ENGINEERING

(Fr. engine.) Strictly, the art of % engines; but latterly applied in a more extended sense, not only to that art, but to all manufacturing and building operations in which engines are used. It is divided Into two branches, Military and Civil. Military engineering, as a science, implies a knowledge of the construction and maintenance of fortifications, and all buildings nece ary in military posts; aud hence includes a thorough instruction on every point relative to the attack and defence of places. The science also embraces the surveying of a country for the various operations of war, and consequently an acquaintance with mathematics and facility in drawing. When at a siege the engineer has surveyed a place, he reports to the commander the weakest places, and those in which approaches may be made with most succe . He draws the lines of circumvallation and contravallation; marks out the trenches, places of arms, batteries, and lodgments; and in general directs the workmen in these operations. He should po e a practical and theoretical knowledge of gunnery. In regard to the marine branch of military engineering, it requires of course a general acquaintance with the construction of ve els, jetties, moles, and other buildings of that description. Civil engineering, as its name imports, does not include those branches above named which specially belong to the art of war; but relates to the forming of roads and bridges, railroads, the construction of machinery for all purposes, 399 [s. 413]