著名工程师和发明家的名言（4）

武夷山 译

    Workflowmax网站于2020年4月提供了著名工程师和发明家的一些名言（博主：原文如此。其实有的语录的主人并非工程师，只是语录内容涉及工程和工程师），下面我翻译其中一些，与大家分享。这是第四部分。

1.  “Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.”
- Dr. AR Dykes

    工程是这样一种艺术：巧妙地将我们尚未充分理解的材料，做成我们无法精确分析的形状，以耐受我们无法适当评估的力，于是公众就没有理由对我们的无知程度表示怀疑。

2.  “Engineering problems are under-defined, there are many solutions, good, bad and indifferent. The art is to arrive at a good solution. This is a creative activity, involving imagination, intuition and deliberate choice.”
- Ove Arup（1895-1988），英国著名结构工程师，其父母分别是丹麦人和挪威人

    工程问题是定义不充分的问题，对之有很多种解决方案，好方案、坏方案和无所谓好坏的方案。工程之艺术就是达致好的方案。这是一种创造性的活动，涉及想象、直觉和审慎的抉择。

3. “Engineering refers to the practice of organizing the design and construction [and, I would add operation] of any artifice which transforms the physical world around us to meet some recognized need.”
- G.F.C. Rogers

    工程指的是将旨在改变我们周遭的物质世界以满足某一公认需求的任何人工物之设计、建造[以及我想加上的一项——运作]给组织起来的实践活动。

4.  “Engineers ... are not mere technicians and should not approve or lend their name to any project that does not promise to be beneficent to man and the advancement of civilization.”
- John Fowler（1826-1864），英国著名工程师，他为蒸汽机犁的开发做出了贡献

    工程师......不仅仅是技师，他们不应允许自己的名字与任何不能保证有益于人类和文明进步的工程项目联系在一起。

5.  “Engineers ... are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable; that they catch them is imperative. Thus it is the essence of modern engineering not only to be able to check one's own work but also to have one's work checked and to be able to check the work of others.”
- Henry Petroski，美国普渡大学土木工程学教授和和历史学教授，围绕工程学主题发表了很多精彩论著

    工程师......不是超人。他们在作出假定、开展计算和达致结论时都会犯错误。他们犯错误是可以原谅的；他们抓住错误是义不容辞的。因此，现代工程的精髓在于，不仅要能够核查自己的成果，而且要将自己的成果让别人核查，也能够核查别人的成果。

 6.  “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.”

- H.S. Drinker

    从铺设隧道线到隧道最后建成，这项工程可以是让项目业主承担成本的一系列实验，也可以是以往经验结果的一系列明智应用。

7.  “The history of engineering is really the history of breakages, and of learning from those breakages. I was taught at college 'the engineer learns most on the scrapheap'.”
- C.A. Claremont, 引自Spanning Space

    工程史其实就是关于破损的历史，及从破损中学到东西的历史。我上大学时老师告诉我，“工程师在垃圾堆上学到的东西最多”。

8.“No doubt as years go by people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician puts his name on it. Or they credit it to some promoter who used other peoples money with which to finance it. But the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness that flows from his successes with satisfactions that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.”
- Herbert Hoover，胡佛（1874-1964），做过工程师的美国总统

    无疑，随着岁月流逝，人们忘记了是哪个工程师做的工程，即使他们曾经是知道的。或者某个政治家将自己的名字加在该工程上。或者人们将工程归功于某个推动者，此人其实是用别人的钱来资助这个工程的。但是，工程师本人在回顾自己的成功工程带来的无尽的善的时候，他的满足感没有几个职业能够比肩。他的专业人士同行的最终首肯才是他所想要的荣光。

9. “Engineering or technology is the making of things that did not previously exist, whereas science is the discovering of things that have long existed."
- David Billington（1928-2018），普林斯顿大学工程学教授

    工程或技术是要做出过去不存在的事物，而科学是要发现早已存在的事物。

相关阅读

著名工程师和发明家的名言（1），http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-1284837.html

著名工程师和发明家的名言（2），http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-1285510.html

著名工程师和发明家的名言（3），http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1557-1286125.html