47 



It was seven years after Hertz's discovery of electric waves 

 that Marconi showed them to have commercial value; and it 

 has taken practically twenty years to employ them for trans- 

 atlantic messages. In these intervening periods lie great oppor- 

 tunities for the alert "practical mind." 



(3) Engineering. — Nearly all the great engineering concerns 



of America are lookmg for more men than they can now find of 



the broadly trained type — men who are acquainted, at first hand, 



with the general principles of physical science. A man may know 



every machine in the shop of an engineering firm and yet not 



know how to design a new mechanism to meet a new want or a 



new circumstance. What is demanded today is, therefore, not 



so much an acquaintance with present-day practise as a thorough 



mastery of the fundamental principles of engineering— and these 



are mainly the principles of physics. 



4) Teaching.— The high salaries which engineering concerns 

 are oflfering to men well trained in physical science and to men 

 of executive ability have had the effect to leave vacant many 

 excellent teaching positions in physics. The door is wide open 

 for him who enjoys this line of work and who is willing to 

 leave behind all hope of opulence. 



