From the New York World-Telegram and Sun, August 14, 1961
Her Ideas Irreparable
By Ann Geracimos
Eleanor D. Allen, an automotive engineer for 25 years, admits that she takes
her Mercedes automobile to "the experts in the 11th Avenue garages"
whenever its engine needs repair.
"I'm no mechanic," says the woman who graduated from Swarthmore College
with a degree in mechanical engineering.
She knows engineering theories, but she is quite happy not to apply them herself.
She hasn't done so since she worked for the Bendix Corp. in South Bend, Ind.,
and later for what is now the Eclipse-Pioneer division in Teterboro, N.J.
What She Does
One or another internal combustion engine, be it in an automobile or bus, regularly
takes her from her house in Hackensack, N.J., to her job at 485 Lexington Ave.
as managing editor of the Society of Automotive Engineers.
"Automotive engineering," she explains, "is the study of internal
combustion engines as distinct from, say, steam engines."
For a more elaborate explanation she might refer you to Encyclopedia Americana.
She contributes its latest article on internal combustion engines. She also
wrote on turbine propulsion for another reference work. Is she an expert in
all fields?
"No, you can't be an expert in every phase of this work. It is impossible
to keep up with the daily developments. You collect material and make yourself
an expert for the moment."
Her Expertise
She edits and approves articles which are featured in the society's monthly
publication, a job requiring her to be an expert in several fields at once for
as long as the copy is in her hands.
……copy cut off…..
small engines" and Reduce distortions from girding and milling."
The Ways of Men
Each issue is sent automatically to each of the 25,000 members of the society,
only 25 of whom are women. Mrs. Allen doesn't know the other women members.
She isn't particularly concerned with the staggering proportion of men, either.
She always has been interested in science and never questioned seriously her
wish to become an engineer. Her father did, however.
"He tried to make a classicist out of me. Fortunately, his efforts weren't
successful." One of her brothers became the classicist instead. Her mother
was a librarian.
She feels the so-called prejudice of men against women in her field two ways:
for and against. "There are some who are resentful and might try to hold
you back, but there also are those who will go out of their way to help, knowing
the difficulties you might have."