Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists [PAGE 108]

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war, and used first as an engine of destruction, in turn became an instrument of research and of possible links with other planets. It provided access to interstellar space, inhabited only by infrequent space pilots, and the earthly route of the earliest times of the world today stretches out into the unknown of space. Here then, we have a brief summary of man's means of transportation and their development up to the present. However, we must not neglect the existence of the transporting of goods, either as a special aspect of passenger transport, such as lorries and trains; or in static forms such as pipelines, oil and gas lines replacing transport by river and sea, as well as rail transportation whose cost is higher. These different types require the creation of specialized industries having special competency for research, manufacture, installation and supervision. Thus products and subproducts of some of these are not simply delivered, but brought right into the home without recourse to any vehicle, without circulating in traffic and all the disadvantages it represents.

BYPRODUCTS OF TRANSPORTATION At the outset, the chief problem of transportation was that of creating them: The need for collective transport was added to that of individual transport: the wagon was attached to the horse. Then, when large-scale migrations took place, the problem was no longer the creation of transports, for the ships existed and circumnavigated. The difficulties are now only those created by their number, their time tables, and their capacity and, most particularly, by the way the traveller lives during his voyage. Foods and medicines must be stored, patients must be cared for, life on board must be organized; in short autonomy with all the comforts and conveniences. Today these problems no longer exist. We go to sea for personal pleasure, to get away from things. We seek rest, hope for a change of scenery and sometimes adventure. That is what the tourist cruise is. We nearly even hope for uncertainty in the timetables for the first crossings. Commercial exchanges, on the contrary, cannot tolerate this tranquillity, this calm. Things must be done quickly: the airplane is there, waiting to take you to the other side of the earth to consummate a deal personally within twenty-four hours. It must be acknowledged that a tete-a-tete conversation is more effective than a letter or a telephone call for giving the necessary explanation or the specific change in plans. The same observation is still more valid when it is a question of colloquiums, conventions, or various meetings or assemblies. The means of transport is an integral part of daily life, and today no one is amazed by it. The resulting promiscuity, interpenetration of characters and ideas, the collision, even if only momentary, of all these personalities, is often beneficial. Sometimes encounters made travelling are forgotten and leave no trace, and sometimes the contact that has been made continues, thus creating new relations, particularly in the business world. During tourist travel, great exchanges of ideas may take place between people of varying countries. Likewise, other exchanges take place between people - exchanges of ways of living, of languages, and so on. Countries avidly study one another. Sports and politics have followed business in international rendezvous at which people are not longer foreigners, but simply neighbors. III-4