In 1880, Cattell entered the Pardee Scientific Department of Lafayette College and completed the four-year course there, having been graduated in 1884 with the degree of Civil Engineer.

During this period he also served the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company on preliminary and location surveys in Kansas and Indian Territory.

During this time he was associated with prominent New York engineers in the valuation of many manufacturing plants, and made reports covering important existing and projected railways as well as terminals.

Many other services were performed by Cattell while he was engaged in the practice of his profession as Consulting Engineer in New York City, and the foregoing only illustrates the nature and scope of his work up to the time that he became associated with the firm of E. H. Rollins and Sons, of San Francisco, California, which firm he served as Consulting Engineer from 1905 to 1908, making examinations and reports, for bond purposes, on various steam and electric railroads, among the latter being the Western Pacific Railroad.

This was followed by the entrance of the United States in the World War, and Major Cattell was ordered to report for duty at Camp Lee, Virginia, on January 5, 1918.

Early in the summer of 1918, he was transferred from the Training Camp to the Office of the Chief of Engineers, at Washington, D. C., to organize the Section of Historical and Statistical Data.

With the retirement of Major Cattell, on September 30, 1919, from the United States Army, ill health overtook him, and he did not again take up the active practice of the profession of civil engineering.