Chapter 6: The Flowering of Metallurgy: 1951-1962
General
During the early postwar years, extensive educational and administrative changes-had taken place at MIT. The Department of Metallurgy had accommodated a greatly enlarged student body and had revised its educational objectives. The Department's scientific and technical programs had grown in range and depth compared to the prewar years. Promotions and appointments were being made and a new Department head was introducing new policies and a new style.
On the national level, the Bush Committee's report "Science, the Endless Frontier" (1945) had set the stage for a national science policy The Office of Naval Research, established in August 1946, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), established in May 1950, were the major government agencies carrying out this policy through sponsored research. They were joined by specialized agencies such as the Atomic Energy Commission and later the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as well as by the scientific and technological arms of government departments, in particular the Department of Defense.
By the early 1950s, major scientific and technological developments in metallurgy and other solid-state disciplines had become widely accepted. Dislocation theory was maturing and other theories such as nucleation theory were being tested experimentally. Physical ceramics was emerging as a new subdiscipline. Zone refining had been discovered. Semiconducting materials were being investigated and applied (p-n transistor in 1949; junction transistor in 1951). Research in polymer chemistry and development of polymer applications continued actively.
In summary, conditions in the early 1950s were uniquely favorable for the development of metallurgy and solid-state science and technology generally. Academic departments of metallurgy benefitted from these conditions. At MIT, the size of the Departmental faculty increased, the educational program expanded, funding was available, and new facilities were acquired. The undergraduate and graduate programs prospered. Research of high quality was being performed and published. The Department indeed flourished during the 1950s.
Undergraduate and Graduate Enrollment
Before World War II, total undergraduate enrollment in the Department had never reached one hundred. By the end of the war it had fallen below 20. In the immediate postwar years undergraduate enrollment grew rapidly and attained a peak of 142 in 1949-50 (probably including a small number of freshmen). The numbers of undergraduates remained high through the 1950s. Thereafter, enrollment showed a downward trend for most of the next 20 years and was a matter of continuing concern until the late 19705. Undergraduate teaching in the Department, however, remained vigorous owing in part to the introduction of new professional subjects and the popularity of several subjects taken by students from other departments. A strong faculty engaged in research attracted graduate students and maintained the vitality of the Department at a high level.
Graduate enrollment had risen from about 20 students in the 1930s to almost 50 in 1940-41. It fell below 20 in 1945-46, but recovered quickly after the war and remained at a satisfactory level through most of the 1950s. After decreasing to a lower level for the next ten years, it increased in the late '60s, and in the '70s and '80s. In considering these changes, it should be recognized that graduate enrollment reflects popularity of a field as well as availability of financial support and perceived future prospects for careers and intellectual excitement.
The Undergraduate Curriculum
The curriculum adopted in 1946 remained in effect with minor changes throughout the 1950s. Aside from the Mineral Engineering option, there was only a single option in Metallurgy with considerable freedom for specialization. The 1947-48 Catalogue described the Metallurgy option as a combination of "the science of metals themselves and the engineering involved in their production and conversion to useful products." The 1957-58 Catalogue stated: "Metallurgy is the engineering science which deals with the production and utilization of metals and alloys, and with the properties of metallic materials. Because metallurgy is such a broad field, the curriculum contains a core of basic science and engineering and, in the junior and senior years, a wide choice of elective subjects."
The Catalogue for 1947-48 and subsequent years outlines the details of the Mineral Engineering option. However, the option was discontinued in 1956.
There were also significant changes affecting specific subjects. As an outstanding example, the dropping of qualitative and quantitative analysis signalled some reorientation from chemistry to physics.
Metals Processing
The Metals Processing Division, established in 1946 under the direction of Professor John Wulff, was making increasingly important contributions to the Department's teaching. An integrated program combining laboratory and analytical approaches to casting, welding, metal working, and powder metallurgy had been developed in a little over five years. "A large volume of graduate and professional research [was] conducted continually in the various metal processing fields, but the main effort [was] directed toward undergraduate teaching" (Taylor, p. 99).
Students began the study of metal processing with a basic subject, Engineering Metals, around which the more specialized subjects were built. Engineering Metals, which was required in the Mechanical Engineering and Business and Engineering Administration curricula, was taken by 250 to 400 students per year. It consisted of formal lectures and a participation-type laboratory, using for the most part full-scale commercial equipment (Taylor, p. 100). "A more advanced version of this course, Metal Processing, was given for seniors in metallurgy. After completing Engineering Metals or Metal Processing, students could take the specialized subjects Foundry Engineering, Welding Engineering, Powder Metallurgy or Plastic Working of Metals." These subjects were open to undergraduate and graduate students (Taylor, p. 100).
In developing this teaching program, the lack of suitable textbooks posed a serious problem. In response, Professor Wulff and his associates developed a series of texts consisting of "Metallurgy for Engineers" and volumes on casting, welding, powder metallurgy, and mechanical behavior.
The metal processing program also needed new space and equipment. These needs were met by a grant from the Sloan Foundation (see below) and other grants.
Graduate Studies
The Department in the 1950s offered the following graduate degrees: Master of Science in Metallurgy, Ceramics, Metallurgical Engineering, and Mineral Engineering and Doctor of Science in Metallurgy and in Ceramics. After about 1958 some candidates preferred the "Doctor of Philosophy" designation over the "Doctor of Science" designation. The degrees of Metallurgical Engineer, Mineral Engineer, and Ceramic Engineer continued to be offered and the degree of Materials Engineer was added.
Research Programs
At the end of the 1950s, the Department operated laboratories in the following fields as listed in the Course Catalogue for 1957-58:
- Physical metallurgy
- Process metallurgy
- Metals processing
- Ceramics
- Mineral engineering
- High-temperature metals
- Corrosion
Graduate students did their experimental research in all of these laboratories. In addition, as stated in the Catalogue, "work on applied thermodynamics and kinetics [was] done in various laboratories of the Department."
Funding
Research was funded predominantly by government agencies. A large part of the financial support in this period came from the Atomic Energy Commission, the Office of Naval Research, and also the Air Force. The development of the teaching program in Metals Processing was mainly financed by the Ford Foundation. Some graduate support through fellowships sponsored by industry was becoming available.
Faculty
The faculty of the Department continued to grow. Carl Wagner joined the Department in 1950 as a Visiting Professor and became a Professor in 1955. When he left in 1958, he had greatly enriched the scientific life of the Department, He influenced the development of students and was unstinting with advice and encouragement of colleagues.
In 1953 Thomas B. King began as Assistant Professor a notable career of over 30 years, ten of which as head of the Department. John F. Elliott (SeD., 1949) left the steel industry to return to the Department as Associate Professor in 1955.
Cyril Stanley Smith (SeD., 1926), after a distinguished career as associate division leader in charge of metallurgy at the Los Alamos laboratory during World War II and as director of the Institute for the Study of Metals at the University of Chicago, carne to MIT in 1961. He "was eventually to weave the history of metallurgy and archaeological studies into [the Department's] fabric" (Floe, King and Owen). These studies were continued by Professor Heather Lechtman, who was first appointed in 1972.
Professors King, Elliott and Smith were metallurgists--an indication that metallurgy was still dominant in the Department, Wagner, although a physical chemist, seemed to enjoy being identified with metallurgy and particularly with the Department's emphasis on metallurgical thermodynamics.
The 1950s also saw a large effort by faculty members primarily active in physical metallurgy. After the retirement of Professor Homerberg in 1950, this group included Professors Cohen, Floe, Bever, and Averbach, and also Professor David A. Thomas after 1957.
Facilities- The Metals Processing Laboratory
The President's Report for 1948-49 reported a gift of $1 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that made the Metals Processing Laboratory possible. The report commented that "the gift is an indication of the recognition by industry of the necessity for instruction and research in this field on a plane with other branches of science and engineering."
The Laboratory was dedicated on june 3, 1952. In presenting the building to the Institute, Alfred P. Sloan, jr., a graduate of the Class of 1895, said: "This new laboratory provides, I believe, an instrumentality of significant progress. It contemplates injecting science into the basic processes of production-a wide-open field for exploitation" (Technology Review, December 1952, p. 89ff). It is interesting to note that 35 years later the injection of science into industrial production is again an acute concern.
An article in Technology Review (December 1952) described the Sloan Laboratory: "The new building provides the first adequate housing for the Institute's comprehensive metals processing program ... in which the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Metallurgy play roles in accordance with their specialized interests in the field of metal technology. To best fulfill the specialized interests of these two Departments, the Machine Tool and Metal Cutting Division of the Department of Mechanical Engineering occupies the lower half of the Laboratory, and the Mechanical Metallurgy Division of the Department of Metallurgy, the upper half.
"The Metals Processing Laboratory was created as an interdepartmental laboratory to bring the application of both metallurgical science and of engineering design to the basic crafts of machining, finishing, casting, forging, welding and related techniques of modern manufacturing."
Joint Activities with Other Departments
Metallurgy and the other materials disciplines have traditionally been called upon to collaborate with other branches of engineering, especially in materials selection and failure analysis. They also have become engaged in joint research projects. As part of the same trend, some subjects have been taught jointly by the Department with other departments. joint appointments have increasingly been made, for example, the joint appointments of Professors Gatos and Bowen with Electrical Engineering, Professors Russell and Ballinger with Nuclear Engineering, Professor Masubuchi with Ocean Engineering, and Professor Yannas with Mechanical Engineering.
During the postwar period the Department participated energetically in an Institute-wide project, the Foreign Student Summer Project (FSSP). This project was organized on the initiative of undergraduates to bring students from foreign countries to MIT for a research experience of three to four months. FSSP was designed especially to give experience in up-to-date research methods to students from war-affected countries. It was terminated when this need no longer existed.