A Pioneering Department Evolution from Rural Engineering to Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, 1907-2007
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A Pioneering Department Evolution from Rural Engineering to Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, 1907-2007 By Ronald B. Furry Edited by John Marcham The Internet-First University Press Ithaca, NY Liberty Hyde Bailey, director of the College of Agriculture, breaks ground in 1905 for new buildings for the college east of Cornell University’s original quadrangle. A Pioneering Department Evolution from Rural Engineering to Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, 1907-2007 By Ronald B. Furry Edited by John Marcham The Internet-First University Press Ithaca, NY 2007 A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Cover: Bas relief faces of Ceres and Pomona, the goddesses of grains and fruits, on the exterior of Riley-Robb Hall The Internet-First University Press, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853. http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/62 ©2007 Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering This book and other related historical materials are available online at: http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/323 To order printed copies of this book, please e-mail [email protected] Printed in the United States of America ii A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Contents Acknowledgements............................................................iv Dedication ..........................................................................v Whence We Came ..............................................................1 The Start of Agricultural Engineering ..............................3 A Department that Leads ...................................................9 Service through Teaching ................................................27 Students, A Key Element ..................................................43 Service through Research ................................................49 Service through Outreach ................................................67 Facilities Begged, Borrowed, and Built ...........................93 The Second Century Beckons ........................................105 The People of BEE ..........................................................109 Recognition .....................................................................149 The Mystery ....................................................................167 The Twentieth Century Reprised ..................................168 Postlude ...........................................................................169 Sources ............................................................................171 Index ............................................................................... 176 iii A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Acknowledgements eartfelt thanks go to all those who provided data, information, illustrations and Hother assistance in the preparation of this document, including Louis Albright, Glenn Applebee, Eugenia Barnaba, Jim Bartsch, Calvin Beale, Myrah Bridwell, Doug Caveney, Lois Chaplin, Thomas Eddy, Nancy Fairchild, Susan Fredenburg, Byron and Faith French, Anne Furry, Lynne Irwin, William Jewell, Martin Jorgensen, Diane LaLonde, Gilbert Levine, Dave Ludington, Brenda Marchewka, David Orr, Allison Pelletier, Brian Richards, Norman Scott, James Spencer, William Splinter, Thomas Wakula, Michael Walter, Anitr Wilson, and Tori Wishart, with special appreciation to Professors Emeriti Everett Markwardt and Gerald Rehkugler who served as reviewers, J. Robert Cooke who diligently formatted the final manuscript for publication, and John Marcham who provided superb editorial assistance. And, lest we not forget, sincere commendations are in order for those who preceded us and left footprints in their time of their work and extraordinary accomplishments. Sources of illustrations are listed on page 173, for which we thank the many providers. An effort to locate, condense and relate information covering a century of activity is challenging. To do so accurately with fair and proportionate inclusiveness is demanding, and sincere apologies are made for inaccuracies, omissions, misstatements and other errors. Please send errata to Department History, Office of the Chair, Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca NY 14853. —R. B. Furry The author is Ronald BayFurry, Cornell University Class of 1953, professor emeritus of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell. iv A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Dedication To the faculty, staff, students, alumni, administrators, sponsors, donors, friends and cooperators who have faithfully supported the department’s mission, thank you immensely. The wave of the future starts with a little ripple. v A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Porter Morton of Groton, New York, sharpens a scythe on his farm in 1903. vi A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Whence We Came hy does a Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering exist at WCornell University and what was the vision of those who saw the need? Early in their time on Earth, humans harnessed nature to collect water, grow crops, provide shelter, and domesticate animals for traction as well as for f o o d . They learned how from one another, and in due course organized this engineering of their environment into informal programs of education. In the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the process advanced quickly with the creation of what came to be known as land-grant colleges in each state, and of agricultural research stations and outreach or Extension programs associated with those colleges. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, became the Land-Grant institution in New York State. Through itsteaching, research, and outreach (Extension), Cornell’s Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering has been a leader since its founding. What began as a farm-oriented discipline, directed mainly by bright American men with rural backgrounds, has broadened into a theoretical and applied discipline made up of men and women from around the world who work to discover how best to make use of and preserve the resources of the Earth. 1 A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry Above, application for a harvester-thresher patent, No. 2074 issued on May 4, 1841 to Damon A. Church of Friendship, Allegany County. Church went on to produce the machine in New York State and in Chicago, Illinois. The combine sold for $500, required 4 horses and 2 men to operate, and harvested 400 bushels of wheat a day. It was not the first combine invented, but became America’s first practical combine. Cornell’s Professor Howard W. Riley conducted early demonstrations of horse-drawn grain combine harvesters and also staged one of the first tractor demonstrations in New York State. At left, a labor-intensive way of gathering: C. Beals cradles oats in Central New York in 1907. 2 A Pioneering Department by Ronald B. Furry The Start of Agricultural Engineering n the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth Icentury, three acts of the U.S. Congress provided the basis for state, federal and private funds to be employed in Land-Grant institutions to further the education and welfare of a then mostly agrarian population through on-site instruction and outreach by colleges and universities. TheLand Grant Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, and written by Senator Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, provided to each state public land that could be sold for “the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes on the several pursuits and professions in life.” Cornell University, founded in 1865, is the Land-Grant institution in New York State. In 1887, Congress passed the Hatch Act, which funds the nation’s agricultural experiment stations based at land-grant colleges and universities. New York State and Connecticut are the only states that have two agricultural experiment stations. The Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (CUAES) is the federally-designated state agricultural experiment station, and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) is located at Geneva, New York. Both experiment stations have been exceedingly important to the development and mission of this department. Cooperative Extension In 1914, the Smith-Lever Act established Cooperative Extension “…[I]n order to aid in diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture, home economics, and rural energy, and to encourage the application of the same, there may be continued or inaugurated in connection with the college or the colleges in each State, Territory, or possession, now receiving, or which may hereafter receive, the benefits of the Act of Congress approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled “An Act donating public lands to several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,” and “of the Act of Congress approved August thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety, agricultural extension work which shall be carried on in cooperation with the United States Department