CONTRACTS IN ENGINEERING. THE INTERPRETATION AND WRITING OF ENGINEERING-COMMERCIAL AN ELEMENTARY TEXT-BOOK FOR STUDENTS BY JAMES IRWIN TUCKER, B.S., LL.B. MCGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY 239 WEST 39TH STREET, NEW YORK 6 BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON, E.C. In view of the prefatory form of Chapter I, extended remarks are not desirable here. There are, however, a few points to which attention is directed. The author believes that it is better for the engineer to have even a little information than for him to be wholly uninformed upon legal matters. The author has been warned against leading the reader or student to infer that the services of legal counsel might easily be dispensed with. This result he especially disclaims, and he feels, moreover, that a candid scrutiny of his work will show that the aim has been to enable the engineer to cooperate efficiently with lawyers and to appreciate better the need for their services. Present Aim and Scope of Work. This book aims especially to familiarize the engineering student with the major principles of common law relating to CONTRACTS, and touches other legal branches only incidentally and so far as will materially assist him to grasp the doctrines of contract law applying to that subject. To many engineers the only justification for this book may lie in an acceptable restatement of the principles underlying successful specification writing. The great importance of this field has been recognized, and fully a third of the book devoted to it. But with the present commercial tendency of engineering, it is believed that the contracts of business demand the modern engineer's attention about equally with those of engineering construction. About one-third of the book, therefore, deals with commercial contracts, while the balance deals with elementary principles common to all contracts, and the interrelations between contracts, torts, agency, and real property. Reasons for Present Undertaking. The first reason is a belief that a considerable number of elementary legal principles should be stated in brief compass for class-room work. While of legal treatises there are a plenty, a text suitable for the special requirements of an engineering school does not exist, since this feature of class-room utility precludes the more monumental works on engineering jurisprudence and allied subjects. In the pressure of an engineering course the student often finds that he can ill 204138 afford the larger works, and probably if he does buy them he finds himself lost in attempting their use. This is due to their tremendous array of formidable and intricate propositions, or what seem to be such for want of a simple and brief statement of the spirit of the law which underlies whole groups of cases. Generally he has no one to state the guiding principle for him, a thing this book especially aims to do. The writer has found his preparation for the present task in some fourteen years of the study, practice, and teaching of civil engineering. The pursuit of a law course in the Boston Evening Law School, coupled with contemporaneous teaching in Tufts College, has made a combination highly stimulating, and withal, highly laborious. Of its effectiveness, the present work will speak. In 1908 he was asked to give the course in Contracts and Specifications, and in conducting this class, much of the present material was prepared. This experience was of great value, since it indicated the limits of the ordinary student's information upon the subject matter, it also proved his keen interest in it. The experience also indicated fairly well what could be done in the time generally available for this subject in most engineering schools. Arrangement as a Textbook. — In outlining the various topics, where too many details or correlated ideas develop, recourse is had to Appendix Notes. The best students as well as non-legally trained teachers will find these Notes equally valuable with the main text; but the average student will be able to get continuity of development without much recourse to them. The free use of bold face type, of numbered section titles, and of italics, makes the book more valuable for reference. A comprehensive index adds to its value for purposes of reference. Illustrations, or more extended remarks upon the principles, have been shown, so far as practicable, in fine print. For teaching purposes extensive lists of quiz-questions and problems (about 600 in number), have been introduced. As these questions are addressed to the salient features of the subjects, their use has been reported as a great help in preparing the lesson, both in time saving and securing concreteness. By using these lists the author has been able to get highly satisfactory recitations from a class of twenty in about thirty minutes time. Each student answered two questions on the blackboard. Then the teacher corrected and discussed these answers with the class sitting as a "committee of the whole." This plan always held the interest of the students and provoked much valuable discussion of the principles involved. While no two engineering schools present identical opportunities, yet the book is adaptable to various situations. For example, in the author's experience, with thirty-two one-hour recitations, each presupposing two hours of preparation, there was no difficulty in covering practically the entire book. For schools giving but one term, with one hour per week, or about sixteen recitations, Chapters VI and VIII, on Contracts of Association and Negotiable Paper, respectively, would almost certainly have to be omitted. This would lessen the bulk of the book about twenty-five per cent. Other parts could be shortened by assigning definite questions and problems instead of a fixed amount of text. But if three periods per week are afforded for sixteen weeks the entire book should be covered with considerable thoroughness. Current specifications and contracts might then be studied and time should be taken for practice in trying to better their parts by rewriting them. There might also be time for partially solving practical problems by trying to write a specification to cover a given set of facts, the laboratory method of studying contracts, as some one has called it. This would be a most valuable field for co-operation with the English Department of the School, for the problems of law, of engineering, and of rhetoric are here inextricably interwoven. Acknowledgments. In studying the technical field of engineering contracts and specifications, one must give due recognition to the pioneer labors of the late Professor J. B. Johnson, as well as to those of his learned successor, Mr. John C. Wait. From the little volume prepared by Dr. J. A. L. Waddell in collaboration with Mr. Wait, the author has gleaned valuable and suggestive matter. In preparing the present work, the author is greatly indebted for many valuable suggestions to the Hon. Charles Neal Barney, of Lynn, Mass., and to Professor Samuel C. Earle, of the Department of English in the Engineering School at Tufts College. Conclusion. - The author hopes his statements of law may not appear dogmatic. He has studied and quoted recognized authorities, though doubtless he has sometimes slightly but unwittingly misinterpreted them. He warns the student that |