Page:Engineering and the university (IA engineeringtheun00chaprich).pdf/14

 thousands of cubic yards of earth or rock in cutting, dam, or embankment, and it has to be done to leave a margin of profit. If he is a mining engineer, he must determine safe working methods of extracting ore from a mine whose existence depends upon the ore being won at less cost than the value of the contents. In all of these instances the cost of the operation is a first consideration,, and it is obvious that it is only by actual experience in the handling of large numbers of men and big quantities of materials that any man can become competent. Clearly this kind of experience is not to be got at a University. University lectures may -assist by setting out certain general guiding principles, but proficiency in such work is only to be obtained by actually doing it. If this were all that a University could do it would not be worth while to have an Engineering School at all.

But, on the other hand, there is a kind of knowledge equally essential that the University can give and that cannot so well be gained on practical works. It is the knowledge based upon the experiments and deductions of the great scientific men who have preceded us, and the outlook that is gained by an insight into their methods of inquiry. A man using only the materials gained in his own limited experience, no matter how full it may be, can at the best build but a small and feeble structure. But if he takes the trouble, first of all, before he builds it, to climb to the top of the great hill that has been raised in the course of generations by the great men of the past, the army of scientific workers of all. nations, then, building his own edifice on top of that, a man may raise himself to an elevation that shall command the broadest possible outlook. If, however, he build upon the plain below, his view will .always be narrow and limited.

Take as an illustration the case of an engineer working with that great building material of recent times, reinforced