Cornell Alumni News Volume 47, Numhpr Q November 1, 1944 Price 20 Cents London Navy Engineering Students Now Survey the Quadrangle New York's First Bank Established 1784 A Leader in the Personal Trust Field for 114 Years BANK OF NEW lίbκκ 48 Wall Street — New York UPTOWN OFFICE: MADISON AVENUE AT 63RD STREET Volume 47, Number 9 November 1, 1944 Price, 20 Cents CORNELL ALUMNI NEWS Subscription price $4 a year. Entered as second class matter, Ithaca, N.Y. Published the first and fifteenth of every month. College of Mechanic Arts. It was, as Cornell's Educational Pioneers its name infers, largely a school of mechanic arts with the major accent on the practical side of engineering Robert Henry Thurston construction, and under the direction By DEXTER S. KIMBALL of Professor John L. Morris it was very effective. This is the second in our series on edu- engineering." But to outline a cur- However, the work of men such as cational pioneers at Cornell. Dean Kim- riculum was one thing; to supply sub- ball writes of Professor Thurston as he Thurston and others elsewhere made ject matter, a much more difficult it apparent to President White and knew him from the time Kimball came to undertaking. Modern textbooks, such Cornell as assistant professor of machine the Trustees that mechanic arts was design, in 1898. as now flood the market, were not to not meeting the needs of an expand- Professor Walter F. Willcox opened the be had and Thurston began to de- ing country. In looking for a man to series in the last issue, writing on Andrew velop his own lectures on Strength of meet changing conditions, White D. White; next issue, Professor Lewis Materials and the Theory of the interviewed Dr. Thurston with a Knudson, PhD Ίl, writes on Liberty Steam Engine. This, in turn, led him view of obtaining recommendations, Hyde Bailey. into experimentation which culmin- but, as it turned out, he induced Nominations of others who have ated in the formation of the first Thurston himself to come to Cornell pioneered new trails in education at Cor- mechanical laboratory for testing nell will be welcomed from our readers. as "Professor of Mechanical Engi- materials and machines. This idea ap- neering." This was all quite in keep- Please give briefly the facts to support pears to have been advanced in an your choice. ing with Dr. White's well-known elementary manner in certain Euro- powers of persuasion. For in spite of R. Robert Henry Thurston was pean technical schools about the the many attractions of living near D Director of Sibley College of same time, but in this country New York City, including close as- Mechanical Engineering from 1885 Thurston's work was original and sociation with leading engineers, until his death in 1903. It is difficult to decidedly pioneer. Out of his work Thurston came to Cornell in 1885 as portray to modern college men in a came new ideas and data as to the Professor of Mechanical Engineering brief article a clear picture of this properties of materials, new data on and Director of the Sibley College of great engineer who has never been friction and lubrication. In these Mechanical Engineering and the Me- surpassed as an educational leader in fields he invented new testing ma- chanic Arts, as the College was now the field of mechanical engineering. chines which were in advance of any- renamed. thing elsewhere. At Stevens, he also He was born in Providence, R. I., in The effect of Thurston's presence 1839; then one of the early centers of began to write that vast array of technical and general publications was immediate. The University Reg- steam engine construction, his father ister of 1885 lists for the first time a being at the head of Robert L. which made him one of the foremost writers in the field of engineering. course in "Mechanical Engineering, Thurston & Co., builders of steam leading to the degree of Mechanical engines and other power appliances. The fourteen years he spent at Stevens Institute were strenuous and Engineer." And the outline of the He therefore, very early in life, be- course as listed in the Register for came intimately acquainted with the trying, physically, but they were years of extraordinarily effective and 1885-86 is in its essence the prototype field of steam engineering which, to of all such courses since, with their say the least, was largely empirical. notable production. He became known Graduating in 1859 at Brown Uni- as a leader in his profession and when versity where he acquired a knowledge the American Society of Mechanical of basic sciences and applied me- Engineers was organized in 1880, he chanics, he entered the employ of his was unanimously made its first presi- father's firm as a designer, but the dent. Civil War ensued and in 1861 he was Cornell University was founded commissioned a third assistant engi- under the Morrill Land Grant Act neer in the US Navy. At the end of of 1862 which required that it should the war, he was ordered to the Naval teach "such branches of learning as Academy as an instructor in physics. are related to agriculture and the In 1871, Thurston was called to the mechanic arts." It was left to the newly organized Stevens Institute at Trustees and Faculty to determine Hoboken, N. J., as head of the de- what these branches of learning were partment of mechanical engineering in to be. It is somewhat difficult for which field the new college was to modern educators to visualize how specialize. Here was virtually a virgin vague these definitions were and how field. Thurston's biographer and close inadequate the educational content friend, Dr. William F. Durahd, states of those days were for this task. Civil that the course of instruction Thurs- engineering (that is, engineering of ton outlined at Stevens "was the first static structures) had been taught for measurably complete four-year cur- some years. In 1871, Mr. Hiram Sib- riculum of instruction in mechanical ley built and endowed the Sibley PROFESSOR ROBERT H. THURSTON roots in mathematics, physics, chem- away in 1903 at the untimely age of the University planning and develop- istry, drawing, and mechanics and sixty-four, regretted by all who knew ment committee. their application in the later years of him. Teagle, former chairman of the the course. He found also at Cornell a board of Standard Oil Co. of New course in electrical engineering that Gubb Elected Trustee Jersey, has been a member of the had been organized by Professor Board of Trustees since June, 1924, William A. Anthony in the Depart- when he was elected to succeed the ment of Physics. This he supple- late Charles H. Blood '88, who de- mented by advanced courses in the clined re-election. He has been a College, and under him Harris J. member of the finance committee and Ryan became one of the first, if not subcommittee on public relations of the very first, professor of electrical the planning and development com- engineering in the country. mittee. Dr. Thurston found also at Cornell Emanuel was first elected to the a College of Civil Engineering under Board January 23, 1943, to fill the the direction of the colorful director, unexpired term of the late Floyd L. Estevan A. Fuertes, who had joined Carlisle '03, to June, 1944. Partner in the College in 1872. Under him was Emanuel & Co., New York City Professor Isaac P. Church, one of the banking firm, and president of Avia- greatest of teachers, who taught me- tion Corp., he has been a member of chanics to all engineering students for the finance committee and the Vet- many years. Thurston gathered erinary College Council. around him strong men such as William F. Durand, John H. Barr, Rollo Carpenter, and others. While Connecticut Women the relations between the two Engi- TARRY E. GUBB '16, chairman ORNELL Women's Club of West- neering Colleges were not always as J—' of the board of Philco Corp. and C ern Connecticut met October 19 cordial as might be wished, the entire president of the Cornell Alumni As- at the Darien home of Mrs. Richard group, in about ten years after sociation, was elected a Trustee of the Seipt (Virginia Barthel) '32. Fifteen Thurston's arrival, raised the en- University, for a five-year term, members were present from eight trance requirements and the stand- October 13 by the Board of Trustees towns, and a guest was Mrs. Irene ards of instruction in the two Colleges meeting in Ithaca. The Board also re- Belding, former chaperone at the to the highest level that has ever been elected for five-year terms to June, Delta Delta Delta house. demanded in this country. Without 1949, Walter C. Teagle '99 and doubt, Thurston's influence in the de- Victor Emanuel '19. Mortar Board Elects velopment was very strong. Gubb succeeds Jervis Langdon '97, Dr. Thurston was a prolific writer; who has been a Trustee since Febru- TV/ΓORTAR BOARD members for the list of his publications, papers, ary, 1933, when he was first elected to -**•-•> next year were announced at essays, etc., covering a wide range of fill the unexpired term of the late the annual mass meeting of the topics, numbers nearly 600 titles. He Edwin N. Sanderson '87. Women's Self Government Associa- maintained a large correspondence The new Trustee received the BS tion in Bailey Hall, October 2. Six with leaders in his profession in this in 1916; was a hurdler on the Varsity members of the Class of '46 were country and abroad.