Definition of professionalism

There is no academic snobbery involved from my point of view; simply the definition of professionalism and if it truly has any meaning

My letter in September's PE has spawned the inevitable crop of somewhat emotive responses and in the main based on entirely false premises as to what lay behind my comments concerning Sir James Dyson and his election to the RAEng.

It is interesting that the responses closely mirror those sent in the the E&T magazine where I also had a letter published with a similar theme. There is no academic snobbery involved from my point of view; simply the definition of professionalism and if it truly has any meaning. If I may put Dr Douglas Morrison's mind at rest I had already looked at the RAEng website long before sending my letter. I do not regard Dyson as an 'eminent engineer' and that is not bias but a simple fact. Dyson has been well rewarded for his activities, engineering or otherwise, in the one case with a knighthood and the other by making a large personal fortune.

Correspondents are aiming at the wrong target in having a go at my views on what a professional engineer should be or if a professional engineer's background should entail some professional qualification. At a time when London underground train drivers are probably getting a better salary than 4/5 of the engineering profession it strikes me that energies are being expended in the wrong direction. I have no personal axe to grind having been retired for some time but those of you still working might care to ponder on what you expect/demand of the profession and its members.

As a further contentious comment by way of closing... the picture on the Letters page... of James Dyson with his head stuck through a Dyson 'bladeless fan'... so advertised. Would any of my critics care to postulate how the upper ring gets its primary air supply? Would they hazard a guess that set inside the rather fat base unit there may very well be a small bladed fan, without which the 'bladeless fan' would simply not function. Dyson is a consummate showman, and a self publicizing one to boot, who deserves his accolades purely on the basis of the feat he has pulled off. But he is not an eminent engineer.

Dr Colin L Murray, Wigton, Cumbria

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