ABSTRACT
D. Allan Bromley's Canadian roots explain the iron ring. He was born in 1926 in the tiny village of Westmeath, in northeastern Ontario. At Queen's University, he majored in engineering, graduating in 1948. In addition to receiving his diploma, he participated with his classmates in a private, little-publicized event known as the Iron Ring Ceremony, at which he would have recited the Obligation, an oath of professional standards and honor. The first Iron Ring Ceremony was held at the University of Toronto in 1925, with the first rings made of "hammered iron" that Kipling called "cold." The iron ring's circular shape has been said to symbolize the continuity of the profession and its methods, and the circle is also an appropriate symbol of the engineering design process, which is iterative and can seem hopelessly vicious and self-referential to the uninitiated.
