Uncovering the Legacy of a Visionary Civil Engineer

You may have never heard of John “Bud” Benson Wilbur, but he is a low-key civil engineering legend. In the mid-20th century, he served as dean of the Department of Civil and Sanitary Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He built several major bridges in Massachusetts and helped prototype the first wind power system in Vermont. However, I first encountered his work in the March 1952 issue of the magazine, in a silly but serious essay called “Where is Civil Engineering?'' of technology review. In it, Wilbur claimed that he and a colleague had invented the crystal ball…