THE ENGINEER'S PROFESSION

Professor D. C. Jackson, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave an interesting and instructive lecture on "Engineering as a Profession", the second of the series on professions, in the Union yesterday evening.

We are accustomed to typify the present stage of invention as the "age of steel"; yet is it not rather the age of mental activity, of successful application of the laws of nature to the needs of man?

The remarkable progress of the last century has established a new profession, based on laws which that progress itself has revealed. So we may now distinguish between the skilled mechanic and the newer type, the engineer. The former is actuated by commercial motives only; the latter, the creation of the advance in natural sciences, possesses knowledge rather than skill and has for his ideal the ultimate benefit of mankind. This latter type is the man we refer to when we speak of the engineer; his profession is engineering.

Scope of Engineering.

Having defined the purpose of engineering, let us proceed to a closer examination of its scope. Perhaps the elements of the new profession are the two laws of the conservation of energy and the indestructibility of matter. But the extent to which these laws and their derivatives can be applied is wholly without limit. Thirty years ago a dynamo of 250 horse-power was dreamed of as a possibility. At the present time, dynamos of almost twice that power are in use all over the world. And there is no telling how far this increase may extend. The fundamental nature of matter and energy are not known, perhaps may never be known; yet, even with this handicap, their application for man's purposes is unbounded.

The engineer, then, has no limit to the possibilities of his profession. There are many positions to be filled, many directions to which inventive genius may be directed. The successful aspirant must possess certain rare qualities. He must have perfect industrial training, must be competent to conceive and plan, organize and direct, must have creative ability and sound reasoning faculties. He must be acquainted with business methods, with human nature. Faraday said: "It requires twenty years to make a man in the physical sciences." The young engineer must have infinite optimism and hope. Yet the result more than repays this delay; for there is no satisfaction so great as the realization that one has advanced the progress of mankind.