The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-11-25
MISS WILSON, CIVIL sHelEEEs.

this city, is not the only woman wne
has been graduated from school o.
civil engineering, she is one of the
very few who are following that pro,
fession with success. It is now twelve
years since she received her first en-
gineering degree from the Iowa State
College at Ames.
When asked what determined her
choice of a profession, Miss Wilson
said that she studied surveying flrst
of all as part of her equipment for
teaching. Then a love for mathe7
mates and a certain curiosity as to
what the outcome would be led her to
go on with the full engineering course.
Even the railway field work was
not shirked, and Miss Wilson walk
ed the ties for miles, carrying transit
and chain. She is very particular to
state that she went under the fences
that crossed the path of the surveying
parties of which she was a member.
"The men went over, but, of course,
l went under" she says, with a
twinkle in her eyes, a twinkle which
suggests that she really has taken a
flying view of the top-rail herself now
and then, in spite of her demure in
sistence.
When she was graduated in 1892
Miss Wilson was made instructor in
physics in her alma mater. She spent
one winter at Cornell, studying by.
draulic laboratory work in order to
teach it at Ames. Two winters were
spent later at the Massachusetts, In
stitute of Technology in Boston, and
the degree of G. E. was attained.
Then the title of assistant professor of
physics was conferred on Miss Wilson.
Summer vacations were spent in
Chicago, where Miss Wilson was in
the employ of Patton & Miller, archi-
tects, and the Jennett Bridge and
Iron Company. AS special work she
was engaged in the cheerful occupa-
ton of laying out cemeteries.
Last year Miss Wilson asked for
leave of absence from her college and
went abroad to study architecture at
first hand. With her sister, Miss
Aida Wilson, also a graduate of the
Iowa State College engineering school
and now employed as an architect in
this city, she toured Italy, Greece,
Switzerland, Germany, France, Eng
land and Scotland. They did much
of their journeying on bicycles.
Upon her return to this country
Miss Wilson resigned from the fac
ulty at Ames and entered the employ
of the James E. Brooks Company,
consulting engineers. She was i'm
mediately sent out to the Essex Struc-
tural Steel Works at Bloomfield, N.
J., where she attended to shop de-
tails for several weeks. Later she
was assigned to work in the New
York offices.
When asked what she is doing just
now, Miss Wilson thought diligently
a moment and then said:
81 can't think of any name for it
that would convey an intelligent idea
to an outsider. We call it getting
out steel for a power house for New
Orleans railway company. make
drawings for the steel part of the
structure and then make my estimates
as to the number of thousand pounds
it will take for each part"
Miss Wilson and her sister keep
bachelor hall and prove that women
in business can be excellent house
keepers. Their parlors are. full of
pretty water color and pencil sketches
of sights and scenes abroad, their
own work or that of the artists they
met in their travels. .-MeaU York Sun.