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 engineer, might have been defined as one who practised the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the harm and destruction of man.

Somewhat more than one hundred years ago some Englishmen engaged on construction work intended for the advancement of civilization, such as the building of roads, bridges and canals, and the erection of great buildings, learned that many Italian, French and Spanish architects and bridge builders, the latter work by this time having become a distinct specialty, were in the habit of terming themselves engineers without any qualifying designation and military engineers were making strong objection. These Englishmen concluded that since much ingenuity was required in civil as well as military construction, the term Civil Engineer" was eminently proper and it was adopted. There being strong opposition to the use of the word engineer by civilians it was necessary to exactly define the civil engineer, the definition of Thomas Tredgold being the result; somewhat insulting to the army as well as to the naval engineer, who, at that time, had no engines to care for, but who built docks, designed ordnance, etc., and assisted the naval architect in the design and construction of war vessels.

To-day the distinction is disappearing. Military engineers have so little employment of the old sort that most of their time is spent in work of a