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engineers develop methods and procedures to safeguard workers in
hazardous occupations. They also assist in designing machinery,
factories, ships, and roads, suggesting alterations and improvements to
reduce the likelihood of accident. In the design of machinery, for

example, the safety engineer seeks to cover all moving parts or keep
them from accidental contact with the operator, to put cutoff switches
within reach of the operator, and to eliminate dangerous projecting parts.

In designing roads the safety engineer seeks to avoid such hazards as
sharp rums and blind intersections, known to result in traffic accidents.
Many large industrial and construction firms, and insurance companies
engaged in the field of workers compensation, today maintain safety

engineering departments.

Sanitary Engineering

This is a branch of civil engineering, but because of its great

importance for a healthy environment, especially in dense urban-
population areas, it has acquired the importance of a specialized field. It
chiefly deals with problems involving water supply, treatment, and

distribution; disposal of community wastes and reclamation of useful
components of such wastes; control of pollution of surface waterways,
groundwaters, and soils; milk and food sanitation; housing and

institutional sanitation; rural and recreational-site sanitation; insect and
vermin control; control of atmospheric pollution; industrial hygiene,
including control of light, noise, vibration, and toxic materials in work

areas; and other fields concerned with the control of environmental
factors affecting health. The methods used for supplying communities
with pure water and for the disposal of sewage and other wastes are
described separately.

Telemetry
Telemetry is the use of electrical or electronic equipment for
detecting, collecting, and processing physical data of one form or

another at a given site, and then relaying this data to a receiving station
at another site where the data can be recorded and analyzed. One
obvious use of telemetry, for example, is in the measuring, relaying, and

recording of physical conditions encountered or produced by high-speed
aircraft, rockets, and spacecraft. Such data might include air
temperatures, wind speeds, or radiation intensities in outer space.

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