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July 1930 449

He or She?
Recently an advertising man whose purpose it was to bring a certain giant locomotive of a certain railroad into national prominence, dug deep into his bag of superlatives and from it dragged the names Leviathan and Mammoth. Having named his engine, he personified it in the masculine gender. 
The names or their origin aroused no particular interest. The public remembered a ship called Leviathan, and Mammoth was reminiscent of the greatest show on earth or the latest talkie, but to call a locomotive "he" was quite another matter. The railroad men, who have always referred to their engines as "she" or "her," precipitated the storm, the controversial breezes of which swept through the country's literary timber. No amount of paid advertising space could have been so valuable as the publicity that ensued. 
Authorities on rhetoric and grammar in many universities, librarians, editors, and the public voiced their opinions. The pronoun "he," most of them agreed, was applicable to a locomotive. One, bolder than his colleagues, suggested the cold and bloodless "it" was the proper term. Mariners always have referred to ships in the feminine gender, for the beauty of line and lofty slender spars of the sailing ships in the feminine gender of the feminine. The locomotive, on the contrary, suggests manly attributes. Nevertheless, railroad men have, and probably always will so long as steam turns driving wheels, speak of their locomotives as "she" or "her." As a matter of fact appearances, as in the the instance of ships, have nothing to do with their custom. When a railroad man gazes at his engine and says: "She's a great old tea kettle and she'll yank a hundred cars over any grade," he is speaking with pride and out of respect and affection for the Iron Horse and all that he, she, or it stands for in the romance of railroad history. 
Kipling in his famous story ".007" in which he personifies locomotives, speaks of his hero, an eight-wheeled American type locomotive, as "he," but refers to a compound type engine as "she" in a manner designed to portray a character of less virility. Railroad men, to be sure, have quarreled with Kipling's characterization, but there are few who will deny that their hearts t hump a beat faster when they ready at the end of that fine tale: 

[[3 images on page]]
Left: interior of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, showing the projector in working position, electric control box at extreme right, and Chicago skyline painted on the lower edge of the dome ceiling

Below: Projector containing 190 individuals projectors which project sun, moon, stars, and planets on the linen covered dome

The architect of the planetarium is Ernest A. Grunsfeld, Jr., '18

Bell Telephone Laboratories. 
Captain A. R. Brooks, '17, who led technology men in a cheer, while he flew in a plane. See page 450