Summary

Alternative Name(s): Membership Token or Nameplate``
Rectangular metal life membership token issued to Norman Beaton Macdonald by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

Norman Beaton Macdonald was born at Yarrawonga on 18 Aug 1897. His education began at Booomanhnoomonah East State School and continued in Melbourne after his widowed mother moved south with her children around 1909. He later studied electrical engineering at the Footscray Technical School (now Victoria University), graduating with a diploma around 1920. Subsequently he worked for the McColl Electric Works at Moor Street, Fitzroy. His work at McColls took him to the US and Canada in the late 1920s and to Germany in the 1930s to study the latest trends in electrical design and manufacturing. He was a keen amateur photographer taking many photographs of his work and family and acquired a movie camera with which he shot early cine-films.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE an international professional organization for the advancement of technology related to electricity, based in the United States of America. With a total of 395,000 members across 150 countries, it claims to be the largest professional organization in the world. The IEEE was formed in 1963 by the merger of the Institute of Radio Engineers (founded in 1912) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (founded in 1884). Notable past presidents of the IEEE and its founding organizations include Elihu Thomson (AIEE, 1889-1890), Alexander Graham Bell (AIEE, 1891-1892), William R. Hewlett (IRE, 1954) and Ernst Weber (IRE, 1959; IEEE, 1963). The IEEE's Constitution defines the purposes of the organization as "scientific and educational, directed toward the advancement of the theory and practice of Electrical, Electronics, Communications and Computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences." In pursuing these goals, the IEEE serves as a major publisher of scientific journals and conference organiser.

Physical Description

Rectangular bronze-aluminium metal plate with rounded corners an text both stamped and inscribed on the front.

Significance

This collection of photographs and two related objects provide a rare insight into one of Victoria's most significant manufacturers of electrical equipment during the first half of the 20th century. They illustrate both typical products produced and repaired by the firm during the 1920s to 1940s and some aspects of working life with the McColl Electric Works, such as the high number of women employed.

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