254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE NEW PROFESSION. 



By HENRY GEEEE. 



IT is but a few years since the practical student of electrical science 

 was limited to the single branch of telegraphy. His choice lay 

 between becoming a telegraph operator and a manufacturer of tele- 

 graph instruments. The telegraph operators form a numerous and in- 

 telligent body of men ; sharp competition exists among them, and for 

 a long time they had scarcely any chance of improving their position, 

 because until recently no other branch of electrical engineering was 

 open to them. But, during the last dozen years, great progress has 

 been made in various and new applications of electricity. Skilled 

 electrical engineers are few ; and any one, who has acquired a practical 

 knowledge of several branches of electricity, will find no difficulty in 

 keeping himself profitably employed. 



Until lately, the young electrician's great desire was to qualify him- 

 self for submarine telegraphy. The work of testing and localizing 

 faults in cables is of a more scientific and interesting character than 

 work in other departments of telegraph engineering. The manufacture 

 of cables is also a subject for particular study, and a fair knowledge 

 of mechanical engineering may be gained by practice in it. Two of 

 the many different departments of electrical engineering, telephony 

 and electric lighting, are becoming especially important, and yet there 

 is great difficulty in finding competent electricians to accomplish the 

 work. 



During a recent sojourn in Europe, I learned that not only young 

 men, but educated women also, were studying electrical engineering, and 

 that large fortunes have been made in it. The enormous extension of 

 the telegraphic system, and the wonderful advances made in electricity, 

 electric lighting, telephony, electrical cables, and railways, and in the 

 transmission of power, offer great advantages to persons seeking profit- 

 able employment. Telegraph engineering or electrical engineering is 

 a new profession. More than this, it is one which is not yet over- 

 crowded, and it is, therefore, undoubtedly an occupation which many 

 of our college graduates will adopt. 



The ultimate value of the advances which have recently been made 

 in el ectricar science can not now be estimated. The great electrician, 

 Professor Clerk Maxwell, was asked shortly before his death, by a dis- 

 tinguished scientist, " What is the greatest scientific discovery of the 

 last quarter of a century ? " His reply was, " The discovery that the 

 Gramme machine is reversible." The ordinary electrician would have 

 called the telephone, the Faure accumulator, or the Edison electric 

 light, the greatest discovery, but Professor Maxwell's deep and philo- 



