Boring, M. M.

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 The Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University Ohio State Engineer Title:  The Effect of War on Young Engineers Inducted Into Industry Creators:  Boring, M. M.  Issue Date:  1943-04  Publisher:  Ohio State University, College of Engineering  Citation:  Ohio State Engineer, vol. 26, no. 5 (April, 1943), 13, 24, 27.  URI:  http://hdl.handle.net/1811/35946     The Effect Of War On Young EngineersInducted Into IndustryM. M. BORING(EDITOR'S NOTE—This article is of such a nature that an editorial in this issuewould be superfluous. Mr. Boring is in the Engineering General Department of theGeneral Electric Company.)The war is bringing to engineers and other col-lege people a completely new set of experiences.The colleges themselves will feel the most imme-diate effects, and these are already indicated bythe much-discussed speed-up plans, and by theplans for inducting young men into the Navy, theSignal Corps, and other branches of the militaryservice. The trend in college education indicatesthat a large percentage of those young people whonormally would come into industry in the nextfew years will be diverted into military channels,and a decreasing number will be available to in-dustry.Only a few years ago it was stated that thecolleges were producing too many engineers. Manyof the schools were encouraged to, and did, reducethe number of men graduating. We now find acomplete reversal of the situation, with a short-age of technically trained people that is estimated,from some sources, as high as 100,000 men. Inaddition to this extreme shortage of men in theindustrial world, there is the tremendous de-mand for men in the Army and Navy.Because of this, and because of the extreme in-crease in production, the manufacturers, publicutilities, and other organizations which employthe engineering graduate, have been forced tochange many of their policies. The immediateeffect on the young engineer as he comes to theindustrial organization will be a drastic fore-shortening of the normal training period; he willbe given less guidance and less opportunity togrow slowly and naturally. To meet the crucialtime limits of war demands for industrial produc-tion, the normal procedure for steps of individualadvancement as skill and experience are acquiredmust be set aside "for the duration", and menmust be thrown into positions of advanced respon-sibility with minimum preparation. This will meanto the individual young engineer increased respon-sibilities—probably in many cases well beyond hisreal ability and it will certainly mean that he willbe forced to work harder and under conditions farless favorable than he has before experienced.The tremendous changeover from peacetime equip-ment to war production, with its restrictions,shortage of raw materials, lack of machine tools,and other equipment, is certainly going to tax theA p r i l , I 9 4 3ingenuity of young men as never before. Unfor-tunately these abnormal conditions — acting asthey do to thrust young men so quickly into posi-tions of greatly advanced responsibility, and inmany instances giving men just out of college anincome far above the level that could be expectedunder normal conditions—are apt to give theyoung men graduating today a false sense ofvalues. It is essential for young men to rememberthat this is a transient condition from which areturn to normal is inevitable. The far-seeingyoung man will prepare against this inevitablefuture readjustment on the one hand by makingthe most of his enhanced opportunities to acquireskill, judgment, and experience, and on the otherhand by conserving his currently abnormal re-muneration to assure buying power later on.Many of the young graduates have developed ajittery attitude and question whether or not theparticular small bit they can do in industry to-ward the war effort is as useful as their serviceswould be if they were actually carrying guns. Theshortage of men in the industrial field, therefore.is increased because many young men decide thatthey should enlist in some branch of the armedservice, instead of taking industrial jobs.We older people should advise young men to gcslowly in making decisions of this kind. It has.been stated that it is necessary to maintain 14people in the production of war goods in order tokeep one man in the field. In the last war thisrequirement was estimated at 2*/2 people, whichindicates the comparative technical changes in thelast 25 years. If we build up an army involvingseveral million men, as we expect to, it will benecessary for industry to accumulate 50 to 60 mil-lion more workers than we now have, and all ofthe war material that must be created by thistremendous number of people is so technical innature that our Army will be unable to functionwithout having in industry a high percentage oftechnically trained men who can use their engi-neering talent for this purpose.Various representatives of the armed forceshave recently been approaching students in col-leges and young engineers in industry with pro-posals that these men should immediately join(continued on page 24)P a g e 13Fatter Porkers... FasterA-C Welders now work exclusivelyon machinery for the war effort.A LLIS-CHALMERS FARM and milling equip-i l ment helps produce corn for U.S. pork-ers and steers . . . wheat for 8 of every 10bread loaves produced in the U. S. A.Allis-Chalmers industrial equipment(more than 1,600 different capital goodsproducts) works in every war industry . . .helps produce planes, tanks, ships, guns ata rate which must make Hitler shiver!And Allis-Chalmers engineers—cooperat-ing with plant engineers in every part of thecountry—are helping manufacturers pro-duce more—not just with new machines, butwith machines now on hand!Every Allis-Chalmers man and womanis working all out for Victory. Our one jobright now is winning this war. But from thiswar work we are gaining rich productionexperience which will be invaluable to theNation when the war is over. We'll beready to help build a better peace!ALLIS-CHALMERS MFG. CO., MILWAUKEE, WaALLIS-CHOFFERS EVERY MANUFACTURER EQUIPMENT AND ENGINEERING (ELECTRICALEQUIPMENTSTEAM ANDHYDRAULIC TURBINESMOTORS & TEXROPEV-BELT DRIVESBLOWERS ANDCOMPRESSORSENGINES ANDCONDENSERSCENTRIFUGALPUMPSPlanes. . . ALLIS-CHALMERS HELPSMAKE BOTH!Allis-Chalmers makes the greatest variety Rubber boats, tires, balloons are made withof capital goods products in the world. the aid of Allis-Chalmers equipment.VICTORY NEWSInland Shipyards: Hundreds of A-Cpumps, motors and V-belt drives are atwork along the Great Lakes helping in thegreatest shipbuilding activity this regionhas ever known.Ore carriers, tankers, cargo vessels—even submarines—are being built here.Tremendous expansion of facilities wasrequired to meet the goals set—and equip-ment for the yards, as well as for the ships,has left A-C plants in great quantities.YOU'LL WANT THIS HANDBOOKNew 16-Page Book applies to all makesof V-belts—tells how to conserve rubberthrough correct V-belt maintenance: howto measure proper tension; what deter-mines "life expectancy"; what to do aboutworn sheaves; much other useful informa-tion. Liberally illustrated. Ideal for train-ing new men. Write for your free copy.New A-C War Plants: Two big newAllis-Chalmers war plants are now in op-eration "somewhere in the USA"...the sec-ond in a record 90 days after the groundwas broken.To save time and critical materials,wood construction was adopted for thenewest plant. Practically the only metalused was in caps for the ends of trussesand columns. These were cast in A-C foun-dries to save time.FOR VICTORYBuy United States War BondsWE WORK FORVICTORYWE PLAN FORPEACERATION TO HELP INCREASE PRODUCTION IN THESE FIELDS...FLOUR AND SAWMILL EQUIPMENTCHEMICAL PROCESSEQUIPMENTCRUSHING, CEMENT &MINING MACHINERYBOILER FEEDWATER SERVICEPOWER FARMINGMACHINERYFREE!ContainsNoAdvertisingALMERSINDUSTRIAL TRACTORS& ROAD MACHINERYEFFECT OF WAR ON YOUNG ENGINEERS(continued from, page 13)the armed forces. Some of these statements seemto be diametrically opposite to the thinking of theSelective Service. It would certainly be unwisefor the armed forces to draw from important warindustries highly trained technical people whoseentire effort is directed toward the production, de-velopment; design, testing, or manufacture of de-vices badly needed by the Army and the Navy.These industries, which have turned over theircomplete manufacturing force to the war effort,today cannot in any sense of the word be con-sidered as private industries, but are now defi-nitely government arsenals. In support of thisview, an official of the Selective Service recentlystated that taking men from industries of thistype would be analogous to taking away their rawmaterials and yet requesting that they producemore finished products.Professors, on the one hand, have been advisedto tell students that the chances of getting morethan one six months deferment were practicallynil. On the other hand, instructions to draftboards have clearly stated that young men ac-tively engaged in the production of war goods willbe granted additional requests for deferment, aslong as they are vitally needed by the war pro-duction effort. Also, many colleges have been in-structed to write to the electrical engineering-graduates of the last 10 years, encouraging themto leave their present war production jobs to takespecial courses in ultrahigh frequency phenomena,with the idea of working toward commissions inthe Signal Corps. Surely, under the present con-ditions, it would be most unfortunate if there wasa large exodus of engineers from war industriesunder this sort of plan.So our advice to young men should be, at leastnow when production is needed so badly, to enterindustry. Later, when the right time comes,when there is a good flow of production, and whenthe creative thinking of the engineer is not neededso badly to produce war goods, then you, as youngengineers, should be ready to take your abilitiesto the armed forces, to use, and to teach the lay-man how to use the things that you have built.In other words, we should say to you that youshould keep your heads, use your common sense,and make the same type of analytical study of thiswar problem as you would of an engineering prob-lem.As to the future, older people who have been in-volved in the production of materials are leavingto you a most unusual heritage. We are going toleave you a world torn by war, in which we shallexpect you to correct the social structure and theeconomic structure, as well as to rebuild theP a g e 24physical things. Not only will you be responsiblefor tht physical rebuilding of Europe, and forpaying for that job, but also for finding a wayto create in European countries the same stand-ard of living that we in the United States enjoy,so that those jealousies that eventually break outinto actual wars will be eliminated. You musttake a larger part in the economic and socialphases of our civilization than engineers haveever taken before.I have found from my experiences in contactingyoung men that most of them seem to think thattheir entry into industry will be only temporary,and that a complete collapse in the industrialworld will come at the end of the war effort. Yethistory shows that even though there may be ashort, deep depression immediately after the war,caused by the readjustment necessary in changingfrom building war material to producing goodsfor peace, this should be followed by a long periodof high productivity.In addition to the rebuilding necessary becauseof the destruction of cities, factories, transporta-tion, and other necessities, you will be faced, asno engineers have been before, with the problemof catching up with the building of the materialsthat have been necessarily neglected. This obso-lescence, caused by the war and by the long de-pression that preceded the present conflict, willbe at the greatest point in history. The fact thatthere has been practically no building of homes,heavy transportation facilities, or power-generat-ing equipment for nearly ten years indicates thatthere will be great shortages facing us immedi-ately after the war is over.After all, regardless of wars or of depressions,young men grow at a fairly uniform rate. It hasbeen my experience that every job has certainchanges in it about every five of ten years, sothat at least part of its responsibilities are takenby a new individual. Under these conditions, wemust realize that there is a fairly rapid turnoverof men in all jobs—administrative, technical, andskilled—so that you as young people will, whenthe time comes, have the complete responsibilityof running industry, and your only competitionwill be with others of your own age. You will notcompete with older or with younger people. Whenthe time comes, you can be perfectly sure thatsome of you will hold high executive positions inthe great manufacturing companies, that all ofthe older people will make way for younger men,and that you will have unquestionably the great-est opportunity in history for the reorganizationof our civilization.Undoubtedly we must all expect some declinein our standards of living, but surely the Amer-ican people are not ready to give up permanently(continued on page 27)T h e O h i o S t a t e E n g i n e e rThe Goblin thatworks for AmericaTHE INQUISITIVE alchemists of the Middle Ageswere looking for silver. Repeatedly, they smeltedcertain ores and got a silvery-looking metal. But itwas only silvery-looking. It never turned out to besilver. So the alchemists thought that a maliciousspirit was thwarting them, and they called thestrange metal Kobold, meaning goblin.Today that same goblin, known in America ascobalt, has become one of this country's great fight-ing elements. Cobalt is alloyed with chromium andtungsten to make "Haynes Stellite" alloys which havethe property of "red hardness." Metal-cutting toolsmade of these alloys keep on cutting even when redhot! Cobalt improves red hardness and toughnessin other kinds of metal-cutting tools. Thus, cobalthas contributed greatly to the tremendous outputof planes, tanks, guns, and other war materials.Cobalt is also used to produce improved magnetsteels. Permanent magnets of cobalt-tungsten steelare more powerful, and last longer. Permanent mag-nets are necessary in much electrical equipment.This country's cobalt formerly came from Bel-gium, where it was refined from African ores foundin the Belgian Congo.As war clouds loomed, and as accelerated Ameri-can industry made rapid inroads on the stockpilesshipped out of Belgium during 1938 and 1939, ELEC-TRO METALLURGICAL COMPANY, a unit of UCC,designed and built facilities in this country for theBelgians. ELECTROMET now operates these facilitiesso that HAYNES STELLITE COMPANY, another Unitof UCC, and other American companies can havethe cobalt they need for essential war work. Opera-tions began in 1941. Today, these facilities annuallyproduce more cobalt than was ever imported in anyyear previously.BUY UNITED STATES WAR BONDS AND STAMPSRED HOT... STILL CUTTING!Faster production of metalequipment of all kinds ismade possible by high-speed metal-cutting toolscontaining cobalt.SIGHTED SUB! Better radiotransmitting tubes and im-proved electrical equip-ment are assured by cobalt.CALLING HEADQUARTERS!Telephones and other elec-trical equipment requirepermanent magnets. Thebetter magnet alloys con-tain cobalt.WEAR-FIGHTER! Planes flyfarther with fewer repairs,thanks to exhaust valvesprotected with "HaynesStellite" cobalt-chromium-tungsten alloys.UNION CARBIDE AND CARBON CORPORATION30 East 42nd Street EH3 New York, N. Y.Principal Products and Units in the United StatesALLOYS AND METALSElectro Metallurgical CompanyHaynes Stellite CompanyUnited States Vanadium CorporationCHEMICALS INDUSTRIAL 6ASES AND CARBIDECarbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation The Linde Air Products CompanyELECTRODES, CARBONS AND BATTERIES The Oxweld Railroad Service CompanyNational Carbon Company, Ine. The Prest-O-Lite Company, Ine.PLASTICSBakelite CorporationPlastics Division of Carbide and CarbonChemicals CorporationEFFECT OF WAR ON YOUNG ENGINEERS(continued from page 2U)the motor cars ,the radios, and the refrigeratorsthat we have enjoyed in the past, in some way itwill again be possible for the man who builds theautomobile to buy the radio, the man who buildsthe radio to purchase the refrigerator, and so on.Since this is so, I believe we can assure you thatthe period of rebuilding following this war effortwill be an extremely interesting one, that you willhave a job to do, that you will have plenty of re-sponsibility, and that you will have grand fundoing that job.A p r i l , 1 9 4 3 P a g e 27

The Effect of War on Young Engineers Inducted Into Industry

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The Effect of War on Young Engineers Inducted Into Industry

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