The dollar is the final term in almost every equation which arises in the practice of engineering in any or all of its branches, except qualifiedly as to military and naval engineering, where in some cases cost may be ignored.

He who designs an unsafe structure or an inoperative machine is a bad Engineer he who designs them so that they are safe and operative, but needlessly expensive, is a poor Engineer, and … he who does the best work at the lowest cost sooner or later stands at the top of his profession.

The Engineer is one who, in the world of physics and applied sciences, begets new things, or adapts old things to new and better uses above all, one who, in that field, attains new results in the best way and at lowest cost.