This "laboratory" was organized in 1875, the funds needed being obtained by drawing upon loans offered by friends of the movement and by the "Director."

It was not until the year 1878, therefore, that it became possible to attempt the organization of the shop course; and it was then only by the writer assuming personal responsibility for its expenses that the plan could be entered upon. As then organized--in the autumn of 1878--a superintendent of the workshop had general direction of the trade department of the school. He was instructed to submit to the writer plans, in detail, for a regular course of shop instruction, and was given as assistants a skilled mechanic of unusual experience and ability, whose compensation was paid from the mechanical laboratory funds, and guaranteed by the writer personally, and another aid whose services were paid for partly by the Institute and partly as above. The pay of the superintendent was similarly assured. This scheme had been barely entered upon when the illness of the writer compelled him to temporarily give up his work, and the direction of the new organization fell into other hands, although the department was carried on, as above, for a year or more after this event occurred.

The plan did not fall through; the course of instruction was incorporated into the college course, and its success was finally assured by the growth of the school and a corresponding growth of its income, and, especially, by the liberality of President Morton, who met expenses to the amount of many thousands of dollars by drawing upon his own bank account. The department was by him completely organized, with an energetic head, and needed support was given in funds and by a force of skilled instructors. This school is now in successful operation. This course now also includes the systematic instruction of students in experimental work, and the objects sought by the writer in the creation of a "mechanical laboratory" are thus more fully attained than they could have possibly been otherwise. It is to be hoped that, at some future time, when the splendid bequest of Mr. Stevens may be supplemented by gifts from other equally philanthropic and intelligent friends of technical education, among the alumni of the school and others, this germ of a trade school maybe developed into a complete institution for instruction in the arts and trades of engineering, and may thus be rendered vastly more useful by meeting the great want, in this locality, of a real trade school, as well as fill the requirements of the establishment of which it forms a part, by giving such trade education as the engineer needs and can get time to acquire.

The establishment of advanced courses of special instruction in the principal branches of mechanical engineering may, if properly "dovetailed" into the organization, be made a means of somewhat relieving the pressure that must be expected to be felt in the attempt to carry out such a course as is outlined below. The post-graduate or other special departments of instruction, in which, for example, railroad engineering, marine engineering, and the engineering of cotton, woolen, or silk manufactures, are to be taught, may be so organized that some of the lectures of the general course may be transferred to them, and the instructors in the latter course thus relieved, while the subjects so taught, being treated by specialists, may be developed more efficiently and more economically.

Outlines of these advanced courses, as well as of the courses in trade instruction comprehended in the full scheme of mechanical engineering courses laid out by the writer a dozen years ago, and as since recast, might be here given, but their presentation would occupy too much space, and they are for the present omitted.

The course of instruction in this branch of engineering, at the Stevens Institute of Technology, is supplemented by "Inspection Tours," which are undertaken by the graduating class toward the close of the last year, under the guidance of their instructors, in which expeditions they make the round of the leading shops in the country, within a radius of several hundred miles, often, and thus get an idea of what is meant by real business, and obtain some notion of the extent of the field of work into which they are about to enter, as well as of the importance of that work and the standing of their profession among the others of the learned professions with which that of engineering has now come to be classed.

At the close of the course of instruction, as originally proposed, and as now carried out, the student prepares a "graduating thesis," in which he is expected to show good evidence that he has profited well by the opportunities which have been given him to secure a good professional education. These theses are papers of, usually, considerable extent, and are written upon subjects chosen by the student himself, either with or without consultation with the instructor. The most valuable of these productions are those which present the results of original investigations of problems arising in practice or scientific research in lines bearing upon the work of the engineer. In many cases, the work thus done has been found to be of very great value, supplying information greatly needed in certain departments, and which had previously been entirely wanting, or only partially and unsatisfactorily given by authorities. Other theses of great value present a systematic outline of existing knowledge of some subject which had never before been brought into useful form, or made in any way accessible to the practitioner. In nearly all cases, the student is led to make the investigation by the bent of his own mind, or by the desire to do work that may be of service to him in the practice of his profession.

All theses are expected to be made complete and satisfactory to the head of department of Engineering before his signature is appended to the diploma which is finally issued to the graduating student. These preliminaries being completed, and the examinations having been reported as in all respects satisfactory, the degree of Mechanical Engineer is conferred upon the aspirant, and he is thus formally inducted into the ranks of the profession.

Course Of Instruction In Mechanical Engineering. Robert H. Thurston--July, 1871

I.

Materials Used In Engineering

Classification, Origin, and Preparation (where not given in course of Technical Chemistry), Uses, Cost.

Strength And Elasticity

Theory (with experimental illustrations), reviewed, and tensile, transverse and torsional resistance determined.

Forms of greatest strength determined. Testing materials.

Applications

Foundations, Framing in wood and metal.

Friction

Discussion from Rational Mechanics, reviewed and extended.

Lubricants treated with materials above.

Experimental determination of "coefficients of friction."

II.

Tools

Forms for working wood and metals. Principles involved in their use.

Principles of pattern making, moulding, smith and machinists' work so far as they modify design.

Exercises in Workshops in mechanical manipulation.

Estimates of cost (stock and labor).

Machinery And Mill Work

Theory of machines. Construction. Kinematics applied. Stresses, calculated and traced. Work of machines. Selection of materials for the several parts. Determination of proportions of details, and of forms as modified by difficulties of construction.

Regulators, Dynamometers, Pneumatic and Hydraulic machinery. Determining moduli of machines.

POWER, transmission by gearing, belting, water, compressed air, etc.

LOADS, transportation.

III.

HISTORY AND PRESENT FORMS OF THE PRIME MOVERS.

Windmills, their theory, construction, and application.

Water Wheels. Theory, construction, application, testing, and comparison of principal types.

Air, Gas, and Electric Engines, similarly treated.

Steam Engines

Classification. [Marine (merchant) Engine assumed as representative type.] Theory. Construction, including general design, form and proportion of details.

Boilers similarly considered. Estimates of cost.

Comparison of principal types of Engines and Boilers. Management and repairing. Testing and recording performance.

IV.

MOTORS APPLIED to Mills. Estimation of required power and of cost.

Railroads. Study of Railroad machinery.

Ships. Structure of Iron Ships and rudiments of Naval architecture and Ship propulsion.

PLANNING Machine shops, Boiler shops, Foundries, and manufactories of textile fabrics. Estimating cost.

LECTURES BY EXPERTS.

GENERAL SUMMARY of principal facts, and natural laws, upon the thorough knowledge of which successful practice is based; and general resume of principles of business which must be familiar to the practicing engineer.

V.

GRADUATING THESES.

GRADUATION.

Accompanying the above are courses of instruction in higher mathematics, graphics, physics, chemistry, and the modern languages and literatures.