Conference Paper

Author

McWilliam, Robert C.

Title

The Prime Movers of Historical Change

In

Third Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference. Dunedin 2009

Imprint

Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, 2009, pp. 245-256

Url

https://www.engineeringnz.org/documents/1274/Proceedings_of_the_Third_Australasian_Conference_on_Engineering_Heritage_Dunedin_2009.pdf

Abstract

This paper is derived from the experience gained to date in producing the third volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland". The period dealt with in this volume is 1890 to 1920. For much of that time Britain had huge foreign investments supported by London-based consulting engineers. The Institution of Civil Engineers served as a learned society for many and an exclusive club for a minority of professional engineers throughout the British sphere of influence. The exclusive club promoted the concept of an empire-wide organisation able to use the services. The club organised "their" Institution to reflect this and sought alliances with overseas members for this outcome. Beyond the club but within the British Isles were more than half the membership of the Institution, who had little to do with the elites in Westminster, but shared some beliefs in a club of which they were part of an outer circle. To demonstrate the way the careers of such engineers developed a detailed case-study is given. It shows how one engineer, Thomas Aitken (1856-1918), fared.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• Third Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference. Engineering in the Development of a Region: History and Heritage. Dunedin 22-25 Nov 2009 (Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, 2009), 365 pp, https://www.engineeringnz.org/documents/1274/Proceedings_of_the_Third_Australasian_Conference_on_Engineering_Heritage_Dunedin_2009.pdf. Details