Abstract
IN an address delivered at the annual luncheon on June 8 of the Institution of Gas Engineers, the president, Dr. Harold Hartley, made some interesting comments on the relation of the engineer to the community. The term ‘engineering', he suggested, should be extended to cover all endeavour utilizing the processes of Nature or scientific knowledge for the benefit and pleasure of mankind. This wider concept of the functions of engineers would bring the professional bodies closer together and give them increased influence in public affairs. The professional institutions set the standard for their members, and they can use their influence to ensure that, in the struggle for economic development, the fundamental cultural freedoms are not sacrificed. They can see that conditions are created which will enable everyone to give of his best in his own particular field ; they should strive after something of the character of the old craft guilds, with their care for the reputation of their craft and their members, but also with a deep sense of public service. Dr. Hartley‘s audience consisted largely of gas engineers, and he rightly emphasized his points by reference to their special branch of the profession of engineering. He referred to the spirit of tolerance and loyalty which has characterized the gas industry in the past, and expressed the belief that this state of mind would enable the industry to overcome the difficulties inherent in the fundamental re-organisation which nationalization of the gas industry in Britain will involve. The Institution of Gas Engineers as a corporate body represents a limited number of types of men with specialist knowledge who are accustomed to thinking along similar lines ; they should not find it difficult to co-operate with other specialists concerned in different ways with the industry, and with them to solve the problems lying ahead.
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Engineers and the Community. Nature 161, 1005 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/1611005a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1611005a0