The engineer: The engineer and public policy-making: Like a gladiator with one arm bound behind him, the engineer enters the public arena handicapped by personality and training

During the French Revolution, a priest, a lawyer, and an engineer were put on trial as enemies of the Revolution. The priest tried to defend himself by explaining how he had ministered to the poor, brought food to the hungry, and tended the sick. To no avail. He was sentenced to the guillotine. In those days, when a person felt he had been sentenced unjustly, he would demonstrate his feelings by making the supreme gesture — he would lie face up rather than face down in the guillotine. The priest did so. When the rope was tripped, it happened that the blade stuck in the channel about six inches above his neck. It was the rule that if ever the guillotine stuck, the victim was let free. So the priest was spared.