University of Virginia Library

THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER'S POINT OF VIEW

By Matthew Orpheus Troy, '96, B.S., of Pittsfield, Mass.

I have been requested by the Dean to discuss the above topic from the
point of view of the Electrical Engineer.

After an experience of twenty-four years with one of the largest electrical
manufacturing organizations in the world, I am convinced that the
electrical graduate in the practice of his profession can be of great assistance
to his Alma Mater and to the undergraduate body, and that such assistance
should be rendered. Before taking up more in detail the questions of how
this may best be accomplished through an Engineering Alumni Council, it
may first be well to outline the kinds of work which the modern engineering
graduate may be called upon to perform, and in that way see just what
it is he should expect from his college course in preparation for his life
work.

Without attempting to draw a definite parallel between the electrical
profession and any other, it has been my observation that the electrical
graduate has a very limited choice of paths from his Alma Mater to the first
step of his business career, even though the path he may choose ultimately
branches in every direction, and affords a tremendous range of application—
a range which is constantly expanding.

A very high percentage of each year's electrical graduates head at once
towards the larger electrical manufacturing organizations, or as is more
probable towards one of the two American organizations that substantially
cover the entire field of electrical apparatus manufactured in the United
States. Other paths lead to the large telephone or telegraph interests; to

the operating companies; to the syndicates combining or controlling these
companies; or to the large management, engineering, or operating associations,
of which there are quite a number.

Initially, therefore, he does not have a wide choice as to how he will
direct his steps upon graduation. After having become a part of a large
organization, however, the path which he pursues, either through choice or
force of circumstances, is one of a vast number to which, each year, are
added many others, and I can probably be most helpful in tracing a few of
these paths in a large manufacturing company like the one with which I am
associated.

Assume that the graduate has applied for entrance to the testing department
of an electrical manufacturer and been accepted. Here the
student engineer, so-called, is given an experience of from six to eighteen
months in the testing and inspecting of machines, apparatus, and appliances
of every description. If the demand for men is great his career in the testing
department may be cut to six months. If, however, he is to obtain a reasonably
broad experience his stay may be extended to the full eighteen months.
A year, however, is a fair average.

Twenty years ago, if a man were shifted at reasonable intervals, he
could in a year obtain through his testing experience quite a comprehensive
idea of the product of the manufacturer—the details of construction, as
well as methods of testing and operation. To-day, whether he stay in the
testing department one or two years, he can only obtain an experience
touching upon a few of the more important lines of manufacture, and it is
not improbable that even then, before he completes his work some of the
lines which he tested earlier in his course will have been superseded by a
new product, embracing new developments and new ideas.

A new catalogue recently issued by the General Electric Co., which
only covers certain of its more standardized product, contains over twenty
thousand catalogue numbers, and this omits much of the Company's product.
Over this great diversity of product the graduate's testing experience
is well directed towards that which will be most useful to him in his future
work.

From his testing course the graduate will probably go to a designing-engineering,
a commercial-engineering, or a research department—in most
instances direct to the designing-engineering department, where again his
path may branch in one of many directions.

There are a great number of designing-engineering departments, and
he may from choice or necessity go into any of them. The field is too broad
and life is too short to cover many of them—the probabilities are that his
experience will be limited to one, at the outside two. At this point the
engineer may become a highly specialized designer, carrying on developmental

or specific research work; may remain with the department in some more
or less subordinate position; or may go to the head of it in an administrative
capacity, which calls for ability to direct men, design, developmental, and
research work in the lines for which he is responsible.

Instead of remaining with a designing-engineering department he may
transfer to what is called a commercial-engineering department, of which
there are a large number. These are departments which are intermediate
between the designing and general office selling organizations. They help
the commercial organization in the selection of equipment, or combination
of apparatus best suited to the proposition in hand, or they assist the designing
engineering department in changing its design to suit either general
or specific commercial requirements of specific propositions.

In some instances the commercial engineering work of a given department
is combined directly with the sales proposition work, and there is no
clean-cut line of demarcation between the proposition work and the commercial
engineering relating thereto. Important commercial sections are
usually under the direction of highly trained technical graduates, or at least
under men who through broad experience have developed into broad gauge
commercial engineers. Not infrequently these large commercial departments,
in addition to a commercial engineering department have, as a part
of their staff, consulting engineers, to whom both the proposition men and
the commercial engineering men refer.

If the technical graduate leaves the designing engineering department,
he may take up general commercial work along any of the lines described.
He may be fond of travel—a broader contact with the outside, or for various
reasons wish to enter the outside organization, or it may be to the company's
interest to send him there. Many take this path, and become a part of one
of the various district office organizations. He may go direct from the
designing engineering, commercial engineering, or general commercial departments
to the district offices, and there be assigned to the engineering,
sales, or administrative department of the District.

The electrical salesman of to-day is in a different category from the
electrical salesman of twenty years ago, and in a very different category
from what we generally mean by the term "salesman." He is either a man
of very specialized training—what we term a "specialist"; or he is a very
broadly trained commercial engineer, capable of analyzing and studying
the conditions on a large transmission system, and should be in a position
to advise the engineer of an operating company as to the best selection,
combination, or application of apparatus, appliances, etc. He should be
more properly called either an "engineering specialist" or a "sales engineer."
His foundation is his technical training and engineering experience, but his
success is measured by many other qualities, such as initiative, forcefulness,

personality, his knowledge of people, his ability to assume responsibilities,
his knowledge of psychology, his ability to make wise engineering decisions,
and to convince others of their soundness.

It is a field of endeavor to which many graduates aspire, in which they
succeed, and find much real enjoyment in their work. After this experience
they may later become department heads in the District Offices to direct the
efforts of other sales engineers, or may be put in charge of important offices
where they have large numbers of men under them, direct their efforts, and
become responsible for the success of that office in a given territory or
district.

In the foregoing I have traced a few of the paths more ordinarily pursued.
There are others too numerous to mention. Some of them lead to
the great research departments of manufacturing organizations where
specialization is carried to the extreme, and work is taken up and carried
beyond the point where all other investigators have stopped. They pry into
unexplored fields, and delve into unfathomed depths. It may be the electrical
engineer, the chemist, or the physicist who carried on the work.

The graduate may enter one of the large manufacturing or production
departments, find that he is particularly fitted for this work, and ultimately
become a manufacturing superintendent or a production manager handling
large organizations and an output that runs into many millions of dollars.

He may choose other paths that lead into the general administrative
offices of the company, assist the president or vice-presidents of the organization,
with possibilities in this direction limited only by his own resources.

This aeroplane view of a large manufacturing organization has been
expanded for a particular purpose. I wish to leave the inference that the
work which will open out before the graduate is so tremendous in its magnitude
and scope that no one mind can grasp it all, nor can any college curriculum
cover the field. The curriculum can but lay the foundation on which
the superstructure is built, and the superstructure in the career of each
individual is most apt to differ from that of every other. There may at
times be striking points of similarity, but the structures differ as individuals
differ, and it is very apparent in most instances that the individual's ideals
and abilities form a very important part in creating the superstructure;
furthermore, the superstructure is never finished. It begins when the individual
enters the organization, and continues to the end. There is no
stopping point except as enforced by the limitations of the individual. This
is true even where the individual picks out a particular line of specialization
and adheres to it. The work grows, develops under him, he expands with
it, and adapts himself to the changing conditions of the country and the art.

One point I wish to emphasize particularly is that in a large manufacturing
organization these paths are not charted in advance, except in a

most general way, and the individual graduate from the time of his entrance
into the organization becomes a keen competitor of all his fellow graduates.
Even though all might be progressive, some will progress more rapidly than
others, and the extent to which one rises or forges ahead depends largely
upon his resourcefulness, initiative, and all those qualities which go to make
for leadership. This is a very happy condition because it makes work interesting,
one sees achievement and possibilities ahead of him, and strives
constantly to add to-day to the achievements of yesterday.

In the future of the industry with which the electrical graduate associates
himself, no part of the work is more important than the research work,
even though the research effort departs widely from what is commonly
known as electrical engineering. Many of the greatest advances and noteworthy
achievements are the work of the great research departments associated
with the large manufacturing institutions. The work of these large
research departments is in a measure distinct from the more specific research
work carried on daily in engineering and developmental sections or departments
of the company.

We find a very striking analogy between all this and what is being
accomplished in medicine. One has but to compare the work of the general
practitioner, specialists in medicine and surgery, and the great research
departments of organizations that have given us our serums and anti-toxins
to obtain a picture of what is going on in the large electrical organizations.
The latter has its general engineers, its special engineers assigned to specific
problems, its research work carried on in connection with these specific
problems, and in addition its large research organization which goes into
general problems of every description, and from year to year accomplishes
almost the impossible, often discovering new truths which contradict the
facts of the past as we supposed them to be.

Dr. W. R. Whitney, Director of the Research Laboratory of the General
Electric Co., has written many able articles bearing on this topic, and
these articles are available for reference. A footnote is appended giving
some of them.[1] I cannot refrain, however, from quoting a few extracts from
his address—"Incidents of Applied Research." The diversity of research
work in a large manufacturing organization is summed up as follows:

Looking back on my own experience among the vicissitudes and worries
of the undergraduate, the two things which were uppermost in my mind
were—first, the question expressed in the old song—Where Do We Go From
Here, Boys? My future was a great unknown. I hoped to arrive somewhere,
but I had not the slightest conception where the path would take me.
The second great worry was somewhat associated with the first. Not knowing
what I was to do I had no way of judging which of the great mass of
detail in my curriculum was most important in the work I was later to
pursue, and I know now that I laboriously tried to master many details
subsequently proven to be unimportant and I passed over others of basic
importance.

While there are many ways in which an engineering council, made up of
graduates in service, can assist Alma Mater and the undergraduate, I can,
speaking for the electrical graduate only, say that if it does no more than
assist the undergraduate in the two ways mentioned, i.e., in guiding his steps
after graduation toward the path he is best suited to follow, and in giving
him an idea of what is vital in his undergraduate course, it will accomplish

much for the undergraduate engineer, stimulate interest in electrical engineering,
and thereby assist its Alma Mater.

Under the conditions of to-day, an engineering council could offer very
definite suggestions to the prospective student, the freshman or the senior,
as to the path to choose after graduation, or at least a very definite choice of
paths, and thus having something definite before him, the student will take
up his engineering studies with an added interest. As bearing on this point
I quote from an address by Dr. Whitney at an Alumni Dinner given by
Union College, February 17, 1921:

Referring to the second of my worries as a student, I fear that the first
part of my paper offers no solution, as it emphasizes, even more than does
the diversity of a college curriculum, the wide field to which the graduate
may in future life be expected to apply himself, and emphasizes the impossibility
of complete preparation. This is true. The curriculum can at
most merely lay the foundation, and all of the superstructure has to be
erected in subsequent effort, application, work, and study, but it is of greatest
importance that the foundation be the best which can be devised for the
superstructure which the graduate is to build for himself.

The graduate who has been away from college for many years is not an
authority on textbooks, curriculums, etc., but he should be in a position to
help the University's staff, if only indirectly, by bringing to its attention
from time to time some of the everyday problems which face him in his
outside career. I will not attempt to discuss this phase of the subject in
great detail, but in looking over the present day curriculums they are spread
out too thin in many places, and the foundation is not deep and thorough
enough in others.

I am constantly in contact with electrical graduates, and without having
University of Virginia graduates in mind, I am impressed by the fact that
very few of them really learn their mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
When they have struggled through their mathematics, and passed their
examinations by a narrow margin, possibly having learned enough to appreciate
its importance, they have a feeling that they will pursue the subject
further, and will then perfect themselves. The majority never do; and there
is a tendency in after life to sidestep difficult problems involving mathematics,
or to look for assistance to those who have been more thorough.
They trail rather than lead in this respect, though they may in other directions
make up their shortcomings. A student who has thoroughly learned
his mathematics has a foundation which need not be disturbed, irrespective
of what is new in electrical discoveries—at most only the application has
to be changed.

When a student has obtained his basic training in mathematics, the
application of this training to problems of various descriptions—such as
the solution of electrical equations and the actual design of electrical apparatus—serves
to fix in his mind his mathematical fundamentals so that they
cannot be effaced. A basic training in chemistry and physics is of equal
importance, but in order that these fundamentals, like the mathematics,
may become firmly fixed, or for that matter thoroughly understood, the
laboratory work is of the utmost importance. By this I refer to the experimental
work in the chemical, physical, and electrical laboratories.

Very few electrical graduates have occasion to apply any of the training
they may have received in civil engineering, except in the fundamentals,
particularly the details that cover the use of instruments, transit, etc. He
may in his work with a large operator find that some civil engineering has
to be done, but he is not called upon to undertake such work. A graduate
civil engineer is available for the purpose.

The same is true, though to a somewhat less extent, of large hydraulic
projects. While a general knowledge of these subjects is necessary, it would
appear in the case of the electrical engineer that they could be touched on
lightly, and more time given to fundamental electrical problems.

Knowledge of thermo-dynamics and steam engineering is frequently
of use to the electrical graduate, but it is doubtful if much time should be
devoted to obsolete steam engines, intricate valve motions, and mechanical
features that have outlived their day of usefulness. A more intimate and
thorough study of a representative steam turbine makes for a better foundation.

In industrial chemistry, instead of trying to cover a field of almost
unlimited breadth, let the technical graduate concentrate and learn more
thoroughly the industrial chemistry of what will be most useful to him; the
manufacture and preparation of insulations—their qualities and characteristics;
insulating compounds—their behavior under the action of heat,
oil, and electrical stresses; study of oils for insulation purposes and heat
dissipation; study of porcelains, glass, and other similar materials for their
mechanical and electrical properties, as they relate to the development of
electrical apparatus, and the development of transmission and distribution
systems.

All education is broadening and develops the mind, and on this score
we can defend the study of a great variety of subjects, as a part of the training
of the electrical engineer. There is so much, however, that he should
obtain in his four-year course—in fact so much more than he can obtain of
basic fundamental facts, that are directly applicable to electrical engineering,
that it would seem to me the present day curriculums could be improved
with this thought in view.

While many of the topics above touched upon might be classified as
encyclopædical training, they cover interesting details, apparatus, subjects
and applications which might profitably form parallel reading to the University
course, but should not be allowed to crowd out fundamental training
or fundamental training plus the essentials of a direct professional training.

In closing I would emphasize that this is a day of specialists, whether
it be in finance, business, manufacture, medicine or engineering. The man
who stands out above others in some particular field of endeavor obtains a
satisfaction from his work, a standing and remuneration from his profession
which the general all around good man infrequently receives.

Let the engineering undergraduate pursue fewer subjects, but pursue
them thoroughly, and if possible specialize in some particular field of endeavor,
either research, or the design of a special class of apparatus. The
man who thoroughly masters the transformer diagram, the mathematics
relating to all the formulas involved in the design, who knows the design
thoroughly, who can analyze wave form and study the stresses applied in
service to every piece of insulation under the diversity of conditions to which
the transformer will be subjected, can readily take up the induction motor
and study it in the same way, although he did not have time to do so at
college. It would be better for him in future life to have mastered the transformer
thoroughly than to have obtained a superficial knowledge of both
the transformer and the motor, even though later he specialize in motor
design.

The technical student who will learn thoroughly how to design a 200,000
volt transmission line, understand the phenomena which go on in such a
system—the high voltage stresses, corona losses, behavior under impulses of
every description, steep wave fronts, high frequency line disturbances; who
will learn how to analyze the stresses over its insulators—the reactance,
capacity and induction of the lines—its regulation and compensation, has
placed himself in a position to obtain recognition which cannot be obtained
by the student who has a superficial knowledge of wiring and distribution
in general.