Electric telegraphy reached commercial success in Britain when Cooke and Wheatstone applied electric telegraphy to railways. By 1870, over 2000 men and 500 women were employed by the telegraph companies in the UK, predominantly as telegraph operators, but for the men there was opportunity to become an engineer. The term “electrical engineer” was barely in use in 1870, but the telegraph engineer had to know about electricity, which set him apart from the civil or the mechanical engineer.
Telegraph engineers had the option of joining one or other of the existing Institutions (the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in 1818 and the Mechanicals in 1847) but by 1870, felt that their profession had attained such a standing that its needs were inadequately met by the other bodies. There had been, briefly, an Electrical Society of London, which was founded in 1837, but this ceased to exist in 1845.
The Society of Telegraph Engineers came formally into existence on 17 May 1871 at a meeting held in 2 Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, London. The prime mover in this endeavour was Major Frank Bolton. He had been made an unattached major as a reward for his services to army signalling in 1868 and in 1871 had been appointed as water examiner to the Metropolis. In spite of this, his main interest was in electricity and electric telegraphs. Bolton had begun to promote his ideas for the society to possible members in the summer of 1870. At the first meeting Bolton and seven others attended. Much of the preliminary work had already been undertaken beforehand with letters sent to prospective members and at the first meeting seventy-three men had applied to join. These founding members determined the original membership of the Society and balloted for the first seventy-three candidates and blackballed seven of them. At a second meeting on 31 March 1871 there were eleven members present. They appointed a President (Charles William Siemens 1823-1883), two vice-Presidents (Lord Lindsay 1847-1913 and Frank Ives Scudamore 1823-1884), a Council of eleven members, a Treasurer and Librarian, an Honorary Secretary (Frank Bolton), and two Auditors.
The earliest statement of the Society’s ‘Objects’ pronounces that its purpose was for the general advancement of Electrical and Telegraphic Science and for facilitating the exchange of information and ideas among its Members. The Society’s primary aim was therefore that of a learned society rather than that of a professional association. Initially there were five grades of membership: Members, Associates, Foreign Members, Students, and Honorary Members; with the exception of Honorary Members, all grades paid an annual subscription. Admission to the Society was by proposal and seconding, supported by at least ten members. Qualifications for admission reflected the Society’s dual nature as a professional association and a learned society. The professional engineer’s route to membership required him to have been educated as a Telegraph Engineer and to have been employed in positions of responsibility for at least five years. An Associate had to be over the age of twenty-one and, although no professional qualifications were specified, the applicant had to show an interest in electricity and have an involvement in electrical engineering to become an Associate member. Students had to be over the age of 18 but under 21 years and either work as an apprentice under a Telegraph Engineer or was a student of science or telegraphy. Students had to be recommended by an existing Member. Foreign Members had to be living abroad and were involved in electrical science or telegraphy. Honorary Members were not directly involved in electrical engineering or telegraphy but whose work or position aided electrical engineering.
In the early days the focus of the Society was on telegraphy alone. However, it was decided that it would need to broaden its scope to include electrical science as this was a concern of every Telegraph Engineer and was not already represented in separate learned society. Despite the Society of Telegraph Engineer’s ambitious start it nearly collapsed after five years due to poor financial management and heavy publishing costs. It was rescued by William Siemens and others who were prepared to guarantee its solvency while its finances were brought under control. Once the financial crisis was over the Society grew in strength as illustrated in the increase in members, 981 between the years 1875-1881 with this figure doubling in 1891 to nearly 2,000. The main reason for this successful increase was due to the fact that engineers required a society of their own to reflect and represent their needs in a world where new uses for electricity were being rapidly developed.
The Society needed to change if it were to continue to represent the electrical engineers’ profession. This view was expressed by Latimer Clark who believed the STE’s range was too narrow running the risk of alienating those to whom it ought to attract, namely the ‘electricians’. He aired these views in his inaugural address as President in 1875 and in 1876 suggested adding the words ‘and of Electricians’ to the Society’s title. However, not many took any interest as most of the members were telegraph engineers and were happy enough with the Society as it stood. The opposition argued that more scientific questions were better dealt with outside of the Society by those who had a personal interest in this subject but Clark warned that other societies would fill this gap while the STE concentrated merely on one branch within this expanding field. At the General Meeting of the STE on 22 December 1880 it was decided to alter the title to reflect the changes in electrical technology of the day and it was renamed The Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians.
The Society of Telegraph Engineers was never a body corporate. Incorporation by Royal Charter was refused by the Privy Council in 1880. In May 1883 the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians was registered with the Board of Trade under Section 23 of the Companies Act 1867 and so became a corporation: a legal person which could sue, be sued and protect its name at law.
Once again discontent with the Society manifested itself with a further proposal for a name change. Previously, the STEE’s function was of a learned society first and a professional association second. However, there was no other organisation that could act as an electrical engineers’ professional association. The need for a combined professional association and a learned society was required. At a meeting of the Council on 10 November 1887 a motion was put forward to alter the title to ‘The Institution of Electrical Engineers’ to reflect its representation of the body of Electrical Engineers in England thus preventing the formation of a rival Society. On 1 January 1889 the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies issued his Certificate of Incorporation to the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE).
The IEE membership increased by 170 per cent from 2,064 to 7,045, between the years 1895 and 1914 illustrating the growth of electrical activity. This expansion manifested itself when the IEE took possession of a building of its own on 1 June 1909. Prior to this the Institution had relied on the hospitality of other Institutions to hold their meetings. However, with the financial aspect of the IEE increasing they were able to buy the remaining seventy-six years of a ninety-nine year lease, held from the Duchy of Lancaster by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England, for a sum of £50,000. The site is what is now Savoy Place, built in the 1880s. It was twice as large as the Civil’s building and four times as large as the Mechanicals’. Members held their first Ordinary General Meeting there on 10 November 1910.
Reflecting the change in industry fewer members were employed in telegraphs and more in the manufacture of heavy plant and in electricity supply. Added to this were a proportionately higher number of members lived in the provinces, particularly in the manufacturing areas of the North and the Midlands. They became to feel that the Institution’s activities were too London based and the Northern Society of Electrical Engineers was formed in Manchester in 1893. This Northern Society professed that it was not founded as any type of opposition to the IEE, but simply to enable members of the profession unable to attend meetings in London to do so in the provinces. John Hopkinson was President and George Preece Vice President. It was later amalgamated with the IEE in 1900, after alterations in the IEE’s Articles, and became the IEE’s Manchester District Local Section. Members in other districts had also been working towards autonomy, and on 14 December 1899 the Council of the IEE agreed to the formation of Local Sections in Dublin, Glasgow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Cape Town.
By the 1890s the IEE’s nature had changed from when it began as the STE which was chiefly concerned with setting up a learned society rather than a qualifying body. However, as factors and attitudes changed during the 1890s, especially towards the growing excellence of foreign technical education, they were determined to raise standards. A reform in the Associate Member grade was proposed as this was the means to full membership and which at the time contained a large non-professional element, attracted deliberately by the founders of the STE but abhorrent to their successors. When the new Articles of Association were adopted in 1899 they provided, similar to the proposition that Sir David Salomons made back in 1894 but consequently blocked, for the grade of Associate Membership. The regulations required evidence from professional candidates of technical education exercising roles of professional responsibility. They were also required to be either an Electrical Engineer or Electrician. This was the origin of the grade of membership, which, so far as the Institution was concerned, marked the attainment of full professional standing as an electrical engineer. For those who were neither of these but who were interested in or connected with Electrical Science or Engineering that the Council considered them conducive to the interests of the Institution, the grade of Associate was preserved. The idea being that the professionals were separated from the amateurs within the Institution with the introduction of this non-professional grade. Nonetheless, Associates as well as Associate Members had equal voting powers and were eligible for membership of the Council.
To maintain the dignity of the Associate Class they proposed a class of Licentiates. This class was for persons such as electrical engineers not qualified by age, experience or knowledge to become AMIEE or those employed in a scientific capacity, for instance junior electrical engineers and junior lecturers and teachers of electrical engineering. New Articles of Association were adopted by Special Resolution on 30 May 1912. The title ‘Licentiate’ was rejected in favour of ‘Graduate’ referring to the middle ground between those qualified for some grade of professional standing and those who were not, not to a university degree. To ensure that this difficulty in distinguishing between those who could be admitted to the class of Associate Member and those who could not place AMIEE after their name was to introduce qualifying examinations in 1911.
The Institution, remodelled by the new Articles, had six grades of membership. Honorary Members, Members and Associate Members were ‘corporate members’. The ‘non-corporate members’ were the Associates, Graduates and Students.
In 1919 the Council reported that 181 Members, 930 Associate Members, 88 Associates, 170 Graduates and 652 Students had served in the war. In the confusion and rush for volunteers many highly skilled engineers joined the armed services regardless of whether they could have been employed more usefully elsewhere. As for the Institution’s corporate life, this was severely disrupted. The membership fell from 7,084 in 1913 to 6,613 in 1917. In 1918 the examination system was suspended. Contrary to this drop in membership during the Great War, numbers rose between 1939 and 1940 by 40 per cent. In both wars there was a great rise in electrical activity, especially in radio and related fields, but during the Second World War there was greater care to train prospective electrical engineers and to keep them away from the armed services.
In 1916 the question of Royal Charter for the Institution came up once more. Other professional institutions that the engineers often compared themselves were granted charters, some soon after their foundation. Since 1880 a petition by the Society of Telegraph Engineers was opposed by the Civils and rejected by the Privy Council. In 1916 it was suggested that the IEE be granted a charter to improve the status and training of the Electrical Engineer. Also without a charter, the Institution could not protect itself in courts from misuse of the initials MIEE and AMIEE , nor could a member distance themselves from mechanics and others without professional qualifications by using the title ‘chartered engineer’.
The Charter, granted in August 1921, defined the ‘objects and purposes’ of the Institution in traditional terms: ‘to promote the general advancement of Electrical Science and Engineering and their applications and to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas on those subjects among the Members…’ It made general provisions for the constitution and administration of the Institution which were elaborated in bye-laws. Importantly, Clause 14 established the members’ exclusive right to put appropriate initials after their name, especially MIEE and AMIEE, to indicate their professional qualifications. In 1924 the IEE obtained from the Privy Council the right for corporate members to describe themselves as Chartered Electrical Engineers. The grant of the charter, fifty years after the foundation of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, confirmed its position as an organisation representing a learned profession and extending its influence in the direction of members’ education, qualifications and public standing.
With the granting of the Charter the IEE went from strength to strength. It had grown from a an offshoot from the Institution of Civil Engineers with a few hundred members devoted to the advancement of Electrical and Telegraphic Science into the largest professional association in British engineering, nearly 10,000 strong n 1921. By 1939 the total membership had reached nearly 20,000.
The membership was divided into two broad categories; corporate and non-corporate. The phrase ‘corporate member’ came into use after the alteration of the bye-laws in 1912 covered Honorary Members, Members and Associate Members. They formed the Body Corporate established by the Charter and only these members had full rights in the government of the Institution. In the IEE’s view only these classes were fully qualified electrical engineers having satisfied the Institution’s requirements both educationally and in carrying professional responsibility.
The ‘objects and purposes’ for which the Institution was constituted were defined in Clause 4 of the Charter ‘to promote the general advancement of Electrical Science and Engineering and their applications and to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas on those subjects amongst the Members of the Institution and otherwise.’ For those purposes the Institution was empowered to hold meetings and exhibitions, to engage in printing and publishing, to take charge of the Ronalds Library and any ‘supplemental or additional library’ and ‘to make grants of money, books, apparatus or otherwise for the purpose of promoting invention and research in Electrical Science and engineering.’ Clause 5 had the specific prohibition that the Institution could not carry any trade or business with a view to the pecuniary gain of the Members. By these clauses the Institution gained charitable status which exempted it from the payment of income tax.
After the Second World War, from the 1960s to1980s the world experienced material prosperity when technological advances increased at an unprecedented rate. So far as the IEE was concerned it was another period of expansion when membership quadrupled from fewer than 20,000 in 1940 to 82,288 in 1983. However, the rate of growth in membership was erratic, with the highest peak being during the forties, especially 1943-1949, the lowest being between the 1970s and 1980s. To tackle this slump, student counsellors were appointed in eighty-four university and college departments providing courses leading to Associate Membership. Much effort was put into recruiting the young and various forms of publicity were placed in schools and universities, aimed more towards the engineering profession rather than recruitment to the Institution.
So far as women members were concerned, they were comparatively much fewer, engineering being predominantly a male profession. In the 1950s the Institution began addressing itself to schoolgirls as well as schoolboys but literature was uncompromisingly masculine in its tone. Among 24,324 corporate members in 1960 only seventy-three were women and showing no signs of an increase. However, there were the occasional breakthroughs such as in 1959 when two women became Members, the first since Hertha Ayrton was elected in 1899. In 1962 a prize was established for the woman student gaining the best results in the HNC in electrical engineering. Between 1871 and 1981, 500 women were admitted to the Institution. In April 1985 it reached 1,000.
In the early 1960s a geographical pattern could be drawn to show where overseas membership centred around. Many would have been expatriates from the United Kingdom. Apart from members in Europe and the United States, most overseas members were in countries that had once belonged to the nineteenth century British Empire, so that they were heavily concentrated in the Indian subcontinent, in Australasia, in Africa, especially the Republic of South Africa, and in Canada.
The Institution’s policy changed dramatically during the 1960s in response to the expansionism of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (formed by merging the American Institute of Electrical Engineers with the Institute of Radio Engineers) that welcomed members and allow them to set up branches in other countries. The IEE’s Council, in response, permitted the formation of an active unit of the Institution where a sufficient number of members desired it thus supporting the national engineering societies rather compete with them.
From December 1966 onwards, following a revision of the Institution’s Charter, corporate members, formally Members and Associate Members, became Fellows and Members respectively. At the same time Associates and Graduates became Associate Members, but a new class of Associates was created to accommodate ‘candidates of at least 26 years of age, of good education, and whose connection with engineering will conduce to the advancement of electrical science and engineering’. Student members who, at the maximum age for students (twenty-eight), were not qualified to become Associate Members, could transfer to the new class. It was also intended for members of other professions interested in the Institution’s activities as a learned society, and for technicians.
Members of the Council served alongside non-members on numerous committees. During the 1950s the vast number of committee meetings recorded in the Council’s Annual Report. Between the years 1950-1951 there were 602 Council and committee meetings, including ten meetings of the Council itself and eighty-six of its various committees and sub-committees. By 1959-1960 there were 798 Council and committee meetings, the Council met thirteen times and its committees and sub-committees 141 times.
During the 1950s there was another change in the way professional interests were divided. The scientists were represented mainly by those who held a degree in physics. They were likely to be concerned with radio and television; with radar; digital computers and the mechanisms that controlled automation, the ‘light current’ of engineering. These engineers were catered for within the Institution by the Radio and Telecommunications Section (renamed Electronics and Communications in 1959) and by the Measurement and Control Section. The other two ‘Specialised Sections’- the Supply Section and the Utilisation Section- concerned themselves with the generation, distribution and use of ‘heavy current’ which was the business of the power engineers. By the end of the 1950s there was discontent over the ‘light current’ engineers’ standing within the Institution. There was a desire to provide a home for electronic engineers with an equal facility of entry for those who had come into electrical engineering from physics. It was also proposed for the IEE to be renamed the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, this was turned down in 1960, thus leaving the field clear for the Americans a couple of years later. Unless electronics engineers could regard the Institution as their professional home, there was the possibility that many would not join, others would resign or others would join the British Institution of Radio Engineers. Alternatively, there was the fear that the electronics engineers might set up their own professional organisation outside of the IEE. To confront this problem the General Purposes Committee set up a panel to enquire into the situation in March 1959. It concluded that if the disintegration of the Institution were to be avoided, the duality of its nature would have to be recognised. Their central proposal was that the four Specialised Sections should be replaced by two Divisions: the Power Division and the Electronics Division. They were run by elected Divisional Boards, the government of the Institution, although wholly with the Council, would have representation from these two Divisions. This helped to meet the dissatisfaction that the running of the Institution was too much in the hands of the power engineers. In order to organise the Institution’s work as a learned society the Divisional Boards were to set up Technical Committees. At a meeting of the General Purposes Committee on 19 May 1961 a suggestion was put forward for three Boards. The third Board handling the ‘middle group of Technical Committees’ that is, those which were not exclusively within the field of either ‘heavy’ or ‘light’ current, and it would be equal in status to the two Boards originally proposed. The result of this, reported in the Council’s Annual Report for 1962-1963, was a major reorganisation of the way the Institution ran its activities as a learned society. On 1 October 1962 three Divisions- Electronics, Power, Science and General- replaced the Specialised Sections, with twenty-eight Professional Groups (in preference to Technical Committees). A Control and Automation Division was later established in October 1965 after much discussion but at the expense of the Science and General Division, which was replaced by a Science and Education Joint Board. Within the years 1958-1965 the whole structure of the IEE as a learned society was transformed. In place of four ‘Specialised Sections’ there was now three Divisions, a ‘Joint Board’ and about two dozen ‘Professional Groups’. Six new groups were set up under the new control and Automation Division.
The traditional basis of the Institution’s finances was that income from member’s subscriptions should cover running expenses. According to its status as a charity, registered under the Charities Act 1960, the Institution had the privilege of exemption from income tax but restricted its freedom to engage in business activities. It was also specified in the Institution’s Charter that it was not to make a pecuniary gain from business. By the mid 1960s publications, including the Journal were providing the Institution with a substantial growing business. This was renamed in 1963 to Electronics and Power to illustrate more clearly the range of the Institution’s activities. Members could also subscribe to Proceedings, which was comprehensive or to collections of papers directly associated with the Divisions, published in 1964 under the three titles Electronics Record, Power Record and Science & General Record. Students were catered for in the Student’s Quarterly Journal. The Institution also published other works including periodicals, conference reports and careers booklets. It had an arrangement with Cambridge University Press (CUP) to publish books under a joint imprint. In January 1964 the IEE News appeared which was a monthly house newsletter devoted to the Institution’s work and improved communications between the Council and the membership. Separate to the Institution’s publications services but run in partnership with the Physical Society and then later with the Institute of Physics and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers was Science Abstracts. Since these publications provided a large income in opposition to the Institution’s charitable status and outside the IEE’s ‘Objects and Purposes’ a form of organisation had to be devised. In 1967 a private company, owned as to 96 per cent by the Institution, called Peter Pereginus Limited was established. Peregrinus was a scholar and soldier born about 1220, whose Epistola de Magnete is accepted as ‘the first serious work on magnetism’ and the IEE’s archives holds an illuminated fourteenth century manuscript of his treatise. The company was set up to conduct business in two main fields of activity: publishing and computer services (the Institution came into possession of its first computer in 1966) with the purpose to undertake these services on a commercial basis for third parties.
