'Engineers'-what's in a name?

Headnote

A lot-almost too much not to be confusing

GOT A PROBLEM WITH that electrical system or piece of machinery? Better talk to an engineer-but who is an engineer? The title goes with two kinds of people. We might call them "planners" and "operators."

The operators make things work-the building "super" who keeps the heat on in winter and the air conditioning in summer, the locomotive operator who pilots the train, the "marine engineer" who keeps the cruise liner "shipshape." These are important people with special training and experience. But we're not concerned with them here. Rather, when we speak of engineers in connection with the application of electrical apparatus, we mean the planners who design (and sometimes redesign) products and the facilities that produce them.

The word engineer itself is derived from the Latin ingeniare, meaning "to contrive," which in turn stems from ingenium, meaning "talent." Our word ingenious comes from the same source and carries the same connotations.

Thus, the engineer is not necessarily an inventor in the usual sense of the developer of some new device or principle, but one who adapts materials and methods to new uses. One classic description of such a role goes like this: "An engineer is someone who does with one dollar what any bungler could do with two dollars."

Origins of the profession

When engineering education first began to be recognized as an academic discipline beyond the secondary school, the original members of the profession were military engineers. They planned fortifications and weapons. Engineering studies continue to dominate the curriculum at military training academies such as West Point.

In the civilian world, industrial growth during the 19th century led to the division of engineering into three distinct branches: civil, mechanical, and electrical. Throughout the academic community, each had its own course of study, usually including several courses common to each branch during the first year or two (such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry).

Graduates formed professional organizations to exchange technical information and set academic standards. In the U.S., the first three were: the American Society of Civil Engineers, founded in 1852; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, founded in 1880; and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, founded in 1884.

Civil engineers dealt with the...