Journal of the Α. I. Ε. Ε. Devoted to the advancement of the theory and practise of electrical engineering and the allied arts and sciences

Vol. XLIV FEBRUARY, 1924 Number 2

What Others Say of Us

FORTY years ago a small group of enthusiastic elec­trical engineers, imbued with foresight and courage and full of professional pride, formed the American

Institute of Electrical Engineers. A few days hence—on Monday evening, February 4—in the City of Brotherly Love hallowed by Benjamin Franklin and other revered founders of the nation, the Institute will celebrate its fortieth birth­day. These pioneers of 1884 created wisely and built well—in fact, better than they then could realize. Happily, many of them are still l iving to marvel at the great professional organization which stands as a monu­ment to their work and which wields a worldwide in­fluence for good. It has kept unsullied the splendid ideals of that early day, which were implied in the objects so felicitously enunciated—"The advancement of the theory and practise of electrical engineering and of the allied arts and sciences, and the maintenance of a high professional standing among its members, and the development of the individual engineer/ '

The influence of the Inst i tute may well be measured in terms of men who have guided its destinies and con­tributed so greatly to the development of the art. Elihu Thomson, Edward Weston, Alexander Graham Bell, Frank Julian Sprague, Francis Bacon Crocker, John J. Carty, Charles P. Steinmetz, Henry G. Stot t and Schuy­ler Skaats Wheeler, past-presidents of the Ins t i tu te , will always be recorded among the men whose names signify engineering accomplishments of remarkable brilliancy. On the list of members living and dead are, besides, such honorable names as George Westinghouse, William Stanley, Charles F. Brush, Nikola Tesla, Ben­jamin G. Lammé, Elmer Sperry, Michael I. Pupin and Robert A. Millikan, not to allude to the thousands of others whose co-ordinated efforts have made possible the present astounding achievements in the electrical industry.

The laurels of the Inst i tute have been earned by its members, who have faithfully and brilliantly carried the light of electrical science into new realms. History cannot parallel the growth and accomplishments of the art of electrical engineering, and every member of the profession is proud and delighted to pay homage to the Institute as the technical body with which this wonder­ful and gratifying record is most closely entwined. The Institute symbolizes the profession and :.ts

ideals and receives the loyalty and devotion of all. The entire electrical industry unites with the mem­

bers of the Inst itute in this celebration of its fortieth birthday and wishes it even greater honor and success in i ts future efforts to bring a still more comprehensive realization of the objectives so well visioned and stated by the pioneers.—Electrical World.

Natural Science and Political Science

IT is a far cry from the laws of Newton, Faraday and Maxwell to the League of Nations, world unrest, and international politics, and it is interesting to

note that Dr. M. I. Pupin will a t tempt to make an analogy between the underlying laws of heat, electricity and gravity, and the laws underlying the forces of society and of economics. Yet the more special analogy between the uncoordinated energy of heat in a gas resulting in the indiscriminate mutual bombardment of molecules and the present social and political activi­ties of mankind is very pretty and appealing to the mind of scientific training.

As a result of the scientific study of heat the scientists has been able to coordinate this energy, state the laws underlying it in exact terms and show how this un­coordinated energy may be coordinated and put to a useful beneficent purpose in the steam engine. From this the step is not so great to the thesis that if someone could state the laws underlying the uncoordinated forces of mankind and show how they could be coordinated and united to some useful and common end, it would produce a social mechanism even more valuable and bénéficient than the steam engine.

Dr. Pupin is well known as a scientist who has a keen understanding of human nature, and his theories along this line, which he will disclose in an address announced elsewhere in this issue, will be awaited with much interest.

Electrical Museums

ON E subject ever a topic of discussion when elec­trical engineers gather at conventions is that of adequate and proper permanent housing for ex­

isting historical electric machines and devices. Years ago, before the office needs of the Institute

necessitated assigning all available space to desks and

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