Columbia University School of Engineering - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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A CHANGING WORLD DEAN JOSEPH XV. BARKER EOLOGISTS and astro-physicists have written the stories of the slow, ceaseless changes which occurred ' in the prehistoric ages of this planet. Their stories run into the period of recorded history and then the historians i take up the task of tracing the accel- erating pace with which our civilization has developed. This World of ours is ever-changing and constantly evolving, but I think it is safe to say that at no time has the rate of change been higher than today. We are living through a critical period, torn by -an extremely -ef severe business crisis, wearied by unsolved problems arising from the cataclysm of the VVorld War and its aftermath and harassed by the uncertainties of political and social upheavals. Your class is leaving the University atmosphere, relatively calm, sedate and unhurried, and entering a rough, struggling and Hustered world of industry just at the turn of the ebb tide. The storms of the past three years have strewn the waters with wreckage and flotsam both material and human. The waves are running high and many of the recognized marks on our charts have been destroyed or altered. Truly this promises dangerous and diflicult navi- gation. The mariner who carelessly dismisses the dangers and, without precautions, sails in such an abating storm is inviting troubles and possible shipwreck. Are there any lessons we can draw from the experiences of the past three years? I think there are, although it must be said that it is extremely difficult to evaluate accurately the damage while the storm is in progress. DEAN BARKER l believe we engineers have recognized theimportance of evaluating new methods and new processes in terms of social as well as economic factors. Our attention has been turned as never before to the extreme importance of securing a proper balance of social, economic and scientific factors. We are turning toward a scientific manage- ment which recognizes the social as well as the economic phases of a cooperative society. Everyone is thinking in terms of some sort of a governing device. just now that the social machine is running at a subnormal speed, we want a governor which will bring us up to rated speed. Qur big problem as engineers is to help in the design of such a governor and to make it as nearly foolproof as human nature will permit. The world would readily install such an equipment now but would almost as readily scrap it whenever the device tended to prevent a super-normal speed. As a mob we love higher and higher speeds until a crash comes, and then we look about for someone or something to blame. A ready and open mind for all our problems is the ideal of an engineer. We should never hesitate to apply decelerating means whenever speeds tend to go into the Danger Zone. At the same time we must not become ultra-conservative to the point where we would be willing to retard progress for the sake of uniform speed. This business world is indeed a rough hurly-burly and many of you are going to find it extremely difficult to keep your heads above water for a year or so. I caution you but I donlt pity you. I reserve my pity for the middle-aged person who let himself get into an easy rut, died mentally and rested on his oars only to have the storm spew him onto the sands broken and nearly useless. Are there lessons to be learned? Yes, but you'll no longer have professors to assign them. l've touched on only one, are you ready to recognize and study out the others for yourselves? Six

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BIUGRAPHY OLIN GARFIELD FINK was born in New Jersey, December 31, 1881. Grad- uating from Columbia College in 1903, Dr. Fink then spent four years in the Ostwald Research Laboratories of the Universitv of Leipzig, receiving his degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with highest honors, in 1907. Returning to America, Dr. Fink joined the research staff of the General Electric Company at Schenectady. He is the originator of the ductile tungsten lamp filament used all over the world. He is also the inventor of the copper-clad nickel steel leading-in wire used as a substitute for platinum in lamps, radio tubes, etc. ln 1917 he became the head of the new research laboratories of the Chile Exploration Company, New York. He invented the insoluble anode, chilex, in operation at the great plant at Chuquicamata since 1922. ln 1922 Dr. Fink was called to Columbia University and has since then been in charge of the Division of Electrochemistry. At Columbia he has devoted most of his attention to researches in electrodeposition of chromium aid tungsten, the restoration of ancient bronzes, and the corrosion of metals and a oys. The entire chromium plating industry throughout the world is built up on Dr. Fink's basic inventions. lt is difiicult to estimate the economic importance of Dr. Finkls discoveries and inventions. The various improvements in the manufacture of the incandescent lamp and radio tube resulted in a financial return to the General Electric Company to such an extent that for almost ten years the lamp profits represented 70 per cent to 82 per cent of the total net profits of the company on all types of apparatus. The leading-in Wire invention alone meant a saving of over 337,000,000 to the General Electric Company at the end of the first year of the wire's introduction into practice. ln the case of the Chilex Anode the saving in power resulting from the intro- duction of the new anode made the existing power plant able to take care of increased tank house production, saving several million dollars. The cost of anode mainte- nance was reduced by about 90 per cent, saving in addition about 31,000,000 per year. This is a brilliant example that foresight in research often pays handsomely. Dr. Fink's process for the restoration of ancient bronzes is used all over the world. The Fink electrochemical process for the restoration of ancient bronzes has been in regular use at Field lVIuseum in Chicago for more than Hve years. This process, which was first developed by Professor Colin G. Fink at Columbia University for the use of the Nletropolitan lVIuseum of Art, has, in the laboratories of Field Nluseum, proved Safe, simple and easily applied. The Fink process reverses corrosion by electrolytic methods. It reduces the oxidized copper minerals of the incrustation to metallic copper. ' Dr. Fink is past president and now secretary Csince 19215 of The Electro- chemical Societyg honorary member of Tau Beta Pig fellow of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Scienceg Editor of Tungsten, lVIineral lndustry, Editor of 'lElectrochemistry, Chemical Abstracts, American Chemical Societyg Contributing Editor to The American Year Book QChapter on Electrochemistryjg lVIember of the Hoover Dam Committee, Charman of the Committee on Electro- chemistry for the Chicago 'lCentury of Progress. Dr. Fink- is also a member of the A. C. S., A. l. Nl. Nl. E., and the Am. lnst. of Chemists. Fifve

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