This book traces the development of Ghana's informal engineering sector through stories of the progress of the actual people involved. The first generation of grassroots engineers are wayside vehicle mechanics, or -fitters-, engaged in repairing machinery. The author argues that the evolution of a fitter, from this role to that of a manufacturer of tools,
machines and equipment serving a wide range of 'secondary' urban and
rural industries, is central to progress in engineering, and that engineering and engineers are central to the development of an economy.

The laser has given manufacturing industry a new tool. When the laser beam is focused it can generate one of the world's most intense energy sources, more intense than flames and arcs, though similar to an electron beam. In fact the intensity is such that it can vaporise most known materials. The laser material processing industry has been growing swiftly as the quality, speed and new manufacturing possibilities become better understood. In the fore of these new technologies is the process of laser cutting. Laser cutting leads because it is a direct process substitu tion and the laser can...