G.— ENGINEERING 149 



conduct ; and it is made all the more difficult by the commercial conditions 

 from which the engineer cannot altogether escape. Curiously enough, 

 this ' honourable behaviour,' ' scale of values,' call it what you will, seems 

 to be an attribute of the round soul of the man and almost independent of 

 home influence or educational environment. Things ' not done ' when 

 wearing the old school tie, seem to be regarded as permissible in after life. 

 Consider the following instances : 



A man, whom I will call Smith, was brought up in a wealthy and cultured 

 home, sent to a renowned public school and then took his degree in the 

 Mechanical Sciences Tripos at Cambridge. He next entered the large 

 engineering business created by his father, where he soon became 

 managing director. A contract for a building and equipment in which the 

 local town council was financially interested was to be placed, and it was 

 known that there were only three firms in the country, ' A,' ' B,' and ' C,' 

 who could supply the machines required. Of these ' A ' was controlled 

 by Smith, ' B ' was equally capable and controlled by a friend of Smith's, 

 and ' C ' was of minor importance. It was agreed between Smith and 

 his friend that each should include in his tender a sum of £1 ,000 to be paid 

 by the winner to the loser. Firm ' A ' obtained the order, and the private 

 account of Smith was credited by his firm with £1,000, that he might 

 send his private cheque to his friend, who presumably paid a like amount 

 into the account of ' B.' As an ironical corollary, Smith later became 

 mayor of the very town whose contract had been tampered with in this 

 way. 



It may be argued that co-operation of this kind to repay a firm for the 

 cost of getting out an unsuccessful tender is justifiable. I should agree if 

 it were done openly and recognised. But the very secrecy surrounding 

 the cheque suggests in this instance that both Smith and his friend were 

 really ashamed of the transaction. 



My second example concerns an engineer of similar standing who had 

 secured a large order for a complete plant. His customer asked him to 

 advise on the selection of engines and boilers. He agreed to act as 

 consulting engineer for a fee of 5 per cent, on the cost of the power plant. 

 When the tenders came in, however, he passed over the best offer in favour 

 of a maker who would reserve for him a further 5 per cent. This 

 commission was not, of course, divulged to the purchaser. Subsequently, 

 this same man took a similar secret commission on a building in South 

 America, and the invoices for the machinery were falsified to avoid 

 customs dues. 



Another form of temptation which assails the engineer because of the 

 dual nature of his work is illustrated by the following example : 



A firm of engineers whose directors had learnt the value of scientific 

 investigation through their university training, embarked upon a series of 

 tests. The object was to find out whether the machines that they made 

 were capable of a greater output without an inordinate increase of power. 

 It was proved conclusively that by increasing the speed about 20 per cent, 

 the output went up proportionately, while the power was only raised by 

 about 5 per cent. Further tests showed that there was in each case a 



