Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1893 — Engineering. [ARTICLE]

Engineering.

The first society of civil engineers was formed in London, 1703. Clegg and Samuda, in 1838, patented the first pneumatic railroad. There are many stone bridges in China dating from 1000 B. C. IN 1847 all London houses were compelled to connect with sewers. Nearly 100 different machines have been invented for boring rock. The ideas of American bridge builders have been copied all Over the world. There are over seventy miles of tunnels cut in the solid rock of Gibraltar. The first large iron bridge in the world was built over the Severn in 1777. Pneumatic tubes are now in use in most telegraphic and newspaper offices. Cleopatra's Needle was taken from Egypt to England in a vessel built round it. The central span of the St. Louis bridge is 520 feet, the side spans 515 feet each. Levees were erected by the Babylonians and Egyptians, described by Herodotus. The famous bridge constructed by Queen Nitocris, at Babylon, and described by Diodorus, was five furlongs long. The embankment of the Thames was encouraged by James I. The Brooklyn suspension bridge is 5,832 feet long, 1,505 feet central span and 135 feet high. “Engineering is the art of directing the groat sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man.” The accuracy of the surveying in ancient engineering is marvelous considering the rudeness of the instruments. The first tunnel for commercial purposes was oxecuted by M. Riguet, in the reign of Louis XIV., at Bezieres, France.