MORE ON WESTINGHOUSE

To the Editor: I read the article titled “A Man for His People” in the October 2008 issue with great interest. Could the editors of Mechanical Engineering or the article’s author, Ed Reis, make a recommendation for a well-written biography of George Westinghouse?

PATRICK T. MANEY, P.E.
AVON, MASS.

Editor’s note: This is Ed Reis’s reply.

My recommendations are as follows:

1) Empires of Light: Edison, Westinghouse, Tesla and the Race to Electrify the World, by Jill Jonnes (Random House, 2003).

2) George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius, by Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr. (Algora Publishing, 2007).

3) A Life of George Westinghouse, by Henry G. Prout (Cosimo Inc., reissue 2005).

4) George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements, by Francis E. Leupp (Kessinger Publishing, reissue 2006).

5) George Westinghouse: Fabulous Inventor, by H. Gordon Garbedian (published in the 1940s, this book may be out of print).

Although it is not a biography, the book by Jill Jonnes is very well done and covers George Westinghouse thoroughly. The newest book, by Quentin Skrabec, is also a good one and is the most recent biography. Most consider the biography by Henry Prout to be the best of the older biographies on Westinghouse. These books can usually be found on Amazon.com, including the older ones most of the time.

ED REIS
PITTSBURGH

GETTING IT TOGETHER

To the Editor: I am currently a senior mechanical engineering student at the United States Coast Guard Academy and just finished reading the September article “Interdisciplinary by Design.” As a current student, I feel that this article highlights a major area on which engineering education leaders need to focus.

With modern advances in technology, the different engineering disciplines are becoming increasingly dependent on each other. For example, look at a laptop computer. There are many complex mechanisms and systems necessary for it to function properly. Electrical, computer, and mechanical engineers had to work side by side to create a functional finished product. Marketing and legal experts also had to be involved in the design process to make sure the final product meets consumer and government specifications. We have far surpassed the day of single-discipline design.

The wide range of expertise involved in design demonstrates the need for interdepartmental cooperation at the educational level. Engineering educational programs should ensure that students understand the level of cooperation required in today’s industry. Realizing that I still have a lot to learn, I often find myself seeking advice from the non-mechanical students when working on projects or designs. I feel that students would benefit if this was built into the curriculum below the graduate level. Tomorrow’s engineers need to be taught where interdepartmental cooperation is the norm.

TIMOTHY HURST
NEW LONDON, CONN.

TOO QUIET ON WHEELS

To the Editor: In the October issue, Tech Focus discussed a problem the Tesla electric car development team has noticed, in that pedestrians don’t hear the nearly silent car approaching, and may step in front of it.

Narrow misses: Engineers at Lotus Cars Ltd. in Norfolk,
England, have found that the Tesla electric car may be
too quiet. Pedestrians who don’t hear it have stepped
into its path. 

Back in the 1960s, Cardiff, Wales, introduced electric trolley buses for public transportation. Friends of mine who at the time were doctors in the emergency room describe referring to those buses as the “whispering death,” because so many patients were being brought in after stepping in front of one. The typical patient presented little outward sign of injury, but had massive internal injuries. This was attributed to the virtually flat fronts of the buses, which had few protruding features to cause abrasions or lacerations, but which caused a great deal of blunt force trauma on impact.

I guess there is nothing really new.

ROBERT T. CHILCOAT
SOMERVILLE, N.J.

STRENGTH AND MODULUS

To the Editor: When I saw the headline that we have a material with a 1,000 GPa strength (News & Notes, September), I was floored. But, the recall of the old conceptual myth that modulus and strength are interchangeable pulled me up (no scraping needed) to reality. The Young’s modulus of a material is a measure of how much a material will resist deformation, and not how much the strength of the material is.

While we are at it, there are similar myths we unknowingly propagate even in academia.

Stiffness and Young’s modulus are not the same. In fact, stiffness depends on geometry, too. Axial stiffness is the product of Young’s modulus and area, while bending stiffness is the product of Young’s modulus and second moment of area. (Please, do not call “second moment of area” “moment of inertia”—another sub-myth).

Toughness and fracture toughness are not the same, either. Toughness is a measure of the ability to absorb energy before fracture. Fracture toughness is the measure of how much stress is needed to continue propagating an established crack or flaw.

AUTAR K. KAW
TAMPA, FLA.

CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVES

To the Editor: We applaud Robert Fisher’s recommendation (Letters, October 2008) that we need a “technical, chemical, environmental, economic analysis of the front runners” representing alternate fuels. Such would undoubtedly include the close cousins named ethanol and biodiesel. But favoring politics over science, our government has so far put most of the eggs in the ethanol basket.

Mr. Fisher, admirably hoping to aid “farmers and agricultural states” goes on to say “every gallon of biodiesel would replace a gallon of oil.” Unfortunately, many technical studies already conducted have shown that several gallons of ethanol must be siphoned off from the pipeline to drive the agricultural processes feeding the ethanol pipeline itself. In other words, a gallon of ethanol is more accurately characterized as the equivalent of a quart of oil in the final analysis.

If ethanol is not the answer, how about hydrogen? The latter makes sense only if renewable or nuclear power is used to synthesize it. If coal-fired power were used for such synthesis, we would simply hasten global warming, because every gallon of hydrogen synthesized takes the equivalent of several gallons of hydrogen to carry out the synthesis. In addition, the parallel crises of “energy” and “water” must be addressed together, since the production of hydrogen entails voluminous quantities of water.

So where does that leave us on alternate fuel? Several analysts have suggested that our economy would get a great shot in the arm were we to undertake a massive shift toward renewable and nuclear power. Such a shift would provide domestic jobs and wealth, while mitigating further damage to the biosphere. This goal, should we undertake it, will likely lead to electricity as our primary alternate fuel.

PHIL BARNES  
SAN PEDRO, CALIF.