ENGINEERING is, in its strict sense, the art of designing, constructing, or using engines, but the word is now applied in a more extended sense, not only to that art, but to that of execut ing such works as are the objects of civil and military architecture, in which engines or other mechanical appliances are extensively employed. Engineering is divided into many branches, the more important being civil, mechanical, electri cal, mining, military, marine and sanitary engi neering.
Among the most notable of the engineering works belonging to very remote antiquity are the pyramids of Egypt. The rude stone monuments of the north, as at Stonehenge and Carnac, also testify to some engineering skill. The harbors and temples of ancient Greece are very memo rable. The buildings of ancient Rome— its theatres, temples, baths and • aqueducts, its roads, bridges and drainage-works — vie in ex tent and magnificence with the most celebrated works of modern times. From that period down to the commencement of the 18th century the most extensive works executed were the canals, embankments and other hydraulic con struction used by the Dutch for the purposes of inland navigation and to protect their low lands from the sea; the canals of North Italy; and the cathedrals and fortifications of mediaeval Europe.
If the question were asked as to the char acteristic feature of the modern applied science of engineering, the reply would undoubtedly be: °The wholesale manner in which work is carried on.° It is not so very long ago that everything except the smallest articles and those required in great quantity were made singly, or at least in small lots; and even when standardizing and in terchangeability were introduced these methods were by no means used in a way which showed a realization of their possibilities. The present tendency, on the contrary, is toward the elimina tion altogether of things which cannot he made wholesale ; and methods which formerly applied to firearms, typewriters and the like are now in general use in the manu facture of steam engines, machine tools, elec trical machinery and nearly all mechanical products.
This has been brought about by a combina tion of two processes: (1) the standardization of methods of manufacture; and (2) the dis couragement of the demand for special articles. Formerly the customer told the manufacturer what was wanted and the latter hastened to pro duce it. Or the plans and specifications for a certain structure were prepared by a consulting engineer and all bidders were required to con form to these documents in the minutest details; no two such specifications being alike. At the present time the customer, knowing what he wishes to accomplish, seeks to do so as best he may by means of the standard articles in the market ; or if it be a great engineering struc ture, the engineer specifies only the general re quirements to be met, leaving each manufac turer to meet these with his own standardized product. The influence of these modifications in engineering practice extends to the manu facture and supply of materials.
The result of this concentration and stand ardization has been to reduce costs very mate rially and render possible undertakings which would otherwise be prohibitory in price. While to a certain extent it has obliterated individuality in design, it has also removed much useless repetition and has prevented needless expense in the production of rival machines, differing hut slightly in design, yet requiring duplications of drawings, patterns and tools. There is little i doubt that tt is to this wholesale development of various departments of engineering work that the rapid extension of the share of the United States in the work of the world is largely due.
See CIVIL ENGINEERING; ELECTRICAL. ENGINEER ING; HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; ENGINEERING, MARINE; FORTIFI CATIONS; MINING ENGINEERING; NAVAL CON STRUCTION; SANITARY ENGINEERING. Also EN GINEERING TERMS; ENGINEERING INSTRUMENTS; EDUCATION, ENGINEERING; MECHANICS.