Civil Engineering | CE 004

Civil engineering is a professional discipline that deals with technique and practice of applying natural and scientific laws for protection and development of static amenities of human civilization.

This definition may look close to the definition of engineering, used in the previous post, but the key words ‘static amenities of human civilization’ make a big difference for the definition of civil engineering. Yes, civil engineering deals with all static amenities of human civilization like building, bridge etc.

The history of civil engineering is as old as the history of human civilization. At the early period of the civilization, people used to exercise civil engineering applications with the help and inspiration from nature although they did not know that it was civil engineering. Efforts of ancient people in making their shelters, arranging water or crossing rivers utilizing tree logs etc. are some of the finest examples of ancient civil engineering.

In ancient Roman empire, a class of servants under the governance of the Emperor were there who used to go forward - prior to a military aggression - to make roads, bridges, drains, shelters etc. for use of military corps. These servants were called military engineers and the engineering works meant for military aggression or for military use was known as military engineering. This is thus the foremost name in engineering.

Afterwards the people of civil society of Rome requested the emperor to carry out similar kinds of development works for their cities and towns too. The request was granted and a part of military engineers were deployed for engineering development of the civil society of different cities under Roman empire. These people were then called as civil engineers because they served for the civilized society and the engineering projects dedicated for the development and benefit of the civil society was called as civil engineering.

Although many forms of engineering branches have now been emerged, as has been highlighted in previous post, both the above two terms - military engineering and civil engineering - still hold their name and fame. Although the name of civil engineering was originated in ancient Roman empire, it did not gain much popularity for a long time.

In 18th century, a British builder, Mr. John Smeaton (1724-92), who built many bridges, canals, harbors, and lighthouses in England including the famous Eddy-stone Light House, first coined the term Civil Engineering. People of his time normally used to describe his works as military engineering works but he himself used to describe his works as civil engineering works and used to call himself a civil engineer. This effort of popularizing the word 'civil engineering' was not as easy for him as writing a single sentence in this blog. Mr. Smeaton had to struggle his whole life for the purpose.

Mr. Smeaton and his other builder friends used to sit together at times to discuss on their works. This forum of builders was later converted into a society - with a name of Smeaton Society of Civil Engineers. The society grew more and more in course of time. In 1818, it was reformed as the Institution of Civil Engineers, London with Thomas Telford as it's first president. After ten years, the society received a Royal Charter in 1828.

Persons who practice technical works of planning, designing, estimating, construction and maintenance of various civil engineering projects are called civil engineers. Civil engineers are responsible to build, maintain, develop and protect the society and civilization in a scientific manner without affecting and hampering Eco-balance and Environmental balance.

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