PLAN No. 917. SAFETY ENGINEERING

Safety engineering in a broad sense of the term is a new profession in industry which offers good opportunities for well-qualified men. It undoubtedly offers a broader field than fire protection engineering, yet in many ways these two professions are analogous and they are frequently combined. A soldier or sailor disabled in service who wishes to be trained for this vocation may be given the opportunity. In order to benefit by the training and be assured of a good position in an industrial plant, certain qualifications are necessary.

Education

A high-school education or its equivalent is practically essential, and if this education has been secured in a technical high school it will have especial value. Men who have had more advanced training in technical schools, colleges, or universities stands a better chance than others of becoming leaders in the profession. A knowledge of the fundamentals of any of the other leading engineering professions is helpful in safety engineering as in fire protection engineering.

Personal Qualifications

To become a good safety engineer one needs to have a clear mind, capable of analysis and of constructive thinking; a pleasing personality, and the qualities of leadership. Safety engineering has quite as much to do with the human element as it has with mechanics. In general, it is divided into two parts; Structural engineering and engineering revision; and mechanical safeguarding, coupled with safety organization in industrial plants and educational methods aiming to reach managers, superintendents, foremen, and workmen. It is apparent, therefore, that mechanical and engineering technique, coupled with educational ability and leadership, are necessary qualifications in safety engineers. As he must respond to humanitarian as well as to business interests, the safety engineer must be a man of sterling character, or moral enthusiasm, and of broad human sympathies.

Nature of Work

Safety work proper is divided into two essential branches—safeguarding and education, both conducted under a well-planned scheme of organization.

In the company and rating organization field the safety engineer will make careful inspections, reporting upon many details from which the risk is determined and the rate made.

A careful study of working conditions, a painstaking analysis of accidents occurring under them, a searching inquiry into potential causes of accidents that may not have occurred is made to determine truly the hazards to which workmen are exposed. The correct means of overcoming them are determined upon and put into effect. In order to overcome the unfortunate lack of safety precautions when machines are built or plants designed, it is an essential duty of the safety engineer to check plans and specifications for new machinery, new equipment, new construction, and for alterations, repairs and rearrangements, in order to see that every safety requirement is covered so far as is possible. Safety engineers must have the personality to get the sympathetic interest and co-operation of men and bosses, and to get them interested in his safety propaganda; to organize committees and campaigns; to make men get the safety habit and think safety unconsciously. Safety engineering is related to problems of industrial management, employment and labor turnover. It has to do with welfare work, first aid treatment, hospital service, etc. It is really human engineering, embracing all the broad features that are implied thereby.

Opportunities

The opportunities for well qualified men are many and constantly increasing. There is undoubtedly a future in safety engineering for those who are well trained for the work.

The nature of the casualty insurance business is such that men with the technical training and skill of safety engineers are in more demand, in the actual details of the business, than perhaps are the fire insurance inspectors in the fire insurance field.

There is a close connection between workmen’s compensation insurance and safety engineering due primarily to the fact that the insurance rate is made to depend on safety conditions. This necessitates the employment of a large number of inspectors and safety engineers. Up to the present time there has been a demand for safety engineers and competent inspectors far exceeding the supply, and it is believed that these conditions will continue to exist, as industrial plants are now absorbing a large number of these men.

The State compensation laws are awakening all of our industries to the necessity of prevention of accidents to wage-earners. Large industrial corporations have safety departments, with a chief safety engineer and many assistants.

Capable safety engineers receive good salaries, and those especially well qualified and experienced are often advanced to executive positions in the larger industries.

State factory inspectors and casualty insurance inspectors receive from $1,200 to $2,000 per year. Capable safety engineers in industry receive from $1,500 to $5,000 per year.

The following excerpts from letters received from prominent men in the casualty insurance and engineering field show the opportunities in this profession:

“In the field of safety engineering there is an exceptionally good opportunity for men who are adapted to this work. Even in normal times employers in this field of endeavor have found difficulty in securing men with proper educational foundations and ability. There is always a demand for men in this field and the opportunities for advancement are exceptionally good.”

“The field of safety engineering is a rapidly extending one. As the people awake to the tremendous economic drain of the waste of life through accidents, more and more attention will be given to these matters, and the demand for men who understand them will strengthen.”

“The opportunities for safety engineering are as large, or larger than the opportunities presented in other branches of engineering work. The field has hardly been scratched on the surface.”

“There is without question an unusual opportunity for trained men in the field of safety engineering. The rapid spread of the safety idea, and the recognition of the importance of human relations in general, are leading many manufacturing organizations to install safety departments, and properly qualified men are not available for these positions.”

“Up to the present time there has been a great demand for safety engineers and competent inspectors that was far beyond the supply, and these conditions will continue to exist, as industrial plants are now absorbing a large number of these men.”

Physical Qualifications

A man with one eye, one arm, or one leg can be a good safety engineer. Likewise, a man with a weak heart or lungs may be a good safety engineer. Disabilities which disqualify men for many industrial pursuits do not disqualify but may partially qualify them for safety engineers. In other words, one does not need to be 100 per cent physically fit. In fact, men who have suffered the loss of members may precisely, on that account be more effective in teaching the principles, habits, and practices of safety to men in our industries.

It will be noted that the physical requirements for a safety engineer have not been made as rigid as those for a fire protection engineer. This is because the great field of activity for a safety engineer is employment at a manufacturing plant and the work can become more one of the head and less one of physical perfection.

Training

Men who have been disabled in the military or naval service of the Government and wish to be trained for safety engineers will be trained by the Federal Board for Vocational Education. The Board will make arrangements with the safety organizations of the country to give special courses for them. The teachers will be experienced safety engineers. Part of the work will be classroom lectures and assigned readings. The study of mechanical safeguards and hazards will be given in a well-equipped institution, with visits to industries for personal instruction in the methods of active operations. When the course in the institution is completed, the men will be placed in the industries themselves, under the direction of the head safety engineer, there to be given the benefits of a further practical instruction, in order that when the course has been completed the students may all be assured of positions.

The National Safety Council, through its local councils, is establishing courses in safety engineering in various centers as fast as a suitable demand warrants, and classes are already under way in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Rochester, N. Y.

The American Museum of Safety in New York City has a similar class under consideration.

PLAN No. 918. FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING

Fire protection engineering, or fire insurance engineering, is a well-established line of effort which has been raised to the dignity of a profession during the past 20 years of its development. The fire insurance inspector belongs to this profession, as do inspectors in municipal fire prevention bureaus such as the large cities are organizing as an auxiliary to their fire departments. There are certain institutions in which instruction is given, and ways whereby a disabled man discharged from the military and naval forces of the United States may be trained for this vocation. In order to benefit by the training and be assured of good opportunities, certain facts should be considered.

Education

Primarily it may be conceded that the man who has had a technical education can generally get on in the profession more rapidly than one who has not. When technical knowledge and scientific attainments are secured in the hard school of experience the graduate has paid dearly for his lack of earlier training.

A distinction may be made between the requirements for fire protection engineering proper and those for routine inspection work.

A well-equipped fire protection engineer should have the equivalent of a sound engineering course, with a knowledge of the fundamentals or basic principles involved in civil, architectural, mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, and chemical engineering. These principles can be utilized in the problems of plan drafting, proper building construction, occupancy equipment, public and private fire protection, and common and manufacturing hazards. Experience has demonstrated, however, that such foundation is not absolutely essential, and that many possessing the requisite personal qualifications have succeeded without it. For instance, many industrial occupations provide valuable experience as a foundation for development of the necessary technical ability. Men who have had experience as building inspectors, construction or factory engineers, piping foremen, estimators for automatic sprinkler concerns, and men who have been employed in municipal fire departments or in fire-alarm and signal work have been successful in routine inspection work and have risen to places of eminence in the world of fire protection engineering.

Graduates of engineering departments other than fire protection engineering have repeatedly shown themselves to be readily adaptable to work in this field, after a period of readjustment to enable them to acquire the point of view necessary to a man to whom the causes and prevention of fire, rather than other phases of engineering problems are significant.

Personal Qualifications

Whether technical qualifications be founded on training in a technical school or be the result of later effort the aspirant for success as an insurance inspector should be familiar with insurance practice, and should be endowed with a broad complement of common sense. He should have an inquisitive and observant mind, coupled with a desire to investigate the “why and how” of every problem, a constantly receptive brain, a retentive memory, and should be competent as a teacher of those less thoughtful or less well informed than he.

Above all a successful fire protection engineer must not minimize the importance of accurate observation and faithful reporting of small details which may have most vital import in determining the conditions of a plant.

Finally he should be resourceful and capable in planning and carrying out to a successful issue the details of technical propositions.

Tact and judgment must be exercised when dealing with men who may not always appreciate the viewpoint of the inspector, and courtesy is always a prime essential.

Nature of Work

It is the work of the inspector to scrutinize closely all conditions and materials which may in any manner create or increase the fire hazard, including the character and nature of raw stock or material used, all the processes of manipulation, from its reception at the plant, its handling and storage, to the completion of the operations necessary to produce the finished goods or article. The inspector must carefully note and define the hazards incident to each state of progress where physical or other changes affecting the conditions may take place. In addition to these purely technical investigations and conclusions, he should closely observe and study “shop practice” or management, including supervision and discipline of employees, as related to the cleanliness and care of hazards, which form the basis of “good housekeeping” and are important essentials in securing safety from fire in all classes of property.

The apparatus and appliances for fire protection or fire defense need to be very critically examined and described. This often necessitates going into dark basements or low pits to locate automatic sprinkler valves, etc. Water-supply tanks for automatic sprinkler systems have to be climbed to examine their condition and to ascertain water levels, and when the assent and co-operation of the insured can be secured, tests for efficiency of such devices as fire pumps should be undertaken. The nature and condition of the structure forming the plant or risk require careful consideration and full description, and finally, the information gained is generally embodied in a written report of such lucidity as to convey a mental photograph of the hazards and conditions to the minds of those who have to decide upon the acceptability of the risk from an underwriting viewpoint.

Opportunities

Fire protection engineers are employed at the present time largely by insurance companies, either individually as company field engineers or collectively in the inspection and rating organizations. Every important geographical section in the country has somewhere within it an insurance organization consisting either of an insurance exchange or rating board for making insurance rates and specifying requirements for improvements, and an engineering or inspection bureau for making surveys, inspections, and reports to its members. Large municipalities are cared for by local rating boards. Many large corporations are employing engineers, often with the title of “Fire marshal,” and others combine their fire insurance affairs, both business and engineering, in the office of a “Superintendent of insurance.”

Insurance engineers are frequently called to a company home office, after having had a good field experience, to take charge of the underwriting or passing upon the business offered in special departments, for the business requiring a technical or engineering knowledge. These are variously known as “Improved risk departments,” “Sprinklered risk departments,” etc., because the use of automatic sprinklers is fundamental in fire protection and required in risks accepted by such departments. One of the best avenues of approach to good home office positions is through the field experience of a fire protection engineer, employed by an inspection bureau or by an individual company.

There is a marked tendency among the larger insurance agencies and brokerage offices, in striving to render service to their customers, to employ fire protection engineers as a means of obtaining and holding business by reason of their superior technical knowledge.

Training obtained as an insurance or fire protection engineer is one of the best means of acquiring the technical knowledge requisite for success as a broker, by one who would become an expert buyer of insurance, able to study the needs of his clients, advise with regard to the kind of insurance to purchase, work out satisfactory contracts, and negotiate with the rating authorities to secure the lowest cost.

The agency end of the business offers the greatest financial inducements, since one may develop a clientele of his own, receiving commission on the amount of business he can bring into the office, and may perhaps become a partner in the business.

Trained inspectors are rarely employed for less than $1,200, and salaries run up to $2,400 for field men. Chief engineers of organizations, engineers in agencies, and company executives obtain much more.

The following excerpts from letters received from prominent men in the fire insurance and engineering field show the opportunities in this profession:

“The opportunities in the field of fire protection engineering were never greater that at the present time, as the public now seems to be in a receptive mood as regards conservation of all resources.”

“There is a constant demand among fire insurance companies for practical fire protection engineers. The number employed by any one company is not great but the number is growing now that insurance companies as a whole are getting to appreciate the constant dangers of conflagration areas, poor water supply, poor fire equipment, and other kindred effects.”

“There is a splendid opportunity in what is called the inspection or rating bureau service, as even prior to our country entering the war there was always a shortage of competent help.”

“In the inspection and engineering branch of fire insurance a wide field can be readily opened to disabled soldiers and sailors as well as to other discharged service men.”

“Several months ago one inspection bureau formulated tentatively its own employment plan, which in brief was, ‘first, to re-employ its former men now with the colors, and to thereafter give preference to disabled soldiers and sailors.’”

“In the field of fire protection there are comparatively so few trained men in this vocation to-day that the opportunity is unlimited. Where yesterday the idea was the protection of property by fire departments, water supply, etc., to-day it is one of fire prevention, i. e., checking the cause of fire before it may have an opportunity to do any damage. Fire prevention to-day is confined mainly to organizations covering wide fields. There is no question but what in the future each industrial plant of any size will have their own fire protection or fire prevention engineer, and probably the same will be extended to each city of any considerable size.”

“Graduates of the Armour Institute of Technology and former students who have not graduated have been in demand. In most cases the employment entered into immediately after graduation has been moderately remunerative, but advancement has been much more rapid than in the case of untrained men. A few graduates have been employed by companies manufacturing and installing automatic sprinkler equipments. The typical case is that of a man who enters an inspection bureau, and after three or four years assumes work of responsibility with a fire insurance company. Recently several companies have shown a tendency to depart from the traditional plan of looking to the bureaus as training schools, and have engaged men with the Institute’s degree, but without field experience. A large proportion of the classes of 1917 and 1918, who entered military or naval service upon leaving school, will probably be employed by insurance companies immediately after discharge from the service. There are now, as at all times, in the history of the department, applications for more graduates than are available.”

Physical Qualifications

Disfigurements or physical incapacities which are not too serious need not be a handicap for pursuing the profession of fire protection engineering. These can be more than offset by good education, technical training, a pleasing personality, and enthusiasm for the work.

It must be remembered, however, that this work involves a great deal of traveling, either about the country or locally in large centers, carrying usually two grips. While making an inspection, an engineer is constantly called upon to climb around in unfinished buildings, and through manholes to roofs, which ordinarily requires the use of both hands and legs. Measurements are made, notes taken, plans drawn, and reports written up.

Minor handicaps, such as loss of an eye, pieces of bone removed, claw hand, stiff knee joint, or slight limp, etc., need not debar men from the profession. Those having tubercular tendencies to a degree necessitating an active outdoor life, should be materially benefited, and should recover both health and strength by this line of activity. This would apply to other cases where fresh air and activity are desirable but it must also be borne in mind that a certain amount of physical stamina is necessary, and that exposure to weather, walking and climbing about for many hours at a stretch, might affect some forms of disability adversely.

It is obvious that loss of a leg or an arm, except in unusual cases, would be a serious handicap. Field experience is important as a means of training for inside consulting, or executive work in this profession. However, men who have become used to artificial limbs can best judge if they are qualified to undertake these activities.

Training

The Federal Board for Vocational Education will make arrangements with certain institutions and insurance organizations of the country to give special courses for men who have been disabled in the military or naval service of the Government who wish to be trained as fire protection engineers.

We believe that at present the only regular four-year college course in fire protection engineering is that offered by Armour Institute of Technology. Special courses and facilities for amplification are offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnical Institute, Columbia University, Cornell University, Stevens Institute, Washington University, and perhaps by other institutions.

Experienced engineers believe that men who have started college courses, especially in engineering branches, should continue them, keeping in mind the line of work they contemplate pursuing, and should then supplement their college work by entering the employ of an inspection bureau.

A course of fire protection engineering is offered by the American School of Correspondence. The Insurance Institute of America, through its several branches in local insurance or insurance library associations throughout the country, has offered night school lecture courses. Plans are being considered, if there is a warrantable demand in any given locality, to offer a more intensive bureau. In some cases these inspection bureaus may cooperate to the extent of giving a well-rounded training to a man who has had sufficient general technical education or experience to justify such action.