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ENGINEERING

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 406 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ENGINEERING , a See also:

term for the See also:action of the verb " to engineer," which in its See also:early uses referred specially to the operations of those who constructed engines of See also:war and executed See also:works intended to serve military purposes. Such military See also:engineers were See also:long the only ones to whom the See also:title was applied. But about the See also:middle of the 18th See also:century there began to arise a new class of engineers who concerned themselves with works which, though they might be in some cases, as in the making of roads, of the same See also:character as those undertaken by military engineers, were neither exclusively military in purpose nor executed by soldiers, and those men by way of distinction came to be known as See also:civil engineers. No better See also:definition of their aims and functions can be given than that which is contained in the See also:charter (dated 1828) of the Institution of Civil Engineers (See also:London), where civil engineering is described as the " See also:art of directing the See also:great See also:sources of See also:power in nature for the use and convenience of See also:man, as the means of See also:production and of See also:traffic in states, both for See also:external and See also:internal See also:trade, as applied in the construction of roads, See also:bridges, aqueducts, canals, See also:river See also:navigation and docks for internal intercourse and See also:exchange, and in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, breakwaters and lighthouses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power for the purposes of See also:commerce, and in the construction and See also:adaptation of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns." Wide as is this enumeration, the practice of a civil engineer in the earlier See also:part of the r 9th century might See also:cover many or even most of the subjects it contains. But gradually specialization set in. Perhaps the first See also:branch to be recognized as See also:separate was See also:mechanical engineering, which is concerned with See also:steam-engines, See also:machine tools, See also:mill-See also:work and moving machinery in See also:general, and it was soon followed by See also:mining engineering, which deals with the location and working of See also:coal, ore and other minerals. Subsequently numerous other more or less strictly defined See also:groups and subdivisions came into existence, such as See also:naval See also:architecture dealing with the See also:design of See also:ships, marine engineering with the engines for propelling steamers, sanitary engineering with See also:water-See also:supply and disposal of sewage and other refuse, See also:gas engineering with the manufacture and See also:distribution of See also:illuminating gas, and chemical engineering with the design and erection of the plant required for the manufacture of such chemical products as See also:alkali, acids and dyes, and for the working of a wide range of See also:industrial processes. The last great new branch is See also:electrical engineering, which touches on the older branches at so many points that it has been said that all engineers must be electricians.

End of Article: ENGINEERING

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