Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE ENGINEERING INDUSTRY. 365 the track it ran on, the bridge it crossed, or the tunnel it shrieked through, was merely an industrial consequence of the engine’s progress. But since his day civil engineering has reasserted itself as the brain power, in con- trast to the mere labour of construc- tion. No obstacle is great enough --------- rigid bridge is in greater demand. The Forth Bridge, engineered by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, a giant among dwarfs in comparison with other bridges, is formed of three enormous cantilevers, or brackets, resting on three huge piers; or, to 1 ' & ivi give a more graphic description, the piers might be Herculean men sitting in huge chairs, and grasping with each hand the horizontal connecting girders that uphold the track. The ex- tension of railway travel and of goods transit has led to the establishment of an engineers’ depart- ment on every great railway, and the chief engineer is really the general servant of the company. It’s llis (llltX to determine the I route, to make the plans, to get to daunt the civil engineer ; and his fight with and control of Nature became more dogged and complete in the middle of the last c e n t u r y, w hen Robert Stephenson in the north and Brunel in the south, both civil engineers of eminence, were rivals in the principle of railway construction, and particularly in width of gauge and in bridge-building. As a proof of Robert Stephenson’s shrewdness with kin regard to width of track, the Great Western Railway Company, after clinging to the broad gauge for many years, abolished it and adopted the narrow gauge throughout their system ten years ago. The use of the stationary engine has been revived on electric tramway and railway, but the moving locomotive has superseded it on the steam-power railway; and though the suspension bridge has still its defenders, the THE STEAM NAVVY AT WORK. dly supplied by Messrs. Whitaker Bros.. Ltd., Horswrth. near Leeds.) Parliamentary sanction for the line ; to engineer the various works,'sidings, stations, viaducts, bridges, and tunnels; tobe on the alert for possible extensions; to efficiently maintain the permanent way ; and on some systems to maintain canals, clocks, and landing stages. Nevertheless, he is absolutely powerless without the output of the mechanical engineer,