Technical problems

There are two problems confronting telephone-cable engineers at the present time. One is to increase the frequency bandwidth which can be transmitted over a long transoceanic cable. The object is to provide cheaply for a large number of telephone circuits on routes of high traffic density, and ultimately for the transmission of television. That is the longer-term problem of the North Atlantic in particular. The other is to reduce the cost of telephone-cable communication on routes where the number of circuits required is comparatively small and the distances are very long. CANTAT will be the first instance of the use of a single cable to provide both-way communication for telephone, telex, etc. over a long transoceanic route. To do so, instead of having separate cables for the two directions of transmission, means doubling the maximum frequency that has to be transmitted, more repeaters, and the inclusion in each repeater of directional filters to separate the two directions of transmission. All this adds to the technical complexity and size of the repeaters. Their stowing away on shipboard and subsequent launching bring greater mechanical difficulties. These difficulties have been made easier by the British development of light-weight armourless cable for deep-sea work and of modified cable-laying machinery. Together these reduce the risk to the cable of laying large, rigid, steel repeater housings in deep water. The cost of the 'round-the-world' cable system has been estimated on the assumption that both-way cables will be used, as for CANTAT. The use of twin cables, as for TAT in 1956, would be prohibitively expensive for the long distances of most intra-Commonwealth routes. Two cable diameters have been considered, lin. and

0-8in. With repeaters spaced approximately 28 nautical miles apart, these cables would provide, respectively, 80 and 48 circuits using the special (3kc/s) channel equipment mentioned in the Foreword on p. 581. Even so, the engineering of the system will present many technical problems. For example, the length of the link between Canada and Fanning Island (the nearest British territory in the Pacific) is just over 3400 nautical mileshalf as long again as across the North Atlantic. It will therefore be useful to have the experience from the United Kingdom-Canada cable at an early stage in the enterprise.
The general benefit

During recent years there have been rapid advances in the design of submerged repeaters and submarine coaxial cables. Further advances may be expected, but these are unlikely to make a very considerable difference to the cost of a system of given traffic capacity. The cost of the 'round-the-world' system has been estimated at 88 million, including 13 million already expended or committed in respect of intra-Commonwealth circuits in TAT or CANTAT. The Assistant Postmaster General, in closing the London Conference, used these words: 'The Commonwealth is a social, political and commercial organization, commanding, it is true, many machines, but it is based on the spirit of the men behind those machines. When we have completed the design sketched out on the map hanging on the wall of your conference room, the cables will be used for peaceful and useful developments, for the general benefit of ordinary men and women all over the world'. That is the hope of everyone associated with the project.

TECHNOLOGICAL HUMANISM
From PROF. D. G. TUCKER,*
D.SC, MEMBER

IT is to be hoped that the publication of Sir Eric Ashby's lecture in the September Journal (p. 478) will help electrical engineers to appreciate the importance of broadening the engineer's education and will encourage those responsible for technological education to 'do something about it'. But the implication that nothing is being done at present is quite unjustified. Sir Eric states ' . . . some English technical colleges have introduced an element of the humanities into their courses'.! It was clear, however, from the Easter 1958 conference at Cambridge % that many technical colleges have
Dr. Tuckier is Professor of Electrical Engineering in the University of Birmingham t Italics due to the present writer t 'Liberal Studies in Technical Education', Board of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Cambridge

introduced a great deal of the humanities into their courses. Sir Eric also says '. . . universities in Britain are not yet persuaded that the humanities are an essential ingredient in higher technological education. Many universities do indeed arrange opportunities for students to broaden their interests through voluntary attendance at lectures on art and music and the like. This is admirable, but it is a very different thing from recognizing certain humanistic studies as an integral part of a technologist's formal higher education.' For years, however, the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Birmingham have made humanistic studies an integral part of the electrical engineer's education.* For the past two years, indeed, courses totalling about 72 hours of scheduled class time have been provided, and success in the
* D. G. TUCKER: 'Broader Education in a Technological Department', Universities Quarterly, November 1958

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(continued) various examinations on these courses has been an essential part in the award of a degree. The difficulty of finding time in the time-table for such courses is usually greatly exaggerated. The important thing in technological education is to educate the technologist. A great deal of the conventional technological courses has no great educational value and is unlikely to be used by the engineer in his later career. If he should want it later he ought to be able to learn it for himself; or he could attend a suitable postgraduate course, of which an encouraging number are now available. Thus a dispassionate review of syllabuses will readily show where room for broader education can be found. Should broader education be provided for the university as a whole, or separately in each department? There seems to be need for effort at both levels. Open lectures on a wide range of topics are provided in all universities, but it is at the departmental level that efforts in broader education can be made to have the greatest effect. In a large university, students inevitably attach their loyalty to their department, and therefore their departmental staff are in the strongest position to influence the students in their thoughts and plans. Thus in any broader education courses it is essential for the departmental staff to take a large share in the teaching and discussion. If these courses were left entirely to specialists from other departments or from outside the university, the students might be forgiven for doubting their relevance to the life of an engineer. The courses in the Electrical Engineering Department at Birmingham follow remarkably closely the pattern recommended by Sir Eric. Informal discussion groups deal with such topics as the use of English (covering the students' own composition, speaking, and dramatic reading) and the influence of the industrial revolution on literature, society and institutions. Formal lecture courses are given on design in engineering (to emphasize the breadth of interest in the engineer's life and the wide considerations of design) and on government and management in relation to the technologist (covering technologists in management, government research and its influence on industry, and innovation in small firms). In the final undergraduate year, a comprehensive course* of about 44 lectures is given on the historical, sociological, economic and scientific background of technology, and on engineering production problems. In these courses as a whole, the Department's own staff provide about one-third of all the instruction, the remainder being provided by other departments in the Faculties of Science, Arts, and Commerce, and by outside speakers. These courses are examined by means of vacation essays {in which a surprisingly high standard is reached by many students) and formal examinations. Some informal but prepared discussion meetings are organized by the students without help from the staff, and the standard reached is quite good. Impromptu discussions are, however, usually very poor. The courses are still experimental, and efforts are being made to improve them in many ways.
D. A. Bell, 'Birmingham's Background', Technology, August 1958, p. 166

GEORG SIMON

OHM AND HIS LAW

B.SC, ASSOCIATE MEMBER

From H. T. G. MARSHALL,

I WAS most interested to read Mr. Hammond's article in the June Journal, p. 294, as I have just completed a translation of Lommel's book and the copy I used also had many pages uncut. I think that Mr. Hammond is too unkind to Ohm: his personal sufferings are usually mentioned only as a circumstance to a particular experiment, and one must remember, in comparing him with Faraday, that Ohm lacked that one important blessing that Faraday received, patronage. In spite of this, two scientific laws carry his name; and had he had the means he would no doubt have completed his theoretical forecast of Faraday's laws of electrolysis (published six years before Faraday) by experimental proof. Rollo Appleyard, in his 'Pioneers of Electrical Communication' (London, 1930) confirms Ohm's date of birth as 1789 and refers to an entry in the parish register at Erlangen. His short article on Ohm is very illuminating (a copy is in the Institution Library). I am indebted to Mr. Perrin for his interesting information on the controversy about Ohm's law reported some 45 years ago. Mr. Hammond quotes Ohm's first attempt correctly but omits to refer to his first correct law (given on p. 25 of Lommel): X =~r , , where X is the strength of magnetic

b+x
action (due to the current) of a conductor of length x, and a and b are constants dependent on the exciting force, and the resistance of the remainder of the circuit. The equation was derived from the results of his thermoelectric experiment. He refers to it as a law on the same page, and it is this law which he continually applies in the remainder of his electrical papers. He never called it Ohm's law, but there V is little doubt that it is the true parent of our modern / = - . K From H. BERRING* p. HAMMOND'S article in the June Journal, p. 294, brought to mind an experience of several years ago when I became the victim of some good-natured 'joshing' about Ohm's law and, 'in revenge', wrote an article about it in my company's house organ. I have since changed my mind about the inadequacy of Ohm's sources of electric current, particularly in the light of what Ampere, Faraday and others were able to do several years earlier. It would, indeed, seem obvious that Ohm did not concern himself much with the state of the art. In fact, he says as much in the introduction to his monograph of 1827, where he explains his bitterness, hardships and the limitations of the conditions in which he worked. This apparent isolation, however, would not seem to lessen the fundamental significance of Ohm's accomplishment. It may please Mr. Hammond to note that someone, at least, did cut the pages of Lommel's book and derived pleasure from its contents.
MR. * Mr. Berring is with Daystrom International, Newark, N.J., U.S.A. JOURNAL I.E.E.

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