Rochester Institute of Technology - Techmila / Ramikin Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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Earl M. Moreoock Irene Pawlish If old Ben Franklin could only take a gander at the Electrical department at R.I.T. and see all that has come about since that stormy night many years ago when he first found electricity flying higher even than his kite, he would be a mighty astonished man. But he would be interested in pulling a switch here and twirl- ing a dial there, when confronted with the impressive panel and switchboards of today. Generator, oscillator, lag and lead, resistance and inductance—all of these have definite meanings for the typical electrical student of today. For it is with these words that he is filling the gaps in a vocabulary that he will probably use for the rest of his life. He will need these meanings at the drafting board and out with his telephone line crewr, in his reports to the power station service chief and maybe to buy a switch for his home Wherever he is on his job, he will use terms for parts, concepts, and functionings which he is learning now. To those with a hankering for electrical things, R.LT, offers the first and perhaps the biggest step towards a future in a field that is crowded with count- less new wonders and old, old mysteries fast being solved. From the Institute’s drawing boards and labs many young men step directly into good jobs in many fields of manufacture and service in electricity, elec- tronics, and power. At the present time many R.l.T. electrical grads are serving in posts vital to the ad- vancement and defense of our country. For the Electrical student the slide-rule and the vacuum-tube voltmeter are friendly standbys, along with the ever-available instructors’ help and advice. Often it is the impish square-root of three, used in three phase systems, that plagues him throughout his school career and causes his answers to be off, when he sometimes forgets to incorporate this all-impor- tant factor. When the newly arrived freshman takes his first look into the Electrical department he is usually amazed at the countless meters, regulators, and alter- nators that decorate the walls and shelves. And when he is confronted with the problem of why such and Bernard A. Logan Austin E. Frounce Farl C. Karkf.r Kenneth W. Kjmpton Franklin A. Puff Clarence E. Tlites T wenty-six

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Electrical

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Repairing a loose connection in a mass of wires Close and careful observation is a necessity when experimenting with an iron coil such a part is making the right contact or why a par- ticular circuit is being broken, he may at first be ready to sit down and quit. But for the junior and senior student, these are common, everyday electrical occur- ences. He can feel under foot another rung of the long ladder to success when he can look back upon those long months as a freshman—and smile. The senior has gotten his electrical savvy not only from his daily participation in R.l.T. lab operations, but also from his cooperative work block experiences with some of the most productive and advanced prac- titioners of electrical-electronic magic. He has seen photoelectric cells and transistors at work where they are affecting the everyday lives of Rochcsterians and Americans in general. Ben Franklin would have liked that work block, on-the-job kind of education, for in it he would have recognized the old apprentice tradition, with sound formal education added to it to produce a broad but practical electrical education. So, Ben Franklin would probably look agape at the applications and tools of electricity that have been de- veloped since he caught lightning on his kite, but he would like the way the R.l.T. juicebugs are learning to handle that mysterious but useful power for the bet- terment of mankind. Students constructing a circuit for power measurements of light bulbs A radio rec eiver undergoes a routine grid circuit check Twenty-seven