Rebecca Sparling

Sparling began her career working in foundries in the South and the Midwest for 10 years.[17] She started at the American Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Birmingham, Alabama, which helped her gain experience working with metal alloys.[3] She then became a metallurgist at Lakeside Malleable Casting Co. in Racine, Wisconsin, developing special alloyed malleable irons and learning the oil and whiting technique used in the automotive and railroad industries.[2]

Sparling later moved to Detroit and began consulting for Cadillac, Ford, McCord Radiator, and more on the commercial performance of special materials in severe environments.[17] Her failure investigations as a consultant demonstrated that the failures were often due to incorrect selection or usage of materials for a specific application, not the intrinsic characteristics of the materials themselves.[3]

As a metallurgist for the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. for one year, Sparling also tested and troubleshooted anti-aircraft guns and worn barrels.

Sparling worked at Northrop's Turbodyne division (today Northrop Grumman), specifically on developing and manufacturing gas turbines. While working there as chief metallurgist and head of the materials and process engineering group, Sparling advised designers on the selection of materials, tested incoming parts, and managed the metallurgical laboratory.[2][14]

In her role, Sparling recommended materials and certain design specifications. One key accomplishment was establishing the effects of manufacturing variables on high-temperature metals, such as S-816 and N-155.[3] By setting the allowable stress as a dynamic, not static, variable, Sparling could monitor how the material's performance output dynamically changed based on the input variables, such as time, temperature, and load settings.[3]

Sparling (published as Smith at the time) and D.C. Erdman co-authored the first paper on immersed ultrasonic inspection, or “immersed scanning,” that used crystals separated by liquid from the test sample.[14] It was published in 1949 in The Iron Age.[14] This non-destructive test method was first employed on turbine wheels, enabling the wheels to be verified for their functionality without damaging the part.[2][3][14] In 1949, Sparling was brought in to the Los Angeles field office as a speaker and trainer to train the Air Materiel Command on ultrasonic inspection, and explain the benefits and techniques of this new method.[3]

Later, as Staff Structures Engineer reporting to the Chief of Structures, Sparling directed the Air Force Cast Wing project. By optimizing the manufacturing process variables to a repeatable process, Sparling and a commercial vendor achieved a structurally robust casting that met critical dimensional specifications.[3] Sparling supervised the design and magnesium casting of an aluminum wing over 16 feet long, ranging from ¼” to ½” thickness and 3 to 4 feet wide.[1] By improving the casting techniques, Sparling and her team created a two-part wing that replaced a previous hundred-part wing.[3] This innovation simplified the design and made it less expensive to manufacture.

"One  of  the  main contributors  to  materials research at Convair [acquired by General Dynamics in 1953] Pomona [site location], Sparling is  particularly  known  for  her  work  in  high-temperature  metallurgy,  gas  turbine  development  and  nondestructive  testing," stated a 1957 Convair internal newsletter.[12] As a Design Specialist and Staff Consultant on process and reliability, Sparling also became the head of an Army Mission Command project.[12] There, she continued her work in establishing standards by developing military standards for corrosion prevention.[3][18]

Her work at the Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant also included selecting and developing materials for use, developing radioactive and other innovative test techniques, and strategic long-term forecasting on materials requirements for missiles and other special ordnance weapons for the United States Navy.[3]

Sparling made an impact on not just her company, but her industry as a whole. For five years, she represented General Dynamics as a member of the materials and structures Research and Testing Committee of the Aerospace Industries Association. Sparling often spoke for the missile industry at technical meetings and before government panels.[3] She also presented on "Metallurgy in the Space Age" at the San Gabriel Valley chapter of the Society for Advancement of Material and Process Engineering in 1963.[19]

When nominating Sparling for the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award, Sparling's nominator stated that “Sparling…enjoys the well-earned respect and acceptance of engineers, both men and women, throughout the world.”[3]

From 1968 to 1981, Sparling brought her engineering knowledge to civic activities in energy and the environment. She served on advisory committees to the California Energy Commission, and on the Energy Management Task Force for the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.[3] From 1979 to 1981, Sparling emphasized the interdependence of the world with regards to strategic materials as a group leader in the Foreign Policy Association.[3]

Other Involvement from 1968 to 1974

• 1969: Charter member and air pollution chairman of the Desert Conservation Environmental Association[3]
• 1972: Co-Chairman of the San Bernardino County Scientific Committee[3]
• 1973: Member and engineer on San Bernardino County Air Pollution Appeals Board[3]

Sparling was well known for her engineering prowess, but equally for her advocacy of science and engineering education for students, and especially women, for more than 30 years.[5] Though she retired in 1968, Sparling continued to consult in the engineering field and offered career guidance to the Los Angeles professional section of the Society for Women Engineers and K-12 students. Sparling actively promoted women judges at the LA County Fair and various science fairs in her local area. Once, when sharing what led her to engineering, Sparling explained, “My curiosity about the world around me caused me to study chemistry and physics, and the application of these sciences to industrial production led me into engineering.”[20]

Among her over 16 speaking engagements or publications in this area, Sparling also arranged for speakers at the 1963 National Conference on Women in Engineering on the University of Southern California (USC) campus.[21] She served on the Advisory Committee for East Los Angeles College in 1962. In 1963–64, Sparling served on the state-wide informal Advisory Committee on Technical Education for the California Dept. of Education.[19] Between 1975 and 1978, she also represented California's 31,000 members of the American Association of University Women before the State Energy Commission.[22]

In 1964, Sparling was invited to share her engineering experiences with students at the first ever International Conference of Women and Scientists in New York, which is still held to this day.[4][20] The conference chair, Ruth Shafer, told her in a letter: "How lucky we are to have you on the team."[3]

At the conference, Sparling explained her attitude toward work: “Sometimes I've been tired, or frustrated, or discouraged when I could not immediately find the answer to a problem; but I have never been bored, and have never felt that what I was doing was unimportant... Every day brings new inventions, new discoveries in processing and treatment, new opportunities to learn."[20]

Sparling pioneered the visible, liquid dye penetrant inspection method for aerospace applications, which became "one of the most commonly used techniques for surface discontinuity inspection," or checking important surfaces for small cracks.[1][2] A 1950 article written by Sparling (as R.H. Smith) was thought to be the first description of the liquid dye penetrant method –  later called Dy-Chek.[23][24] Dy-Chek was first developed at Northrop by Sparling and her team around 1948 because she was "concerned about cracks forming on turbine blades" of the jet engines she was testing.[2] This development filled "an important need that Northrop recognized."[2][3] Later, Sparling wrote the chapter on “Liquid-Penetrant Interpretation of Penetrant Indications” in the 1959 Nondestructive Testing Handbook published by the Society for Nondestructive Testing.[3][25]

Except for two chapters on pattern design and malleable casting design, Sparling wrote the entire manuscript of American Malleable Iron – A Handbook, published by the Malleable Founders' Society, from 1942 to 1944.[3][26] Sparling wrote 14 chapters on malleable iron, its properties, recommendations to users of malleable iron castings, the manufacture and metallurgy of malleable iron, applications, specifications, and more.[26] The handbook was the first comprehensive revision to the book in 20 years.[1]

In 1949, Sparling became a registered mechanical engineer, making her one of the first women in California to be issued a professional engineer (P.E.) license.[9][27] Her license number was 8475.[9]

In addition, Sparling became a Fellow of the American Society for Metals at the 1972 Metals Congress for her “effective contributions in moving new developments in materials and processes from research into practice."[3] She was the only woman to receive an honor at the Metals Congress that year.[3]

In 1972, Sparling served as the only woman advisor on the Scientific Committee on Air Pollution in San Bernardino.[3]

Sparling married Edwin K. Smith in 1935. Her son Douglas was born in 1938. She divorced Smith in 1947 and married Joseph E. Sparling in 1948, changing her surname to Sparling.[1] Due to this, some articles and publications written by her use the surname of either Smith or Sparling.

Sparling resided with her retired husband, Joe, in Laguna Hills, California until she passed away in 1996.[1] She was survived by her husband and their son, Douglas K. Smith, PhD who has a doctorate in Computer Science from Purdue University.[32] He was an associate professor of business, from 1971 retiring in 2001, and the Director of the Computer Center at the Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana.[33]

SWE received a bequest in the amount of $68,593 from the Rebecca Sparling estate in 1998, two years after she died.[1]