Municipal Engineering Archive

 

 Index page

Here you can download pdfs of the indices of the first 65 years of the proceedings of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers.

Source documents are kept by the Institution of Civil Engineers Library

The then Association of Municipal Engineers was formed in 1874 to pioneer sanitary science.  The work saved hundreds of thousands of people from death from waterborne diseases, such as typhoid and cholera.  In so doing the population of Britain's cities boomed, and the course of world history may have changed as a consequence. 

Works of Municipal and County Engineers went on to include public housing, paving of streets and, post World War II, the construction of urban inner ring roads. 

The profession predates by 40 years the formation of the planning profession.  There is no question that the impact of the Municipal Engineer on the face of Britain was decisive and extensive.    The cross-disciplinary training of the municipal engineer enabled them both to plan and deliver.

The Institution of Municipal Engineers merged with the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1984.  The municipal interest continues to be covered by the ICE Municipal Board.  Perhaps that spirit of cross-disciplinary work continues in the Urban Design and Sustainable Community field.  

PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPAL
AND COUNTY ENGINEERS

Index Volumes 1-10   1874-1883 not corrected

Index Volumes 5 - 25  1879-1903 not corrected

Index Volumes 31-37   1904-1910  not corrected

Index Volumes 38-56  1911-1929  mostly corrected

Index Volumes 1931-1945  partially corrected (1930 omitted)

Index Volumes 1945-1961 rough OCR

Scanning errors:

R sometimes reported as B  eg Boad Boller, or Boiler !
l = i
8 = various - look for context
y = v

Volume numbers - these do not scan well. However a single article will appear several times in the index so there is the opportunity to double check.

Spellings can be slightly different to the modern day, eg Bye-law

Dis. = discussion. 

 

 

 Bye-law streets in Preston "to the artist may give rise to feelings of nausea" said a commentator in the 1920s.  However in the 1880s the objective was to avoid cholera, and typhoid.  Judge not the past by the standards of the present.  We must expect that future generations will pour scorn on our efforts.   
A road junction about 2 miles from the century of a British city taken in around 1900, at around the turn of the century.  It provides a small park, local shops, and note the elegance of the combined street light and support for the tram wires.
Today the park is gone, along with most of the houses and shops.  It is no longer a destination but a drive-through.  Currently it is highway engineers who are blamed for this sort of change.  However those who criticise do so from a position of ignorance and probably from behind the wheel of a car.  The cause is society's inability to understand the cumulative effect of long-term change and the inability of its political systems to do anything about it, other than to react to crises as and when they occur.   The great municipal engineers of old would say that it was ever thus.