The first article I ever published was in the April 1975 issue of the Rensselaer Engineer, a quarterly magazine published by the Rensselaer Union, the organization of students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

My topic was Criticality Accidents: Administrative Failure” in which I described a few incidents where reliance on administrative controls had resulted in runaway nuclear chain reactions (prompt criticality), with high radiation exposure and death. This was where I first expressed my opinion that “safety by design” is essential, closing with:

if you believe Murphy’s Law, “In the course of human eventsm if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong,” administrative control is not a means of preventing an accident, but a means of guaranteeing one.

But probably more interesting is the flashback to 50 years ago as represented by the articles and advertisements. In addition to my article, topics included:

• An editorial emphasized the importance of communication, a point that was still controversial when I spoke at RPI in April.
• Because of the 1973 oil crisis and oil embargo, there was intense interest in energy, with articles on both solar and nuclear energy.
• There was a debate on labor relations with viewpoints from faculty and administration.
• The independent development of social fraternities at RPI, with little involvement from the Institute was described.
• And most telling of the times was an interview with the first female dean, the late Sandra Gull.

The magazine was supported by advertisements from important employers of RPI grads, such as Sikorsky, General Electric, Bell Telephone, Timken Bearings, and Union Carbide. The nuclear Navy took a two-page spread in the centerfold with a postpaid reader response card. Of course the calculator debate was represented by both Hewlett Packard and Texas Instruments — no Keuffel & Esser slide rules in this issue. And truly reflective of the times was a sexist ad from The Asphalt Institute.

Have a look.