Beyond 1984: Technology and the individual

Medicine, law, engineering —all ihe great professions —began as needed arts or crafts. Their evolution makes it impossible to identify a particular day, or even a year, when they emerged ns full-blown kearfied pursuits. In the case of electrical engineering, however, one could make a good case for May 13, 1884, as the day the profession was formalized—at least in the United States. On that date, Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Grahmn Bell met with five colleagues and formed the America institute of Electrical Engineers, which in 1963 merged with the younger institute of Radio Engineers to become today's IEEE.