Engineering as a Social Enterprise (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: Engineering's Great Challenge--The 1960s
Appendix B: Engineering's Great Challenge--The 1960s
Pages 104-110
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From page 104... ...
TECHNOLOGICAL EXPANSION We have seen the Quits of nuclear research as fission and fusion atomic bombs. We engineered the first nuclear-powered submarine and "sailed" it under This paper was presented at a joint meeting of regional engineering groups commemorating National Engineers Week, Schenectady, New York, 23 February 1960.
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From page 105... ...
Research on cancer and heart disease give promise of eliminating these great killers, bringing to man more than his Wee score and ten, with the attendant problems of an aging people and the population explosion in Asia, Africa, and South America and a public debate on birth control. The mechanization of industry largely through the use of electric power has lightened our work load and given us the leisure to enjoy all manner of recreation—and created new industries to satisfy our senses.
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From page 106... ...
The consequent lag in defense is still a subject for national argument and is a challenge to the management of engineering. The Russians not only recovered from a devastating war, exploded hydrogen bombs, built space ships, constructed a modern steel industry and an electric power system, educated vast numbers of engineers dedicated to their society, but also gave a dream to the world's poor and the exploited of a new and prosperous world that competes with the American idyl.
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From page 107... ...
America will face products made with Russian labor paid about one-tenth as much as ours and with prices controlled by the state. As a recent American visitor comments, "A strange thought crosses your mind: a future Russia emerging from the Iron Curtain, and America withdraw~ng behind the Dollar Curtain, priced out of the market, left trading with itself.
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From page 108... ...
'The search for it again and again overturned beliefs of long standing, in science, in religion, and in politics." To commit science to solving utilitarian problems will threaten free inquiry and destroy the seeds of innovation that may alter the direction of human life. ROLE OF ENGINEERING NOT RECOGNIZED The failure to recognize the role of engineering likewise makes it difficult to attract young people to a great human activity, to get the job done, to build the rockets now, using the available resources without waiting for the next bit of scientific discovery, to build the bridges when they're needed, to make the tools to heal the sick, and to go to the moon.
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From page 109... ...
They prepare reports on engineering requirements such as that on solar cooking for Iran; they develop specific devices, as a methane-burning refrigerator for Brazil; they answer questions like that from a missionary in Peru interested in the operation of suction pumps at high altitudes; and they help venous foreign groups find out about similar problems in other countries. Here is the American spirit at its best.
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From page 110... ...
Neither the Academy nor the Council would control engineering or industry, but together they would permit the assembly of the best engineering advice for national affairs, and would strengthen the unity of purpose that engineering and engineering societies are establishing. The Academy would represent and honor the million engineers of our country.
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