Lives of the Engineers

A reprint from American Scientist the magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society This reprint is provided for personal and noncommercial use. For any other use, please send a request to Permissions, American Scientist, P.O. Box 13975, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, U.S.A., or by electronic mail to [email protected]. ©Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society and other rightsholders © 2004 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Reproduction ENGINEERING LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS Henry Petroski ngineers are of two minds on how important lished by vanity, small or professional-society Ethey as individuals are vis-à-vis their projects. presses, some of which either cannot or do not Some self-effacing ones see themselves as just discriminate among degrees of interesting and ef- part of a team: “No one man designed the bridge,” fective writing. Most such autobiographies do not Othmar Ammann said of his signature master- reach much beyond the small sector of the engi- piece, the influential George Washington, although neering community to which the subject be- it would certainly not have been built when, where longed. Occasionally, though, an autobiography and how it was had it not been for him. Others are is written and published well and achieves out- self-promoters who take every opportunity to call standing success, as did electrical engineer attention to themselves: David Steinman, Am- Michael Pupin’s From Immigrant to Inventor, which mann’s archrival in bridge building, so bombarded won a Pulitzer Prize in 1924. editors with news releases and pictures that at least In the second category are books like David one editor noted that “his great accomplishments McCullough’s celebrated The Great Bridge and were sometimes clouded by his personality, which The Path Between the Seas, recounting respectively frequently made him the center of controversy.” the heroic stories of the building of the Brooklyn Both men had great careers. Ammann was re- Bridge and the Panama Canal. Although engi- sponsible for or had a significant role in the de- neers like the father and son Roeblings who sign and construction of at least eight of New bridged the East River and the succession of en- York City’s major bridges, including the crown- gineers (John Findley Wallace, John Frank ing achievement of the record-setting Verrazano Stevens and George Washington Goethals) who Narrows across the mouth of the harbor. Stein- led the effort in Panama are certainly looming man, who designed and built bridges all over the presences in such books, it is the engineering world, including the enormous Mackinac Straits achievement itself that is the real focus. Either Bridge connecting the two peninsulas of Michi- approach to engineering biography can clearly gan, is also remembered for his role in champi- be effective, but just as engineering is the art of oning his profession and for having founded and compromise, so too can be the art of writing been the first president of the National Society of about engineers and engineering. Professional Engineers. Two careers of similar ac- complishment could not have been approached The Engineers’ Biographer and lived more differently. Among the most successful biographers of engi- There are also two approaches to celebrating neers was Samuel Smiles, who combined stories engineers and engineering in books. On the one of human struggle and self-determination with hand, engineers and their works can be the sub- those of technical achievement and entrepre- ject of traditional biography, in which the life of neurial endeavor. His Lives of the Engineers, with the person drives the narrative through a chrono- an Account of their Principal Works; Comprising also logical course, resulting in an annotated and il- a History of Inland Communication in Britain, to lustrated curriculum vitae of sorts that documents give the full title of the 1861 first edition of the the individual’s involvement with contemporary multi-volume work, not only provided a model projects. On the other hand, a single great project of the Victorian engineering biography, but also or an individual’s oeuvre can be the book’s sub- essentially defined the pantheon of significant ject, incorporating personal and interpersonal engineers and the canon of landmark engineer- anecdotes only to the extent that they are rele- ing projects in British history. Those whose lives vant to the focus of the story. were recounted and held up as paragons of Autobiographies of engineers almost invari- virtue and achievement by Smiles became ably fall into the first category, albeit often pub- known throughout the world as the engineers who pioneered the improvement of the infra- Henry Petroski is Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engi- structure of the kingdom and who drove the In- neering and a professor of history at Duke University. Address: dustrial Revolution, which itself was epitomized Box 90287, Durham, NC 27708-0287. by achievement in the United Kingdom. 410 American Scientist, Volume 92 © 2004 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Repro- duction with permission only. Contact [email protected]. Catherine Petroski Figure 1. Samuel Smiles’s Lives of the Engineers is the most significant collection of biographies of engineers ever produced. Many editions have been printed, including engineer O. F. Nichols’s mid-19th century set (left) and the 1904 edition in Duke’s Vesic Engineering Library. Samuel Smiles was not himself an engineer. involved with as much as a third of the miles of Born in 1812 in Haddington in southeastern Scot- railroad development in Britain. According to a land, he studied medicine at Edinburgh. While at report of a speech he made at a dinner involving the university, he became involved in reform the shareholders of the Northern & Eastern Rail- movements, and his interest in politics and way, in 1844: change continued even after he began working Mr. Stephenson carried thoroughly with as a physician in his hometown in 1832. In 1838, him the sympathy of all present when he after about a year of contributing articles on par- said that railways had benefited the com- liamentary reform to the Leeds Times, Smiles was mercial man and the man of pleasure, but invited to become editor of that newspaper. He that they had yet fallen short of serving the accepted the challenge and eventually aban- poor man. The poor man had not yet got doned his medical career to work full-time for what he was entitled to—advance towards political change. He had a strong dislike for the this was being made, but the true and full aristocracy and sought to unite reformers from effect of railways would not take place until the working and middle classes. In the 1840s, they were made so cheap in their fares that a having become disillusioned with reform lead- poor man could not afford to walk. ers and believing that “mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils” that afflicted society, The reformer Samuel Smiles must certainly Smiles turned to advocating “individual reform” have been attracted by such talk. What better way and promoting the idea of “self-help.” to help bring such a result about than to work In 1845, in the midst of what historians of engi- within the railway system. Smiles remained sec- neering and technology describe as the “mania” retary to the Leeds & Thirsk line for nine years, at to expand the still-young railroads throughout which time he assumed a similar position with Britain, Smiles left the Leeds Times to take up the the South-Eastern Railway, where he remained position of secretary to the Leeds & Thirsk Rail- for another decade or so. He thus had the oppor- way. Although such a radical career change might tunity to become quite familiar with the history, seem contradictory for the reformer Smiles, it is state of affairs and effects of rail travel. But Smiles understandable in the context of the times. abandoned his interests in parliamentary reform Throughout the 1830s, the railroads in Britain had in the 1850s and turned to a project that greatly developed in an unregulated fashion, resulting in influenced the rest of his career. a proliferation of small lines running short routes Among those inseparably involved with the in a generally unintegrated fashion. According to early development of the railroad was George one historian, “The motivation for their propri- Stephenson, Robert’s father, and so the story of etors was the pursuit of local interests and short- the technology could be told through the life of term returns on investment, without anticipation the man. Smiles did this in writing his first book, of wider regional benefits, longer-term returns or The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer, economic stimulus.” In the light of this, “There which was published in 1857 to great success. was a growing call for the substantial returns on One reviewer considered it to be “one of the best railway investment to be partly redirected to- and most popular biographies” of the times. wards greater safety, and benefiting poorer citi- Smiles regarded the British railway system as zens through lower fare opportunities.” “the most magnificent public enterprise yet ac- Such sentiments were echoed by Robert complished.” He must also have felt that it had Stephenson, the eminent engineer who would be achieved a great degree of success in realizing www.americanscientist.org © 2004 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Reproduction 2004 September–October 411 with permission only. Contact [email protected]. the dreams of reformers,

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