Engineers' Dreams Hardcover – June, 1954

This book was first written when the channel tunnel "chunnel" was still just an engineering concept on paper. As you know, the chunnel has been very successfully operated for years. Some of the other projects have yet to materialize, but the book is a testiment to the inventiveness of our species. Perhaps in time more of the projects will be completed, and others altered to reflect changing technologies and needs of mankind. For example, the floating airports once envisioned to make transatlantic flights economically viable, have morphed into the artificial island that provided HongKong with a new airport where land was not readily available on the scale required for a modern facility.

I read this book over 45 years ago. It triggered a life long interest and vocation in applied engineering. It was written in a time when engineers knew a little about a lot of things and were not afraid to think big. Many of the proposed projects have been built and others are just beginning to be realized. A few were even horrible boondoggles. This book is easy to read, inspiring and is still one of my all time favorites.

I read this book nearly 50 years ago and it is still inspiring.

Ley, Willy 1954: *Engineers' Dreams,* The Viking Press, New York. Numerous massive projects, such as placing a dam across the straits of Gibraltar, converting the Sahara into an irrigated plain, a Jordan Valley project, all undone, plus some that have become reality, such as the Channel Tunnel. Some were brought to semi-reality such as using icebergs for landing fields during WW-II. Others not mentioned by Ley are: an undersea pipeline to bring water from Alaska to California (Press-Telegram, Long Beach Saturday, May 26, 1990, p. A13 [a governor Wally Hickel proposal]; Los Angeles Times, Monday, March 25, 1991, pp. A1, A17; an overland channel from Alaska down a central part of the Rocky Mountains to irrigate the upper Canadian and U.S. midwest, the U.S. western plains, with a continuation to the Mexican Sonora Desert (Press-Telegram, Long Beach, Friday, February 4, 1977, p. A-13 and Parsons Engineering Proposal [details at [...] tunnels under the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, proposed by a builder of the Japanese tunnel between its two largest islands, among others (story with names and projects in The Economist August 13th 1994, p. 44; call to a conference on the Bering Strait Tunnel, The Economist August 19th, 1995, p. 84; fleets of floating nuclear power plants proposed by Russians, Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, February 17, 1998, pp A1, A8; massive transportation and water projects linking Europe and Asia: The New Federalist (a LaRouche publication) June 10, 1996, pp. 6,7,8 (his project to link the Danube to the rivers of northern Europe seems not to be in this issue)[see the above Schiller Institute link for more of these].

Local weather modification using a mile-high tower proposed at the Technion in Israel, The Economist June 25th 1994, p. 87; one of the greatest intellects of our time, John Von Neumann has suggested that we will eventually control our weather - see Von Neumann in the bibliography for the citation; huge tree-planting programs in China to reduce dust storms in the Gobi Desert [ 300 million trees already planted have reduced dust storms from 10-20 per year in Beijing to fewer than five] Science News vol. 145, June 25, 1994, p. 406, citing Geophysical Research Letters, June 1; bridge across the Bering Strait, Concrete International, May 1988, pp. 66,67, adapted from the T.Y. Lin International Engineering Bulletin, v. 15, no. 2, Dec. 1986. These examples, some done, some undone are as illustrations of the point that our incentive systems produce too many small innovations, and too few large ones, presented in Stoneman 1987 p. 117. Stoneman 1987 has a detailed analysis of the real problems in financing innovation, with several citations to research results and to theoretical analyses. The basic problem is that innovation is risky, and in most cases, the social value of innovations cannot be captured by the innovator. Only government can do so. Others face severe limitations in financing projects and in capturing the social value. In addition, innovation upsets the status quo, and can be opposed on that basis by politically powerful groups.

For example, spreading the human habitat over the ocean surface would be opposed by land interests in any nation. Land owners are used to capturing all benefits due to otherwise good government or from local resources, good climate, etc., and don't want to have this diluted. See also Fölster 1988 for ways to try to correct this. See also Conway 1997 *Development Highlights of the Twentieth Century,* McKinley Conway, Conway Data, 35 Parkway, Ste. 150, Norcross GA 30092 (800) 446-6996; FAX (770) 263-8825. Reviewed in Whole Earth, Summer 1998, p. 47. A good bird's-eye view of projects, looking backwards, mostly. The forward look has nothing remotely resembling Ley's depth, but has many interesting, large projects. The descriptions are brief, and say little about feasibility, e.g., page 78: *With the development of lighter and stronger materials and more efficient propulsion mechanisms, the age of human - powered flight will begin.* The ten dollar a page price for FAXed descriptions is off-putting to me. So is the $22 price for printed matter that fills 30 sheets of two sided 8-1/2 x 11 paper, well-done though it is. The idea of putting a mirror in space to reflect sunlight to the northern latitudes appears in the Los Angeles Times, Saturday, October 31, 1998, p. A2. A Russian proposes this: Vladimir Syromyatnikov. It will be deployed in February 1998; it is 82 feet in diameter; the shaft of sunlight will be about 1.5 miles wide.

See also Flyvbjerg et al 2003 for more megaprojects that HAVE been done, though nothing on the scale of the Bering Bridge or connecting the Danube to the Baltic.

Willy Ley was a science "popularize" who wrote in the 1950's. This book was copyrighted in 1954, and I picked up the second edition in 1960. In terms of science, certainly a long time ago. It remains a fascinating read, and reasonably easy. There is nary an equation for the "mathphobes."

Ley describes nine possible massive engineering projects. It was long before the Environmental Protection Agency, or, even some real thought about the unintended consequences of massive construction projects. We've learned a bit in the intervening half century about the downside to projects such as the Aswan High Dam, as well as the many other dams that dot the American West. There are potential downsides to most activity, certainly construction work, and that is what is totally devoid from this work. Nonetheless, that should not mean that we do nothing. The tradeoffs to the activities should be carefully weighed, and a rationale decision made along the lines of "the greatest good for the greatest number."

One of the nine projects has been fully completed, for more than a decade and a half. At least two others are being very actively pursued. Others are still potentially viable, and a few, I think mercifully, have hit the proverbial "dustbin" of science. Ley proposed a tunnel between England and France, an idea that has been around since Napoleon's time (which might have been one of the reasons for the delay in completion!) Ley expounds a solid engineering basis for its completion, with numerous instructive drawings. As we know, what is popularly called the "Chunnel" was completed in 1994, and it is a vast improvement in cross-Channel transport, and has had virtually no negative environmental impact. Bravo for that one.

Energy, particularly renewable energy, is a concern that has become ascendant. Ley was a "visionary" or sorts to be addressing these issues in the `50's, when gas was 29 cents a gallon. There are chapters on two that are actively being pursued today: "power from the sun," and "harnessing the winds." In my latest drive across Texas I was impressed and amazed at the number of windmills in operation. Ley's drawings did not envision the slender rotating blades of today, but he helped put the issue "on the agenda." There are two other chapters that could be pursued with more vigor: one involves harnessing the power of volcanos; the other involves obtaining energy from the sea, both in terms of the power of waves, and the equally valid, but less appreciated power between the temperature differentials at various levels in the sea.

The three that hit the "dustbin", and I would welcome any comments that they should not have, involved a massive transfer of water from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, with power plants along the way (in this chapter he proposed a similar scheme for Libya, and the Qattara Depression); another involved damning (oh, wasn't that the solution to everything?) the Straits of Gibraltar, and lowering the Mediterranean by 330 ft! Don't let the Real Estate agents know about this one... there sure would be a lot more to sell, including almost the entire present Adriatic Sea; and the third was wilder still, and involved the creation of massive lakes in the present-day Congo and Chad that would be a couple magnitudes larger than the ones there now, say Lake Victoria. Nary a thought about where the current inhabitants would go.

And there was one that science itself made obsolete: the building of artificial islands in the Atlantic to facilitate air transport. The long range jet obviated the need for that.

Ley was a visionary, with numerous constructive proposals to improve our lives. Although he did not stress the "unintended consequences" of his proposals, I won't hold that against him. 5-stars.