John Smeaton, the first man to call himself a civil engineer, began as an instrument maker. In Britain, James Brindley began as a millwright and became the foremost canal builder of the century John Rennie was a millwright’s apprentice who eventually built the new London Bridge Thomas Telford, a stonemason, became Britain’s leading road builder.Įddystone Lighthouse: John Smeaton's tower Talented, if often self-taught, craftsmen, stonemasons, millwrights, toolmakers, and instrument makers became civil engineers. As design and calculation replaced rule of thumb and empirical formulas, and as expert knowledge was codified and formulated, the nonmilitary engineer moved to the front of the stage. Its teachers wrote books that became standard works on the mechanics of materials, machines, and hydraulics, and leading British engineers learned French to read them. The beginnings of civil engineering as a separate discipline may be seen in the foundation in France in 1716 of the Bridge and Highway Corps, out of which in 1747 grew the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (“National School of Bridges and Highways”). From earliest times, however, engineers have engaged in peaceful activities, and many of the civil engineering works of ancient and medieval times-such as the Roman public baths, roads, bridges, and aqueducts the Flemish canals the Dutch sea defenses the French Gothic cathedrals and many other monuments-reveal a history of inventive genius and persistent experimentation. The term was first used in the 18th century to distinguish the newly recognized profession from military engineering, until then preeminent.
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