Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

364 THE ENGINEERING INDUSTRY. I ENGINEERING has a much wider scope -J to-day than it had two thousand years ago, when Archimedes discovered the theory of the lever, the utility of the pump, and the lifting power of the derrick. The modern engineer alters the earth’s surface, fliners bridges over ravine and arm of the sea, tunnels beneath mountain, climbs rugged slope, dives into mine, and burrows under great city. He makes land and ocean travel easy. He is the universal helper of industry. The civil engineer has the highest social position ; but the mechanical engineer has a position of great usefulness, because his SWING BRIDGE OVER THE WEAVER. THE OPENING AND CLOSING OF THIS IS EFFECTED BY MEANS AN ELECTRIC MOTOR WORKING ON A CONTINUOUS WIRE ROPE (Phcto kindly lent by Messrs. Mather & Platt, L'd) work is infinite, and his invention and handi- craft tend to decrease human slavery, and to make life less laborious, brighter, and happier—though to the end of time some men seem destined to the inexorable fiat that they must earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. 1 here are many branches of engineering —civil, railway, mining, sanitary, milling, marine, naval, military, and electrical ; and, with the newer application of science to industry, the aerial engineer may soon put his brass plate on door of city office, though his working plane will inevitably be the firmament. 1 he engineer, civil or mechanical, is indispensable to the railway, for it is on his capacity to design, con- struct, or equip that the line depends. I el ford, the builder of the Menai Suspension Bridge, the maker of the Caledonian Canal, and the delver of St. Katharine’s Docks, was the most notable civil engineer of the opening of the nineteenth century ; but George Stephenson, the father of the English railway system, was more versatile —he combined both civil and me- chanical engineering. In his career mechanical engineering had the first place, civil engineering was simply an accessory or an incident. Uis inventive genius was concentrated on the development of the locomotive ; OF