Excerpt from A Manual of Engineering Specifications and Contracts: Designed as a Text-Book and Work of Reference for All Who May, Be Engaged in the Theory or Practice of Engineering In preparing a piece of work for letting, the duties of the Engineer are manifold. He must first of all have a clear conception of the thing to be done, and must give graphical expression to this idea, both by drawings and writing. It then becomes necessary to inform himself as to the probable cost of the proposed work, and if within reasonable limits, and he desire to let it, he must next notify contractors, and others, by such public announcements as will reach the largest number of reliable parties. It is thus seen that the preparation of the drawings, estimates, specifications and advertisements are all. duties of the Engineer, which he has heretofore been allowed to learn as necessity required, and often on the spur of the moment. But his duties do not end here; to insure the rapid and faithful execution of the work, he generally prepares the form of bid, with certain "instructions to bidders," giving restrictions with which they must comply to render their bids valid, and finally, to adopt a form of agreement which shall be approved by both parties to the contract. The duties of the contractor are simply to examine drawings and specifications, or the site of the work, present his bid, and, if successful, sign the contract and furnish the required securities. The construction of the work is foreign to the object of this book. These six steps are developed more fully in the corresponding chapters which follow. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.