Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE ENGINEERING INDUSTRY. 371 The great city not only throbs with life and energy ; it is, despite its impurity of atmosphere, often healthier than the hamlet, because the health committee of the corporate body and the sanitary engineer combine to make it clean and wholesome. The copious supply of filtered water, the extensive system of drainage, the clearance of rubbish, the scientific purification of sewage, and the prompt destruction of refuse all tend to the comfort and health of the people to a far greater degree than the haphazard con- ditions of life in a rural district. The engineer has abundant opportunity, in the focussing of immense populations in great cities, to show his resourcefulness ; and in connecting such lakes as Thirlmere and Vyrnwy with Manchester and Liverpool for water supply, in vast schemes of drainage and other hygienic projects, and in the electrification of the tramways, he has exceeded the estimate of Confucius as a benefactor of mankind, for he has conferred upon society both pleasure and profit. The engineer is necessary to the building and manning of the ships that have made Britannia mistress of the sea ; and he designs and rears the lighthouses that safeguard the vessels from wreck. There is no great work and no important industry that is not the better for his thought and energy. He is vital in peace ; he is indispensable in war. The Army would be a feeble thing without his weapons and engines of offence and defence ; the Navy has been revolution- ised by his fertility. 'Die old three-deckers have given place to battleships with armour- clad hulls of hardened steel, and fitted with defensive machinery and gunnery, scientific and deadly. The triple - expansion engine and the twin-screw have given greater speed • smokeless powder, the quick-firing gun, the electric search-light, and a hundred ingenious appliances have intensified modern naval war- fare. There is no limit to the possibilities of an engineering career on shipboard, and in the invention and construction of new styles of war-ships; and one of the most unique develop- ments of industrial enterprise is seen at the works of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim. The firm not only make defensive armour, but they turn out projectiles that will go through it as if it were gingerbread, so that whichever is worsted in a naval engage- ment Messrs. Vickers have the best of the argument. At Barrow-in-Furness they have adopted contrivances that would have amazed English engineers in the mid-Victorian era. The self-charging furnaces are a revelation to pig-iron makers accustomed to the waggon- load feeding of blast furnaces ; and electricity is applied to steel plate puncher, or machine THE EDDYSTONE W. Heath & Co., Plymouth. LIGHTHOUSE. bolt maker, or moves the huge cantilever crane that travels noiselessly along the lofty platform, with gigantic arms outstretched, dropping an armour plate here or a capstan there on battleship in process of building as easily as if they were toys. What strikes one about engineering is the magnitude and diversity of it. Engineer- ing appears to be a huge grapple with the forces of Nature, and inclines the faint- hearted to say that a great engineer is born, not made ; but there is no reason why the well-educated, industrious youth, with a liking for the civil, mechanical, or electric side of it, and with a vigorous mind and opportunity of workshop practice and tech- nical instruction, should not rival in notable work the engineers who have made a name in history. John PENDLETON.