Engineers cast in role of action heroes for 125th anniversary

Emily Smith
ASME NEWS

In coming up with ways to celebrate the Society's 125-year commitment to the mechanical engineering profession, Vince Wilczynski drew on an idea at least as old as ASME — the comic strip.

"Heroes of Engineering" documents well-known figures in engineering history.

And by recasting engineers in the largely unheralded role of everyday action heroes, the strip, which made its online debut in January, may end up serving another equally important purpose — inviting young minds into the world of engineering.

In 12 monthly installments, the "Heroes of Engineering" strip will take readers through 125 years of engineering history a decade at a time, beginning in 1890. Instead of fighting to bring down evil characters, the heroes in this series work to bring down evil practices, such as the industrial world's reliance on child labor. They use a powerful secret weapon known only to engineers — technology.

The hero in the "Closing the Gap Between Practice and Theory" strip that appeared in January is Robert Thurston, who learned basic mechanics in his father's steam engine factory — and went on to teach engineering principles, invent steam-engine improvements, and, as a founding member, serve as the Society's first president.

The hero in "The Automatic Glassblower" is Michael Owens. His schooling in the art of bottle making began at age 10, when he was hired to shovel coal into a furnace, and continued into adulthood, when he took his ideas for making bottles faster and cheaper to a team of engineers. His idea for the machine the engineers created was patented in 1895.

When Owens began his glassblowing education, six people were needed to produce a single glass bottle. Because only two people were needed to man Owens's glassblowing machine, child labor became extinct in the industry. The machine made bottles so fast that the price of glass was lowered. That lower price led to the increased use of glass in the packaging of food and medicine. The machine, landmarked by ASME in 1983, was sold around the world. Today, his company is known as Owens-Corning.

As the heroes of "Wind Tunnel Visionaries," this month's installment, the Wright brothers discover the failure that can occur when the accuracy of well-established technical formulas is assumed. After several failed flight attempts, the Wrights tested Smeaton's Coefficient themselves using a novel method — the wind tunnel — and found that the Coefficient was off considerably.

"Heroes of Engineering" is produced by a three-person team. Wilczynski, an ASME member and professor of mechanical engineering at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, provides the technical story line. Ron Spellman, a U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer who created "Astonishing Sea Stories," a comic featuring historical Coast Guard heroes that appears in the monthly Coast Guard Magazine, handles the artwork. Prior to publication, ASME Fellow Larry Lee reviews each strip to ensure its historical accuracy.

Wilczynski is a member of ASME's 125th anniversary steering committee and the current vice president of ASME's Board on Pre-College Education. He credits ASME's History and Heritage Committee with giving him the historical perspective to create the story line.

"The center provided a wealth of information that made this project doable," Wilczynski said.

When The New York Times considered the comic strip interesting enough to be profiled in its Science Times section last month, Wilczynski's response reflected the sentiments that Thurston, Owens and the Wright brothers may have expressed upon their successes: "Perhaps, this wacky idea wasn't so wacky after all."

The "Heroes of Engineering" comic strip series is available for viewing at www.asme.org/anniversary. It will be updated monthly and will remain available for viewing for the foreseeable future.

 

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