A machinery engineers job was accurately described by this ad, which appeared in the classified section of the New

York Times on January 2, 1972:

Personable, well-educated, literate individual with college degree in any form of engineering or physics to work . . . Job requires wide knowledge and experience in physical sciences, materials, construction techniques, mathematics and drafting. Competence in the use of spoken and written English is required. Must be. willing to suffer personal indignities from clients, professional derision from peers in more conventional jobs, and slanderous insults from colleagues. Job involves frequent physical danger, trips to inaccessible locations throughout the world, manual labor and extreme frustration from lack of data on which to base decisions. Applicant must be willing to risk personal and professional future on decisions based on inadequate information and complete lack of control over acceptance of recommendations . . . Well, that was in 1972. Since then, however, the job has not become any simpler. The cost of machinery outages and repairs has escalated. The prerequisites required to be able to perform as a machinery engineer could even be expanded thus:
A knowledge of stress analysis, measurement techniques, instrumentation, vibration analysis, materials,

machine shop procedures, fluid flow, rotor dynamics, machinery field erection and startup procedures, and an understanding of effective maintenance management.