of principles, character, persever- 
 ance, determination, tact, initiative — men who are de- 
 termined to succeed, and who have business capacity as 
 well as technical knowledge, they will find ample op- 
 portunities in the profession, or in the business fields 
 
174 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 in which a knowledge of civil engineering is perhaps 
 the best preparation for success, or at least as good a 
 preparation as any. The engineer is becoming more 
 and more appreciated. He is being called in as an ad- 
 viser in economic matters, as a witness in cases before 
 the courts, as a member of public commissions, as an 
 arbitrator, and the popular estimation in which he is 
 held is increasing steadily. There is no reason why 
 the highest offices and the greatest distinction should 
 not be within his reach if he will not insist on staying 
 within his shell. He is being daily more and more rec- 
 ognized as the kind of man competent to form a clear, 
 unbiased and independent judgment on important busi- 
 ness matters. Probably the engineer is better appre- 
 ciated in Europe than he is in this country, though it 
 is difficult to see why this should be the case. In Eng- 
 land it is common to pay large fees for engineering 
 services — as a rule, larger than those that are paid in 
 this country. 
 
 Reference has been made to the fact that many 
 high executives in our great corporations and in the 
 railroad and business world have begun as civil en- 
 gineers. This is becoming more and more true in the 
 political world, although here the profession of law 
 still seems to lead most frequently to eminence. George 
 Washington was a surveyor, as was Abraham Lincoln 
 also for a time. President Sadi Carnot, the fourth 
 President of the French Republic, was a civil engineer, 
 trained in the State Engineering School. President 
 Menocal of Cuba was a civil engineer, a graduate of 
 
CIVIL ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION 175 
 
 one of our own engineering schools. We all know that 
 Mr. Hoover, Secretary of Commerce in President 
 Harding's Cabinet, is a mining engineer. The writer 
 knows of several instances where engineers have been 
 elected mayors of cities, and they have frequently been 
 members of important public commissions having to do 
 with administrative as well as construction work. City 
 managers, under the plan now so largely in vogue, are 
 generally engineers. The present Governor of Ver- 
 mont is a mechanical engineer and past President of 
 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Never- 
 theless, it must not be concluded that if a man wants 
 to be mayor, governor, or president, the easiest way is 
 through engineering. 
 
 In England, too, great respect is paid to the memory 
 of eminent engineers. Robert Stephenson and Thomas 
 Telford are buried side by side in Westminster Abbey 
 and Lord Kelvin is also buried there. There are also 
 memorial windows to Joseph Locke, Isambard Brunei, 
 Richard Trevithick, Sir Benjamin Baker, Sir William 
 Siemens and Lord Kelvin; and one to the memory of 
 Sir John Wolfe Barry will be placed there shortly. 
 These instances merely show that if the engineer desires 
 to enter public life there is no real obstacle in the way. 
 The work of administering the affairs of a large city 
 involves engineering matters at almost every turn. It 
 also involves legal and business matters, but these latter 
 are no more important, and probably less important, 
 than the engineering matters. There is no reason why 
 the engineer should not acquire a sufficient knowledge 
 
176 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 of legal procedure and of business affairs, and it is 
 probably easier for him to do this than it is for the law- 
 yer or the business man to acquire a knowledge of engi- 
 neering matters. Of course, a lawyer as mayor of a city 
 may say that he can hire engineering advice, but it is 
 equally true that an engineer as the mayor of a city 
 could hire legal advice. Much depends upon a man's 
 ability in selecting advisers and in judging men. It 
 is true that as a rule the engineer has not been as 
 close a student of men as the lawyer, and that he has 
 not been as well able to select advisers and to judge 
 of men as the lawyer, but this again is an individual 
 matter and there is no reason why it should be so. 
 
 All the above points to the necessity of a broad 
 training for the engineer, and it shows that if capable 
 men enter the profession they will find in it a field for 
 their activities which has almost unlimited possibilities. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE OUTLOOK FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEER 
 
 When it is recognized how wide the field of civil 
 engineering is, how many necessary and constantly ex- 
 panding fields of human industry it touches, it becomes 
 evident that notwithstanding necessary variations in 
 business activity, the outlook for the civil engineer must 
 be good, and the demand for his services constantly — 
 though not uniformly — increasing. It cannot be other- 
 wise unless the progress of industry is to permanently 
 retrogress. The appreciation of his services, and the 
 compensation paid him, must also increase. There has 
 been a noticeable improvement in this respect in the last 
 few decades. There will, of course, be periods of busi- 
 ness depression, when numbers of engineers, as of other 
 men, will be out of employment, but the general trend 
 will be upward. This is particularly so in view of the 
 opportunities that an engineering training offers of 
 engaging in business, in administrative and other posi- 
 tions where engineering knowledge is necessary or desir- 
 able, and in view of the fact that the habits of prompt 
 decision, initiative, resource, and ability to meet new 
 conditions — all of which habits should be developed 
 by an engineering education and by engineering ex- 
 perience — are potent elements in success. 
 
 177 
 
178 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 This has been recently abundantly and conclusively 
 demonstrated by the events of the Great War. It has 
 been the testimony of practically all Americans who 
 had charge of important departments in that War that 
 the men who had had a technical training made the best 
 showing. Secretary Weeks is reported to have said 
 recently, regarding the War Department, "The records 
 of the department show that of the officers of our 
 armies who served overseas the best results were shown 
 by those who had technical training in addition to their 
 military education." The same is true of the men who 
 did not go overseas, but who had to do with the mani- 
 fold war activities at home. The selecting of Mr. 
 Hoover as a member of the cabinet of President Hard- 
 ing is a recognition of the same fact. 
 
 The day of the engineer is approaching, not only of 
 the civil engineer, but of the engineer in any branch 
 of the profession. The time is coming, and coming 
 rapidly, when it will be generally recognized that the 
 man who can intelligently control and use the forces 
 and materials of nature for the convenience of man is 
 the one who can be depended upon to direct the largest 
 undertakings, and who is perhaps the largest factor 
 in national progress and prosperity. 
 
 Mankind has passed through various "ages." The 
 present age is the age of power. Almost every human 
 activity, even farming, depends upon the development 
 and application of power. The development and use 
 of power is the function of the engineer — mechanical, 
 electrical, and civil — so that the age of power, now 
 
THE OUTLOOK FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEER 179 
 
 only in its beginnings, must more and more require and 
 recognize the engineer. 
 
 Moreover, war is now more a matter of engineering 
 than of anything else. The Great War was a conflict 
 of engineers. No longer do knights in polished armor 
 decide by individual prowess the fate of nations, but 
 wars are won by the side that can best use and direct 
 the forces and materials of nature — unfortunately not 
 for the benefit of man — but for his destruction. We 
 all hope that wars may cease, and that these great 
 agencies of destruction may be turned to other uses ; 
 but all this illustrates that the age is one of power — of 
 engineering. The Great War has impressed this fact 
 upon the mind of the coming generation. Young men's 
 minds are now full of thoughts about mechanical ap- 
 pliances. Technical schools are growing faster than 
 schools of arts. What is needed is that the most cap- 
 able young men of the coming generation should realize 
 the opportunity offered by a technical training. 
 
 The saying that you cannot make a silk purse out of 
 a sow's ear, while its literal correctness has been of late 
 disputed and possibly disproved, remains in principle 
 as true as it ever was. You cannot develop from a 
 seed more than the potentialities that are in it. You 
 cannot develop in a man more than the possibilities that 
 are in him. It will some day be recognized that an en- 
 gineering training is the best preparation for business, 
 and our capable young men will in increasing numbers 
 attend the engineering schools. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the fact that 
 
180 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 in universities where the engineering school has been 
 given adequate support, endowment, and recognition, 
 it has often, if not generally, outstripped the college 
 of "arts and letters," and this will be increasingly 
 the case. Independent technical schools, too, are grow- 
 ing fast, and seem to have, more than the colleges, the 
 confidence and support of the leaders of industry. The 
 latter are more often dependent upon appeals to the 
 loyalty of alumni, while the technical schools more 
 often enlist the interest of industrial leaders of wealth 
 and influence who are not college graduates. The 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, little more than 
 fifty years old, is now larger than many universities, 
 and if it could handle properly all the students who 
 would like to go there, it could be as large as it pleased. 
 But size does not necessarily mean efficiency, and this 
 only illustrates the trend of the times. 
 
 Our universities should not ignore the handwriting 
 on the wall, and should realize the necessity of filling 
 the great needs of the future in applied science. They 
 must overcome the prejudice in favor of a so-called 
 "culture" which is merely a superficial veneer, without 
 thoroughness or discipline, while doing all they can to 
 promote true culture, combined with discipline, and to 
 bring out the best and highest that is in each student. 
 On the other hand, students of engineering must 
 broaden themselves beyond the narrow limits of their 
 professional studies, and qualify themselves to deal 
 with the great problems of the day, to use the mother 
 tongue correctly, to gain acquaintance with other Ian- 
 
THE OUTLOOK FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEER 181 
 
 guages and literatures, and with the thoughts and deeds 
 of great men. 
 
 Statistics are very unreliable, unless one knows how 
 they are obtained, what they include and what they 
 exclude, but the following may be given. In 1880 and 
 in 1910 the numbers of practitioners in three profes- 
 sions were, according to the United States Cen- 
 sus: 
 
 1880 I 1910 
 
 Civil Engineers and Surveyors 8,261 
 
 Lawyers 64,137 
 
 Physicians and Surgeons 85,671 
 
 58,963 
 114,704 
 151,132 
 
 The number of engineers in 1910 includes mining en- 
 gineers, but it is probable that there were few mining 
 engineers in 1880, so that the figures may be compar- 
 able. From these it follows that the increase in civil- 
 engineers in 30 years has been 613 per cent., of lawyers 
 79 per cent., of physicians and surgeons 78 per cent. 
 In reality, the growth in numbers of engineers has 
 probably been even greater: for while every lawyer or 
 physician has probably been correctly registered, there 
 are no doubt many men who are really civil engineers 
 by training, but who occupied administrative or other 
 business positions in 1910, and were not registered as 
 engineers. 
 
 Similar results are shown by every other comparison 
 that the writer has made. For instance, the growth of 
 engineering students in some of our colleges is indicated 
 by the following table: 
 
182 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 1880-81 1920-21 Percent. 
 
 Number of students in Civil and increase 
 
 Sanitary Engineeering Dept. of 
 the Mass. Inst, of Technology 14 392 2,700 
 
 Total number of students in the 
 
 Mass. Inst, of Technology 335 3,436 926 
 
 Number of students in the Rens- 
 selaer Polytechnic Inst. 104 1,093 951 
 
 Number of students in the Har- 
 vard Medical School 241 439 82 
 
 Number of students in the Har- 
 vard Law School 156 944 505 
 
 Another measure is afforded by the growth of en- 
 gineering societies, as shown by the following table. 
 Comparisons between the different societies must not 
 be too closely drawn, because of differences in entrance 
 requirements, "drives'* for increasing the membership 
 (of which there have been none in the Society of Civil 
 Engineers), etc. 
 
 MEMBERSHIP IN 
 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING AND METAL- 
 LURGICAL ENGINEERS 
 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL EN 
 GINEERS 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL EN- 
 GINEERS 
 
 1870-1920 
 
 1870 
 80 
 90 
 
 1900 
 10 
 20 
 
 Civil 
 
 Mining 
 
 Mechanical 
 
 Electrical 
 
 243 
 
 
 
 
 601 
 
 829 
 
 
 
 1,296 
 
 1,961 
 
 1,029 
 
 488 
 
 2,199 
 
 2,748 
 
 1,951 
 
 1,224 
 
 5,292 
 
 3,874 
 
 3,832 
 
 6,719 
 
 9,907 
 
 9,307 
 
 13,173 
 
 10,692 
 
THE OUTLOOK FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEEE 183 
 
 The engineering problems presented for solution by 
 the engineer are increasing, not only in number, but in 
 magnitude and importance. Within a few years, 
 Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as many 
 other cities, have had to provide new supplies of water. 
 Others have had to enlarge or modify their methods 
 of disposing of sewage, and rendering it innocuous. 
 
 In the new water supply for New York, there were at 
 one time 303 engineers of the higher grades employed, 
 and 471 engineering assistants, draughtsmen, in- 
 spectors, rodmen, etc. The amount expended on this 
 work to August, 1921, was $146,606,000, the contract 
 work in progress was estimated at $16,278,000, and the 
 additional amount necessary to complete the work was 
 $16,000,000; making a total cost in round numbers, of 
 $180,000,000. The plan and estimate for this project 
 were prepared within a space of time of five weeks, fol- 
 lowing the preliminary studies, and the original plan 
 has been adhered to with but slight modifications. The 
 total sum of $180,000,000 is only $3,000,000 in ex- 
 cess of the original estimate, notwithstanding the fact 
 that from 1916 to date there has been a material in- 
 crease in prices, but for which the whole work would 
 be completed well within the original estimate. This 
 is a remarkable record, and reflects great credit upon 
 the Chief Engineer, Mr. J. Waldo Smith, and the en- 
 gineering staff. This work delivers to New York an 
 additional supply of over 300,000,000 gallons daily, 
 from the Catskill Mountains. The maximum number 
 of employees of the Board of Water Supply at any time 
 
184 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 was 1,757, and the maximum contractors* forces about 
 17,000. In addition, many men were engaged in manu- 
 factories, specially on this work, bringing the grand 
 total to about 25,000. This work stands "in a class by 
 itself, and no other aqueduct, ancient or modern, ap- 
 proaches it in size and capacity." It has been termed 
 "the greatest system of municipal water works in all 
 the world." 
 
 In a similar class stands the great system of sub- 
 ways and elevated lines providing transportation in 
 New York City. "When this work was at its peak, in 
 1915 and 1916, the contractors' forces numbered about 
 20,000 men, and the maximum force, of all grades, em- 
 ployed by the Engineering Department, was 2,127 in 
 December 1915." At the end of 1920 there was in use 
 "a total track mileage of elevated and subway lines 
 of 601.2 miles out of the total of 618.7 miles embraced 
 in the entire Dual Rapid Transit System." "Expendi- 
 tures by the city and the operating companies for con- 
 struction and equipment under the dual contracts and 
 related certificates signed in 1913, have been approxi- 
 mately $435,000,000, including outlays provided for on 
 the work completed or nearing completion." Great as 
 has been the expenditure for the New York Water 
 Supply, the above cost of rapid transit lines has been 
 nearly 2^ times as great, — and all since 1913. And 
 this, of course, does not include the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road tunnel, the Hudson and Manhattan tubes, or the 
 connection between the Pennsylvania and the New 
 Haven lines, over Long Island and across Hell Gate. 
 
THE OUTLOOK FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEER 185 
 
 Many engineers are employed in valuation work. In 
 the valuation of the railroads of the United States by 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission, the greatest num- 
 ber of engineers was in 1919, when the total number, 
 including clerical forces associated with the engineers, 
 was 1,400, In August, 1921, the number was 325, as 
 the work is approaching completion. 
 
 Examples of this kind might be multiplied indefinitely 
 if desired. Mention of some of the large projects of 
 recent years has been made in preceding chapters. 
 
 In 1913, a committee of the Am. Soc. C. E. was ap- 
 pointed to investigate the conditions of employment of, 
 and compensation of, civil engineers. This committee 
 received only 6,378 available replies to its questions, 
 and it appeared that after one year of experience the 
 average compensation was $1,187, and the maximum 
 $2,000 ; after two years the maximum was $5,000 ; 
 after 5 years the average was $1,935, the maximum 
 $12,000; after 18 years the average was $5,181, the 
 maximum $150,000. It also appeared that the aver- 
 age yearly compensation of 4,529 graduates of tech- 
 nical schools was $3,982, and of 1,829 non-graduates, 
 $3,993. Figures of this kind are of little value, be- 
 cause of the small number of cases and for other rea- 
 sons, but it does appear clearly that civil engineering 
 offers abundant opportunity for able men. While the 
 average compensation appears low, we have no figures 
 of the average earnings of the lawyer or physician, and 
 it may be doubted if they are higher. It is probable 
 that the young engineer reaches a self-sustaining posi- 
 
186 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 tion, where he is able to support himself and his family, 
 much sooner than the average lawyer or physician. 
 Further, comparisons of this kind take no account of 
 native ability. For the average engineer to complain 
 because the brilliant lawyer or surgeon receives much 
 higher fees, is, of course, only a manifestation of that 
 most undesirable human passion, envy. The real ques- 
 tion is as to the comparative opportunities for service, 
 and the comparative remuneration, for men of equal 
 ability and character. This is why the writer maintains 
 that the opportunities offered in engineering are good, 
 and increasing in attractiveness, and that what is 
 needed is to induce greater numbers of capable young 
 men, of good character, to enter the profession. In 
 thinking of compensation, too, it should be remembered 
 that the salary of the Chief Justice of the United 
 States Supreme Court, the highest judicial position in 
 America, is $15,000. And as illustrating inevitable 
 discrepancies in other fields, it may be mentioned that 
 while the Ambassador of the United States at the 
 Court of St. James receives $17,500 per annum, the 
 British Ambassador at Washington receives £20,000 
 per annum, and his house. 
 
 Comparisons are dangerous, and often unprofitable 
 and merely provocative of discontent. The main points 
 to be kept in mind are that a man's success depends 
 mainly upon himself ; that money is not the true meas- 
 ure of success ; and that civil engineering is a vocation 
 that is healthy, free from many of the worries that 
 harass the lawyer, physician, or business man, and 
 
THE OUTLOOK FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEEU 187 
 
 which offers abundant opportunity for creative effort, 
 and for constructing works that conduce each day to 
 the comfort and convenience, and supply the necessities, 
 of great numbers of our fellow men. 
 Lord Bacon said: 
 
 "There be three things which make a nation great and 
 prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, and the easy 
 conveyance of men and commodities from one place to an- 
 other." 
 
 The last two of these requisites constitute distinctly 
 the field of the engineer, and even the utilization of a 
 fertile soil is largely dependent upon his activity, 
 through irrigation, drainage, and other engineering 
 functions. Even Lord Bacon, therefore, must have 
 recognized in his day that the engineer was the main 
 factor in making a nation great and prosperous. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Little remains except to offer some concluding sug- 
 gestions to young men who may be contemplating fol- 
 lowing the profession of civil engineering. 
 
 Study yourself thoroughly before deciding upon 
 any career, and get the advice of those who know your 
 habits of mind and your peculiarities, and who can 
 judge of your fitness. Remember that there are few 
 men who will fit but one narrow occupation, but that 
 most men would do equally well in any one of several. 
 There are of course certain occupations which differ 
 so radically from certain others, that a man fitted for 
 the former would lack the qualities requisite for the 
 latter; and some men are so peculiarly constituted 
 that they are fitted for but one niche in life. Such men, 
 however, are in the writer's opinion rare. Even the 
 artistic temperament is not inconsistent with ability in 
 engineering. F. Hopkinson Smith was not only a good 
 engineer, but a delightful writer, and an artist of dis- 
 tinction; and the writer knows another distinguished 
 engineer who would certainly have made a success as 
 an artist; and several artists who were trained as 
 engineers, and who lose no opportunity to express 
 their sense of obligation to such training. The writer 
 also knows several clergymen who were trained as engi- 
 
 188 
 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 189 
 
 neers, one of whom practiced engineering for some 
 years ; and a number of lawyers who had the same 
 training and experience. But chance, or fate, or choice 
 will generally soon determine a man's career, and then 
 he must specialize; and there are few who, like Hop- 
 kinson Smith, can practice more than one occupation. 
 
 Having determined upon civil engineering as a career, 
 train yourself by practicing the qualities that will 
 make you successful. Read the biographies of engi- 
 neers and the history of engineering, and learn the 
 difficulties that have beset engineers and the manner 
 in which they have been surmounted. Above all, observe 
 the qualities — of mind, body and character — which 
 are requisite, and develop them by daily exercise. 
 
 Train yourself in observation and in the habit of 
 quick decision. If two men walk down the street to- 
 gether, one may see much more than the other. One 
 may be habitually immersed in thought, and may see 
 little: and while the engineer must think, this habit, 
 which prevents observation, is not a good one if carried 
 too far. The game which sometimes played, by which 
 each person is allowed a short time to look at a table 
 on which are a number of objects and is then required 
 to make a list of what he saw, is good for developing 
 this faculty. Visual testimony is often quite erroneous. 
 If a man swears that he saw a thing happen, that does 
 not prove that it did happen. For this reason, the 
 writer likes to see sleight of hand exhibitions, which 
 make him realize that seeing is not believing, and that 
 the testimony of the senses is not always reliable. 
 
190 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 Remember that engineering is practical, not abstract, 
 and is more common-sense than anything else. Do not 
 let anything train the common-sense out of you. Think 
 isefore you ask a question, so that you will not ask 
 a fool question; and see first if you cannot answer it 
 yourself. Train yourself in estimating distances 
 and quantities, and to measure distances by pacing. 
 If you see a big boulder in a field, try to estimate what 
 it weighs ; then measure it approximately and see how 
 near you came. 
 
 Pick up all sorts of scraps of information that may 
 help you, and keep a note book or a card catalogue in 
 which you record them. The cost of work, the number 
 of men employed on a job, the time it took to complete 
 it, all may be useful at some time; and such data, 
 from personal experience, will always command more 
 respect than quotations from books. 
 
 Train yourself in mental arithmetic, and so learn to 
 get results quickly without pencil and paper. The 
 judgment of some men, regarding such things as the 
 quantity of earthwork on a line of railroad, or the 
 value of property, is sometimes of greater value and 
 accuracy than the results of long calculations, and 
 sometimes there is not time or opportunity to perform 
 the latter. 
 
 Do not be discouraged if you cannot get an educa- 
 tion in college or technical school. Remember that 
 many of the most eminent engineers had none. The lack 
 of it will be a handicap to you for a time, provided 
 that you could really profit by it; but make up your 
 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 191 
 
 mind to turn that stumbling block into a stepping 
 stone, and that by being obliged to get this knowledge 
 and training under difficulties you will get it more 
 thoroughly. But do not deceive yourself and stub- 
 bornly persist in thinking you can be a successful en- 
 gineer when you really have not a scientific mind. Do 
 not think that because you have always been interested 
 in locomotives or automobiles, or played with me- 
 chanical toys, or plastered your room with pictures 
 from the Scientific American, you are cut out for an 
 engineer. Remember that engineering is a science, and 
 that to succeed in it you must master the fundamental 
 principles of chemistry, physics, mathematics and me- 
 chanics, and the properties of materials. If you cannot 
 do this, you may be a good mechanic, or you may even 
 be a good administrator or business man, but you will 
 not be an engineer. 
 
 Learn above all things, whether you go to college or 
 not, how to study, so that you can take up a new sub- 
 ject and master it yourself. You will very likely be 
 helped in doing this by the writer's pamphlet, "How 
 to Study," published by McGraw, Hill & Co., which you 
 should read and reread until you have absorbed its 
 atmosphere. Let your studies, especially of mathe- 
 matics, be concrete, not abstract, and scrutinize care- 
 fully the data or assumptions upon which a theory 
 rests. Do not let your mind go to sleep over alge- 
 braical formulae, but translate them into practical re- 
 sults which can be expressed in words. Systematize 
 and arrange your knowledge. When you are studying 
 
192 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 a subject, get the fundamental principles, and let 
 them be like the trunk and main branches of a tree, 
 upon which you can hang all subordinate principles or 
 facts, each in its proper place. 
 
 Do not get the habit of seeking the easy way by evad- 
 ing difficulties, but accustom yourself to surmount 
 them. This does not mean that you should make 
 difficulties, or pursue complicated or abstruse methods 
 where an easy or obvious one will give the same result. 
 This is often done in mathematics, and is vicious. 
 Where an easy way will lead to the result, it should, of 
 course, be chosen ; for there is abundant opportunity to 
 cope with difficulties without creating them. But do not 
 evade them; and, in college, choose subjects of study 
 that will tax and develop your powers rather than 
 those which make little demand on them, as so many 
 students do. Under the elective system the writer 
 knows of college students who have selected schemes of 
 study requiring nominally only 25 to 30 hours a week ; 
 or which required no work in the afternoon, or nothing 
 before ten o'clock in the morning. Think of it! — an 
 able-bodied young man, faced with greater opportuni- 
 ties than he will ever have again, to afford him which 
 parents or relatives at home are perhaps denying them- 
 selves comforts that they need, deliberately trying to 
 do as little as would "put it over" or pull him through ! 
 For such an attitude parents are often more to blame 
 than the students or college authorities, some of such 
 parents objecting if their sons are made to work hard, 
 and being more desirous that they should become prom- 
 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 193 
 
 inent in athletics or in the social clubs. It may be true, 
 as Emerson says, that "You send your child to the 
 schoolmaster: but 'tis the schoolboys who educate 
 him": but that does not mean that they should not 
 exert themselves to learn as much as they can from 
 their schoolmaster, and seize every opportunity to 
 develop their powers. 
 
 To make one suggestion regarding personal habits, 
 the writer strongly advises young men in college or in 
 engineering, not to smoke during working hours. The 
 writer is a smoker, but he did not smoke at all until 
 after he was thirty-five. Many successful engineers 
 are great smokers and many do not smoke at all. If 
 you must smoke, do it at home in the evening. During 
 working hours your time and your best efforts belong 
 to your employer, and your efficiency will be diminished 
 if you smoke. Some engineering offices and industrial 
 establishments do not allow smoking during working 
 hours, and that is right. The same principles are true 
 about work in college, and the student will do best for 
 himself by not smoking at all. But unfortunately the 
 idea often prevails that a boy does not become a man 
 until he smokes, and many college students like to 
 make believe they are men as early as possible. 
 
 When you graduate from college and look for a job, 
 be willing to begin at the bottom, at small wages, and to 
 do anything that is useful. Have no high-flown ideas 
 about what is dignified. All labor is dignified; it is 
 loafing that is undignified. Do not think that because 
 jou have a diploma you can begin at or near the top. 
 
194 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 Remember that a diploma does not guarantee a single 
 good quality: a man may be lazy, or incompetent, or 
 dishonest, and yet possess one. Much depends upon the 
 college and its standards, but the above statement is 
 true for all. All the diploma shows is that its possessor 
 managed to do enough, and well enough, to get it. It 
 may, therefore, mean a certain amount of competence, 
 but the standard, even in our best colleges and technical 
 schools, is low compared with that which an ambitious 
 young man should have for himself. When you go to 
 work, you should begin at the bottom, in overalls or at 
 a desk or draughting table. For some time you will 
 not be worth anything to your employer, except in 
 manual labor, for you must learn his business and 
 his methods. You must expect to work under young 
 men of your own age who did not go to college. They 
 have something that you have not, namely, experience; 
 but if you have things — ^principles and knowledge and 
 mental training — that they have not, you may expect, 
 as you gain experience, — other things equal, — to pass 
 them in the race, unless they can gain the things that 
 you got in college faster than you can gain the ex- 
 perience. It is surprising how many college graduates 
 think themselves qualified to begin at the top, because 
 they have been studying books or listening to lectures ; 
 and that it is unworthy of their education for them 
 to work under men of their own age who have not been 
 to college. Even the schools sometimes foster the idea 
 that they can prepare young .men to begin as "man- 
 agers" or administrators, omitting the routine of ex- 
 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 195 
 
 perience. It is a fallacy. It cannot be done. There 
 is routine and drudgery in every occupation. You must 
 be able to perform it cheerfully, uncomplainingly, and 
 well. 
 
 The young man taking a job should be willing to do 
 anything, and when he has finished one piece of work 
 should ask for another, not wait till it is brought to 
 him; and he should not watch the clock. The writer 
 once sent two young men from the same class to work 
 in the same office. One strove to do all he could ; when 
 one job was finished he asked for another, and he stayed 
 after hours if by doing so he could help his employer. 
 He rose to the highest position in the concern. The 
 other had his eye on the clock, stopped promptly when 
 the bell rang, and when he finished one job read a 
 newspaper till he was told to do something else. When 
 the first man had reached nearly the highest round of 
 the ladder, the second was not far beyond where he 
 started. 
 
 I would strongly advise young men in college to work 
 summers. A healthy boy of eighteen or twenty does 
 not need to loaf three or four months each summer at 
 a resort. A few weeks' vacation should be enough, and 
 during the remaining time he may be gaining experience, 
 and perhaps getting a foothold in some concern that 
 will take him permanently after he graduates. He will 
 appreciate his studies better if he sees their appli- 
 cation. This principle of cooperative work between 
 the schools and the industries has led, of recent years, 
 to systematic curricula in which the student spends 
 
196 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 alternate periods in the school and in the industry, 
 with only a few weeks of vacation in the year. This 
 plan has met with great success at the Universities of 
 Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and has recently been put 
 into operation at Harvard University. 
 
 The young engineer, with all his zeal for mental and 
 material progress, should not neglect his moral and 
 spiritual development. He should bear in mind that 
 his profession ds one directed to the benefit of man- 
 kind. He should study men, learn how to deal with 
 them and direct them, how to get the best work from 
 them, and by a human and sympathetic attitude toward 
 their problems and their points of view, gain their co- 
 operation and esteem. Engineering has to do with men 
 as well as materials, and it is as important to know 
 how to deal with one as with the other. 
 
 Many professional societies have adopted codes or 
 canons of ethics as guides for the conduct of their 
 members. The Massachusetts Medical Society has a 
 short code of seven paragraphs. The American Bar 
 Association has given much consideration to this sub- 
 ject. A committee of this Association submitted an 
 interesting report in 1907 containing a compilation 
 of the codes of ethics adopted by the various state bar 
 associations, and also containing Hoffman's fifty reso- 
 lutions in regard to professional deportment, which 
 were framed by David Hoffman, of the Baltimore Bar, 
 for adoption by his students on admission to the bar 
 "as guides never to be departed from and to which they 
 will ever be faithful." The Association adopted in 
 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 197 
 
 1908 a set of canons dealing with the responsibilities 
 and duties of lawyers and their professional conduct, 
 with an oath of admission requiring the observance 
 of the highest moral principles. It may be remarked 
 that there is perhaps more need for such a code in the 
 legal profession than in others. George Sharswood, the 
 author of "An Essay on Professional Ethics," referring 
 to the legal profession, made the following statement: 
 
 "There is certainly, without any exception, no profession 
 in which so many temptations beset the path to swerve from 
 the line of strict integrity, in which so many delicate and 
 difficult questions of duty are continually arising. There 
 are pitfalls and mantraps at every step, and the mere youth, 
 at the very outset of his career, needs often the prudence 
 and self-denial as well as the moral courage, which belong 
 commonly to riper years. High moral principle is the only 
 safe guide, the only torch to light his way amidst darkness 
 and obstruction." 
 
 It is well to have such a code, and yet, when all is 
 said and done, if a man has not the principles of moral- 
 ity in his soul, such a code will not hold him up to the 
 highest moral standard, though it may give ground for 
 punishment or for disbarring him from practice if he 
 violates its canons. 
 
 Architects and engineers have adopted codes of 
 ethics, but they are generally short and do not attempt 
 to go into all the details of what an engineer should or 
 should not do. The code of the American Society of 
 Civil Engineers is as follows : 
 
198 THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING 
 
 CODE OF ETHICS 
 
 of the 
 American Society of Civil Engineers 
 
 It shall be considered unprofessional and inconsistent 
 with honorable and dignified bearing for any member of the 
 American Society of Civil Engineers: 
 
 1. To act for his clients in professional matters other- 
 wise than as a faithful agent or trustee, or to accept any 
 remuneration other than his stated charges for services 
 rendered his clients. 
 
 2. To attempt to injure falsely or maliciously, directly 
 or indirectly, the professional reputation, prospects, or busi- 
 ness, of another Engineer. 
 
 3. To attempt to supplant another Engineer after def- 
 inite steps have been taken toward his employment. 
 
 4. To compete with another Engineer for employment 
 on the basis of professional charges, by reducing his usual 
 charges and in this manner attempting to underbid after 
 being informed of the charges named by another. 
 
 5. To review the work of another Engineer for the same 
 client, except with the knowledge or consent of such En- 
 gineer, or unless the connection of such Engineer with 
 the work has been terminated. 
 
 6. To advertise in self-laudatory language, or in any 
 other manner derogatory to the dignity of the Profession. 
 
 Much is said in these days about ideals, and we are 
 urged to form them in the mind and try to realize them 
 in fact. That is well if the ideals — or aims, as they 
 should be called — are good, and possible of attainment. 
 But great harm may be done by forming in the mind an 
 imaginary ideal, without a study of facts, and then 
 striving to reach it. There are great dangers in the 
 pursuit of impractical ideals. After study of the facts 
 of a problem or a situation, such as the engineer is 
 
CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS 199 
 
 accustomed to make, it may be decided what is best 
 to do under the circumstances. Canon Kingsley said: 
 "The only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty 
 that lies nearest.'* But there is one aim that the young 
 engineer may and should steadily and unfalteringly 
 aim for, and that is to improve his own personal char- 
 acter. This aim or ideal may well be that expressed 
 in the following verses: 
 
 "I would be true, for there are those who trust me; 
 I would be pure, for there are those who care: 
 I would be strong, for there is much to suffer; 
 I would be brave, for there is much to dare: 
 I would be friend to all — the foe, the friendless; 
 I would be giver, and forget the gift: 
 I would be humble, for I know my weakness: 
 I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Allen, Horatio, 44 
 
 American Society of Civil En- 
 gineers, 16, 182, 198 
 
 American Society for Testing 
 Materials, 99 
 
 Arkwright, Richard, 12 
 
 Ashtabula Bridge, 159 
 
 Bacon, Lord, quoted, 187 
 Baynes, Thomas S., quoted, 126 
 Bowie, WilHam, 36 
 Brindley, James, 14 
 Bryant, Gridley, 44 
 Buckle, T. H., quoted, 5 
 Building Construction, 82-84 
 Bureau of Public Roads, 54 
 
 Canals, 14, 62-65 
 
 Cartwright, Edmund, 12 
 
 City Managers, 85 
 
 Civil Engineering: branches, 
 27; characteristics, 153; com- 
 parison with other profes- 
 sions, 159-171 ; develops ac- 
 curacy, 156; develops char- 
 acter, 155; develops logical 
 thought, 156; develops a 
 sense of responsibility, 158; 
 does not deal in sentiment, 
 155, 166; fees, 167, 170; 
 healthful, 161 ; a preparation 
 for business, 160; out-door 
 work, 30; necessary qualifi- 
 cations, 90; outlook, 177 
 
 Civil Engineers: earnings, 185; 
 growth in numbers, 181; va- 
 riable demand for, 165. 
 
 Civilization, progress of, 23, 39 
 
 Coast works, 66 
 
 Corps des Fonts et Chaussdes, 
 
 25 
 Cort, Henry, 12 
 Crompton, Samuel, 12 
 Crocker, George G., 43, 45 
 Culture, 126 
 
 Draper, Dr. John W., quoted, 
 113 
 
 Eads, James B., 67 
 
 East Boston Tunnel, 33 
 
 Economy, 101 
 
 Eddystone lighthouse, 67 
 
 Eiffel Tower, 83 
 
 Ellicott, Maj. Andrew, 38 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quoted, 
 193 
 
 Engineering: a science, 3; a 
 learned profession, 3; defi- 
 nition, 7, 9, 10; education, 
 113; electrical, 15; extent of, 
 1, 22; importance of, 124; in 
 the great war, 178; mechan- 
 ical, 13; societies, 16, 182; 
 the main element in the prog- 
 ress of civilization, 23, 24, 
 39 
 
 Engineers, as Administrators, 
 174 
 
 Erie Canal, 34, 64 
 
 Ethics, 197 
 
 Experience, importance of. 111 
 
 Faris, R. L., 36 
 Fees, 170 
 Fisher, E. A., 86 
 Flexner, A., quoted, 121 
 Floods, 62 
 
 201 
 
202 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Forth Bridge, 81 
 Fulton, Robert, 12 
 
 Garbage Disposal, 77 
 Gayley, C. M., quoted, 122 
 Geddes, James, 34 
 Geodesy, 19, 35 
 Gibbon, Edward, 43, 51, 124 
 Gorgas, Wm. C, 78 
 Grandgent, C. H., quoted, 123 
 Grant, Gen. U. S,, 42 
 
 Harbor "Works, 66 
 
 Hargreaves, James, 12 
 
 Harriman, Edward H., 49 
 
 Hayford, John F., 36 
 
 Hell Gate, 66 
 
 Hetch Hetchy, 75 
 
 Highway engineering, 20, 51 
 
 Hoosac Tunnel, 33 
 
 Hughes, Chas. E., quoted, 156 
 
 Hydraulic engineering, 17, 20 
 
 Hydraulics, 90, 58 
 
 Ideals, 143, 199 
 Irrigation, 68 
 
 Jackson, William, 86 
 
 Keller, A. G., quoted, 138 
 Kingsley, Canon, quoted, 199 
 
 Lake Dwellers' Village, 4 
 Learned Professions, 3, 22, 117 
 Lighthouses, 67-68 
 Lodge, Henry Cabot, quoted, 
 
 121 
 Logic, importance of study of, 
 
 96 
 Lucin cut-ofiF, 49 
 
 McAdam, L. J., 51 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, quoted, 39 
 
 Materials, 98 
 
 Mathematics, 94 
 
 Mental Balance, importance of, 
 
 104, 108 
 Middlesex Canal, 44 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, quoted, 96 
 Mine Surveying, 32 
 Motor transportation, 56, 57 
 Municipal engineering, 20, 85 
 
 Nasmyth, James, 10 
 
 Panama Canal, 64 
 Pavements, street, 53 
 Perronet, J. R., 26 
 Pritchett, H. S., quoted, 121 
 Profession, a, defined, 5 
 Pyramids of Egypt, 5 
 
 Qualifications of the civil en 
 gineer: personal, 108; pro» 
 fessional, 91 
 
 Quebec Bridge, 81, 159 
 
 Railroad engineering, 13, 19, 30, 
 39 
 
 Railway travel, safety of,, 50 
 
 Railways, early EngUsh, 46 
 
 Reclamation, 69 
 
 River mouths, 66 
 
 Roads: construction, 51; Eng- 
 lish, 40; expense of, 54-56; 
 Roman, 43, 51 
 
 Sanitary engineering, 20, 69 
 Schurman, Jacob G., quoted, 
 
 122 
 Sewerage, 76 
 Smeaton, 68 
 Smith, J. Waldo, 183 
 Socialism, 141 
 Stephenson, Robert, 12, 46, 63, 
 
 115 
 Stott, Henry G., quoted, 9 
 Street cleaning, 77 
 Structural engineering, 20, 79 
 Subways, 48, 49 
 Suez Canal, 5, 61, 63 
 Sumner, William G., quoted, 
 
 123 
 Surveying, 19-28; accuracy of, 
 
 34-38; of State boundaries, 
 
 38; of mines, 32 
 
Swamp drainage, 78 
 
 INDEX 203 
 
 Valuation of properties, 20, 87 
 
 Telford, Thomas, 51 
 
 Travel, in New England, 41; 
 
 difficulties of, 40-43 
 Tredgold, Thomas, 7, 11, 13, 
 
 19, 22 
 Tresaguet, P. M. J., 51 
 Tunnels, 32, 33 
 
 Union Pacific Railroad, 49 
 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Sur- 
 vey, 35 
 U. S. Geological Survey, 35 
 
 Waite, H. M., 85 
 
 Walker, Francis A., quoted, 115 
 
 Waring, Col. Geo. E., 78 
 
 Washington Monument, 83 
 
 Water Power, 59-62 
 
 Water Supply, 70-75 
 
 Watt, James, 12 
 
 Weeks, John W., quoted, 178 
 
 Westminster Abbey, engineers 
 
 in, 175 
 Whipple, Geo. C, 79 
 Woolworth Building, 84