Alexander McDonnell (engineer)

Alexander McDonnell (18 December 1829 – 14 December 1904) was an Irish locomotive and civil engineer. A mathematics graduate from Trinity College Dublin in 1851, he brought order and standardisation to the workshops and locomotive designs of the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland. He served as president of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland (ICEI) from 1875 to 1877.

Quotes

From 1876 presidential address to ICEI

• It would be more difficult to find a site more annoying to an engineer, whose chief business to economise labour, that than of the men who are scattered in twos and threes through Dublin, sometimes working, sometime wandering wandering their brushes on their shoulders, and sometimes, when they have nothing else to do, sweeping there mud into heaps. ... It is ridiculous to expect that men will work hard to sweep mud off the streets when they know perfectly well that it will be left there, and that in a week or ten days they will have the chance of sweeping it up again.
  • Cited by Cox and O'Dywer (2014) from McDonnell's presidential address to the ICEI on 16 February 1876.
• It is, of course, necessary to become well grounded in mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry, which are now so necessary for all well-educated engineers. The better your knowledge of these, the more you will use your knowledge - I might almost say without your knowing it. Pay particular attention to geometry of all kinds, to the geometry of three dimensions and geometrical mechanics. It will assist you in designing, and in mental calculations, to which I would advise you to before habituated.
  • At the conclusion of the presidential speech advising young engineers of the skills required for design.
• Learn French, and if possible German. Learn a little book-keeping, and become well acquainted with accounts, and the use they can be put to when properly kept. Without a knowledge of accounts, you will never be able to carry out large works with economy, or ever become thoroughly acquainted with the cost of work, which is of the first importance to an engineer.
  • At the conclusion of the presidential speech advising young engineers of the economic skills they require.
• If you undertake the management of workmen, study their peculiarities. The workmen of no nation work hard if left to themselves. You will get better results by organising their work well than by trying to force them to work hard by unnecessary severity. Enforce always strict discipline with strict justice. Remember that men must, of necessity, be led by some one, and let them feel that you are naturally the person most interested in their welfare, and that if they have anything to complain of at all, you are the first person they should come to, to have their grievance remedied. Learn to know good from bad work, and a good from a bad workman.
  • At the conclusion of the presidential speech advising young engineers of man-management techniques.