2.

Choose one passage (1-3 sentences) from Jervis's autobiography that you believe best captures
the state of American engineering at the time (1815-1825). Explain why you think it is
representative. 

The following passage best captures the state of American Engineering from 1815 to 1825.

“I soon found that Judge Bates had very little experience in the use of leveling
instruments, or the computation involved in conducting levels, and was very ready
to avail himself of what I had learned. He was a man of very pleasant manner, and
rather to my surprise, was ready to learn, even from me” (Jervis, 32).

Judge Bates was an assistant engineer on the Erie Canal project. He was added to the team
for his experience in land surveying. The working relationship between Judge Bates and
John Jervis epitomizes American Engineering during their time. Judge Bates was still trying
to figure out engineering even though he had a valuable background in mathematics. John
Jervis was a novice trying to learn everything he could to get out of the cyclical profession
his father and grandfather before him stood still in. Both men are vital to the other’s
success. Without John Jervis, Judge Bates would have perpetuated with difficultly the trial
by fire method which everyone else had adopted. Without Judge Bates, John Jervis would
not have been able to climb the ladder of success as fast as he did. American Engineering of
the 1810’s was a trial by fire approach. Everyone was a student and every student had a
different set of skills which brought them to the project at hand.

3. If you were a citizen of New York in 1816, which argument of Atticus would you find most
convincing, and which least convincing? Explain why. 

In Atticus’ appeal, Remarks on The Proposed Canal, from Lake Erie to the Hudson, the most
convincing argument was concerning Great Britain. He argued Great Britain would gain not
only wealth through trade via Montreal, but also influence in the west. He appealed to the
fearful side of American citizens when he said, “The inhabitants indeed may call themselves
American citizens, but they will be, to all profitable purposes, subjects of Great Britain”
(Atticus, 13). Atticus’ solution to keeping Great Britain from gaining influence and wealth
was to build the Erie Canal. His least convincing point was his cautioning that Pennsylvania
“may cut a canal” first and therefore gain trade from the west (Atticus, 11). Atticus then
dismembered this point when he stated, “neither of those states will ever submit to the
expense of forming it” (Atticus, 11). It is clear he was systematically laying out all the
motivating issues. He started with the weakest and ended with the strongest.
4. Morrison claims that the building of the Middlesex Canal can be seen in one of two ways: (1) "a
continual and almost systematic botching of a very simple process"; or (2) "as an exercise rather
more remarkable than [landing a man on the moon]" (Page 29). Which interpretation do you
consider more accurate, and why? Use three examples to explain your argument.

As I was reading Morison’s interpretation of the building of the Middlesex Canal, I agreed it
was “a continual and almost systematic botching of a very simple process.” The first instance of
systematic botching was hiring a local citizen, named Samuel Thompson, to do the surveying for
the canal. He used “a compass, his eye, and such accurate judgement as he possessed” (Morison,
21). He ended up with a “vertical error of forty-one and a half feet,” over a six-mile span (Morison,
21). The next instance came as a double edge sword. William Weston, an experienced man, gave
the crew his leveling instrument. The tool proved very useful if a man was keen on how to take
precise measurements and keep the leveling instrument trued. The last instance is related to the
puddling of the canal. The workers lacked “a care for the correct consistency and a concern for the
nice application of each layer” (Morison, 30). They did not have a perfectionist mindset. Most of
the workers carried a ‘good-enough’ mind set, which led to the continual weeping of the canal.

Capstone Week One Writing Assignment:

Option 2:
The Erie Canal has been called America’s first school of engineering. How successful do you think
it was as a “school”? What would you identify as its major strengths as a school? What would
you identify as its most significant limitations as a school?
In a separate paragraph, choose a field of engineering you are familiar with (options include but
are not limited to mechanical engineering, civil engineering, software engineering, and electric
engineering) and state whether you think a modern John Jervis--a dedicated and intelligent, but
unschooled person--could succeed in this field of engineering without attending college, and
explain why. Note: if you are not sufficiently familiar with any field of engineering to answer this
question, you may substitute another profession that you know more about, such as teaching,
medicine, management, sales, architecture, etc.

I believe the Erie Canal was a successful “school.” Its greatest strength is how well it
prepared the engineers for the projects they took on afterwards. A great school can be detected by
how well it prepares students for after “graduation.” The Erie Canal, as a school, launched many
men into engineering projects for the rest of their lives. It allowed curious and driven men to pursue
and grasp engineering as a new profession. The most significant limitation, of the Erie Canal as a
school, was the access to knowledge. Prior to the Erie Canal, other canals had been built in
American and in Europe. If news traveled faster or was more readily available, it would have taken
less time to build and could have been done much more efficiently. In Mr. Strickland’s
Instructions, the leaders who sent Mr. Strickland overseas had the right idea. They thought to work
from the starting point of someone else’s ending point. They understood the importance of learning
from other’s mistakes, successes, and advice on how to do it better. If Benjamin Wright, the leading
engineer over the Erie Canal project, had thought to learn from others I believe the project would
have turned out differently.

 A modern John Jervis could become anything he wanted, software engineer included. The

amount of information available to the modern man is almost infinite. People in the twenty-first
century have a greater chance of changing professions without proper schooling compared to John
Jervis. He knew nothing beyond rudimentary math, reading, and writing. He used his downtime and
off season to read about surveying to prepare for his first promotion from “axeman” to a “target
man.” Jervis took every opportunity to learn from the men in the position he wanted to be in. If an
individual took a hold of software engineering in the same manner he or she would succeed.

Limitation idea 1) For some men, the Erie Canal meant a change in life’s course, but for other’s it
didn’t change at all. The most significant limitation of the school was how many men it left behind.
Continuing the analogy of the Erie Canal being a school, there were so many men who only
labored. The working conditions and job requirements were such that it didn’t give everyone the
ability to climb the ladder and change professions.