During the earlier years of the institution's corporate existence the enormous development in the construction of railways, roads, harbors, docks, drainage and waterworks lead to the not unnatural predominance of discussion on questions of special moment to these branches of the profession in the institution proceedings. The council was consequently largely recruited from the men of eminence on the predominating side and the civil engineer became in public estimation more and more exclusively identified with the designer and constructor of such works.
With the rapid improvements which have since takenplace in machinery and machine processes and with the revolution which has been affected in commerce and in the require ments and mode of life of the people, by the less prominent but equally remarkable achievements of such men as Stephenson, Armstrong, Whit worth, Bessemer and Siemens, the demands for a greater outlet for the discussion of the me chanical problems of interest on this side of the profession of the civil engineer became more and more insistent and the opportunities avail able in the existing institution being by many felt to be inadequate, the Institution of Me chanical Engineers was founded in 1847 and was constituted in 1878 as a registered asso ciation under the Companies Acts.
With the discovery of the means of practi cally utilizing electricity for producing light and transmitting power and the consequent exten sion of its use in all departments of mechanical work a third development took place in 1889, when the Society of Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians which had been incorporated under the Companies Acts in 1883 and from its es tablishment in 1871 had until 1881 been called the Society of Telegraph Engineers again changed its name to the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Various other societies and insti tutions have been formed at various dates amongst which may be mentioned the Civil and Mechanical Engineers' Society, the Society of Engineers, and the Institution of Junior Engi neers, a very active and progressive institution of which the membership is confined to junior members of the profession.
The Institution of Civil Engineers is thus the parent institution, embracing by its consti tution and membership all branches of the pro fession demanding for entry to its roll (a) practical professional training in works or as an assistant to an engineer ; (b) theoretical training as evidence by the passing of its own examina tions held twice a year or by the holding of the degree or diploma of a recognized university or technical college; (c) suitable and strictly de fined qualifications for each of its classes of membership or studentship.
It is recognized as the leading professional body and membership of its council and occupa tion of its presidential chair to which there is annual election are the most valued of profes sional distinctions. It can to a certain extent guide and control professional conduct within its own membership but does so with an all-too sparing hand. To many it appears that the time is ripe for further extensions of professional or ganization and for the application of stricter dis cipline in regard to what may be called, gener ally, professional etiquette, and it is the Institu tion of Civil Engineers which alone has the constitution and prestige which would enable it to successfully deal with such a development.
Beside this great leading institution are the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, each repre senting one branch of the profession only, and demanding professional but not examination qualifications for membership. Most of the members of each of these belong also to the premier institution.
To complete the organization of the profes sion much remains to be done. There is as yet no state registration enabling the assump tion of the name civil engineer (embracing, as has been shown above, engineers of all branches) by unqualified and untrained per sons, to be checked and fees and professional conduct to be regulated by a governing body, such as the Institution of Civil Engineers, with the help of the other professional institutions, might organize if they had the necessary statu tory powers. The public thus lack the protec tion to which they are entitled against the em ployment of unqualified advisers whom they have no sure means of distinguishing from competent engineers. One difficulty in the way of this necessary step being taken would prob ably be removed if the popular misconception of the functions of a civil engineer were eradicated.