coming into life will be reviewed and their proper influence on work outside of professional lines explored. The general demands of education in the new epoch will be considered, and some suggestions will be made as to the best methods of meeting these demands.

VIII

The Profession of Engineering

By George S. Morison 1

THE new epoch has opened an entirely new set of professions. The old professions were primarily divided into two classes, the military and the civil, and of the latter only three were recognized, divinity, law, and medicine. These three were called liberal professions, and their members were supposed to be, and generally were, better educated, though not always more thoroughly trained, than the men who followed other callings. The demands of the new epoch are such that educated men are required everywhere. They are needed to design the tools by which power is manufactured and is utilized; they are needed to manage the affairs of the corporations whose capital is invested in

1 The title of this chapter in Mr. Morison's book is "Civil Engineering" and throughout the chapter Mr. Morison speaks of engineering in general as Civil Engineering, taking his title from the old distinction between Civil engineers on the one hand and Military on the other, a distinction which puts all engineers whose work is not strictly militarycivil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, mining, and sanitary under the one head of Civil Engineers. Whatever historical warrant this nomenclature may have it is not the usage of the profession today, and I have taken the liberty -on the advice of several professors of civil engineering of silently deleting the word "civil" from the text wherever Mr. Morison, in speaking of “civil engineering," evidently means engi neering in general. This is done, it need hardly be said, not with the object of warping Mr. Morison's meaning, but rather of making his meaning clearer to engineering students.- EDITOR.

the great variety of tools, and which have been referred to; they are needed to perform the increased duties which governments are now assuming.

Seventy years ago engineering was defined as the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man.1 This definition was embodied in the charter of the institution which has done more than any other to unite the profession and to give it the standing it is now attaining. It was made in the very infancy of the new epoch, within sixty years of the time when Watt developed his first steam engine. . . . The definition was followed by a list of objects and applications, but it was expressly stated that its real extent was limited only by the progress of science, and that its scope and utility would be increased with every discovery, and its resources with every invention, since its bounds were unlimited, as must also be the researches of its professors. This definition is broad enough to embrace every department of work which undertakes the development and use of any of those physical powers through which the. new epoch is now subjecting all varieties of matter to the dominion of mind.

The constitution of the American Society of Civil Engineers fixes as a requirement for full membership "the ability to design as well as direct engineering works." The English definition and the American requirement taken together explain what constitutes an engineer. His business is to design the works by which the great sources of power in nature are directed. His works are not built for themselves nor as

1 Thomas Tredgold, 1828; subsequently embodied in charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

commemorative monuments; they are made to direct the powers of nature for the use of man. Every engineering work is built for a special ulterior end; it is a tool to accomplish some specific purpose. Engine is but another name for tool. The business of an engineer relates to tools. An engineer must be capable of designing as well as handling tools. The highest development of a tool is an engine which manufactures power. All the great possibilities of this profession come from the existence of such tools.

The engineer of the new epoch, the epoch which he is bringing into existence by the manufacture of power, must be an educated man. In no profession will this be more necessary. The physical laws of power and strength are mathematically exact and admit of no trifling. As the epoch progresses the requirements for each individual will become more complicated. The theologian and the metaphysician may claim that an education based on the laws of matter leaves out the highest part of existence; the biologist and the physician may claim that matter endowed with life is a higher organism than the inanimate matter with which the engineer has to deal. But however true these claims, their laws have not the mathematical rigidity, the clear definition, and the thorough discipline which mark the laws with which our profession works. The engineer cannot shield himself under doctrines or theories which he accepts but cannot understand. Dealing with accurate, definite laws and guided by the corrective touch of physical nature, the education of the engineer will become more necessary, more thorough, and more exact than that of any other profes

sional man. This is the training which the engineer of the new epoch must have. This knowledge he must have, or he must be classed as a workman rather than a professional man.

The engineer of the new epoch must sink the individual in the profession. The engineering work of the future must be better work than has ever yet been done. The best work is never done by separate men. It is only accomplished when professional knowledge so permeates all members of a profession that the work of one is virtually the work of all. The first steps are made by individuals, but the best results come later. In the Middle Ages Gothic cathedrals were built throughout northern Europe. They are exquisite works; no modern architect can approach their beauty. The reason is that the men who built the Gothic cathedrals worked together as members of a guild which was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of building these churches. In no period of the world's history has marine construction had any significance compared with what it has to-day, and it is because the great shipbuilders are working together, each having the practical benefit of what they all are doing. They are working together as members of a profession rather than as individuals, and their work is becoming more uniform and more perfect.

The engineer of the new epoch must be a specialist. No man can learn to design all the tools by which the powers in nature are to be directed. The work is too great for one man to master. The best results will only be obtained by concentrating effort in a single line. But though the engineer must be a specialist, his specialty must not be of a narrow kind; he must