A plan for automatic long distance switching, which will ultimately embrace the entire area of the United States and extend into Canada and perhaps Mexico, has been formulated and important steps have been taken toward its realization. The plan contemplates that when a telephone customer places a call with a long distance operator, this operator will be able to establish a connection to any desired telephone simply by playing a 10 or 11 digit code into an automatic mechanism. She will receive distinctive signals when the called telephone answers or when the telephone or the toll circuits are busy. She will completely control the establishment of the connection and will have available to her the information necessary for proper billing of the call. The plan also contemplates that telephone customers will ultimately be able to dial long distance calls themselves, wherever may be the locations of the calling and called telephones.
T HE subject of the engineer and the war is an intimate one and associates what are perhaps the two things we are most interested in at the present time; ourselves, the engineers, and the great struggle which is now in full blast to determine the future destinies of the world. The subject is also a generous one. The highly mechanized character of the war and the tremendous importance in the war effort of production and of engineering and scientific development are such that there can be no question as to the essential relation of the engineer and the war. There is then a wide range of subject matter from which to choose in our discussion of the topic. One possible approach to the subject of the engineer and the war is to discuss the accomplishments of the engineer in contributing to the war effort. These accomplishments have been very great. It is, of course, necessary that they should be great. Starting practically from nothing, 49,000 military planes were produced in 1942. In 1937 there were 10 shipyards with 46 ways, capable of making ships 400 feet long or over. Now, there are 60 yards with 300 ways, with a total capacity of 20,000,000 dead-weight tons of shipping annually. In the major classes of military needs the production in 1942 runs from 3 l /2 to more than 6 times the 1941 production. The production of 1943 will again be a large step up from that of 1942. One of the most striking figures is the horsepower of airplane engines required for the planes produced in the United States. Up to the end of 1943, considering only the number of engines necessary to equip the planes, and without allowance for a large percentage of spare engines, this will total 350,000,000 horsepower. This is probably from IV2 to 2 times the total installed centralstation power capacity of the world. These figures speak of accomplishments in which the work of the engineer has been a large and essential part. I speak of them briefly, however, because accomplishments are things done and hence belong to the past. This is a time when I believe we wish to think more about the present and the future. To some, the consideration of our subject in relation to the present may raise the question of the status of the engineer in the war effort. Is the engineer accorded Essential substance of an address presented at the opening session of the AIEE South West District technical meeting, Kansas City, Mo., April 28, 1943. I do not propose to develop this thought further, but mention it, because, while we discuss here particularly our responsibilities as engineers, we must not forget our more general responsibilities as citizens. When we say that the engineer has a particularly close relation to the war because of the nature of the war effort, we must at the same time recognize that this means also particularly great responsibilities. What are some of these responsibilities? Obviously, one responsibility of the engineer is to direct his specialized knowledge of engineering to the war effort to maximum advantage. He should be doing JUNE 1943 Osborne...
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