Zambezia (1977), 5, (ii).DESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMA*L. M. MUGGLETONDepartment of Electronic and Power Engineering, University of RhodesiaIT IS WITH pleasure that I take this opportunity of presenting the first En-gineering Inaugural Lecture in this University. Almost exactly a year agoI took up my appointment to the Inaugural Chair of Engineering, and in afew months from now our first students will be completing Part I of theirfour-year course for the B.Sc (Engineering) Degree with Honours. Mycolleagues and I have been much encouraged by the help we have beengiven by many individuals and groups, without whose generosity we shouldnot have raised the necessary capital to launch the new Faculty. I have beenimpressed particularly by the obvious goodwill towards this project frompeople in and out of the University, and it augurs well for the success weare all determined to achieve in the future.I am happy to report that the basic organization of the courses has beencompleted, and the Regulations for the new degree have been drafted withthe aid of the Engineering Curriculum Advisory Committee, a group ofpractising engineers whom I have invited to advise us on course contentand related matters.I am particularly glad to have with us the President of the RhodesianInstitution of Engineers and many fellow Members, for it was largely due tothe initial efforts of the Institution that the project was launched. The Chair-man of the Rhodesian Association of Consulting Engineers and several fellowMembers are also with us tonight, and we want them to know that theirsupport and encouragement are greatly valued. Several Ministries, Munici-palities, and other organizations are also represented here, and we areencouraged by this, but time and space do not permit me to go into detail.I must, however, associate myself warmly with the Principal's tribute to theFund Raising Committee and particularly to its Chairman, Mr Eddie Marsh.Their success in coming so close already to the target sum has been a vitallink in the chain of events leading up to the successful launching of the newFaculty. We want them, and the generous donors they contacted, to knowthat they have a very real share in whatever good is achieved for the peopleof Rhodesia through the new Faculty.I have thought it appropriate in this lecture to share with you some ofthe problems and outlook of engineers of any discipline, for our Faculty isone of broad base, covering, as it does, the disciplines of Civil, Electrical,and Mechanical Engineering. It may be that I shall be tempted to provideAn inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Rhodesia on 8 August 1974.115116DESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMAillustrations mainly from my own discipline, Electrical Engineering, but I shalltry to resist this.I have referred first in the title to the 'Designer', and I think this is correct,for engineers are concerned primarily with design. Not only are they con-cerned with design of structures, circuits, and machines, but they are alsoinvolved deeply in plans of operations, in maintenance schedules, and inproduction runs.Society continues to require of the engineer that he keep on improving themanner in which he harnesses the resources of Nature, and Society neverrelaxes its demands that he make these resources available in forms thatwill not only sustain its life, but also continue to improve its standard ofliving and its health. The consciousness that Society urgently needs hisservices certainly helps to make our engineering designer's work a delight,but he is also often in a dilemma, for the two last-named demands are oftenmutually exclusive.Let us trace some of these trends as they were developed over the cen-turies of recorded history.Historical Outline. Engineering has certainly been practised for a very longtime. Earliest records reveal that civilization has depended on engineeringfor its progress. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia they needed flood con-trol of the Nile and the Euphrates; indeed Noah was deeply involved alsoin flood control and then, when the floods got out of hand, he found a wayround the problem by turning his attention to naval engineering!About 4 000 B.C. saw the construction of the Nile dam at Memphis (Roux,1957), 3 000 B.C. the installation of a piped water supply, drainage, andsewerage works in the Indus valley, and 2 500 B.C. the Step Pyramid, oldestknown building of hewn stone in the world (Kirby, 1956). What tremendousobstacles those ancient engineers overcame as they had the huge blocksmanhandled up their inclined planes! But time was long in those days, andperhaps those due to occupy the tombs under construction did not pressas hard as they do today to occupy the rectangular concrete ones we callflats! In 2 000 B.C. they designed and constructed bathroom facilities of highstandard on Crete, and in the same epoch Semiramus built a large bridgeacross the Euphrates. Yes indeed: engineering has been practised for avery long time!Modern engineering practice owes much to the Greeks and the Romans.The Greeks gave us the concept of regularity (Evans, 1964); indeed, Euclid'sgeometry (300 B.C.) is still the foundation of much of our drawing and sur-veying. The Romans had a genius for the development of organizationalmethods and skills, and for setting up well-disciplined projects; and todaywe can still see several of their strong, well-proportioned structures of im-pressive grandeur.We move quickly through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and comenow to the nineteenth century and the Industrial Revolution. Up to thisperiod engineering had been progressing at a steady rate, but when iron gaveL. M. MUGGLETON1 17way to steel, and when steam and electric power were pressed into the serv-ice of man, technology received an immense accelerative thrust (Finch, 1951).Appropriately it was during the nineteenth century that the first professionalengineering institutions were formed, and professional engineering was born.The first professionals were military engineers. They had to be ready, atshort notice, with ingenious and workable methods of building bridges forthe army, using whatever materials and labour were to hand. Their trainingwas rigorous, and the demands made upon their skills were stringent. Theysoon earned high status, and tended to form themselves into societies toensure that the high standards of their profession would be maintained byall members. Non-military structural work was undertaken by civilian en-gineers, and in time they too displayed a high level of competence. Todistinguish them from their military counterparts they were called Civil(i.e., civilian) Engineers (Staub, 1964). To maintain high standards, promotediscussion, and control entry to the profession, the civil engineers formedthe Institution of Civil Engineers in 1818 (Norrie, 1956).By 1847 industry and transportation were dominated by the steam engine,and there was thus an identifiable area of engineering practice in the fieldof mechanics. This was the year that saw the founding of the Institutionof Mechanical Engineers (Burstall, 1963; Parsons, 1947).Later the use of electricity in machines and communications had becomeof sufficient importance to warrant the formation in 1871 of the Institutionof Telegraph Engineers, and this later became the Institution of ElectricalEngineers (Dunsbeath, 1962).Our own Rhodesian Institution of Engineers, which combines severaldisciplines, including the above three, is committed to the same standards ofconduct, integrity, pursuit of excellence, and control of membership, as itsillustrious forebearers.Towards the close of the last century there came two turning-points inthe technology that had begun to expand so rapidly during the earlier partof that century; first there was the advent of mass-production and auto-mation, pioneered by men like Henry Ford; and secondly there was thedemise of the back-yard inventor, and his replacement by the research teamin the high-powered laboratory, pioneered by men like Thomas Edison.Both developments provided further acceleration of the rapid growth oftechnology at that time (Toffler, 1971).Coming now to the twentieth century, and all the sophistication and in-tricacy of modern engineering, we may well wonder whether engineeringis science or art; so let us now consider this question, for it will help usappreciate some of the delights and dilemmas of the designer.Engineering: A Science or an Art? First, is it Science? Yes, engineering is,among other things, a Science. Society's insistent demands have forced ourharrassed engineer to keep pushing the scientific theories and materials ofhis day to the limit in order to find solutions, often ingenious solutions, to118DESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMAthe practical problems thrown up by that pressure. We find him acceptinggladly the fundamental knowledge that flows from the work of that dedi-cated discoverer and analyser, the Pure Scientist. But the engineer's pursuitof this knowledge is motivated by his desire to apply it, to put it to work,in meeting the technological demands of a clamouring Society, and thisapproach is bound to be different from that of the Pure Scientist.Look, for example, at Archimedes; he was sometimes a Pure Scientist, andsometimes an Engineer. See 'Archi', the Pure Scientist, lying on his back in hisbath where he established one of the fundamental laws of Physics. His dis-covery so excited him that he caused a commotion in the street (Fig. I). Butwhen it came to the practical business of lifting up the water from the wellor flume, it was 'Medes', the engineer with his ingenious screw pump, thatcame to the fore.Figure 1: ARCHIMEDES: MAIN STREET STREAKER, SHOUTING 'EUREKA!'(Drawn especially for this publication by Miss M. Phear).Modern engineering is a rather special form of Science, for present-daydesign is often carried out at the frontier of that which can be achieved,and this is usually beyond the frontier of knowledge. But knowledge is alwaysahead of theory (for theory covers only those aspects of knowledge that havebeen formulated into a generally useful description). When a design is basedL. M, MUGGLETON119only on theory it is necessary to use 'Factors of Safety' because physicaltheory can describe no more than what is usually a drastically-simplifiedversion of physical behaviour, and the designer must protect against failureor malfunction that could be caused by those physical conditions that couldnot be taken into account by the theory.Often knowledge is so scant, and theory so limited, that the designer hasto resort to the use of a model. It may be a physical scale model or it maybe a mathematical model. Sometimes the results can only be interpreted interms of correlation coefficients, standard deviations, and regression lines.Always the engineer must check whether the theory holds good on whichhis calculations are based, and if his design will meet the requirements im-posed by practical application.Let us take two examples of the above process in which the audience canparticipate:(1) The bouncing-ball postulation, You are invited to postulate an answerACEFigure 2: THE SPIN ON THE BALL CAUSES IT TO FOLLOW TRAJECTORY A B CAFTER BOUNCING AT A. WHAT WILL BE THE TRAJECTORY AFTERBOUNCING AT C: WILL IT BE C B A OR C D E ?(with reasons, of course!) to the problem posed in Figure 2. Your answerwill be based on common sense or on learned theory. Some people will nodoubt predict that, because of the spin, the ball will head in the directionD after bouncing at C; others will predict the opposite, i.e., that, again be-cause of the spin, it will head towards B after bouncing at C; and yet otherswill say it does not matter anyway! But suppose the success or failure of,say, a space project could be affected by the accuracy of the prediction, itI2ODESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMAwould be imperative to 'get it right', and advisable that we try it out in prac-tice by a controlled experiment. When we do precisely that, using a high-elasticity ball in our demonstration, we confirm, of course, that you werequite right; the spin reverses after each impact, causing the ball to followtrajectory A B C, C B A, A B C, and so on. Or were you one of those whopredicted ABC.CDE?!(2) The ink-bottle postulation. Here is another illustration. Suppose equalquantities of red and blue ink are contained in identical bottles, A and B.Transfer a small quantity of red ink from bottle A to bottle B. Mix thorough-ly the red and blue ink in bottle B, and then transfer the same quantity asbefore of the mixture back from B to A. Next, mix thoroughly the contentsof bottle A. Now both bottles have again the same quantity of ink in each.Which of the two bottles is the more contaminated by the colour of the other?(My wife's first response was to observe that it would be a disgraceful wasteof good ink!)Probably you will take a short cut by formulating a theory applicable tothis situation, and possibly the reasoning will go something like this: 'Bearingin mind that a small quantity of pure red ink went from A to B, but that thesame quantity of mixture went back from B to A, it follows that B is more con-taminated with red ink than is A with blue ink.' Simple! Theory is so help-ful. But good designers should test any new theory or supposition beforethey use it. (We remember the bridges that fell down, the transformers thatblew up, the 'unsinkable' ships that went down on maiden voyages, to saynothing of the handle that fell off your pan the other dayŠall because de-sign assumptions had not been thoroughly tested before incorporation.) Solet us test whether or not the theoretical conclusion we came to concerningthe ink bottles is correct, using numbers specially chosen to make the arith-metic easy. Suppose bottle A starts with 90 cc of red ink, and bottle B with90 cc of blue, (a) Transfer 10 cc of red ink from A to B. Mix the 10 cc of redand the 90 cc of blue ink in B. (b) Now transfer 10 cc of the mixture backto A.We calculate the respective volumes of red and blue ink in each containeras follows: After operation (a) we have 80 cc of pure red ink in A, and wehave 90 cc of blue, plus 10 cc of red ink, in B. The mixture in B is 90 percent blue, and 10 per cent red. The 10 cc of mixture in operation (b) has,therefore, 9 cc of blue and 1 cc of red in it. After operation (b) we have 9 ccof blue and (80 + 1) cc of red in bottle A, and bottle B has (10Š1) cc ofred and (90Š9) cc of blue. Our calculation has indicated that each bottleis equally contaminated! (If in doubt we should repeat the calculation usingdifferent quantities but being careful that they meet the requirements setout above.) Alas for our theory: the calculations show that it was v/rong,plausible though it seemed!We see from the above example that (i) even 'cast-iron' theories may leadto wrong conclusions; (ii) the more highly trained to theoretical reasoning,L. M. MUGGL.ETON121the more susceptible one may be to this kind of error; and (iii) it is immense-ly helpful to put in some practical values with the aim of trying out the valid-ity of any unproved theory proposed as an aid to our design.Yes, engineering is indeed Science. But it is also Art. We noted that Archi-medes was both Pure Scientist and Engineer; we recall now that Leonardoda Vinci was not only a great painter but also an engineer. For example, hetook the first faltering steps in aircraft design in addition to applying hismind to military engineering problems. But he had no research-and-develop-ment organization, and so it is for his other art forms that we remember himmost (Kirby, 1956).I am going to project now a picture that I took of Ashness Bridge aboveDerwent Water in the English Lake District, a place of rare beauty, lovedby artists. But the focal point of this beautiful picture is, mark you, not thelake or the mountains, or the trees or the stream: it is the bridge, a bit of com-mon engineering, serving the community in a practical, down to earth,manner. And no wonder this is so; that old stone bridge has form and linethat makes it a fitting centre-piece of this beautiful scene.But engineering design is also an art of a different form. I refer to the artof compromise in the decision-making process that is at the heart of engi-neering. Whereas the Pure Scientist can usually regard something as eitherright or wrong because it accords with or violates a fundamental law, theengineering designer is seldom allowed that privilege. For example: his urgeto provide technical excellence on the one hand may be counter-balancedon the other hand by the equally compelling urge to conserve resources andto keep costs to a minimum, or suffer crushing defeat from his competi-tors. Although his will be the delight of the challenge met and the achievementof that which maybe seemed impossible, his will also be the dilemma of thecost-conscious decision, a process which is as much a part of art as 'theagony and the ecstasy' of a Michael Angelo.We see then that the art practised by the engineer is mainly in the decision-making process, in which he weaves into one thread many strands of con-sideration representing science; technology; men and their organization,safety and health; timing; availability and properties of materials; account-ing, economics; law; communication; pollution; and aesthetics Š toname but a few. It is fitting therefore that at this University we havechosen to teach Engineering in its own Faculty, distinct from Arts, Educa-tion, Medicine, Science, or Social Studies, yet having strong links with themall.Let us now seek to illustrate some of the twin principles set out above.Some Examples of the Science and Art of Engineering. I shall confine myselfto three examples: one illustrating the importance of the art of good com-munications; one illustrating, from the life of Marconi, the way in whichengineering endeavour is sometimes carried out beyond the frontier of know-ledge; and, finally, an illustration of the delights and dilemmas of those ofus who design courses to prepare young engineers for their involvement inthe 'technology explosion' of modern times.122DESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMAALL I WANTEDWAS A SWING!« Š 7(ill3fŠŠŠfA& T4fc Ag£+4iTBcsr pse\j</A* -rue. t(s{T'Šj.71(1Ł\- !5Figure 3: THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD COMMUNICATION IN ENGINEERINGPROJECTS. (With acknowledgments to Roberts Construction Co.(Rhodesia) Ltd. for their kind permission to reproduce thesedrawings from the Roberts Construction Bulletin.)L. M. MUGGLETON123Good communication. The message of Figure 3 is obvious, and it must beconfessed that the finger is pointed with some justification! The Science usedin the engineering problem must be accompanied by the Art of good commu-nications. It is important that the problem should be clearly defined so that theone who sets out to solve it, or to find a way around it, has a clear objective;and his solution in turn must be clearly transmitted to the technicians andothers entrusted with the important tasks of detailing and of construction.Radio Communications. This year (1974) marks the centenary of the birthof that great engineering pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi, the father of radiocommunications. Michael Faraday and Clerk Maxwell had propounded aremarkable theory which described possible propagation through space ofelectromagnetic waves they had never yet encountered. Theirs was one ofthe finest pieces of scientific reasoning recorded in history (Eastwood, 1974).In 1887 Hertz managed to generate electromagnetic waves, but it was Mar-coni who in 1894 first developed the use of these radio waves for communi-cation purposes. Spurned by the Post Office in his native Italy he travelledto England where he secured the support of W. H. Preece, Chief Engineerof the British Post Office. In 1897 the Marconi Company was formed inEngland and, while demonstrating his radio transmitting and receivingequipment to the Fleet in 1899, he noticed a curious phenomenon: he foundit possible to remain in radio contact with the ships even after they hadsailed a considerable distance over the horizon (Jolly, 1974). Here he foundhimself in a situation not covered by the scientific theories of his day. Hewas out beyond the fringe of knowledge, and the engineer in him thrust himinto the unknown with the postulation that his radio waves would reachgreat distances by a mechanism still to be discovered, even though theoryinsisted they would be limited severely by the same obstacles that obstructlight waves.Risking financial disaster Marconi set up a trans-Atlantic radio link,with a transmitter at Poldhu on the Cornish coast, and a receiver on theNewfoundland coast, 3 500 km away. 'It can never work,' said the critics'Why, there is between these two sites a wall of water rising 160 km abovethe straight line joining them, and whoever heard of a radio wave penetrat-ing such a barrier?' But Marconi battled on, his confidence strengthenedby the tentative tests carried out earlier with the Fleet. He crossed the At-lantic to the receiving site in Newfoundland and, at the appointed time on awild day in December 1901 there, sure enough, was the letter 'S* comingfaintly in Morse Code over his primitive receiver (Ratcliffe, 1974)! Reactionto the news varied from congratulations to downright disbelief!Instead of arguing with his critics he conducted another test a month later.This time he crossed the Atlantic in an ocean liner taking his receivingapparatus with him, and noted that he could now receive signals from thePoldhu transmitter to a distance of 1 120 km by day and 2 500 km by night.The work of this engineer next stimulated physicists to find out by whatmechanism the signal had travelled across the Atlantic. Oliver Heavisidewas the first to suggest that the radio wave had propagated in a duct bounded124DESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMAbelow by the sea and above by conducting layers of charged particles in theatmosphere. That was the start of a scientific programme to discover theheight and the electron-density of the upper conducting region, later calledthe 'ionosphere'. It extends from about 80 km to about 1 000 km above us(Ratcliffe, 1974).Significant developments in ionospheric physics took place in the periodbetween the two world wars, and it has been said of my late Principal, SirEdward Appleton, of the University of Edinburgh, that up to 1965 no majorstep forward in that programme occurred without his personal involvementin its soccess. As the theory has become more sophisticated, the engineershave been encouraged to thrust further beyond its limits in their search forimproved communications systems. This, in turn, has stimulated furtherscientific research to provide improved mathematical models of the medium,and so the process continues. Today, with the aid of computers, the authorhas developed a program to provide a sophisticated design of the short-wavecommunication path linking any two points on the earth's surface. And it isbarely three-quarters of a century since Marconi sent those first falteringsignals across the Atlantic! Meantime, in parallel with short-wave radio,man has developed systems to exploit the particular advantages of the longand medium-wave bands in addition to transmissions at very high frequencies(VHF/FM), microwaves, and even at optical frequencies.The above illustration from the life of Marconi could be paralleled byothers from many different branches of engineering where there has beensimilar cross-stimulation between Science, Art, and Engineering, resultingin an explosive rise in technical knowledge and ability. Each new advancefeeds Society with more sophistication, and in turn it demands even greateradvances, as manufacturers vie with one another for the market. In anyengineering system the effects of positive feedback of this kind are knownonly too well: it cannot but lead to an unstable, runaway, situation. Thisis why technology is surging forward at an explosive rate (Toffler, 1970),and this brings us to our third example:Engineering education in an exploding technology. Here again we have thedelight of the challenge and virility of a dynamic situation on the one hand,and the dilemma on the other, as we tackle the problem of educating youngengineers to master a runaway technology. Table I, based on information fromToffler (1970), demonstrates the rate of change of man's speed of travel overthe years, and this in turn is a reflection of the exceedingly rapid rate atwhich technological skill has been building up, especially in recent years.Boulding (1966) expressed the same idea when he asserted: 'The worldof today... is as different from the world in which I was born as that worldwas from Julius Caesar's.' And, illustrating the same theme, Toffler (1970)has pointed out that of all the energy man has consumed in the past 2 000years, about half was consumed during the past century.L. M. MUGGLETON 125Table ITHE CHANGE, OVER THE YEARS, IN THE SPEED OF TRAVEL ILLUSTRATESTHE TECHNOLOGY EXPLOSION OF MODERN TIMESDateSpeedkm/h Mode of Transport Rate of Change km/h/year1600 B.C.6000 B.C.A.D. 1784A.D. 1825A.D. 1887A.D. 1958A.D. 1965A.D. 1938A.D. 196832 Camel Caravan13 Chariot and Horses16 Mail Coach21 Steam Locomotive161 Steam Locomotive644 Piston-engine Aircraft1 288 Jet-engine Aircraft7 725 Rocket Plane35 405 Space Vehicle+ 0,004- 0,005+ 0,12+ 2,3+ 9,5+ 32+ 920+ 9227The foregoing are illustrations of a common theme; technology is ex-panding at an explosive rate, and the educator of today's engineer has areal problem on his hands!When I found that, as Inaugural Professor of Engineering, it fell to mylot to lay down the broad plans on which the new Faculty would be based,I reasoned that if we were to set about teaching engineering techniques (eventhe most modern techniques) as our primary aim, our students would behopelessly out of date within a few years of graduating. Rather, I decided,we should concentrate on fundamentals, and merely illustrate these withexamples of modern technological practice in each of the three engineeringdisciplines; then the graduate will be well equipped to keep pace with newdevelopments, even if these change with bewildering rapidity.On the other hand, Rhodesia needs engineers so urgently to overcomepresent shortages that our graduates will carry heavy responsibility (and,incidentally, enjoy wonderful prospects) almost as soon as they graduate.They therefore need to have had practical experience before graduating.These considerations impose an influence on course planning diametricallyopposite to the one stated in the preceding paragraph. We are thus again 'onthe horns of a dilemma'!Our approach to the above problem has been (a) to concentrate o1"* ''Ł"teaching of fundamentals of the type learned better at University tV" cr126DESIGNER'S DELIGHT AND DILEMMAthe job, and (b) to build into the course a strong emphasis on industrially-linked projects, and practical industrial training during the vacations. Andour lecturers are encouraged to be involved in consultancies that requireinnovation and modern methods.Looking to the future, it is hoped that employers will realize that, owingto the rapid advance of technology, they would be wise to embark upon adefinite programme of overseas visits for their graduate engineers. After all,these are the men they look to for the ideas that will keep the firm ahead in acompetitive world; and, as such a programme will also remove the engineer'spersonal fear of 'getting out of touch' with modern trends, it will also helpthe firm to retain his services for a long time.Yes, indeed, we have our dilemmas when designing courses for the youngengineers who are taking up the challenge of an exploding technology, butthere is also the delight of being involved in that challenge!Let us conclude by looking at another open-ended question which is be-coming more important year by year.The Engineer in Society. One sometimes hears the question: 'Admittedlythere have been remarkable advances in technology in recent years, but arethese good for Society?' There are those who blame the engineer for theenergy crisis, the pollution crisis, and the discomfort of life in a world shrunka thousand-fold by jet travel and instant telecommunications. Well, this isabout as fair as it is to blame the medical profession for the populationexplosion because their efforts reduce infant mortality and extend the averageexpectancy of life!Society needs to accept that its increasing demands on the engineer to goon raising its standard of living have to be tempered with responsibility be-cause those increases in the 'standard of living' tend to be accompanied bya fall in the 'quality of life'. As a key figure in the drama, the engineer hasa heavy responsibility to Society, and sometimes this call of duty may lead topersonal financial disadvantage. Often he is in a dilemma over these con-flicting demands, and needs great moral courage, a level head, and clearperception of the issues involved.It is in these issues that we perceive how valuable it is for our new Facultyto have been established on a multi-discipline campus instead of being set upas a Technical Institute in some other part of the country, as was once urgedby some of our friends. The dining halls, the Students' Union, the campussocieties Š all of these provide opportunities to become aware of viewpointsthe student may never otherwise have known, and they help to form in hima balanced outlook. For example, our engineering student may learn fromhis friends in Medicine to have a deep desire for the safety and health of thepopulation in general and of his clients and employees in particular; from hisfriends in Science an appreciation of his country's foundations, fauna andflora, and a desire to preserve them; from those in Arts a feel for languageand communication, a respect for the past and an awareness of the present.Those in Education may remind him of the continuing need to go on learning,L. M. MUGGLETON127for the thrill and health of discovery is available not only to infants but alsoto the mature, if they will but persevere; and those in Social Studies may givehim an appreciation of the basic needs of man, his ways of organizing himselfethnically and culturally in communal and business life, and the predictabletrends in his behaviour. Then his technological decisions may be not onlyclever: they may even be wise. Above all, if his friends in Theology pointhim to the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, with a reminderthat without Him even the best of us 'can do nothing', our student may evenachieve sufficient all-round balance to cap wisdom with moral courage andthe inner power to see the most difficult project through to a successfulconclusion.So shall the designer's dilemma give way to the delight of a job well done,and the world be a better place for his having laboured there.POSTCRIPTDuring the Inaugural Lecture additional practical illustrations were given,particularly in the field of telecommunications engineering, but it has notbeen feasible to include these in this written version of the Lecture.ReferencesBOULDING, K. 1976 'The prospects of economic abundance', in J. D. Roslansky(ed.) The Control of Environment (Amsterdam, North Holland Publ, 1967: SecondNobel Conference, Gustavus Adolphus College, St Peter, Minn., 1966).BURSTALL, A. F. 1963 A History of Mechanical Engineering (London, Faber andFaber).DUNSHEATH, P. A. 1962 A History of Electrical Engineering (London, Faber, andFaber).EASTWOOD, E. 1974 'Marconi, pioneer of wireless telegraphy', Electronics & Power:The Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 20, 308-11.EVANS, R. H. 1964 'Form and structure in engineering', Proceedings of the Institutionof Civil Engineers, 27, 263-70.FINCH, J. K. 1951 Engineering and Western Civilization (New York, McGraw-Hill).JOLLY, W. P. 1974 'Marconi, the making of the man', Electronics Power: TheJournal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 20, 312-14.KIRBY, R. S. 1956 Engineering in History (New York, McGraw-Hill).NORRIE, C. M. 1956 Bridging the Years: A Short History of British Civil Engineering(London, Arnold).PARSONS, R. H. 1947 History of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (London,Centenary Memorial Volume of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engi-neers).RADCLIFFE, J. A. 1974 'Marconi, reactions to his transatlantic experiment',Electro-nics & Power: The Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 20, 320-2.ROUX, H. and INGE, S. 1957 History of Hydraulics (Ames, la, Iowa State Univer-sity).TOFFLER, A. 1970 Future Shock (London, Bodley Head).