Architecture

"The trolley-wire must... be suspended with only a very small sag, and to obtain this result without excessive tension in the wire the span must be relatively short, i.e. of the order of 10 ft. to 15 ft. It is obvious that for these short spans the method of construction adopted in tramway practice would be unsuitable, both from the mechanical as well as the electrical standpoint. However, by adopting the catenary system—that is, supporting the trolley-wire from another wire, suspended with considerable sag between supports of moderate span—we are able to obtain a level trolley-wire with a relatively small number of supporting structures. The wire from which the trolley-wire is supported is called the "catenary" or "messenger" wire, and by insulating this wire from the supporting structures there is no necessity for insulated hangers on the trolley-wire."

"The largest catenary structure of masonry is the Great Hall of the Palace of Taq Kisra, at Qesiphon, then the capital of Persia."

"In 1690... Jacob Bernoulli brought up the problem of the catenary in a memoir... in the '...Huygens' solution represents the past... a complex, though skillful, geometrical method. Leibniz, using his new [infinitesimal calculus] reaches a correct analytical formula...y/a = (b^\frac{x}{a} + b^\frac{-x}{a})/2 where a is [a] segment... and b... corresponds to... e... ...supplied two correct constructions ...presents valid statistical arguments and... new and important... equations of equilibrium in differential form. ...In 1697-1698, Jacob Bernoulli was the first to derive the general equations that not only solved the problem, but also permitted the treatment of the more general theme of the equilibrium of a flexible rope, subject to any distribution of tangential (f_t) and normal (f_n) forces. Bernoulli's equations are...\frac{dT}{ds} + f_t = 0, \qquad \frac{T}{r} + f_n= 0where T is the tension, s the curvilinear abscissa, and r the radius of curvature."

"A prison wall was round us both, Two outcast men we were: The world had thrust us from its heart, And God from out His care: And the iron gin that waits for Sin Had caught us in its snare."

"THE CIVILIZATION OF ancient Greece was nurtured within city walls. In fact, all the modern civilizations have their cradles of brick and mortar. These walls leave their mark deep in the minds of men. They set up a principle of 'divide and rule' in our mental outlook, which begets in us a habit of securing all our conquests by fortifying them and separating them from one another. We divide nation and nation, knowledge and knowledge, man and nature. It breeds in us a strong suspicion of whatever is beyond the barriers we have built, and everything has to fight hard for its entrance into our recognition."

"There is a very small remnant ... of worthy disciples of philosophy. ... Those who belong to this small class have tasted how sweet and blessed a possession philosophy is, and have also seen and been satisfied of the madness of the multitude, and known that there is no one who ever acts honestly in the administration of States, nor any helper who will save any one who maintains the cause of the just. Such a savior would be like a man who has fallen among wild beasts—unable to join in the wickedness of his fellows, neither would he be able alone to resist all their fierce natures, and therefore he would be of no use to the State or to his friends, and would have to throw away his life before he had done any good to himself or others. And he reflects upon all this, and holds his peace, and does his own business. He is like one who retires under the shelter of a wall in the storm of dust and sleet which the driving wind hurries along; and when he sees the rest of mankind full of wickedness, he is content if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good will, with bright hopes."

"Beyond walls are lakes and plains, canyons and the universe"

"But it was only fantasy. The wall was too high, As you can see. No matter how he tried, He could not break free. And the worms ate into his brain."

"All in all it's just another brick in the wall. All in all you're just another brick in the wall."

"There are frequent moments when we feel lower than the lowest of mankind, and this opinion of ourselves isolates us. Hence the rumor that all flesh is base comes almost as a message of hope. It breaks down the wall that has kept us apart, and we feel one with humanity."

"Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down."

"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian."

"I think it more likely I am spending an unnecessary amount of money in the foundation walls, but I content myself with the reflection that a hundred years hence it will be all the same to me, and the building the better because of my extravagance."

"And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit our the butt-ends of my days and ways? And how should I presume?"

"The world is full of the markers of abandoned empires, from Hadrian’s Wall to the Great Wall of China, from the remnants of the one in Arizona to the remnants of the one in Berlin."

"The Berlin Wall was not dismantled by rulers and agreements but rather by citizens who felled it with their own hands."

"I know it works for me. As we cross the bridge — the burning bridge — With flames behind us, We front the line. It's you and me, baby, against the world."

"When you're weary Feeling small When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all I'm on your side When times get rough And friends just can't be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down."

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps."

"This morning I came, I saw and I was conquered, as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind."

"There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection."

"Mechanical Engineering is applicable rather to works connected with private enterprise, such as the designing and construction of steam machinery for the purposes of navigation and transportation, the adaptation of such machinery to mills and factories, the construction of water-wheels, the fabrication of materials, iron, steel, and brass, for the purposes of the engineer, the architect, and manufacturer ; and the manufacture of implements and machinery for agriculture, for mining, and for domestic purposes. But the prominent feature of Mechanical Engineering, that which contributes more than any other to elevate it to the rank of a liberal or learned profession, and at the same time separates it from the science of Civil Engineering, is, that all its operations relate to power, motion, and work."

"Comparatively few engineers are good mathematicians; and... it is fortunate that such is the case; for nature rarely combines high mathematical talent, with that practical tact, and observation of outward things, so essential to a successful engineer. There have been... brilliant exceptions; but they are very rare. But few even of those who have been tolerable mathematicians when young, can, as they advance in years, and become engaged in business, spare the time necessary for retaining such accomplishments. Nearly all the scientific principles which constitute the foundation of civil engineering are susceptible of complete and satisfactory explanation to any person who really possesses only so much elementary knowledge of arithmetic and natural philosophy as is supposed to be taught to boys of twelve or fourteen in our public schools."

"From the laying out of a line of a tunnel to its final completion, the work may be either a series of experiments made at the expense of the proprietors of the project, or a series of judicious applications of the results of previous experience."

"A great bridge is a great monument which should serve to make known the splendour and genius of a nation; one should not occupy oneself with efforts to perfect it architecturally, for taste is always susceptible to change, but to conserve always in its form and decoration the character of solidity which is proper."

"He who builds in the streets must allow himself to get dirty."

"If you can’t reduce a difficult engineering problem to just one 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper, you will probably never understand it."

"Bhakra Nangal Project is something tremendous, something stupendous, something which shakes you up when you see it. Bhakra, the new temple of resurgent India, is the symbol of India’s progress."

"Mechanical engineering is now the largest branch, with nearly 40 percent of the profession's members. Civil engineering, which was the largest branch prior to World War II, has dropped to second place, with about 25 percent of all engineers."

"Go for civil engineering, because civil engineering is the branch of engineering which teaches you the most about managing people. Managing people is a skill which is very, very useful and applies almost regardless of what you do."

"No greater care is required upon any works than upon such as are to withstand the action of water; for this reason, all parts of the work need to be done exactly according to the rules of the art which all workmen know, but few observe."

"The form a city assumes as it evolves over time owes more to large-scale works of civil engineering - what we now call infrastructure - than almost any other factor save topography."

"His father loved him dearly, but his work, that of a civil engineer, had left him with but little time for his family. Energetic, active, and always taken up with some responsible work, he did not spoil his children with excessive tenderness."

"Mechanical differs from Civil Engineering in the fact that the former provides or makes what the latter uses. On this account, a knowledge of mechanical engineering is of invaluable service to the civil engineer, and it should be the rule to obtain this practically, whatever branch of engineering the student may ultimately follow."

"The civil engineer is the real 19th century architect."

"Men build bridges and throw railroads across deserts, and yet they contend successfully that the job of sewing on a button is beyond them. Accordingly, they don’t have to sew buttons."

"Improvement makes strait roads: but the crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius."

"A physician, a civil engineer, and a computer scientist were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world. The physician remarked, "Well, in the Bible, it says that God created Eve from a rib taken out of Adam. This clearly required surgery, and so I can rightly claim that mine is the oldest profession in the world." The civil engineer interrupted, and said, "But even earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most spectacular application of civil engineering. Therefore, fair doctor, you are wrong: mine is the oldest profession in the world." The computer scientist leaned back in her chair, smiled, and then said confidently, "Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?""

"We are here to celebrate the completion of the greatest dam in the world, rising 726 feet above the bed-rock of the river and altering the geography of a whole region; we are here to see the creation of the largest artificial lake in the world—115 miles long, holding enough water, for example, to cover the State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet; and we are here to see nearing completion a power house which will contain the largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy."

"Ten years ago the place where we are gathered was an unpeopled, forbidding desert. In the bottom of a gloomy canyon, whose precipitous walls rose to a height of more than a thousand feet, flowed a turbulent, dangerous river. The mountains on either side of the canyon were difficult of access with neither road nor trail, and their rocks were protected by neither trees nor grass from the blazing heat of the sun. The site of Boulder City was a cactus-covered waste. The transformation wrought here in these years is a twentieth-century marvel."

"When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection."

"Behold, ye builders, demigods who made England's Walhalla [Westminster Abbey]."

"Since it [architecture] is music in space, as it were a frozen music…. If architecture in general is frozen music."

"Ornamentation is the principal part of architecture, considered as a subject of fine art."

"No person who is not a great sculptor or painter, can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder."

"Architecture is the work of nations."

"Therefore when we build, let us think that we build (public edifices) forever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone, let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! this our fathers did for us.""

"I would have, then, our ordinary dwelling-houses built to last, and built to be lovely; as rich and full of pleasantness as may be within and without: * * * with such differences as might suit and express each man's character and occupation, and partly his history."

"It was stated, * * * that the value of architecture depended on two distinct characters:—the one, the impression it receives from human power; the other, the image it bears of the natural creation."

"The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner."