The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-14
ART IN ENGINEERING.
Monstrosities Which Have Resulted From
Desire to Please the Critics.

Mo~strosities Which Have Resulted From
q Desire to Please the Critics.
1t Is not always possible to combine the
useful with the beautiful. Progress must
ever be associated more or less with some
things that offend the sense of the artistic,
but 1t is scarcely fair because of this to In
separately link the accomplishments OF the
engineer, as has been done 80 often, with
the dissertation Of natures beauty and de-
facement of mans works of art A smoky
factory chimney Is not q fit subject for ad-
miration, but it may be all intermediary
ketween some unlovely material product
and a gem Of human handiwork most
pleasing to the eye. Considered by them
selves, engineering structures have fire.
Quently been much abused by art critics
simply because of their ignorance OF the
functions and purpose Of the object criti-
cised and their inability to zee, therefore,
from lack of previous experience, that the
general form and details, though differing
from preconceived notions, were excel
lently fitted for their purpose. Sir BenJa-
min Baker of Forth bridge fame, dwelling
on this topic some time ago in presi-
Dental address before the Institution Of
Civil Engineers of Great Britain, stated
that in the early days of bridge building,
for example, art critics were familiar With
arches and suspension bridges, and every
thing not of these types was unfamiliar
and unlovely. They could see beauty anr
fitness i'm the masts and rigging OF ship,
although they were nothing but mere
struts and tics arranged for a special pur-
pose without any aim at artistic effect,
but they could see none in n lattice girder,
however well proportional, because OF I'M
familiarity and ignorance.
Engineers are weak enough occasionally
to attempt to conciliate such critics instead
of gradually educating them by the con-
struction of works scientifically and eco
nomically adapted to their purposes. We
thus find so called ornaments in the form
of stars, scrolls and finals plastered upon
and about some of the earlier lattice
bridges. We also see ancient marine en-
gines with Gothic framework, constituting
In effect an agglomeration of bent struts
and crooked tie rods In cast iron, with no
bar In the direction of the STRESS pump
ing and mill engines, with columns model
ed after those of some Greek temple or
Egyptian tomb, and carly locomotives with
brazen American eagle perohed on tho
steam dome and apparently shrieking with
rage because he had alighted on so warm
a spot Commercial competition has aided
good taste in doing away with all such
monstrosities, and il engineers but honest
ly persist in designing works of simple
and scientific type art critics will gradual
ly become educated up to the necessary
standard to enable them to detect the beau
ty of fitness in such works, as with longer
experience they now SEQ 1t in old timber
framed brick and tile cottages, fishing
boats, windmills and water wheels and
many other things whose designers gave
small thought to anything but the purpose
they had to fulfill and the nature OF the
materials they had to employ. 3
Magazine For January.