WE are living in an engineering age. Many audiences have been apprised of this fact and presumably none of us would feel inclined to chdlenge so trite a statement. Indeed, it is very obvious thathe whole fabric of our modern so-called civilization is
upheld and maintained in more or less perfect working order by a most intricate and delicate superstructure which is the outcome of the development of the science and art of engineering; and we poor mortals dash frantically to and fro in our endeavour to render our structure invulnerable, in the constant struggle which we wage against the destructive forces of Nature and each other, by ever increasing the delicacy and complexity of its detail, and thereby its susceptibility to failure under the incidence of unforeseen types of overload.
Professor J. Husband