Engineers and Engineering 01

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines engineering as

"...the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building and use of

engines, machines and structures."

That, frankly - as any who have practised engineering will know - hardly does the subject justice. For engineering, while heavily founded in science and technology, is arguably also an art. In that regard, the Institution of Civil Engineers in its Royal Charter makes use of Thomas Tredgold's 1828 definition of civil engineering,

"...the Art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience

of man."

Anyone who doubts the assertion that engineering, when done well, is an art should spend a moment considering Maillart's Salginatobel Bridge (above) or the beautiful aerodynamic lines of R J Mitchell's Spitfire or Sir Nigel Gresley‘s Class A4 locomotive.

Spitfire of Royal Air Force "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight"

(Crown Copyright)

Less prosaically, engineering is the design, manufacture or construction and operation of virtually everything including roads, bridges, tunnels, aircraft, ships, power stations, harbours, docks, motor vehicles, power generation and water treatment stations and their associated distribution facilities and everything else that makes modern living what it is.

Perhaps engineering is best summated in the words of a wise man who said "If an engineer didn't make this, then God did." (First attributed to Prof Tom Howie in the late 1960's when he Head of Engineering at Paisley College of Technology, now part of the University of the West of Scotland.)

LNER Class A4 (BR60007) approaching Stirling from Alloa

(Copyright: Gavin Cameron)