PRESIDENT, SECRETARY, I'~
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~ .-:/t, r'j; ~assaehusetts Institute of Te, , . ) -~ S~ JUN |~3~ REPORTS f OF THE . , . ~ k PRESIDENT, SECRETARY, i'~ AND r ~ ~ "r [~ DEPARTMENTS.~ ':- ~!! [ 1871-72. ~ ,:rI~,~:~ . _ '-;2 ~-. / l BOSTON: PRESS OF A. A. K;INGMAN. 1872. i "7-1"11 MASSACHUSETTS STITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. PRESIDENT'S REPORT. To the CorToration qf the Institute. G~NTLE~Z~.~":--Your attention is respectfully invited to the accompanying reports, as carefully prepared statements of the condition of the depar~tments to which they relate, and leaving but little to be said in addition. Since tile report of the department of Mining a~.t Metallurgy was put in type, Mr. Samuel Bachelder, of Cambridge, has presentedto the Institute his very ingenious dynamometer, which accurately weighs all the power transmitted through it. This will enable the department to keep an exact record of all the power used in the mining and metallurgcial laboratory in run- ning all or any of the machines in use. We have also received a Blake crusher, size 3 rF by 5", and a 12 inch Whelpley and Storer dry pulverizer. The new smelting and blast furnace~ have been fully designed by Pros Ordway~ and their construc- tion begun. Our thanks are due to H. J. Booth & Co., of the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California, for a very large and generous reduction in the price of the machinery furnished by them; and it is but justice to I. M. Scott, Esq, of that fil~n, who designed and built the five-stamp battery now in our laboratory, expressly for the Institute, to say that it is complete in all its parts, and gives entire satisfaction. Our thanks are also due to Col. ft. ft. Storer, for a lal~e reduction in the price of his pulverizer. Pror Henck and a po,a.ty of fifteen students in the department of Civil Engineering left Boston, on Thursday, the 6th of ffune, for tim purpose of making a systematic study of the great rail- road bridges over the I-Iudson, Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri ri~;ers. On the way out each bridge w~ll be examined by the whole party under Prof. Henck's direction, and a particular bridge assigned to each student, whieh he will be required to study, in greater detail oll his retm'n; obtainlng sketches and measurements of foundations and srperstructure, and all the data for making a full report, accompanied with drawings of plan, elevation~ sections, and all details necessary for the con- struction. We hope to do this summer for bridge construction, what was done the last for Mining Engineering and Metallurgy. It is proposed, hereafter, to make bridge construction a very im- portant element in the course, and to this end it is earnestly recommended that models of all the important types of AmeK- can bridges be supplied to the department as soon as possible. We are well supplied with excellent field instruments, and the number is~increased as fast as needed ; but we have been, and still are, dependent upon the kindness of Prof. Peirce, Sup't. of the CoasL Survey, for the use of a base-line measure, and a large altitude and azimuth instrument for triangulation, and for obtahling astronomical data for positions. It is most convenient for the department to use these instruments at tl{e time when the subjects properly come in the course, and not when they can be best spared, if at all, by the Survey; and on this account it is very desirable that they be added to the collections of the department. The work in the department of Drawing, both fi'ee-hand and mechanical, has upon the whole, been well maintained. Mr. I ! Schubel"~ was absent last year for the purpose of study, and the break in the fi'ee-hand work, thus caused, has not been fully made up during the session just ended; but it is already evident that the department will be a great gainer in the end by the increased knowledge and appliances for instruction, which ZIr. Schubert brought back as the fruit of his year's study in the cele- brated art school of Nuremberg. The work in Descriptive Geometry and Stereotomy and the corresponding courses in Mechanical Drawing~ will hereafter be under the same direction dm'ing the whole fore" years, which is expected to result in an iniprovement. I am authorized by I-Ion. Jolm Amory Lowell to announce that it is his intention to establish courses of instruction in the Institute in Ddsigning as applied to the Industrial Arts. These courses will be duly announced. The Faculty of the School of file Institute has been increased during the past ),ear by the appointment of Thomas Sterry Hunt as Professor of Geology, George H. Howison as Pro- fessor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science, and S. Edward Warren, as Professor of Descriptive Geometry, Stereotomy and Drawing. These gentlemen, eminent in their respective depart- ments, will enter upon their duties with the new year. At the recent entrance examinations, held June 8, and- the following days, sixty-four applicants were admitted, sixty-two to the first year's class, and two to the second; an increase of thirteen over the corresponding examinations of last year. If the same proportional increase shall hold at the fall examina- tions the new class will largely exceed one hundred, and we shall be obliged to consider the question of a new building to meet the growing demands for space in which to properly carry on our work, It gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to say that the most friendly and cordial relations continue to prevail between teachers and students, and that the l~ast year's work in aU departments has been of the most satishctory character. \ In accordance with your vote, the following brief sketch is appended for those who are interested in the origin and prog- ress of the Institute in its several departments. In the years 1858 and 59, an association of gentlemen re- siding in and near Boston, interested in the professional appli- cafi.ons of science, and in the practical and fine arts, conceived the idea of securing the proper site on which to erect, in close proximity, such buildings as might be suitable and necessary for the purpose of the musemns .and collections of the Natural History Society, the Horticultural Society, and such others as might be formed representing the Industri~ and Fine Arts, so as by their union and coSperation to constitute a comprehensive Museutn, or Conservatory of Arts and Sciences. 1 With this view, aider organizing as a "Committee of Associ- ated Institutions," Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Chairman, and Dr. Samuel Kneeland, Secretary, they petitioned the Legisla- I ture for a grant of land on the Back Bay, on which to erect buildings suitable for the proposed purposes. At about the same time, Mr. William E. Baker had also suggested the desirableness of building up in some convenient location in Boston a Conservatory of Arts, and published some numbers of a Journal in advocacy and aid of the idea. The time, however, seemed not yet to have come ; the Leg- islature refused to make the gTant of laud, but the Committee, instead of being disheartened, redoubled their efforts. Aboutthis time the matter was brought to the attention of Prof. William B. Rogers, whose deep interest in such subjects, and whose ability to aid in devising and consummating the proper plans to secure the desired ends, were well "known. I-Ie prepared a memorial to the Legislature of 1860, which was adopted by the Committee. In this memorial we find the first suggestion of a School of Applied Science, in tlm plea for the early es~blishment of a "Comprehensive Polytechnic Col- lege," furnishing a "complete systeni of" industrial education supplementary to the general training of the other institutions, ? f !. and fitted to equip its students with every scientific and techni- nical principle applicable to the industrial pro'suits of the age." This, like the previous effort, failed to secure the favor of the Legislature, but it attracted attention to the growing im- portance of practical education, and led the way to the more definite scheme of organization which was developed in a Report by Prof. Rogers, and "tdopted by the Committee in the autumn of 1860. This Report, entitled " Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology; including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School of Industrial Science," was read at a meeting of gentlemen interested in the establishment of an Institute of Technology~ held at the rooms of the Board of Trade, October 5, 1860, and, on vote, was approved, and'its publication recommended. The wide ch'culation of this able repo:% accompanied by an appeal to the public for co~iperation mad support, led to the calling of a meeting on Jan. 11, 1861, at Mercantile Hall, Smnmer St., "for the purpose of adopting measures preliminary to the organization of the Institute, and in furtherance of a petition to the Legislature for a charter, and a portion of the Back Bay lands." The number of subscribers at this time amounted to 209. The meeting was held at the appointed time ; and after an exposition, by the Chairman, of the previous action and future purposes of the Committee, and interesting addresses by P.ros Peirce, Rev. Dr. Gannett, and others, in behalf of the Insti- tute, a preliminary organization was established by adopting the following form of association, to which the names of those present were affixed:-- "We tlle subscribers, feeling a deep interest in promoting the Industrial Arts and Sciences .as well .as Practical Education, heartily approve the objects and plan of an Institute of Technology, embracing a Society of Arts~ a ~luseum of Arts~ and a School of'Industrial Science,