An IEEE centennial retrospective

The year 1984 was the centennial year for the AIEE which merged with the IRE in 1963 to form the IEEE. During those same hundred years, electrical science and engineering made dramatic advances. This article sets forth the proposition that scientific discovery must precede invention and application for orderly progress to occur and provides numerous examples of discoveries which support this proposition. The article further suggests that the manner in which the IEEE came into being was profoundly influenced by this orderly progress.