New-York tribune., 1903-03-01

suits or nave IallSO III oOIIlS JULIET OlEeGLtO1k
| think that this mysterious force in some man
velous way can give them the very chance theg
need OF all the known fields OF work the cleo
| trical Is that in which the languid incompe-
| tent Is most quickly detected and thrown out
ELECTROMAGNETIC influences repel not less
strongly than they attract.
| One thing Is absolutely true. The earnest youth
who has honestly educated himself for il does
not have to wait lone to secure either position
eTnOlufnent. It Is probably the fact that young
| engineers in any branch reach mere quickly
than beginners in other professions the point Of
| making their expenses Lawyers and doctors
/ are generally supposed to have pretty hard
| time In that respect; and the inference only
be that their walks in life are oVercrovsied. while
| the others are not. To come specifically TO cleo
trical engineering, Professor ShepaTdsOn. u the
4 University of Minnesota, may be quoted He
/ was speaking in January before the Northwest
| ern Electrical Association at Milwauke. as to
] the requests he got for men TO go into central
| station work. and said:
| 1 am not here making petition that you 20
| after technical men, because the demand for
college graduates exceeds the supply very great
| w. / think in the last twelve months l have
| had fully six times many applications for
1 graduates our last years graduate course
numbered.
i This could be matched by the experience ~
other professors and by the interesting fat thar
| the New-York Telephone Company in recrIitino,
for its stafY has literally established exanfu.tf,n
| centres at the great cities To snap IN
| avaiIa ble men from the colleges and b1s go
| taken men only half way through Columbia SD
| as not to De short handed. Professor Shepard
| son in like manner tells OF sending one os
Tr-
port on some central station 1t IS needless To
say that these newcomers do not draw
| salaries that will support home and family
but 1t IS their own fault II within year or 50
| they cannot make $1,JOO to $2.TO a year
| Possibly part of this active demand may be
due to the great prosperity OF the country. 80
| that a sackening in material Developments
| would reduce the market for educated men To
the glutted conditions Of GERMANY This NJ,
be granted. but only applicable uniyersagv
| and less directly than might be imagined IL
| must be obvious to the most casual observer
F1VTVT 7nnr Of ~ EfTsur-
| electrically to-day that were never done =, be-
fore, and that the area of conquest extends
I steadily, rapidly. irra5i5tibly Thus, aside from
| normal or even abnormal growth Of opPor-
| tunity, there is the broadening field due to the
annexation OF IdHllar departments OF effort. in
| Wnlcn the OLD metho0s. or motive power OF ap-
| pliances, are superseded by Il new agent A
curious exemplifcation Of this undoubtad con-
dit1on OF AFFAIRS was noted recently in the fact
that while Peter CooEer worked at inventions in
the field of steam lOcOmOtion. and Ab-am s
| Hewitt was associated with the perfection -
steel making, the grandson. Peter f,0opa-
Hewitt, Is devoting his energies wholly TO eIec-
tricity and is giving the world cheaper light
and better apparatus. This is strictly evoiII-
tional; and II the old philanrhropist were start
ing out now his mind would be concentrated en-
the utilization Of electricity to suDpIart steam
on trunk railroads, instead OF aiming to replace
stage coaches and horses. All this is encour-
aging moreover, to the future electrical engi-
neer Every man wants to know whether his
art Is lasting, or whether It is a 1eeting fancy
like the bicycle, a flying craze like ping pong It
may not be automatically demonstrate, but
| unless all signs fail il is safe TO assert that
electricity is destined to go forward rather than
to go back; that it's greater lies before" II
this be so, then the youth who has studied else
trical engineering may draw hope and conf
dence from the knowledge that things are COM
Ing his way.
What branch OF electricity shall Young man
take up? This is a hard question 10 answer,
for much depends upon the man bfn7sa;F
There are some designers of d,-r,4r7os and rrsr.
formers who would fail utterly at Subnari.a
cable laying. There are central station man
ayers handling large numbers Of men with
| brilliant success who could write \
technical article than build trolley line to the
moon There are telephone engineers who con-
slider their problems Of switching a million In rks
oay vastly more intricate than those r s-af-
ing ten thousand horsepower over TWO El.r!~-G
miles or transmission OoIe circuit. To ErAtt
extent, therefore. the novice IN electrical eng
| neertng must determine his sphere Of action for
himself, subject to certain limitations Teioc-
| raphy, for instance, is not particularly aIIJr-
| ing, for both the land and the sea business have
| largely become a question Of direction AID
| manag cement Yet even here changes frnrend.
| for 1t seems impossible that autOu4tir tais--
| raphy should not assist the manual key and
sounder. or that the etheriC wireless sh"uIr not
| compete with tie fathOmed cable on the lsy
| tom Of the sea. Under the elder teIagraphir cow
| ditions the pay and place of the electrical! er-i-
| neer have been dwindIng away Under the
| new alt KINDS or novel opportunity halNt N"
| horizon. and the engineer inventor I'm this
| Telephony. again. kindred art. is in most pro-
| gressive state, crOwding telegraphy To the wall.
| yet stimulating it, too, somewhat Canada
| spends to own tidal movements of 1TOS1N~-
| ity and adversely. 1t is hard to see where -h@
| limit is coming as regards the demand So-
trained men in the telephone field. hut Er~a
again there must he a call a special aptitude.
! an ability to deal deciSiveIy with the various
| knotty questions which arise to the I0Ca-.7H
| Of exchanges. size OF svvitChbOardS. methods -
operation, schemes for 'trunking'' traffic, =
| overhead and underground lines. etc. EV=rv
telephone exchange system is engineering
| and economic problem. by itself. with erd-S5
variable factors in each ease, and the young
engineer can wish no better work than seeking
| to perfect the art of transmitting speech
| In heavy electrical engineering there are Pr1H-
| tically four branches-hghting. railways power
transmission and power distribution. All x
| them offer splendid careers to the riEh, rTe7.
and some leaders are quite at home IN III ~
them. L. B. Stillwell, electrical PnEinatr % th7
! Manhattan Elevated Railway first learned -
deal with colossal dynamos and huge cure :
! at Niagara, and when he came to Network Sor
the Manhattan system. others from the same
J school were needed we'll. If it is recalled
] that there 1,2OO trolley systems and 4.'Ehl
central lighting stations in the United States. g.
will he seen that plenty Of able needed
badly all the time to keep pace with the ed
vance of these parallel industries. IN which alone
the amount of capital represented has already
/ reached s., 500 OOO.Do0. Nobody SuPpOSes for :
| moment that all the lighting circuits have hee7
strung or all the trolley tracks laid Then thsr@
| is the power industry-the long distance trans
| mission of current from waterfall gas belt. !
| we'll coal mine to centres OF population sift
| manufacture. Out in California. San Francisco
| is getting electric power from the Sie-r3S-
216 miles away Such work can only multiply.
| Another field of tremendous expansion - f.7
! utilization Of the electric motor in faCtori"S-
| The present writer. as United States census "N-
| pert, showed recently that in spite Of all t''
! work done, electric power I'm American Tl
| and power consuming establishments was but
I Per cent of the whole. Who would venture 70
| set the mark of limitation as TO the rest dullfS
| the present decade?
! Incidental reference was made just 10 the
| salary ap electrical engineer may nope TO ytL-l-
| The figures were named at 81 500 S2.sdH'.