''Engineering Magazine'' was an American illustrated monthly magazine devoted to industrial progress, first published in 1891. The periodical was published under this title until October 1916. Sequentially from Nov. 1916 to 1927 it was published as ''Industrial Management''.
Engineering Magazine was a popular journal about
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
,
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
, and
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
. It described the system of manufacturing which has come to be known as distinctively American. Several leading authors of the
efficiency movement
The efficiency movement was a major movement in the United States, Britain and other industrial nations in the early 20th century that sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement best ...
published the first versions of their seminal works in the ''Engineering Magazine''.
With Frederick W. Taylor named the father of
scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
, the ''Engineering Magazine'' has been called "the mother of the entire management movement."
History
First edition in 1891
The Engineering Magazine started as an illustrated monthly magazine devoted to industrial progress, with its first number published in April 1891. An 1891 review explained, that the magazine is devoted to the popular treatment of
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
in all its branches, and is "certainly worthy of support by all who desire to keep pace with industrial development throughout the world."
In Europe and the United States magazines on
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
had been published for over half a century. Notable magazines since those days were:
* '' The Engineer,'' British London-based monthly magazine covering the latest developments and business news in engineering and technology.
* ''
Engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
'' : British magazine founded in 1865 and published by the Office for Publication and Advertisements which reported on developments and news in many disciplines of engineering in Britain and abroad.
* ''Der Civilenginieur. Zeitschrift für das Ingenieurwesen'' : First German engineering magazine, which specialising in mechanics, which ran until 1896. In 1853
Gustav Zeuner
Gustav Anton Zeuner (30 November 1828 – 17 October 1907) was a German physicist, engineer and epistemologist, considered the founder of technical thermodynamics and of the Dresden School of Thermodynamics.
Life
University and Revolutio ...
had taken over as the editor-in-chief.
* ''
American Machinist
The ''American Machinist'' is an American trade magazine of the international machine industry, machinery industries and most especially their machining aspects. Published since 1877, it was a McGraw-Hill title for over a century before becoming a ...
,'' American magazine published by McGraw-Hill from 1877 to 1960.
* ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,'' short ''ASME Transactions,'' published by the Society since 1880, and
* ''Cassier’s Engineering Magazine'' published by The Louis Cassier Co. Ltd. from 1891 to 1913.
Late 19th century more of these journals also focussed the impact of engineering on technology and industry.
The ''Engineering Magazine'' (1891) explained that "the magazine is founded upon the idea of treating only the principles involved in engineering problems — which are always simple — to the end that our circle of readers may embrace, in addition to professional men, the thousands of intelligent business men who are interested or actively engaged in the industrial enterprises of our times, but who are without technical training."''Engineering Magazine,'' Vol. 2 (1891), p. 280
Alexander (2008) recalled that the "Engineering Magazine was a witness to the workings of technical efficiency. Directed toward readers who were technically and mathematically trained it encouraged them to base their social contributions on professionalized status, primarily as mechanical engineers but also as physicists, civil engineers, and, increasingly after 1900, as industrial managers and governmental officials. Engineering Magazine came out monthly, each issue compact and dense, sitting heavy in the hand. It was composed of close-copy text, mathematical formulas and statistical charts and tables, alongside drawings and photographs of instruments, machines, and construction sites. Its reach was international and grounded in advanced formal training, its contributors' names often prefaced by the title "Professor." Between 1907 and 1911 several leaders in the Progressive
efficiency movement
The efficiency movement was a major movement in the United States, Britain and other industrial nations in the early 20th century that sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement best ...
published the first versions of their seminal works in the Engineering Magazine:
Harrington Emerson
Harrington Emerson (August 2, 1853 – September 2, 1931) was an American efficiency engineer and business theorist,Gantt's influential efficiency charts."
Organization as a system, early 1900
In the first decade the ''Engineering Magazine'' made an important contribution to the codification and crystallization of the study of organizations.
Yehouda Shenhav Yehouda Shenhav ( he, יהודה שנהב, born 26 February 1952) is an Israeli sociologist and critical theorist. He is known for his contributions in the fields of bureaucracy, management and capitalism, as well as for his research on ethnici ...
It is almost exactly ten years since ''The Engineering Magazine'' laid down the first clear definitions of that system of manufacturing which has come to be known as distinctively American. During the entire intervening period, these pages have been the repository of the leading literature of the subject — of the classics in the science of engineering as applied to mechanical production. We have numbered among our contributors most of the great specialists in the practice of "Production Engineering" — the modern profession based upon this highly modern literature — and the fundamental principles of systematized specialized, standardized, and repetitive manufacture have been set forth more fully and lucidly here than anywhere else.
The emerging organizational discourse was one on the events of the
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
, the period of social activism and political reform in the United States that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. According to Tsoukas & Knudsen (2005) in this period the concept of the organization as a system "assumed coherence and autonomy and became an object of independent inquiry."Haridimos Tsoukas, Christian Knudsen (2005) ''The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory,'' p. 181 One of the first to express this concept, was Charles U. Carpenter how stated ''Engineering Magazine'' (1902):
In seeking the reason for the lasting and commanding success of American business organizations of today, two facts will stand out prominently. One is that the organizations are founded upon principles that are in accord with modern progressive ideas and that tend to bring out the latent intelligence, loyalty and strength of all its members. The other is that the important details of factory work are cared for by systems which are homogeneous, flexible and efficient; systems which leave nothing to chance, but which care for the smallest and the most important details of factory work alike.
This was confirmed in those days by the editors of the ''American Machinist'', who noted that "there is not a man, machine, operation or system in the shop that stands entirely alone. Each one, to be valued rightly, must be viewed as part of a whole." American Machinist, 3 Mar. 1904: 294—6; cited in Tsoukas & Knudsen (2005)
The study of organizations, 1912
The 1912 article "The unit system on the Harriman Lines" by Charles DeLano Hine (1867–1927) was one of the first to acknowledge the study of organizations as a separate fields of study. Hine wrote, that organization has been termed a smaller sister of sociology, the science of human nature. Industrial organization, including that of transportation and commerce, reflects and typifies in a greater or less degree the sociological development of a people.
Further developments
The periodical is published under this title until Oct. 1916. Sequentially from Nov. 1916 to 1927 it was published as Industrial Management.
In Jan. 1928 the magazine was absorbed in ''Factory and Industrial Management'', short ''Factory'', which was absorbed in ''Manufacturing Industries'' in Mar. 1929, and eventually absorbed in ''Factory Management and Maintenance.'' which ran until the early 1950s. It is one last time renamed to ''Modern Manufacturing.''
Organization
Several notable people participated in the organization of the ''Engineering Magazine'':
*
John Robertson Dunlap
John Robertson Dunlap (1857 – June 5, 1937) was an American journalist, editor and publisher of engineering magazines and books."John Dunlap dead: Long a publisher", ''The New York Times'', June 6, 1937: He is known as founder of the ''Engineerin ...
founded the Engineering magazine in 1891 and remained editor until 1927
*
Alexander Hamilton Church
Alexander Hamilton Church (28 May 1866 – 11 February 1936) was an English efficiency engineer, accountant and writer on accountancy and management, known for his seminal work of management and cost accounting.
Biography
Church was born in U ...
, late 19th century for a period of seven years European manager for "The Engineering Magazine."
Notable editors
*
Arthur Van Vlissingen Arthur Van Vlissingen Jr. (November 22, 1894 - October 20, 1986) was an American writer and bureau chief for '' Business Week'' and ''Newsweek,'' noted as editor of the ''Factory and Industrial Management'' journal."Writer Arthur Van Vlissingen : He ...
and
John Michael Carmody
John Michael Carmody (November 1, 1881 – November 11, 1963) was an American administrator, noted as editor of '' Factory and Industrial Management,'' and as administrator of the Rural Electrification Administration and the Federal Works Agen ...
co-edited with Dunlap the ''Engineering magazine'' in the early days
* Frederick Remsen Hutton, in 1892 he became associate editor of the Engineering Magazine.
* Charles Buxton Going joined the staff of the Engineering Magazine in 1896, becoming managing editor in 1898 and editor in 1912.
* Leon Pratt Alford : In 1907 Alford started working in engineering journalism for the Engineering Magazine company. From 1907 to 1911 he was engineering editor at the American Machinist, and from 1911 to 1917 editor-in-chief. Sequentially he was editor for the Industrial Management from 1917 to 1920, from 1921 to 1923 editor for Manufacturing Industrial Management, and from 1923 to 1928 consulting editor for the Factory and Industrial Management and vice-president of the Ronald Press Company in New York
*
Nestor Buinitsky
Nestor Aloiziyevich Buinitsky (russian: Нестор Алоизиевич Буйницкий, 1863–1914) was a Russian military engineer, professor of fortification, inventor and lieutenant general.
Biography
Nestor Aloizevich Buinitsky was ...
, became a professor. He co-operated with the Engineering Magazine.
*
Franklin Leonard Pope
Franklin Leonard Pope (2 December 1840 – 13 October 1895) was an American engineer, explorer, and inventor.
Biography
He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in December 1840 , the son of Ebenezer Pope and Electra Wainwright. He was ...
, edited the electrical section of The Engineering Magazine.
Authors who published articles in the ''Engineering Magazine'':
* The Engineering Magazine, Vol. 2 (1891) listed Edward Atkinson,
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
Frankford Arsenal
The Frankford Arsenal is a former United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek.
History
Opened in 1816 on of land p ...
, and Albert Williams Jr.
*
Yehouda Shenhav Yehouda Shenhav ( he, יהודה שנהב, born 26 February 1952) is an Israeli sociologist and critical theorist. He is known for his contributions in the fields of bureaucracy, management and capitalism, as well as for his research on ethnici ...
(2007) mentioned "
Harrington Emerson
Harrington Emerson (August 2, 1853 – September 2, 1931) was an American efficiency engineer and business theorist,Henry Gantt
Henry Laurence Gantt (; May 20, 1861 – November 23, 1919) was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who is best known for his work in the development of scientific management. He created the Gantt chart in the 1910s.
Gan ...
,
Alexander Hamilton Church
Alexander Hamilton Church (28 May 1866 – 11 February 1936) was an English efficiency engineer, accountant and writer on accountancy and management, known for his seminal work of management and cost accounting.
Biography
Church was born in U ...
,
Charles Bedaux
Charles Eugène Bedaux (10 October 1886 – 18 February 1944) was a French-American millionaire who made his fortune developing and implementing the work measurement aspect of scientific management, notably the Bedaux System. Bedaux was friend ...
,
Chester Barnard
Chester Irving Barnard (November 7, 1886 – June 7, 1961) was an American business executive, public administrator, and the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies. His landmark 1938 book, '' The Functions of th ...
Lyndall Urwick
Lyndall Fownes Urwick (3 March 1891 – 5 December 1983) was a British management consultant and business thinker. He is recognised for integrating the ideas of earlier theorists like Henri Fayol into a comprehensive theory of management admi ...
,
James Mooney
James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the Gr ...
Fritz Roethlisberger
Fritz Jules Roethlisberger (October 29, 1898- May 17, 1974) was a social scientist, management theorist at the Harvard Business School.William Dickson, or George Terry."
Other publications by the same publisher
French (1914) stated, that the Engineering Magazine Co. has published a number of well-known books on works management. Some notable examples:
* "The Complete Cost Keeper"; by
Horace L. Arnold
Horace Lucian Arnold (June 25, 1837 – January 25, 1915Editorial comment ...
, 1900.
* "The Factory Manager and Accountant"; by
Horace L. Arnold
Horace Lucian Arnold (June 25, 1837 – January 25, 1915Editorial comment ...
, 1903.
* "Graphic methods for presenting facts," by Willard C. Brinton, 1914
The Engineering Magazine Co. in New York also published some important indexes, such as ''The Engineering index annual.''
Reception
A 1966 review in ''Business Week'' summarized, that the ''Engineering Magazine'' founded by Dunlap in 1891 "had long before become the quality magazine in the field of business management. If Frederick W. Taylor was the father of scientific management, the Engineering Magazine was most certainly the mother of the entire management movement — the family forum for every pioneer in management 20 years before efficiency became a national fad."
Tsoukas & Knudsen (2005) added, that "during the first half of the twentieth century, the rhetoric and practice of organizational systems have traveled from engineering circles to additional fields and became widely known in American industry and academia. In 1916, John Dunlap the editor of Engineering Magazine inaugurated Industrial Management which was devoted to issues of organizational systematization and became a professional outlet for organizational thought.Haridimos Tsoukas, Christian Knudsen (2005) The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory. p. 191
Yehouda Shenhav Yehouda Shenhav ( he, יהודה שנהב, born 26 February 1952) is an Israeli sociologist and critical theorist. He is known for his contributions in the fields of bureaucracy, management and capitalism, as well as for his research on ethnici ...
(2007) recalled that "the embryonic engineering/management ideas that were published in these magazines were later collected and collated in books... These books were read by sociologists, psychologists, engineers, political scientists, and became the seedbed from which discourse on rational organizations grew."
Yehouda Shenhav Yehouda Shenhav ( he, יהודה שנהב, born 26 February 1952) is an Israeli sociologist and critical theorist. He is known for his contributions in the fields of bureaucracy, management and capitalism, as well as for his research on ethnici ...
. "The historical and epistemological foundations of organization theory," in: Haridimos Tsoukas, Christian Knudsen (eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory.'' 2007. p. 191
References
* This article incorporates public domain material from the ''Electric Power,'' Vol. 3 (1891), p. 193 and other PD sources.