Opportunities in Engineering   By: Charles M. (Charles Marcus) Horton (1879-)

OPPORTUNITY BOOKS

OPPORTUNITIES IN ENGINEERING BY CHARLES M. HORTON

OPPORTUNITIES IN AVIATION BY LIEUT. GORDON LAMONT And CAPTAIN ARTHUR SWEETSER

OPPORTUNITIES IN CHEMISTRY BY ELLWOOD HENDRICK

OPPORTUNITIES IN FARMING BY EDWARD OWEN DEAN

OPPORTUNITIES IN MERCHANT SHIPS BY NELSON COLLINS

OPPORTUNITIES IN NEWSPAPER BUSINESS BY JAMES MELVIN LEE

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK ESTABLISHED 1817

OPPORTUNITIES IN ENGINEERING

by

CHARLES M. HORTON

Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London

OPPORTUNITIES IN ENGINEERING

Copyright 1920, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America Published April, 1920

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. ENGINEERING AND THE ENGINEER 1

II. ENGINEERING OPPORTUNITIES 9

III. THE ENGINEERING TYPE 16

IV. THE FOUR MAJOR BRANCHES 24

V. MAKING A CHOICE 31

VI. QUALIFYING FOR PROMOTION 38

VII. THE CONSULTING ENGINEER 48

VIII. THE ENGINEER IN CIVIC AFFAIRS 54

IX. CODE OF ETHICS 62

X. FUTURE OF THE ENGINEER 68

XI. WHAT CONSTITUTES ENGINEERING SUCCESS 76

XII. THE PERSONAL SIDE 85

OPPORTUNITIES IN ENGINEERING

I

ENGINEERING AND THE ENGINEER

Several years ago, at the regular annual meeting of one of the major engineering societies, the president of the society, in the formal address with which he opened the meeting, gave expression to a thought so startling that the few laymen who were seated in the auditorium fairly gasped. What the president said in effect was that, since engineers had got the world into war, it was the duty of engineers to get the world out of war. As a thought, it probably reflected the secret opinion of every engineer present, for, however innocent of intended wrong doing engineers assuredly are as a group in their work of scientific investigation and development, the statement that engineers were responsible for the conflict then raging in Europe was absolute truth.

I mention this merely to bring to the reader's attention the tremendous power which engineers wield in world affairs.

The profession of engineering which, by the way, is merely the adapting of discoveries in science and art to the uses of mankind is a peculiarly isolated one. But very little is known about it among those outside of the profession. Laymen know something about law, a little about medicine, quite a lot nowadays about metaphysics. But laymen know nothing about engineering. Indeed, a source of common amusement among engineers is the peculiar fact that the average layman cannot differentiate between the man who runs a locomotive and the man who designs a locomotive. In ordinary parlance both are called engineers. Yet there is a difference between them a difference as between day and night. For one merely operates the results of the creative genius of the other. This almost universal ignorance as to what constitutes an engineer serves to show to what broad extent the profession of engineering is isolated.