The Influence of Engineering on Civilisation¹

Abstract

ENGINEERING in its many branches has taken, and is still taking, a very extensive part in connexion with the amenities which are associated so closely with our domestic life, and indeed our happiness. Each branch of engineering has added its quota to the comfort of our lives, and I think it may be claimed that no other profession has so direct an association with our modern civilisation. The enormous increase in population during the nineteenth century, coupled with the segregation of that population in industrial centres, arising out of the extraordinarily rapid development of industry in Great Britain and other countries during that period, has introduced new problems in connexion with health and transport, and it has been the task of engineering in its many branches to deal with these problems.