Since 1887, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE) - and the Engineering Institute that it became in 1918  - have contributed in a variety of ways to the recording of the history of engineering in Canada and by Canadians. For example, the Transactions of the Society and the Institute, as well as the Institute's Engineering Journal  that appeared from 1918 until 1987,  have published papers that were written as historical records or have become part 
of the corpus of engineering history with the passage of time. Both the Society and the Institute established medals and other awards to recognize meritorious technical writing, professional achievement and service by their members, and the Institute continues to do so. The two institutions have also taken steps to preserve at least some of their archival material in the National Archives and elsewhere, and the Institute is continuing this practice. 

During the 1920s and 1930s the Institute sponsored a Biographies Committee that published material in this field, none of which is still in print. A number of memorial plaques recording professional achievements have been erected, some quite recently. In the 1970s the Institute participated with the federal government in a program to identify heritage engineering sites across Canada. During the early 1980s it sponsored a History & Heritage 
Committee. In 1987 it participated in the Centennial of Engineering as a Profession and, as part of this year-long festival, in the selection of the most outstanding Canadian engineering achievements during the previous one hundred years. Several of EIC's present Member Societies also have history-related activities that include the publication of books and papers and the plaquing of sites and institutions. 

In 1991 a Secretary for History & Archives was appointed by the Council of the Institute to initiate a focused program that would help to increase awareness of the engineer's role in Canadian development. Steps were also taken to collect, analyse and store archival material reflecting the activities of EIC over the years and, when active, its regions, branches and 
committees. Research was initiated into the evolution of the Institute as a whole, as well as into the development of other engineering-related institutions in Canada and abroad and into the technical side of engineering generally. The submission for publication and/or archival purposes of career-based autobiographical material by senior and retired engineers was 
also encouraged. Since the EIC Council approved their publication in 1995, a series of Working Papers in these fields has been in preparation. Those published so far are listed and their contents described elsewhere in this sub-section of the website. EIC also took the lead in supporting a profession-wide committee to make recommendations to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada with regard to nationally significant engineering 
achievements. The EIC Life Members' Organization and the Member Societies within the EIC Federation were helpful in the development of this program. 

In June 1999, as part of a general revision of EIC's by-laws, the Council decided to establish a Standing Committee for History & Archives whose terms-of-reference would absorb the duties of the H&A Secretary and the profession-wide committee. The Council decided that the membership of the new SCH&A would include representatives of the EIC and its Member Societies and the Life Members' Organization, as well as several non-EIC 'learned' societies and a number of professional historians associated with the engineering field. It would be chaired by the Institute representative. The terms-of-reference that had been developed for the Committee were approved by the Council in March 2000 and the full Committee met for the first time in June to develop the elements of its program and projects for the year or more ahead. The thrust of these activities will coincide with the Institute's Vision Statement. The Committee will also: 

* collaborate with the History Committees of the member Societies of the Institute to encourage the publication and dissemination of new information related to the history of engineering in Canada... 

* publish or broadcast throught the various media, historical information on the Institute itself, the engineering profession, Canadian engineers and their activities, and specific engineering projects... 

* collaborate with the Historic Sites and Monuments board of Canada and other public and private institutions  to ensure that significant achievements by Canadian engineers are adequately commemorated... 

* encourage cooperation with academic, public and private institutions, associations and other organizations with similar interests and objectives...and 

* promote the collection, secure storage and accessibility for research of archival material associated with the Institute, its Member Societies and the engineering profession. 

The engineer brothers, Walter and Francis (Frank) Shanly - two of Canada's most prominent engineers in the late 19th century - were the subject of a biographical work, Daylight Through The Mountain,  by Frank and Gladys Walker, published in 1957 by the Engineering Institute of Canada, but no longer in print. Much more recently, the lives of the Shanlys were captured 
by Richard White in his book Gentlemen Engineers: The Working Lives of Frank and Walter Shanly  published in 1999 by the University of Toronto Press.

This eminently readable 200-page narrative has a strong element of social history that covers the transition of a family with roots in the rural Irish gentry into a group of related individuals operating as North American urban professionals. The book has three parts. The first covers the Shanly family background in Ireland and its emigration to Canada. It goes on to describe 
how Walter and Frank learned the business of engineering and the contributions both made up to the mid-1850s. The second follows the career of Frank from 1855 to his sudden death in 1882 and of Walter from 1855 to his death forty-four years later. In the third part, which is quite short, the author discusses his thesis that the brothers were indeed gentlemen engineers. There are, of course, some phtographs plus an index and a bibliography. This book should please the general reader and the professional engineeer as well as other historians.

The author is currently a freelance historian and university-level teacher. The research for the book was done originally for academic thesis purposes within the Department of History at the University of Toronto.The book was published with the help of grants from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, the Canada Coiuncil for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts 
Council. It retails for $60. Order enquiries should be made to the UofT Press, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8. 1-800-565-9523, or utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca.
 
 
 

Book Review - "The Skule Story: The University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering 1873-2000"

For the second time in two years, Richard White has produced a well-written book of considerable interest and importance for the history of engineering in Canada. Commissioned, as part of the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, The Skule Story required two years of research and writing before it appeared in 2000. Once again, it is strongly narrative, with an evident element of social history. But it also includes an illuminating discussion of the issues in engineering education in this country over the years since it was first offered through the universities. 

The view the author takes is principally the one seen from the Faculty Office and through the eyes of the person in charge - first the principal of the School of Practical Science (SPS) and later the dean of the Faculty (FASE). His main themes are the (usually evolutionary) change within the School/Faculty, who brought the change about, and the Faculty's influence on the Ontario economy. White also describes, as appropriate for his text, the growth and development of the individual disciplines and departments within SPS/FASE, but make no attempt to be definitive. The book is divided into five chapters, each covering roughly a quarter of a century and taking between 40 and 60 pages to do so. There are at the beginning the usual prefaces and a useful map of the Faculty's buildings on campus. At the end are five supplementary sections taking up a further 70 pages, including a most useful list of "Works Consulted" and an index. At the very end, to supplement tht main text, there is a pull-out that shows the development of the disciplines and departments of SPS/FASE from 1878 to 2000. There are photographs every four pages or so throughout the main text - mostly of people, buildings, classrooms and student activities.

The author is himself a UofT graduate in history. He is currently a freelance historian and university-level teacher. His book was published by the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at UofT and is being distributed on behalf of FASE by the University of Toronto Press, from whom copies may be ordered (5201 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T8, 1-800-565-9523, or utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca. The price for alumni, professors and students of FASE is $30 per copy and, for others, $40.

Book review -  "The Coast Connection," "Carving the Western Path Through 
B.C.'s Southern Mountains," and "Carving the Western Path Through Central and 
Northern B.C."

In his review, which appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of  the Canadian Civil Engineer, Peter Hart discusses these three books by R.G. Harvey, as well as EIC History Working Paper  9/2001, "Turning an Engineer into an Author," which Harvey also wrote and which describes the genesis, writing and publication of these  books. The first of them was published in 1994 by Oolichan Books, 
Lantzville, B.C., and the other two in 1998 and 1999 by Heritage House Publishing Company, Surrey, B.C.. The three, together, describe the development of transportation systems on the mainland of British Columbia, a process in which the author took part, laterly as deputy minister of 
Transportation and Highways. As Hart notes, all three books are well illustrated and include some excellent maps drawn by the author. As he also notes, Harvey brings to his accounts a refreshing honesty regarding the machinations of the politicians and railways in obtaining special deals from 
the Province. Harvey's work on the books earned him the W. Gordon Plewes Award  of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering in 2001.

As noted elsewhere in this website, EIC has published a series of Working Papers on historical and biographical subjects and copies are available for distribution on demand. All Working Papers may, with the Institute's permission, be published again in whole or in part in other vehicles. At the present time, this series is administered by the EIC's Executive Director and the Chair of the Standing Committee for History & Archives.

The following are brief summaries of the Papers in the series to date...

Note that there is a link indicated in green format underlinedat the beginning of each abstract. If you click on this link you will get to the web page containing the paper. You must have an Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the papers as they are saved in pdf format. If you do not have one of these readers you can obtain one at no charge by downloading it from "http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html". 

***"Working Paper 1/1995" - December 1995 
"The Engineering Journal, 1918-1987: Some Notable Highlights" by Andrew H. Wilson
This paper discusses the origins and development of the professional periodical - the Engineering Journal - published by the Institute, and someof the issues, technical achievements, events and people that have beencovered in its pages between 1918, when it first appeared, and 1987 whenpublication ceased.  This periodical has now become an important source ofhistorical material on engineering as an activity and as a profession in Canada. It also provides some useful insights into the evolution of theInstitute itself.

*** "Working Paper 2/1996" - December 1996
"Memoirs of an Experimental Stress Analysis Engineer: 1945-1980" by John B. Mantle
Research, teaching and administration have always been integral to John Mantle's professional career, as have the Universities of Saskatchewan and,later, Regina. But he has also done his share of engineering practice.Although this paper is mainly concerned with specific aspects and projects in his research into experimental stress analysis using photoelastic techniques, it includes a variety of other background `noises' often heard by theengineering educators of his time, as well as notes on his travels and generous mention of his colleagues and students. The text has been
illustrated by a number of figures, supplemented by a bibliography that helps to sum up his career and achievements.

***"Working Paper 3/1997" - January 1997
"Odyssey of an Engineering Researcher" by Ken Rush
This paper was initially dated May 1996 and was published privately by the author. However, its attraction as a memoirist's contribution to the EICseries was obvious to the General Editor and the author kindly consented to
its transformation. It begins with a discussion - important for the author'spurpose - of the distinction between scientific and engineering research. It then moves on to describe the author's early work in aeronautical research in the 1940s and 1950s at the NRC labs in Ottawa and at Farnborough in England. It discusses the changes that took place in the later 1950s within NRC, to research generally in Canada, and within the universities. It follows the author's return to Queen's as a professor of mechanical engineering in the early 1960s, his varied experience as a `well-travelled' academic, and hisswitch of research interest to the solar energy field. It ends with somecomments on his work as a consultant to the federal government prior to hisretirement in 1990.

***  "Working Paper 4/1997" - March 1997
"History Activities of the Learned Engineering Societies in Canada" by Ralph E. Crysler, Fathi Habashi and Andrew H. Wilson
This paper is actually a collection of four papers describing the history activities of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE), the Historical Metallurgy Committee of theCanadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Engineering (CIM), and the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME).

Wilson's paper on the EIC describes how the Institute and its predecessor,the `old' Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, contributed to the accumulation of historical material on Canadian engineering through itspublishing activities, its system of awards and its commemorations. It alsoprovides a short account of the history-related activities within the
Institute since the mid-1970s, including the committees that were operative, participation in the Canadian Engineering Heritage Record, and the attemptsthat have been made to encourage more research, writing and commemoration.

Crysler's paper serves to underline the belief within his Society that  atangible record of significant historic civil engineering works should bepreserved as part of Canada's heritage and in recognition of the achievements of the engineers who participated in these and other works. In particular, the paper describes the origins and evolution of the history program of the Society and the different activities within it since the founding of the 'new' CSCE in 1972.

The  Habashi paper begins with an outline of the history of metallurgy inCanada and then moves on to discuss the work of the CIM's Historical Metallurgy Committee since its founding in 1978. This Committee has provided a forum for members interested in this field and has promoted the recording of Canadian achievements within it.

The second Wilson paper traces very briefly the origins and the founding of CSME as a constituent society of EIC. It then reviews the activities of theHistory Committee of the Society during the 20 years following itsestablishment in 1975. It also deals with some of the problems associatedwith the participation of engineers in the collection and presentation of historical material.

** * "Working Paper 5/1997"
"Port Nelson - A Hudson Bay Port" by Ralph E. Crysler
In 1913 the Government of Canada began construction of a deep sea port on Hudson Bay in the estuary of the Nelson River. Construction was activelypursued  until the end of 1917. For the next decade, essentially no furtherwork was done. In 1927, after an expenditure approaching $6 million, all work at Port Nelson was abandoned and the construction of a port was begun atChurchill. This paper outlines the reasons for the original selection of Port Nelson and describes the works constructed and the reasons for theabandonment.

***  "Working Paper 6/1998" - March 1998
"The Engineering Journal as a Source for the History of Engineering" by Andrew H. Wilson
This is the second in a sub-series of Working Papers examining the role ofthe Engineering Journal in a historical context, the first being WP 1/1995. This present one begins by covering the same ground very briefly, but thengoes on to consider technical articles and papers that appeared in thisperiodical over the years that were (a) of historical interest whenoriginally published, (b) acquired this kind of interest some years after publication, and (c) could well become `historical' sometime in the future.It ends with a brief discussion of the development of the Institute itself as 
reflexted in the pages of the Journal.

*** "Working Paper 7/1998" - May 1998
"Historical Extracts from Papers Published in the Engineering Journal" compiled by Andrew H. Wilson
This is the third (and last) in the sub-series examining the role of the Engineering Journal in a historical context. It provided extracts from six of he technical articles and papers that were of historical interest whenoriginally published (ie category (a) in WP 6/1998) as a means of illustrating the scope and variety of the material that may be found in the
Journal. The six are: "Early Ottawa and Engineering" by Robert F. Legget, which was published in February 1961; "The Past: A Chronology of EarlyCanadian Engineering Activities" by J.G.G. Kerry, published in August 1947;"William R. Casey: The Forgotten Engineer" (who supervised the building ofCanada's first railway) by John B. Thompson, published in the January/February 1971 issue;  "The Development of the Steam Engine in theMaritime Provinces of Canada" by D.W. Robb, which was in the October 1920issue; "Reminiscences: Pioneer Life in the West" by H.J. Cambie, from the
same issue; and "Canadian Hydro Electric Developments on the Niagara River" by R.L. Hearn, published in August 1954.

*** "Working Paper 8/2001" - October 2001
"Engineering Designations of National Historic Significance" compiled by Andrew H. Wilson
This compilation of designations has been based on the Register published by Parks Canada in March 1999. It covers - with certain exclusions - the national historic sites, events and personal designations made by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and its predecessors between 1919 and 1998 that are engineering-related. The exclusions include: most buildings; railroad stations, battle sites, fur trade posts and forts, town sites and early or reconstructed villages. While many of these required the services of engineering people, the contributions of others (such as architects) could be even more significant. The interpretation of eligibility has been the responsibility of the compiler and, in a few instances; he has also edited the original Register entries.

*** "Working Paper 9/2001" - December 2001
"Turning an Engineer into an Author" by R.G. Harvey
This paper tells the story of an engineer who became the author of three books on the history of transportation in the province of British Columbia. It takes the reader through the background to this activity, the kinds of research and documentation that were needed to do the writing, what happened after publication, and some of the joys, problems and frustrations that were experienced along the way. There is some advice offered by the author to other engineers who might attempt historical publication. There is also an appendix that includes the transcript of one of the most significant reports written in the early days of transportation in that province and - at the request of the editors - the transcripts of four published reviews of the three books. And there is a short bibliography.

***"Working Paper 10/2002" - March 2002
"Letters Home......." by Robert S. Sproule
Letters tend to provide people in the present with impressions of the lives of people in times past. This paper makes the attempt to recapture what it was like to be an observant, normally city-dwelling, 18- and 19-year-old engineering student on summer work in three different and remote parts of Canada during two years of the Great Depression. There is relatively little about engineering in it. It is much more concerned with going to new places and meeting new people, gaining experience and acquiring self-confidence, and living and working in environments quite different from the ones experienced in university. The letters have been taken from a much larger collection written by the author covering the period from 1933 to 1950, supplemented by comments added by him much more recently. The language, phraseology and the humour of the originals has been preserved as much as possible.

***"Working Paper 11/2002" - May 2002
"Memoir" by William G. McKay
This memoir, written by a former senior engineering consultant in the public health engineering field, is important for at least three reasons. The longer part of the paper describes the activities and experience of a practicing professional over a period of 30 years in a field of engineering that is vital for the well-being of everyone. It also describes the development of a consulting engineering company that began in the Prairie provinces. And the shorter part of it provides some idea of the satisfactions an engineer can obtain from service to the members of his profession through a variety of organizations.

*** "Working Paper 12/2002" - June 2002
"The Knights of Engineering: Yesterday and Today" by Andrew H. Wilson
Around the turn of the 20th century, when Canadians were still eligible to accept British titles, a number of distinguished Canadian engineers received the accolade of knighthood. At least two - Casimir Gzowski and Sandford Fleming - were well known and have remained so; others, like John Kennedy and Percy Girouard, less so.  Since the introduction into Parliament of the so-called Nickle Resolution in 1919, Canadians living in Canada have been excluded from such honours. It was not until the establishment of the Order of Canada in 1967 that Canada had its own equivalent of the accolade, in the grade of Companion. This paper discusses those engineers who recceived knighthoods years ago and those who, much more recently, became Companions.

*** "Working Paper 13/2003" - March 2003
"The Manitoba Electrical Museum and Education Centre" by Lindsay Ingram 
This paper tells the story, briefly, of the development of the Manitoba Electrical Museum and Education Centre in Winnipeg, from the original initiatives in 1971, through the years of collecting artifacts, to the acquisition of a 
suitable building and its opening as a museum in December 2001. It is a story of what a band of determined and knowledgeable volunteers can do to help preserve a major aspect of the engineering history of their province, how their determination survived over such a long period, and the help they received from corporate sponsors. It describes the main exhibits currently on show and provides a bibliography of sources for those who wish to continue to study the history of engineering in Manitoba. The author is one of the volunteers.

***"Working Paper 14/2003" - March 2003
"An Engineering Entrepreneur in Early Canada: John Gartshore in the 1800s" by Ian Gartshore and Sondra (Gartshore) Jernigan
John Gartshore was one of Canada's original Scottish-born immigrant mechanical engineers. He is perhaps best known for the steam-driven, beam pumping engines his company supplied to the Old Hamilton Waterworks in the late 1850s. In this paper, aspects of his career have been pieced together from a variety of sources. Gartshore was a good entrepreneur, engineer and manager, and all but a few years of his career in Canada were commercially successful. His influence also reached beyond his own shops, and his three sons and many of his employees went on to successful careers in engineering. Three appendices support the text, and there is a list of the reerences used in it.

***"Working Paper 15/2003" - April 2003
"An Early Sonar Device" by Julian C. Smith Jr.
This paper describes briefly the development of a sonar device by the author's father, Julian C. Smith Sr., and a colleague in the 1930s. The device was used successfully to map the contours of the bottom of Lake Memphremagog in the Eastern Townships of the Province of Quebec. A number of illustrations amplify 
the text. An appendix has been added giving biographical information on Julian C. Smith Sr., who was president of EIC in 1928 and in whose memory an Institute medal has been awarded annually since 1940.

*** "Working Paper 16/2003" - April 2003
"Some EIC Memorabilia: 1918-1945" by Andrew H. Wilson
The EIC's Engineering Journal, published between 1918 and 1987, is an excellent source of information on the growth and development of engineering in Canada and of the profession itself. This paper is the latest in a series that has been used to 'mine' this source. It is based principally on extracts from editorial comments and news items, as well as some biographical entries and articles, taken from issues that appeared between the end of World War I and the end of World War II. The intent is to describe some of the activities and traditions of the Institute and its members in an episodic and anecdotal way. A number of illustrations from the pages of the magazine have been added.

*** ***Working Paper 17/2003 - December 2003 
"The By Design Book Project" by J. W. Disher
In 1995 a small group of retired Hamilton area engineers with leadership from the Hamilton Engineering Institute (as it was then called) set out to research, write, publish and market a book about the contribution of engineering to the history of their area of Ontario. It became a Millennium Project. The author of this paper, Jerry Disher, was the leader of the project and co-author, with E. A. W. Smith, of the book By Design: The Role of the Engineer in the History of the Hamilton-Burlington Area. The paper tells the story of the conception and birth of the research etc. in some detail, and from Mr. Disher's own viewpoint. The paper was 'commissioned' for the EIC's Working Paper series because no 'how to' book about such an important process existed. The book itself is of 'coffee table' size and around 200 pages long. It is attractively illustrated.

*** ***Working Paper 18/2003 - January 2004 
"Consulting Civil Engineering Firms in the Prairie Provinces" by William G. McKay
In this paper, the author discusses the beginnings and later development of five consulting engineering firms in the Prairie provinces. The economic and political climates that greeted the three earlier ones prior to World War I were quite different from those experienced by the later two, following World War II. All of the firms were active in the municipal engineering field, but also in others. Collectively, they have made major contributions to the development of the Prairie region and, in the case of the two post-World War II firms, well beyond it. The material deals more with the organization and development of the firms rather than with the projects they undertook, although some of these have been included in the text. However, the paper also has an Appendix dealing with water and sewage systems built in these provinces prior to 1916, systems that were crucial for economic development. 

*** ***Working Paper 19/2004 “
More EIC Memorabilia: 1946-1975” selected by Andrew H. Wilson
This paper is the second (and most likely the last) to be based on extracts from articles, news item and editorial comments taken from the issues of the Engineering Journal., the first one being WP 16/2003. This later period began with the post-World War II years of spectacular growth in the Institute’s membership and activities and ended with the formation of the constituent (now member) societies. As before, the activities, concerns and traditions of the Institute are treated anecdotally rather than definitively. Some representative illustrations have been added.

*** ***Working Paper 20/2004
“Biographical Sketches” compiled by Andrew H. Wilson
For several years beginning in the late 1990s, the EIC’s History & Archives Committee and its Life Members’ Organization co-operated in the collection of autobiographical material from LMO members in regard to their careers and in order to add to the Institute’s archives. Submissions were received from 30 respondents. Five of these have been expanded into stand-alone papers in this Working Paper series (WP2/1996, WP 3/1997, WP 10/2002 and WP 11/2002 – see above – and WP 22/2004 – see below). The other 25 have been reproduced here, in whole or in part, in order to provide a wider audience for the material, to demonstrate what it is that some engineers have done, and to encourage young people to consider engineering as a career. 

*** ***Working Paper 21/2004
“William Harold Hunt, U.E., E.D., B.Sc., C.E.: Surveyor and Civil Engineer” compiled by William G. McKay
This paper has been compiled from autobiographical and biographical material written by, and about, William Harold Hunt (1884-1976), together with extracts from a two-part memoir written by him but only recently published. The paper is in two parts. The first includes the auto- and biographical material on Harold Hunt and covers the essentials of his career. The second includes the memoir extracts which recount his experience as a member of a location team on a survey for the route of the Hudson Bay Railway to Fort Churchill in northern Manitoba almost a century ago.

*** ***Working Paper 22/2004
“An Engineering Career in the Hydro-Electric Industry” by Leonard A. Bateman
Leonard Bateman is now in his mid-80s and is still serving engineering and the engineering profession. This Working Paper provides the ‘first person’ story of his long and varied career, from the pre-graduation years in Winnipeg, through distinguished service in the hydro-electric industry in Manitoba, to international post-retirement consulting and the founding presidency of the Canadian Society for Senior Engineers. The paper also has three Appendices, two of which provide basic information on the hydro-electric industry in Manitoba, while the third lists a selection of the papers Mr. Bateman has presented and published both nationally and internationally.
 
 

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