Radio and Electrical Engineers

Abstract

THE application of electricity to signalling along wires in the latter half of the nineteenth century led to the foundation in 1871 of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. At a later date the title was changed to the Institution of Electrical Engineers and its scope expanded to enable it to cater for the interests of all those professionally engaged in electrical engineering in Great Britain. Moving with the growth and development of wireless telegraphy and telephony, the Institution inaugurated in 1919 a Wireless Section to deal with the subjects of high-frequency engineering and audio-frequency recording and reproduction. Shortly afterwards, the Institution was incorporated by Royal Charter, and the fully qualified members were granted the right to describe themselves as chartered electrical engineers. At the same time, it was recognized that, while maintaining the standard of the qualifications for membership, more opportunity should be afforded to the physicist engaged in radio work to become a member. It is particularly opportune to direct attention to this fact at the present time, when a large number of men engaged in scientific and technical radio work would probably describe themselves as radio physicists rather than as wireless or radio engineers. The Institution thus welcomes as potential members those who, although not having received the usual training of electrical engineers, nevertheless hold degrees or equivalent qualifications in physics and are fully expert in their own branch of radio technique. It is perhaps significant of the times to point out that for the past three years the president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers has been a member whose main professional interest has been in the field of telecommunications, the present holder of that office being Sir A. Stanley Angwin, engineer-in-chief of the Post Office.