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EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN ENGINEERING 29 radar, controlled nuclear fission, nuclear weapons, the computer, systems theory, jet propulsion, long-range rockets and missiles, synthetic rubber, penicillin, and DDT. It was also a revolution in terms of the scale of technology employed: As a case in point, during the war the Allies used 14 times as much gasoline on an average day as had been used by the Allies during all of World War I. The expansion of research in industry as a result of the war effort was also striking. By 1950 there were 2,700 industry R&D labs in the United States, employing some 175,000 people (Armytage, 1961). The expansion of industrial research after the war partly reflects the new links forged during the war between scientists and engineers as they contributed jointly to the war effort. One result of those linkages was a greater postwar emphasis on science and mathematics in engineering education. Similarly, the war facilitated the forging of various institutional links among academe, industry, and government, which became permanent after the war ended (the National Science Foundation is one such link, in this case between government and universities. Another key theme of the war was that engineering was recognized as being of critical strategic importance. It was now clear that national security depended on the federal government's maintaining the health of the profession. The work of this panel and its parent committee is evidence of that continuing concern. The end of the war found the United States in a dominant position globally, with the world's largest and most efficient industrial plant and a strong economy, while those of most other industrialized nations were in ruins. It also found millions of servicemen eager to return home and attend college under the GI Bill. The technological society was about to be inaugurated in earnest. EARLY STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGINEERING Based on the foregoing examination of the engineering profession as it evolved in America from the late eighteenth century through World War II, the panel made certain general observations about the external and internal forces that helped determine the course of that evolution. The panel recognizes that those early, formative processes may not have direct relevance to present-day events. However, they gave the profession much of its contemporary structure, established inherent strengths and weaknesses, and set patterns for its societal role, status, and function. Thus, a discussion of these factors in the historical context may serve to establish themes useful in evaluating the profession at the present time and projecting its possible future course.
