"A QUARTETTE OF MATHEMATICAL GYMNASTS. "

This is a pretty devastating review of the work of four mathematicians/engineers that 
appeared in the Scientific  American on May 6, 1867: 

The article concludes: 
“We have a few other mathematical acrobats on our list, 
but as their summersaults were turned on another stage, we 
will not mention them at the present time, but we hope be- 
fore long to place them before the readers of the Scientific 
American. We will briefly observe, however, that one of 
them is not a thousand miles from the Navy Department, and 
he is still, we believe, accumulating figures with extraordi- 
nary cunning and industry.”

It is pretty cutthroat beginning-to-end:


"The errors which have lately been made in calculating the 
power of projectiles, the resistance of armor plates, and the 
force of steam vessels when used as rams, seem to indicate 
that a knowledge of first principles is more necessary for a 
correct appreciation of mechanical problems than any amount 
of abstract mathematical skill..."