Scientific American Magazine

By Reviewing the History of Mechanical Engineering and Its Effects on the Industrial Era of Today, a Background is Established Against Which Many of the Possiisbilities of the Future Can Be Evaluated

Can the Industry Handle the Huge Volume of Business that Will Certainly be Available When Peace Comes? Some Figures on Machinery, Production Processes, and Materials Indicate that Engineering Design is Providing Equipment and Methods of Outstanding Future Importance

Immediate Post War Output of Trucks and Busses Will be on a Basis of Current Models. But, as Soon as Possible, Manufacturers Will Put Into Commercial Vehicles All the Proved War-Born Advances in New Alloys, Plastics, Synthetic Rubbers, and Improved Engines

Infinitely Variable Motor Drives, Accurate Timers, Safety and Limit Switches, and Other Electronic Devices Can Improve Production Quality and Lower Costs. Application Can Often be Made to Installed Equipment, Lengthening Service Life and Increasing Output and Efficiency

Co-Operation Between Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineers Has Made Possible Such Strategic Airplanes as the Superfortress and Other Military Marvels. It will Bring to Post-War Civilian Flying a Like Measure of Success in Conquering the Problems of Flight

Continuing Development of Metals and Alloys is Giving the Mechanical Engineer New Tools With Which to Work. What Metallurgy is Doing Now Will Have a Direct Effect on the Progress That Will Be Made in the Future. New Materials Mean Better Machines and Prime Movers

Mechanical Engineering Looks to Chemistry, Chemistry Looks to Mechanical Engineering, and Between the Two They have Produced an Industry Second to None in the World. Chemical Production Requires Equipment that Can be Provided Only by Close Co-Operation With Fabricators

Some of the Fundamental Science Surrounding the Many Ways in which Heat Transfer is Involved in the Machinery of Modern Industry. Five Different Basic Mechanisms for Transferring Heat. Many Large Companies Maintain Basic Research on These Problems Because of their Importance

Temperature and Humidity Control in Large Buildings with Many Small Rooms Has Been The Great Problem in Air Conditioning. Now a System Has Been Developed Based on High Pressure Flow of Conditioned Air Through Small Pipes, Eliminating the Space-Consuming Air Ducts of Earlier Methods