USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
An important factor in the development of engineering in the United States was the organization in 1848 of the first engineering society to be estab- lished on this continent, the Boston Society of Civil Engineers. By 1SS0 this society had exerted a strong influence upon engineering practice throughout the country because of the ability and character of its members, many of whom had been called for professional service to other parts of the country, where they not only had obtained reputations for accomplishment but had also organ- ized societies patterned after the Boston Society and having as an objective the development of sound civil engineering principles and high standards of practice.
HARVARD SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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During the past half-century this society has continued as an important factor in engineering development and in 1930 it is recognized as the leading engineering society in New England and one of the foremost engineering societies in the whole country. Its list of past and present members contains many notable engineers; from among them have been ehosen eleven presidents of the American Society of Civil Engineers and four honorary members, three presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and one president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Since 1900 several other engineering soeieties, generally loeal seetions of national soeieties, have been established in Boston. In 1922 the importance of combined aetion by these soeieties and the Boston Society of Civil Engineers for more effective publie service and for the advancement of scientifie investiga- tion, education and research, led to the formation of an affiliation of the Boston engineering soeieties, known as the Engineering Soeieties of Boston, ineor- porated to hold property and directed by a eouneil consisting of one member of each of thirteen soeieties, representing not only the main divisions of engi- neering praetice - namely, eivil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrieal engineering and mining engineering - but also illuminating engineering and heating and ventilating engineering. The net membership of this organization in June, 1930, was 4,040.
The reputation of Boston in the educational field has been enhaneed during the period since 1880 by its aeeomplishments in engineering education. As a recognized leader in this field stands the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, considered generally to be one of the best, and by many the foremost, of the engineering and scientific sehools of the world. Other institutions inay have higher reputation in eertain branches of seienee and engineering but for well- rounded exeellenee in all departments the Institute is perhaps unequaled in this country and elsewhere. The early development of this famous institution is deseribed in Volumne IV of the Winsor History and need not be diseussed here. In the period between 1880 and 1930 "Boston Tech" has grown to be a great university of science and engineering, with an instrueting staff of more than five hundred, and offering courses in praetieally all fields of engineering and the seienees related thereto. Its student body, including five hundred graduate students, is in exeess of three thousand and is drawn from all the civilized countries of the world. Its property in land, buildings and endowments has inereased from a few hundred thousand to nearly fifty million dollars and its graduates from 255 to 12,879.
In 1880 the entire institution was located in the Rogers Building on Boylston street and in two small one-story temporary buildings. In the summer of 1916 the educational facilities of the Institute, exeept the arehiteetural department, were removed to Cambridge, where a group of splendid new buildings had been eonstrueted on a fifty-aere site east of Massachusetts avenue, adjoining the Charles River Basin. Sinee that date the acquisition of considerable additional land in the vieinity and the eonstruetion of new buildings has provided a home for the Institute which should be sufficient for many years to eome.
Instruction in engineering at Harvard University began in 1850 with the establishment of the Lawrence Scientifie Sehool, which in 1880 was offering degrees in civil and topographieal engineering and in mining engineering. In
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1SSS electrical engineering was added to the curriculum and in 1890 the school was officially combined with Harvard College, both groups being placed under the control of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. A course in mechanical engi- neering was also added at this time and in the early 90's laboratories of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and testing materials were established. In 1906 the Lawrence Scientific School was replaced by the Graduate School of Applied Science.
During the period from 1870 to 1914 intermittent efforts were made to bring about a union at the Institute of Technology of the schools of applied science in or near Boston. These efforts were intensified in later years because of the impending large endowment for applied science at Harvard left by Gordon McKay, which it was estimated would amount to $23,000,000 by the year 1956 and which foreshadowed an entirely unwarranted duplication of facilities in the Boston district. In January, 1914, an agreement between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was reached, by which both institutions agreed to co-operate in conducting instruction and research in those fields which were covered by the schools of engineering and mining of the University. As a result of this agreement, the Harvard Graduate School of Applied Science was abandoned as a separate school in the fall of 1916, at which time the new Institute buildings were ready for occupation.
This agreement, which offered great advantages to engineering education, not only in Boston but in the country at large, was opposed by certain of the Harvard authorities and faculty on the ground that it involved an illegal use of the income of the McKay bequest, and in November, 1917, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts handed down the opinion that the terms of the agreement were not in accordance with the intentions of Gordon Mckay as expressed in his will. As a result of this decision, the University re-established an engineering school, offering the Bachelor of Science degree in four years and the degree of Master of Science in five years. The total enrollment in this school was about equal in 1929 to the total enrollment in the Lawrence Scientific School when it was abolished in 1906.
The passage by the United States Congress of the Morrill Act in 1862 giving state aid to schools of the engineering type brought forcibly before academic colleges the value of this class of training from both an educational and a financial standpoint, and led to the establishment of engineering courses in certain of these colleges. Among them was Tufts College, which offered its first course in civil engineering in 1865, following it soon by a course in mechan- ical engineering and in 1883 by a course in electrical engineering. No effort, however, was made to develop an independent engineering organization until 1893, in which year a dean and an administration board were appointed to conduct the affairs of the engineering department, and this led to the establish- ment of an independent faculty in 1903. Prior to 1898 the number of students was small, but since that date attendance has increased rapidly. Complete courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science are given. Its students come largely from the Greater Boston district.
Co-operative education in the field of engineering by which students alternate in study and practice, began in New England with the founding in 1909 by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association of the Northeastern
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University School of Engineering. This school had a period of slow growth from the time of its inception until after the World War, since which time the enrollment has increased rapidly. In 1930 the school had an enrollment of approximately seventeen hundred students and an able and well-trained instruct- ing force, consisting of seventy-five professors, instructors and administrative officers, with over three hundred industrial firms in active co-operation. The school seems to fill a need in the community and to be established as a perma- nent factor in engineering education in New England. Curricula in civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering have been offered since the school was established in 1909. A curriculum in industrial engineering was added to the program in 1919.
The City of Boston has ever been a leader in the execution of public proj- ects intended for the health and convenience of the public. It was the first city in the United States to build rapid transit subways. It was amongst the first of our great cities to secure for its citizens an abundant and pure water supply brought by gravity from distant sources and capable of indefinite exten- sion, and its intercepting sewerage system, known as the Boston Main Drainage System, was the first great undertaking of the kind in the United States. The Massachusetts State Board of Health, with headquarters in Boston and employing Boston engineers, was the first such board ever established and did pioneer experimental work upon water filtration. A brief account of some of these achievements follows.
As early as 1825 organized attempts were made to convince the citizens of Boston of the desirability of constructing a public water supply system at the expense of the city and a report made in that year by Daniel Treadwell con- sidered two possible sources of supply, Spot pond in Stoneham and the Charles river above Watertown. In 1835 Colonel Loammi Baldwin, the foremost engi- neer of the day and a man of vision and sound judgment, presented another report, recommending the utilization of Long pond, lying partly in Natick and partly in Framingham, because it offered a larger supply than Spot pond at a sufficiently high level to make pumping unnecessary. In 1846 a legislative act authorized the City of Boston to purchase Long pond, now known by its Indian name of Cochituate, and to construct the necessary works for bringing water to Boston and distributing it. Construction of the Cochituate aqueduct and other necessary works began at once and water from this source was finally delivered in Boston in 1848. It is interesting to note that one of the commis- sioners appointed to take charge of this undertaking was James F. Baldwin, brother of the Loammi Baldwin whose recommendations were finally adopted and son of the older Loammi Baldwin.
In 1871 it became evident that consumption had nearly reached the supply available from the Cochituate system in dry years and the Cochituate Water Board was authorized to make surveys and inquiries relative to obtaining an additional supply, Joseph P. Davis being appointed engineer for this work. Following the recommendations of Mr. Davis, which were concurred in by E. S. Chesbrough, consulting engineer, the Council and Water Board authorized in January, 1874, the taking of the Sudbury river and made an appropriation of $4,500,000 for the new supply, including a new aqueduct and three storage
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basins. The building of the aqueduct involved the construction of a stone arch bridge - Echo Bridge - with a span of 137 feet. Water from the Sudbury system was first admitted to the Chestnut Hill distributing reservoir in 1878.
By 1893 the growing population of Boston and surrounding towns made it necessary to secure an additional water supply, which was obtained from the Nashua river. The construction of the new works, which included the Wachu- sett reservoir near Clinton and the Weston aqueduct, was a notable piece of work, which reflected great credit upon its chief engineer, Frederic P. Stearns, who was awarded a gold medal for his services in connection with these works at the Paris Exposition in 1900.
One of the recognized advantages of the Wachusett project was the fact that extensions still farther to the west, reaching the watersheds of the Ware and Swift rivers and even, if necessary, the watersheds of the Miller and Deer- field rivers, could readily be made and the existing reservoirs and other con- structions utilized, thus securing an almost unlimited supply of pure water. The necessity of such extensions was recognized by the Legislature in 1922 and after several investigations acts were passed in 1925 and 1926, the two acts authorizing a total of $65,000,000, for bringing the waters of the Ware and Swift rivers to Boston. The work is under way at the time of writing, under the direction of Frank E. Winsor, chief engineer. The wisdom of Loainmi Baldwin's recommendations to go westward for the Boston supply instead of utilizing sources north of Boston has been amply justified and because of his judgment and foresight and the notable achievements of engineers engaged in this work since his day, Boston seems to be assured of an abundant water supply for all future needs.
The main features of the Boston Sewage Disposal System were recom- mended in 1875 by a commission consisting of E. S. Chesbrough and Moses Lane, civil engineers, and Dr. Charles F. Folsom. The report of this commission recommended two systems of main and branch intercepting sewers, to discharge into the harbor and to serve the respective territories on the two sides of the Charles river, including not only Boston but contiguous towns. The project for the southerly system was soon adopted by the necessary authorities and Joseph P. Davis, city engineer of Boston, whose name appears frequently in this chapter, designed and supervised a portion of the construction of this system. The northerly system project was not finally adopted until some years later, owing to the failure of Boston to secure the co-operation of other com- munities. Investigation of methods of disposal other than discharging into the harbor were considered but it was not until after a thorough investigation of the subject by the State Board of Health in 1889 that a system of sanitary sewers discharging into the harbor south of Deer Island was adopted. In its investigation the Board called upon Messrs. Howard Carson, Phineas Ball and Charles H. Swan to investigate each of three possible methods of disposal. This system, known as the North Metropolitan System, serves the towns and cities in the Mystic Valley, East Boston, Somerville, Cambridge and Charles- town.
In 1880 the use of electricity for light, power and communication had hardly begun. Telegraph and telephone lines were in operation but the Edison
i
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Electric Illuminating Company, which now supplies light and power to Greater Boston, was not organized until 1885 and its first station was not started until 1886. Since that date the electric output of this company has made tremendous strides; new power stations have been built and in 1930 the company was serving 360,000 customers with either light or power or both. A notable project was the construction of the Charles Leavitt Edgar Station in Weymouth, using steam at a boiler pressure from 1,200 pounds to 1,400 pounds per square inch, the first station anywhere to use steam at anything like such high pressures. In the latter years of the period under consideration this company has also been furnishing steam for heating purposes in the business district of Boston.
Amongst the greatest of all achievements in which Boston engineers and scientists have played an important part is that of the telephone, the early development of which occurred in Boston. It would be useless to attempt, in the brief space available in this chapter, any worth while history of the develop- ment of this invention, hence the writer will content himself with presenting one of its strictly engineering features, developed by Joseph P. Davis, former city engineer of Boston, mentioned elsewhere in this article in connection with the extension of the Boston Water Supply and Sewerage Systems.
Mr. Davis was made chief engineer of the Bell Company in 1880 and served in this capacity for the Bell Company and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company until 1905. In 1882 he designed and directed the installation in Boston of the first "drawing-in" underground conduit system ever constructed. . Under his direction the underground construction of the Bell System was extended to all large cities. This pioneer work of Mr. Davis required studies of future needs and led to the establishment of a department of development studies and fundamental plans, which forms one of the impor- tant engineering departments of the Bell System, since it provides the essen- tial data necessary to enable the company to plan intelligently its future requirements.
At the opening of the period covered by this volume, Boston street traffic was by horse-drawn vehicles and proceeded at a leisurely pace. Following the introduction of electric cars, with their higher speeds and greater size and weight, traffic delays, combined with the unsightliness and inconveniences of trolley poles and overhead wires, brought about urgent demands for relief, and in 1891 a commission was established by the Legislature to study the whole problem of rapid transit to and in the City of Boston. As a result of its inves- tigations, which included numerous public hearings, an act was passed in 1894 authorizing the construction of a subway between Pleasant street and Cause- way street, with a branch under Boylston street to the vicinity of Park square, and also permitting the construction of elevated railroads. Construction of the subway began on March 28, 1895, and the portion from the Publie Garden to Park street was opened to traffic on September 1, 1897.
The construction of this subway - the first to be built in the United States - involved many difficult engineering problems, which were success- fully solved under the able leadership of the chief engineer, Howard Carson, and Professor George F. Swain, the engineering member of the Boston Transit Commission. Its successful completion and operation created a demand for
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other underground transit lines and at the close of the period covered by this chapter Boston and Cambridge have many miles of tunnels and subways, and an engineering staff, often of considerable size, is continuously engaged in design and supervision of construction. Many miles of elevated. railroad have also been built by the Boston Elevated Railway Company.
While the conditions in and about Boston have not required the construc- tion of any bridges of unusual length (although a large suspension bridge con- necting East Boston and Boston was at one time considered), a number of bridges notable for their general excellence of character and appearance have been built, the most important of which is the monumental bridge across the Charles river on the site of the old West Boston Bridge, famous as the bridge described in the poem by Longfellow, beginning "I stood on the bridge at midnight." This new bridge was built under the direction of a special com- mission, with the late William Jackson, City Engineer of Boston from 1885 to 1910, as chief engineer and the late Edmund M. Wheelwright as consulting architect. It was dedicated on July 31, 1907, and is in 1930 in apparently as good condition as ever, and under proper care should be as serviceable at the time of issue of the next volume of this history in 1980 as it is today.
Amongst other bridges, of smaller size, which are notable for their appear- ance, may be mentioned several arch bridges across the Charles between Bos- ton and Watertown and Boston and Cambridge, also Echo Bridge, previously referred to in connection with the Boston water supply, and several beautiful stone arch bridges in the Back Bay Fens. There are also numerous steel bridges across navigable waters, most of them with movable spans, amongst which are some of the heaviest movable spans in the country. Practically all types of movable bridges are represented in Boston except the direct lift bridge; one type of draw span, the retractile draw, has been developed more thoroughly and used more extensively in Boston than anywhere else in the world, under the direction of the late John E. Cheney, Assistant City Engineer of Boston, and his successors in charge of Boston bridges.
In the Charles River Basin Boston has one of the notable civic improve- inents of the world. This project was authorized by the Legislature in 1903 in order to improve the unsightly and, at low tide, ill-smelling stretch of the Charles river between the harbor and Watertown. The plans included the construction of a dam across the river, which maintains a constant water level, thereby transforming an unsightly stretch of river to a sightly basin. The project was not authorized until an extensive engineering investigation had been made to disclose the effect of the dam upon the navigation conditions in the harbor and the sanitary conditions in the proposed basin. The engineer in charge of this investigation was John R. Freeman and the engineer in charge of construction was the late Hiram A. Miller.
In spite of the transfer from street surface to subway of many trolley cars, the general growth of the city and the development of automobiles during the period under consideration made necessary the widening of some of the existing through streets, such as Cambridge street, Charles street and Nashua street, and the cutting of one new important artery, Stuart street, extending from Huntington avenue to Tremont street. This latter development brought
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about many improvements in the way of new buildings constructed on the land formerly occupied by the Park Square Station of the Boston and Provi- dence Railroad and its supporting yards and tracks. In addition to improve- ments in the street system of the downtown district itself, other important arteries of traffic have been provided in the outer portion of the metropolitan district, largely for the purpose of facilitating through traffic between the city and the suburban districts surrounding the city, and also between these dis- tricts themselves, so that at the end of 1930 there exist numerous broad, well- paved highways giving access to the city and making it easily possible for through traffic to go around it.
In addition to the foregoing street improvements in and about Boston, the Commonwealth has also built, since 1900, a great many miles of well-paved highways connecting the various portions of the state and financed by taxes upon the gasolene used as automobile fuel. The main arteries of the state system have for several years prior to 1930 been kept open during the winter. The planning, supervision and maintenance of the state highway system has been by the Department of Public Works of the Commonwealth under Arthur W. Dean, Chief Engineer of Highways, with headquarters at the State House. While the road construction of the Board has not been in the city itself, it seems appropriate to include this reference to it in view of the fact that Boston engi- neers have been in responsible charge. A Boston firm of highway builders - Warren Brothers - has also been an active factor in the development of high- way surfacing and in the construction of highways throughout the United States and in foreign countries.
The important part played by Boston engineers in the construction of the steam railroads of the country is described in the Winsor History. Since its publication the chief engineering activities in this field have been the con- struction of two union stations with approach tracks and yards, the North Station and the South Station. In the construction of these large terminals Boston was again foremost in the field and the South Station with its approaches remains, from the standpoint of number of train movements and of passengers handled, one of the largest, if not the largest, steam railroad terminals in the world. The chief engineer of this work was the late George B. Francis.
In the years between 1925 and 1930 the North Station and approaches were rebuilt and the train shed, concourse and entrance of the South Station remodeled. The improvement of these terminals involved many engineering problems which were solved successfully by the engineering staffs of the railroads concerned.
Amongst other important engineering activities in Boston during recent years have been those connected with the improvement of its harbor. Prior to 1880 these improvements were not extensive and consisted largely of the construction by the Federal Government of sea walls upon various islands and a moderate amount of dredging and filling carried out both by the Federal Government and by the Commonwealth. Since 1880 numerous extensive improvements have been completed by the Government under the direction of the corps of engineers of the United States Army, such as the construction. of a new main ship channel with a depth of thirty-five feet at mean low water and improvement by dredging of the various waterways entering the harbor.
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