Where we’ve been, where we’re at and

In the years between World Wars I and II, the power needs of industry changed drastically as electricity and steam usage soared. Much of the needed utilities were generated onsite, and the person responsible for operating and managing these power plants were served by a magazine called Power Plant Engineering , which had been started in 1896 under the name The Practical Engineer .

But by the start of World War II, a new function was emerging in industry. A man generally known as the “plant engineer” assumed responsibility for construction and maintenance of manufacturing facilities, and for the application of all forms of energy to the manufacturing processes. The editors of Power Plant Engineering found it increasingly difficult to render an effective editorial service both to the engineers responsible for power plant operations, and also to the engineers responsible for the manufacturing side.

After the war, the publishers launched an in-depth research project to learn the informational needs of the various engineering functions in industry and to ascertain what would be the most logical approach to meeting those needs. A clear-cut picture of a new magazine resulted from that research, and in November 1947 the pilot issue of PLANT ENGINEERING was published. The first editorial described it as “a practical magazine… edited to help the plant engineer with his everyday problems.”

It still is.

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