Chapter 2 : Mining Engineering and Metallurgy: 1889-1916
From 1881 to 1897, while General Francis Amasa Walker was MIT's third President, a marked improvement in the Institute's general situation took place: the financial condition was meliorating, the physical plant was.expanding, and the faculty and student body were growing. For the first time, MIT was able to devote some resources to the physical and social welfare of its students.
Another aspect of the Institute's growth in this period was the establishment of the following new departments and courses of instruction:
1882-Electrical Engineering
1888- Chemical Engineering
1890- Sanitary Engineering
1893-Naval Engineering
For the Department of Mining Engineering, 1888 was a year of major change. The Institute's Annual Catalogue for 1888-89 stated that the curriculum of Course III Mining Engineering was under "extensive revision." The Catalogue for the following year listed Course III as "Mining Engineering and Metallurgy." As already mentioned, Professor Richards's title as professor in charge had been changed in 1884 from "Professor of Mining Engineering" to "Professor of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy."
The Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy had a seasoned, though small, faculty. The revised curriculum allowed for intensive professional specialization by students. By 1888, Richards's Mining and Metallurgical Laboratories and the Summer School's field trips were well-established, successful operations. The Department was poised for further development.
Faculty
The mining and metallurgy faculty remained small from 1889 to 1916 and there were few changes in its membership (see Chart 2 or Appendix E for faculty members from 1888 to 1988). Ore dressing and production metallurgy continued to be the main fields of interest of the staff.
Professor Richards was the most distinguished member of the Department. He was able to build on years of teaching experience, which, as indicated in Chapter 1. extended over a wide range of subjects from mineralogy and mining to ore dressing and production metallurgy. The lectures he gave on the production of iron and steel were reported to have had the largest attendance of any course in the Senior year (Locke, [1934]. p. 155). In this way, Richards became known to practically aU engineering and chemistry students. It was probably for these lectures that the following notes duplicated from a handwritten original were made available: "Notes on The Metallurgy of Iron, Prepared for the Use of the Students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts by Professor R.H. Richards, Editor, j. W. Cabot, R.H. Sweetser, vi»: Tucker; copyrighted 1895."
The chapter entitled "Teaching" in Richards's autobiography shows that he placed great emphasis on observation and endeavored to "teach students to teach themselves." He continued to develop the laboratory instruction patterned after industrial processes that he had initiated in an earlier period (see Chapter 1). This type of laboratory could, with good reason, be said to have revolutionized the teaching of production metallurgy in the United States (Hutchinson, p. 420-421).
Students responded enthusiastically to Richards's teaching and personality, which accounted for much of the Department's popularity. In his professional interests, Richards concentrated increasingly on ore dressing as shown by his four-volume treatise and several textbooks on this subject.
Heinrich O. Hofman came to the Department for one year as a Lecturer in 1886. He returned in 1889 as an Assistant Professor and advanced to Associate Professor in 1891, and to full Professor in 1898. Hofman had studied at the University of Heidelberg from 1871 to 1873 and graduated from the Mining School in Claus thaI in 1877. He then acquired practical experience in Germany and in the United States; he also spent two years at the South Dakota School of Mines.
Hofman's main interest was metallurgy, especially nonferrous production metallurgy. He devoted much of his energy to writing and revising a series of textbooks (see Appendix H). His approach featured the systematic aspects of metallurgy and he made more than the usual effort to keep abreast of relevant scientific developments, especially in chemistry. Although he was not interested in administrative work, he is reported to have done it well. It is not surprising that he was placed in charge of the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy from 1915 to 1920 and of the option in metallurgy from 1920 to 1922. At the time of his retirement in 1922, he was understood to have plans for a further writing career for at least twenty years, but these plans were cut short by his death in 1924 (Locke, [1924J, p. 443).
Henry Howe continued as lecturer until 1897, when he left the Institute. His research and writings at MIT and subsequently at Columbia University helped to make him one of the most distinguished metallurgists of his time (Dictionary of American Biography, "Henry Marion Howe").
Albert Sauveur, after attending the School of Mines at Liege, enrolled as a student at MIT. In the opening paragraph of his published lecture, "Metallurgical Reminiscences," he stated:
"It was in June, 1889, that I was first admitted to the society of educated men. The admission ticket had been signed, on the recommendation of my oId and beloved teacher, Bobby Richards, by General Francis A. Walker at the time President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an institution familiarly known as MIT." Sauveur then described his pioneering work in metallography, which included research in the laboratories of two steel companies in Pennsylvania and Illinois. After returning to Boston, he continued his research and undertook the publication of the "Metallographist."- In the concluding section of "Metallurgical Reminiscences:' Sauveur wrote: "In 1899 I was invited to join the teaching staff of Harvard University and I have remained in that Institution until my retirement a year ago, i.e., for a period of thirty-Six years."
MIT's Annual Catalogues list Sauveur as Lecturer in Metallography for the academic years beginning in 1898 and 1899 and 1904 and 1905. It is clear that these engagements were only part-time. The description of the course for 1904 and 1905 states that it consisted of six lectures and eight laboratories. As Locke commented, Sauveur was the first instructor of metallography at MIT (Locke, [1934]). For the academic years 1914-18, the Catalogues list Sauveur as a Professor at MIT and describe four subjects taught by him, including a graduate course in Metallurgy and the Physics of Metals. Sauveur makes no mention in "Metallurgical Reminiscences" of his lecturing at MIT. However, he may be claimed by MIT not only as an alumnus, but also as a former member of its teaching staff.
During the period 1914-18, certain faculty members of Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School were considered to be members of MIT's faculty on the basis of the pending, but subsequently annulled, alliance of the two institutions. In addition to Sauveur, Harvard faculty members who joined the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy were Professors Edward D. Peters, Henry L. Smyth, and Charles H. White. In view of the current interest in the economics and other societal aspects of materials, it is noteworthy that Professor Peters offered in 1915-16 and 1916-17 a "graduate elective" on Economics of Metallurgical Plants.
Richard W. Lodge was a member of MIT's Class of 1879. He taught assaying and participated in the supervision of the Metallurgical Laboratory. Lodge was a successful teacher, appreciated by his students and colleagues (Prescott, p. 222). However, he decided to leave MIT in 1907 to devote himself full-time to consulting.
Edward E. Bugbee, of MIT's Class of 1900, returned to MIT from the University of Washington in 1907 to become Assistant Professor of Mining. During the ensuing 35 years, he developed the subject Assaying, in collaboration with Rufus C. Reed (Class of 1904), into an effective introduction to the chemistry of fluxes and slags as well as to a high-precision analytical technique.
Two graduates of MIT, Charles E. Locke of the Class of 1896 and Carle R Hayward of the Class of 1904, were to become senior faculty members in the 1920s. Locke specialized in ore dressing and started his career as an assistant to Richards. Hayward worked with Hofman and became his successor in nonferrous production metallurgy; he also taught metallography for a number of years after taking a private course with Professor Edward delvl. Campbell at Columbia in the Summer of 1907 (Hayward, p. 2). Professor Maurice deK. Thompson, a graduate of the Class of 1898, who was for most of his career at MIT involved with the course Electrochemical Engineering, became associated with the Department of Mining and Metallurgy. in the 1930s. The activities of these faculty members will be discussed further below.
Metallurgy Curriculum
The 1889-90 curriculum comprised two options in Mining Engineering and two in Metallurgy. The two latter are shown on the opposite page. One of the metallurgical options was a course in Metallurgical Engineering. The engineering subjects, according to the Catalogue description, were mainly "branches of mechanical engineering related to the metallurgical industries." The description also stated that the "course looks particularly towards superintendence in iron, lead, copper and zinc works."
The other option was devoted to Metallurgical Chemistry. In this option, the engineering subjects were replaced by analytical. theoretical. and industrial chemistry. The description stated that "the aim of this course is towards the position of chemist of works, and may lead to general management."
The Catalogue for 1891-92 showed changes in the metallurgical options. The option Metallurgical Engineering continued to include mechanical engineering subjects and also included considerable chemistry. In the same year, a general Mining and Metallurgy option was introduced for students preferring not to make an immecliate choice between professional specialties. This option replaced the option Metallurgical Chemistry of 1889-90 and reflected a reaction to the view that specialization had been carried too far. The 1893-94 Catalogue advised students to take the general option "unless the alternative option was clearly preferable." In 1896-97 the Metallurgical Engineering option was replaced by an Iron and Steel Metallurgy option. This and the general option continued to be offered into this century. By 1908 the Department offered these three options: (1) Mining and Metallurgy, (2) Metallography, and (3) Mining Geology.
MIT's Move to Cambridge
With the Rogers Building in place, during the rest of the nineteenth century the Institute constructed additional buildings some in the Copley Square area of Boston and others at a greater distance. These additions, however, could not keep up with the increases in the size of the student body and teaching staff and the scope of the Institute's activities. Lack of space was a cause for growing concern. As Hayward recalled, "working in the crowded basement of Rogers Building had many disadvantages" (Hayward, p. 7).
A move to a new location was first seriously proposed in 1902 and by 1909 it was generally agreed that relocation was the only practical solution to the space problem. The implementation of such a plan required finding a suitable and available site, raising the necessary funds, and planning and constructing the new build ings - altogether an enormous task. Moreover, the task had to be undertaken by a new President of the Institute, Richard C. Maclaurin, whose selection was one of the major achievements of his predecessor, Dr. Arthur A. Noyes, Acting President from 1907 to 1909. President Maclaurin recognized the relocation issue as an immediate challenge and prepared to meet it. After consideration of several alternatives, the present site in Cambridge on the Charles River basin was secured, a donor, "Mr. Smith" (later identified as George Eastman), made the key financial contribution, and the preparations for the new campus could get under way.
Dean Samuel C. Prescott, in his history of MIT "When MIT Was Boston Tech" (p. 268), and Professor Hayward, in his "Reminiscences" (p. 8), both report an incident in the planning of the move to Cambridge that involved the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy. According to the original plans, this Department and the Department of Architecture were to remain in the Rogers Buildjpg until legal restrictions that interfered with its sale were cleared up.' As mentioned already, mining engineering and metallurgy was one of the fields in which MIT and Harvard had agreed to collaborate in a planned joint school of advanced engineering to be conducted at the new site. Prescott stresses that the agreement with Harvard required that the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy be moved to Cambridge. Hayward stresses that the space in the Rogers Building was not suitable for instruction in metallography, which was assuming increasing importance in the expanding rnetallurgy curriculum. In any case, the interest of the Departmental Visiting Committee was solicited, Three graduates of Course III, Coleman du Pont, Pierre S. du Pont and Charles Hayden, and others contributed funds so that Building 8 could be added to the original plans, for use by the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy.
The originally planned buildings were dedicated in June 1916 and Building 8 in 1917. The entry of the United States into World War I was imminent. The first major era in MIT's history was drawing to a close.