Civil Enginering

The term “engineering” is a modern one. The new Marriam-Webster Dictionary gives the explanation of the word “engineering” as a practical application of scientific and mathematical principles. Nowadays the term “engineering” means, as a rule the art of designing, constructing, or using engines. But this word is now applied in a more extended sense. It is applied also to art of executing such works as the objects of civil and military architecture, in which engines or other mechanical appliances are used. Engineering is divided into many branches. The most important of them are: civil, mechanical, electrical, nuclear, mining, military, marine and sanitary engineering.

While the definition “civil engineering” dates back only two centuries, the profession of civil engineer is as old as civilized life. It started developing with the rise of ancient Rome. In order to understand clearly what civil engineering constitutes nowadays, let us consider briefly the development of different branches of engineering. Some form of building and utilization of the materials and forces of nature have always been necessary for the people from the prehistoric times. The people had to protect themselves against the elements and sustain themselves in

the conflict with nature.

First the word “civil engineering” was used to distinguish the work of the engineer with a non-military purpose from that of a military engineer. And up to about the middle of the 18^th century there were two main branches of engineering- civil and military. The former included all those branches of the constructive art not directly connected with military operations and the constructions of fortifications, while the latter, military engineering, concerned itself with the applications of science and utilization of building materials in the art of war.

But as time went on, the art of civil engineering was enriched with new achievements of science. With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and later there came a remarkable series of mechanical inventions, great discoveries in electrical, nuclear engineering, etc.

It is a well-known fact that with the invention of the steam engine and the growth of factories a number of civil engineers became interested in practical application of the science of mechanics and thermodynamics to the design of machines. They separated themselves from civil engineering, and were called “mechanical engineers”.

With the development of the science of electricity, there appeared another branch of the engineering-electrical engineering. It is divided now into two main branches: communications engineering and power engineering.

In the middle of the 20^th century there appeared some other new branches of engineering-nuclear engineering and space engineering. The former is based on atomic physics, the latter-on the achievements of modern science and engineering.

At present there are hundreds of subdivisions of engineering, but they all, at one time or another, branched off from civil engineering.

The term “civil engineering’’ has two distinct meanings. In the widest and oldest sense it includes all non-military branches of engineering as it did two centuries ago. But in its narrower, and at the present day more correct sense, civil engineering includes mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, metallurgical and mining engineering.