...
The report gave as its "purpose ... to put the problem before the Visiting Committee in the hope that suggestions will be made as to the best methods for its solution." No record of the Visiting Committee's response seems to be available. However, the report was the first concrete proposal of a metal processing laboratory. Several years later this came to fruition as the Sloan Metals Processing Laboratory. In the meantime, the teaching program and laboratory in mechanical metallurgy under Professor John Wulff had been initiated in 1946, as mentioned earlier in this chapter.
John Chipman
Research
Nearly the entire research program of tQ_e Department in the second half of the 1940s was carried out as graqllate thesis research, as reported by Professors Chipman and Floe in a memorandum of April 29, 1948 to the President's Office. A brochure issued in 1949 stated that new graduate students "often start a research project as soon as they arrive." Looking beyond the 1940s, it should be mentioned that in the 1950s postdoctoral research associates and, later, several grades of full-time staff members participated increasingly in the Department's research.
The President's Report for 1946-47 stated that "government sponsored research continues on a large scale" and gave the following examples:
Two projects sponsored by AEC (the Atomic Energy Commission)
Development of alloys for high-temperature service Iron-nitrogen alloys
Vapor deposition of refractory metals
Development of high-temperature refractories with good temperature-shock resistance
Dimensional stability of metals
Physical chemistry of steelmaking
Study of erosion-resistant materials
Permeability of porous metal parts
Effect of strain on hardening of steel
Hard metal carbides
Chemical properties of intermetallic compounds
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The booklet "Current Research in the Department of
Metallurgy" (1949) listed the following classes of research:
Physical Metallurgy
High Temperature Metals Corrosion
Chemical and Process Metallurgy Mechanical Metallurgy and Metal Processing Foundry
Mineral Engineering Ceramics
Classified Research
The absence of physics of metals should be noted.
Department Organization
Professor Williams, after. serving as Deputy Dean of Engineering and Dean of Army and Navy Students during the later war years, returned to his position as head of the Department in August 1945. He retired at the end of the academic year 1945-46 and was succeeded as Department Head by John Chipman (1946-62) with Carl Floe as Executive Officer (1946-52).
In 1945-46, faculty members who had been involved in war-related activities were able to resume their academic work. Scientific and technical developments and changes in lecture and laboratory courses called for regrouping and promotions of faculty members, as well as additions to the faculty. The Department's new teaching commitments in the areas of engineering metals and metals processing, foundry metallurgy, and powder metallurgy, followed by deformation processing, brought Howard Taylor to the Department as a senior faculty member in 1946 and required a greatly enlarged junior teaching staff. Other subject areas also were expanded and required new faculty assignments accompanied by promotions (Bever and Grant in 1946) or recruitment from outside, as in corrosion (Uhlig in 1946). Promotions and appointments are shown in the chart of faculty members
(see Chart 2 or Appendix E).
Facilities
Professor Williams submitted to the Visiting Committee of the Department a report dated October 1, 1945 on "Post-War Requirements for the Department of Metallurgy." He pointed out that several academic institutions "are increasing staffs and planning new laboratories for metallurgy. If MIT is to continue as a leader in this field, funds must be obtained to make laboratories and staff equal to those available elsewhere." He added that "it has
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Michael B. Bever
Nicholas J. Grant
never been the custom at MIT to exploit any special field of metallurgy, but rather to excel in all phases of the science and to maintain the best possible balance between them. It is therefore necessary for us to have larger staffs and more laboratories than the average institution."
Williams's report listed the following needs of the
Department:
Modernization of the laboratories;
Additional space for increased numbers of students, particularly research space;
Additional space and equipment for research to serve the needs of government and industry;
Fellowships and grants in aid to increase the amount of research.
The report estimated the total cost of meeting these needs as $565,000. In addition, a recommended Option 1 would have involved the construction of a new building, the ground floor of which "with two-story ceiling would house the mechanical metallurgy laboratory" and would have cost $875,000. Alternatively, an Option 2 proposed a shop-type building "to house the mechanical metallurgy laboratory and all other large-scale equipment now in Building 8" at a cost of $300,000.
The report gave as its "purpose ... to put the problem before the Visiting Committee in the hope that suggestions will be made as to the best methods for its solution." No record of the Visiting Committee's response seems to be available. However, the report was the first concrete proposal of a metal processing laboratory. Several years later this came to fruition as the Sloan Metals Processing Laboratory. In the meantime, the teaching program and laboratory in mechanical metallurgy under Professor John Wulff had been initiated in 1946, as mentioned earlier in
this chapter.
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