The C.E. Diploma.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 4, 1 February 1911, Page 542

The C.E. Diploma.

(By John G. Kerr, M.A., LL.D.) This department of the College is wide in its ,scope and aims at preparing its students for many demands. . As indicative of these demands reference may be made to the operations of the great railway companies, two of which have their head offices in Glasgow, and to the Clyde Trust, by whom the River Clyde, a pleasant stream, 2ft. or so in depth at the Broomielaw a century ago, has been rendered navigable for ships of largest tonnage into the heart of the city. The Glasgow Corporation, with its magnificent and always developing water supply for over a million people, and its beneficent sewage scheme draining a densely populated industrial area of 41 y» square miles, require a large staff of well-trained engineers, capable of dealing with the problems emerging from these enterprises, and skilled in executing the engineering work necessary for their satisfactory solution. Lanarkshire, with its abounding wealth of coalfields, its prolific output of iron and steel, its countless engineering establishments, and particularly those devoted to structural and bridge-building work (made famous by the achievements of Sir William Arrol and those who follow in his footsteps), represents an imperative call for the best possible education in civil engineering science in all its aspects. Accordingly an outline of the provision which lias been made by the Governors of the College to meet this call should prove of interest to the readers of '' Engineering.'' The diploma of civil engineering can be obtained by students attending a prescribed course covering a period of three winter sessions and one summer session, the interval between the second and third winter sessions being spent, if at all possible, on works under construction. The first winter is given, as in other diploma courses, to the study of pure science, and thereafter specialisation proceeds rapidly. Broadly stated, the students' work falls under the following heads: —(1) Descriptive lectures, (2) laboratory work, ((3) tutorial drawing-office design, (4) field-work, (5) reading and discussion of papers, and (6) visits to works in progress.

A titanic engine weighing one million pounds, capable of drawing any load of freight cars or coaches which will stand the strain on the drawing bars. At first glance the suggestion may strike one as being absurd. But is it? Listen to this: ' "It is probable that within a few years we shall see a 500-ton locomotive." The' statement was made by the superintendent of motive power of one of the largest railroad systems in America, a man who is acknowledged as one of tihe highest authorities.