The New International Encyclopædia/Engel, Ernst

ENGEL, Ernst (1821-96). German statistician born in Dresden. He studied mining engineering at Freiberg and Paris. After acting as member of the Saxon commission for the investigation of industrial and labor conditions, he became in 1850 director of the Royal Saxon Statistical Bureau in Dresden. His work here was mainly in improving the methods of statistics and popularizing the results. In 1858 he resigned to assume charge of the Saxon Mortgage Insurance Company, but returned in 1860 to the public service as director of the Prussian Statistical Bureau. In this office he remained until 1882, when failing health caused him to retire. He was known in professional circles as one of the most capable and energetic of modern statisticians, and his contributions to the methods of administrative statistics were considerable. His investigations into the household expenses of the laboring classes were particularly valuable. Consult Bulletin de l'Institut International de Statistique, vol. x. (Rome, 1897). Engel's chief works are reprints of contributions to the Zeitschrift des statistischen Bureaus, and include Die Methoden der Volkszählung (1861), Land und Leute des preussischen Staates (1863), and Das Zeitalter des Dampfes (2d ed. 1881).