Page:Engineering and the university (IA engineeringtheun00chaprich).pdf/7



Engineering is the Cinderella among the professions. You will remember that Cinderella was not only the youngest among the sisters, but she it was who was the maid-of-all-work while they got all the education and all the fine clothes and went out to balls and parties, until that happy time arrived when she married the Prince. And so from the very beginnings of Universities it was thought right and proper that they should undertake the training of lawyers, physicians and surgeons, clergymen, teachers and philosophers. All of these belonged to professions which were recognized as deserving of that training in knowledge and culture that only the Universities could give, but for the men who were to be engaged in the practical work of building roads and bridges, reservoirs and canals, and otherwise administering to the physical wants of the people, the Universities for a long while had no place.

It seems rather strange that this should have been so, because if we go back far enough we find that the smiths, the workers in iron, who were the forerunners of of the modern engineers, occupied a place of great importance in all primitive communities. They supplied tools for the carpenter, spades and hoes for the farmer, and the keys, bolts and ironwork for the castle. The community depended upon them for the weapons of the chase and for the weapons of war. They made the bills and battle-axes, the tips for the bowmen's arrows, and the swords and