Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0138.jpg



ENGLAND

615

ENfeLANB

should have a good general education before entering upon an engineering course. In the meantime much help can be gained from the different magazines dealing with engineering and scientific subjects, as the Scientific American and the accounts of the proceedings of the engineering societies of which there are many in the United States, national, international and local.

The opportunities at the present time for the skillful and reliable engineer are excellent, particularly if one has ability as an administrator. It will become more and more desirable in future for the railroad-president, the factory-superintendent, the mine-manager etc., to have a knowledge of the technical side of his work, and such positions will more and more demand technically trained men. In the field of construction, while, comparatively speaking, the great bulk of railroad-track has already been laid, much work yet remains to be done in the building of branch-lines, cutting down grades, improving track-beds and in the solution of the growing problems of city-transportation, sanitation and farm-irrigation. In the fields of chemical and electrical engineering, the possibilities are simply unlimited. A single new discovery or invention might lead to a complete revolution of our industrial life. For instance: the discovery of a cheap means of separating aluminium from clay might lead to a discarding of the use of iron for a great many purposes; or the perfection of an electric storage-battery might do away with the use of steam-power almost entirely. Even the problem of aerial navigation may soon come to engage the serious attention of the sober-minded engineer.

The prospective engineer can make no mistake in taking time and patience to learn in detail the practical workings of his own particular line from the ground up. As to financial returns, the engineer is more fortunate than the doctor or the lawyer in that he is usually able to command a fair salary for his work from the outset, while the ultimate returns of his mature labor may be very large. The qualities most essential to the success of the engineer are energy, practical judgment and a painstaking, accurate temperament. Early indications of engineering ability may be shown by fondness for mechanical contrivances and by interest in the practical side of scientific and mathematical studies.

Eng'land, is the southern, largest and far the most populous portion of Great Britain. In shape it forms an irregular triangle, of which the eastern side measures in a straight line 350 miles, the southern 325 miles, the western 425; but its shores are so deeply cut by bays as to make the coast-line longer in proportion to the size of the land than in any other country save Scotland and Greece. England has for hundreds of

years been one of the leading powers of

Europe, but her area is small. England, without Wales, covers 50,222 square miles, about the size of Rumania, less than a fourth of France or Germany, and but little larger than New York state. Twenty-nine states are each larger than England; several indeed are larger than the entire United Kingdom. England owes her name to the Engles or Angles, who, with the kindred Jutes and Saxons, conquered the greater part of what had been known as Albion or Britain. England's climate is milder on the whole than that of any region as far north. The northwest is mountainous and hilly, the east and south mainly a plain crossed by lines of low hills. It is much more fertile than Scotland or Ireland, for 80 per cent, of its area is productive. It is very rich in coal and iron. The English are made up of many races. A non-Aryan race, perhaps Euskarian, inhabited the country before the Celts, who conquered them and intermarried with them. The Roman armies brought settlers with them — Gauls, Germans, Iberians, Italians, Dacians, Phrygians and the other races which made up the legions of the empire. Then came the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, followed by the Danes and Norman-French. Out of these various stocks a well-marked race has been formed, self-reliant, prompt to defend its rights, daring, hard-working and ambitious, which has given its language and, in part, its institutions to 250,000,000 of the world's people. England became the headquarters of machine-making of all kinds, of steam-power, of commerce, navigation and shipping; but she was not the first of European states to start in the race of commerce. Long after France, Flanders and parts of Germany were great manufacturing centers, England was a fanning and wool-producing country. Agriculture was at its height in the reign of George II, when the agricultural wealth of the United Kingdom was $2,905,000,000, and made «p half the wealth of the nation. At present (1911) the yearly imports of the United Kingdom are over $3,400,000,000, in order of value as follows: Grain, including potatoes, raw cotton, manufactures, meat, wool, sugar, dairy-products, tea and coffee, timber, minerals, wines and spirits, flax and jute, raw silk. The yearly exports reach over $2,700,000,000, in order of value: Cotton-goods, iron, woolen-goods, machinery, coal, linen, jute goods, metals other than iron, cutlery, silken goods. The shipping of the United Kingdom is 42 per cent, of that of the world, while its wealth is put down at $46,140,000,000.

Caesar's raid into Britannia, in 55 B. G., was followed by the Roman conquest; but the history of England do©s not properly begin till the 5th century, when the Teutonic tribes which have giv&n the nation