Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 59

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194

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most of Dr. Merriam's work was carried on by Professor Hull and the fellows in the department, Messrs. T. F. Carver and E. M. Wilson.

In the spring of 1894 Mr. Frank Fetter was appointed instructor in political economy. Though the work of the department is conducted as a unit, so far as it is practicable, each of the different teachers de- votes his time to some special branch of the work. Professor Jenks gives his time chiefly to the work in political science and politics; Pro- fessor Willcox has charge especially of that in social science and sta- tistics; while Professor Hull and Dr. Fetter conduct, in the main, the work in political economy and finance. In the year 1893-94 a new course in the mathematical methods of investigation in economic and social science was instituted by Professor Oliver for the especial ad- vantage of advanced students who had had good mathematical training. The department is further strengthened by the work in international law and jurisprudence, and in constitutional law, given by Professors Huffcut and Hutchins of the law school.

XIV.

MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS.

MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY.

THIs department was under the wise direction of Professor Evan Wilhelm Evans until within a few months before his decease in 1824. He was proficient not only in mathematics but in geology and botany. He is remembered as a man of few words, but of a remarkably sound and independent judgment that carried great weight in the faculty councils, and as an acute and thorough student, a philosophical and original thinker, a firm and loyal friend. The best of his published work in mathematics is his "New method of solving cubic and trinomial equations of all degrees;"1 it is very suggestive, and follows quite dif- ferent lines from the usual methods; but the fuller statement of it planned by him was prevented by his failing health. His unpublished university lectures on modern synthetic geometry were elaborate and beautiful, and marked at the time almost a new departure for American colleges.

1 Proceedings of University Convocation, 1870.

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

Characteristic of his instruction or policy were: the remarkable power of concentration with which he would follow others' work without using his eyes, his uniform preference for oral above written examinations, and his habit of taking a calculus class over the same ground with two successive authors for the sake of the cross-light.

With Professor Evans were associated here, at one time or another, Assistant-Professors Ziba H. Potter, William E. Arnold, Henry T. Eddy, William J. Hamilton, since deceased, Lucien A. Wait, and J. E. Oliver, and Instructor O. H. P. Cornell. The chief branches taught were algebra beginning with quadratics, plane geometry, solid geometry, trigonometry with navigation and mensuration, analytic geometry, calculus, synthetic geometry, and descriptive astronomy; analytic geometry oceupying one or two terms, calculus three terms, and each 1 of the other subjects one term, for commonly five hours per week. There was also land-surveying, for students in agriculture and other non-technical courses. Algebra, plane and solid geometry, and trig- onometry were required studies in all courses; astronomy in the course in science; analytic geometry, calculus and synthetic geometry, in engineering, mechanic arts and architecture. Thus more of fine mathe- matics was required in the university then than now, but an offsct, except as to advanced mathematics in the technical courses, is in the increased entrance requirements and in the various electives now offered.

The requirement of quadratics for admission was made in Professor Evans's day, that of plane geometry for all courses, and of solid for the technical, came later, and by degrees.

From 1873-4 on, the department has been administered, first by Professor Oliver and afterwards by Professors Oliver and Wait. They have been ably seconded by Associate-Professor George William Jones, Assistant-Professors William E. Byerly, James McMahon and Arthur S. Hathaway, and Instructors George T. Winston, Madison M. Garver, Morris R. Conable, Charles A. Van Velzer, Duane Studley, George E. Fisher, Charles S. Fowler, Walker G. Rappleye, John H. Tanner, Paul S. Saurel, and William R. Shoemaker. Four of the professors, and five instructors, remain to-day; most of the others have become professors or presidents in other colleges, and several of these have achieved eminence.

The work of the department to-day, like the earlier work out of which it has grown, contemplates three great uses: 1. To help the average student in developing certain powers and habits which every good

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citizen and good thinker requires, namely of sustained, exact, candid, independent reckoning, even when the subject-matter is general or abstract; of conscientiously scrutinizing a plausible argument, both in detail and in its general course; of imagination, to grasp as a whole a complex concept or scheme of thought ; of inventiveness as to methods and possible relations; of applying theory to practical problems; of precision and clearness in stating one's own convictions and the grounds of them. 2. For those who wish to make pure and applied mathematics a specialty, to give some outlook over its different fields ; and to fit these students for teaching, or for home reading and investigation, or for study at European universities. 3. To meet the needs of students in various branches of engineering, physics, and sociology.

The endeavor is not usually to cover all the ground in a given field, but to master the fundamental difficulties of concept and method, and secure whatever peculiar culture this implies, -- relying more upon in- sight and origination than upon memory, and making all necessary memory-work as philosophical as may be. Attention is also given to the criticism of methods and their motives, methods suggested by general considerations being preferred; to the concrete interpretation of important steps as well as of results; and to the separation of symbols and their laws from the particular subject-matter, so that either may be studied separately. Whether instruction be given by text-books with recitations and problem-working, by written exercises and exam- inations, or by lecture, seminary and directed reading, the class are regarded rather as the teacher's fellow-students than as mere recipients of instruction.

Supplementary to the usual college curriculum of pure mathematics, including calculus, electives are at present offered in geometric, alge- braic and trigonometric problems, determinants and theory of equations, probabilities and least squares, modern analytic and synthetic geometry, advanced calculus, differentiated equations, finite differences, quantics, function-theory, theory of numbers, and mathematical essays meant partly as studies of style; also, in descriptive and dynamic astronomy, rational mechanics, potential theory and special harmonics, and the mathematical theories of fluid motion as applied to meteorology, and of sound, light and electricity. There is also a seminary for the discussion of fundamental methods in algebra; one in mathematical pedagogy, to consider ideals and methods in mathematical study and writing as well as in teaching; one for application of mathematics to economic and

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social problems; and one, held in connection with the department of chemistry beginning with 1894-5, for the mathematical study of phys- ical chemistry.

The number taking these various electives as undergraduate, graduate or special students has about kept pace with the general growth of the university ; though the splendidly equipped technical courses on the one hand and the admirable scientific and humanistic work done here on the other hand, offer strong counter attractions. For, in the com- munity at large, mathematics is still thought of merely as a good logical drill, and a key to the physical sciences with their applications. One great mission of the mathematical department here, as elsewhere, is to show that in healthily developing the geometric and philosophic imag- ination; in awakening an intelligent interest in the grand systems of worlds amid which our own is placed, as well as a sense of the beauty of purely intellectual relations; in adding definiteness to certain meta- physical concepts; and in that corelation of the abstract with the con- crete and with the certain which will help to cure the prevalent distrust of ideals, mathematical studies have peculiar educational and even religious values that could ill be spared.

In the equipment of the department are now many of Brill's beauti- ful and useful models, and others are being added. The University Library has some thousands of books on astronomy and pure and applied mathematics, besides most of the chief American, English, French and German journals, and the transactions of many scientific societies. A steady growth is assured by the Sage Library fund, so that in time the collection of mathematical classics and sources will have become reasonably complete, thus facilitating kinds of work that were impossible in the university's earlier days.

THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS.

The Department of Physics was one of those organized at the opening of the university. The first incumbent was Professor Eli W. Blake now professor of physics in Brown University. Professor Blake was succeeded after two years of service by Professor John J. Brown, later of the University of Syracuse, who was followed, after one year, by Professor Loomis who served but two terms, and resigned in March 1872. After a short period, during which the chair was not filled, instruction in physics was given by Professor Morris, Assistant-Professor Eddy and others, William A. Anthony, Ph. B., a graduate of the Sheffield

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Scientific School of Yale University, was appointed to the professorship. Professor Anthony had previously filled similar positions in Antioch College, Ohio, and in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Iowa. Under Professor Anthony, physics soon took a prominent position among the subjects of the university curriculum. Laboratory instruc- tion was almost at once begun. The quarters assigned to physics in 1873 consisted of a small lecture room in the south wing of McGraw Hall, with a small ante-room under the raised seats, which was intended to serve as apparatus room, professor's office and general laboratory. Under the vigorous administration of Professor Anthony, the needs of the department soon outgrew these cramped quarters, and various rooms were obtained on the upper floors, and in the basement of White and Morrill Halls.

The equipment of the department during all the earlier years of the university was of a meagre description, being in the main upon a par with that which might have been found in most of the smaller colleges of the country during that period of our educational development. There were a few noble pieces of illustrative apparatus for lecture room purposes, which had been purchased by President White, but the col- lection included no instruments of precision. This condition of affairs lasted, subject only to such amelioration as could be attained by the indefatigable industry and the mechanical skill of the head of the department and of his assistant, George S. Moler, who, from the time of his graduation in 1875, became a valuable attaché, serving succes- sively as laboratory assistant, instructor and assistant-professor.

In 1881, the Board of Trustees decided to build a physical and chemi- cal laboratory combined. Franklin Hall was the result of that action. To the department of physics the lower floors and basement of this large four-storied building of brown sandstone were assigned, and a considerable sum of money was appropriated for the purchase of a suitable equipment. Professor Anthony spent some months in Europe in the summer of 1881, in selecting and purchasing apparatus. Many important instruments were, however, made in the United States, notably a large and very substantial comparator, designed for the department by Professor William A. Rogers, a dividing engine designed by the same physicist, a standard clock by Howard, and a large spec- trometer by Fauth, of Washington, together with chronographs. The building of this laboratory marks an epoch in the history of the depart- ment, but a more important period was about to begin in the inaugura-

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tion, two years later (1883), at the instance of Professor Anthony, of a course in clectrical engineering. There was much opposition to the introduction of what was at that time a subject unrecognized upon the lists of the technical schools, and it was with difficulty that the Board of Trustees could be persuaded to sanction such an experiment. The course once announced, however, its success was immediate and marked. The Register of the following year, 1883-4, shows 1? students in electrical engineering; that of the tenth year following, 1893-4, contains 350 students, 28 of whom are in post graduate courses. In 1883, the instructing force of the department consisted of Professor Anthony and Assistant-Professor Moler. In 1893, it consisted of the head of the department, Professor Edward L. Nichols who had suc- ceeded Professor Anthony in 1887, at which time the latter resigned his chair to engage in practical work in electrical engineering, of three assistant-professors, G. S. Moler, Ernest Merritt and Frederick Bedell, and of seven instructors and assistants. During this last decade the growth of the technical schools connected with Cornell University so increased the number of students having required work in chemistry and physics, that it became necessary to build a new chemical labor- atory and to assign the whole of Franklin Hall, together with the adjoining structure known as the chemical annex, to the latter depart- ment. In the year 1893-4, there were over six hundred undergraduates who were receiving instruction in laboratories and class rooms in the department of physics, together with somc forty graduate students who were engaged in advanced work and in investigation. In 1893, another important step in the history of physics of Cornell University was taken in the foundation of the Physical Review, a bi-monthly journal devoted to original work in experimental physics. This journal is edited by Professors Nichols and Merritt and is published for the university by Messrs. Macmillan & Co., of New York.

XV.

NATURAL SCIENCE.

THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY.

The Department of Chemistry was one of the first in which an ap- pointment was made. At the sixth meeting of the Board of Trustees,

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held September 26, 1867, four professors were elected, among them Dr. George C. Caldwell as professor of agricultural chemistry and James M. Crafts as professor of general chemistry. Professor Caldwell was a graduate of the University of Göttingen, and had also studied the methods of instruction in the model college of Cirencester, England, and was widely known for his investigations in agricultural chemistry. Professor Crafts was a graduate of the Lawrence Scientific School, and had afterwards spent several years in study in France and Germany, where he had published several original investigations of great merit. At the time of his appointment he was an instructor in the Lawrence Scientific School. Since then he has made many brilliant investiga- tions, which have caused him to rank among the most eminent of American chemists ; at the present time he is a professor in the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. Soon after the appointment of these professors of chemistry, they prepared lists of the most important Eng- lish, French and German standard works in their department and of the leading chemical periodicals, which were purchased by the univer- sity abroad through President White, and formed a portion of the equipment at the opening of the university. Many complete sets of chemical journals were also obtained, thus constituting a valuable library for investigation, from the beginning. Chemical apparatus was also ordered, and arrived from Europe in the summer of 1868. The boxes which contained these scientific treasures were stored and opened in the northwest basement of what is now known as Morrill Hall. Pro- fessor Caldwell presents a graphic account of a professor's life in those early days. At that time he occupied a house partially completed near the head of Buffalo street. "To reach the university it was necessary to climb a hill without sidewalks; to skirt Cascadilla, passing an old weather-stained mill which stood behind it, and avoid skillfully the debris around these buildings; to descend into a gorge by ladders, and to risk one's life in crossing planks; to wind through the woods upon the north bank, and then pass through fields and over two successive ravines, and clamber over fences, before the solitary building which con- stitutes the university was reached. The new professor found his earliest task in the manual labor of unpacking these European pur- chases. The first chemical laboratory was established in the basement of Morrill Hall, in the large room on the north side of the central en- trance. The private laboratory of Professor Crafts, for his own and for the special work of his students, consisted simply of one short table

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

at the end of this room, with a shelf and two capacious drawers below. Professor Caldwell's laboratory consisted of a similar table at the other end of the room. All the water supply was brought in pails, and the waste received and carried out in jars. The only ventilation was through chimney flues, and what did not escape through this uninvit- ing exit ascended to the library room, which was directly above. Lec- tures in agricultural chemistry were given in a small basement room adjoining this laboratory, and the lectures on general chemistry in the large room on the other side of the middle hallway." Thus these pion- eers of education passed through hardships, the immortal humor of which is now their chief compensation. "During the fall and winter, a large wooden building was erected near the middle of what was then the campus, and in the spring vacation the chemical department for- sook its narrow and uncomfortable quarters in Morrill Hall for its new rooms in this wooden structure, and I have no doubt that those who were left behind were as glad to have us leave as we were to get away. Of room we had an abundance in our new quarters, but of comfort, not so much. It was expected that we might occupy them for four or five years, and, of course, with such expectations, the building was cheaply constructed, and all its discomforts were endured for ten years or more, instead of the limited time originally anticipated. The build- ing was at first occupied by the departments of mechanical engineer- ing, botany and physics, as well a chemistry. One by one these departments were transferred to better quarters, until finally it became the exclusive possession of the chemical department for a few years. Then the department of civil engineering moved into it, and was in its turn left its sole occupant, when in 1882 the chemical department moved into the second and third stories of Franklin Hall, where, for the first time, it was accommodated in quarters especially planned and constructed for its use; but this building soon became too small for the departments of physics and chemistry and finally, in 1890, the latter department moved into Morse Hall, which had been erected for its ex- clusive use. This last move will undoubtedly end its wanderings on the campus." This new building was called Morse Hall in honor of the inventor of the magnetic telegraph, Mr. S. B. F. Morse. The plan of this new chemical building makes it one of the amplest and best ar- ranged of any structure devoted to similar purposes in America. Pro- fessor Spencer Baird Newbury was at that time acting professor of organic and applied chemistry, and later of general, organic and ap-

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plied chemistry. He had an enthusiastic interest in the equipment of this new building and, in company with Professor Caldwell, carefully studied and designed its general arrangement.

The scope of instruction in chemistry has been greatly widened. At first, only general, analytical and agricultural chemistry were taught, and laboratory practice was confined to analytic chemistry. A short time after the department was established in its first home, laboratory practice in general chemistry was introduced, suggested by the evident usefulness of such practice for a better understanding of the principles of elementary general chemistry, and also on account of the option of chemical laboratory practice, which was allowed for a few years in place of a part of the mathematics, which had hitherto been required in the general courses. Some kind of work in general chemistry seemed to be far more appropriate for this option than the more technical work of analytical chemistry. The inequality of the option of work in element- ary chemistry for mathematics soon became so evident that it was given up after a very brief trial, but laboratory work in general chemistry has been continued up to the present time. It was at first required only of those who later have analytical chemistry in their courses of study, but is now required of all who take the course in general chemistry. Tech- nical chemistry was also added in the history of the department, but was discontinued after two or three years, on account of the resignation of the professor who first suggested its introduction, and taught it. Organic chemistry was taught by lectures, and laboratory practice added later, together with metallurgical chemistry. The latest addition to the field of instruction in this department consists of courses of instruction in the most advanced field of physical chemistry. A steady advance has thus been made along all these special lines of work in chemistry by the addition of new and more advanced courses, so that now thirty-one are offered in the department, and in the list of courses for 1894-5, the number will be increased to thirty-five. Professor

James M. Crafts resigned at the end of the first year, and Professor Charles A. Schaeffer was elected professor of analytical chemistry and mineralogy, June 30, 1869. Professor Schaeffer was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and also of the University of Göttingen, Germany. He remained connected with the department until his elec- tion as President of the University of Iowa in 1887. During the year 1886-7 he acted as dean. One year later, Professor Chester H. Wing was elected to the chair of chemistry as applied to manufactures. Pro-

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fessor Wing had graduated with distinguished honor at the Lawrence Scientific School, and had also had practical experience as a manufac- turing chemist. He was connected with the university from January, 1870, to 1873, and he delivered subsequently, each year until 1880 a series of lectures upon organic chemistry. After leaving this university he was appointed to a professorship in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where, through his efforts, one of the largest departments for instruction in chemistry in the country was created. A. A. Breneman was appointed assistant professor of industrial chemistry in 1875 and professor in 1879, which position he held until 1882. Professor Brene- man made many interesting investigations during his connection with the university, and later, as consulting chemist in New York, valuable discoveries of colors available for use in the manufacture of pottery. Dr. Spencer Baird Newbury, a graduate of the School of Mines, and later a student in the University of Berlin, was made assistant professor of general chemistry, mineralogy and assaying in 1882, and acting pro- fessor in 1886, which position he filled until 1892. Professor Newbury was an enthusiastic student of his chosen branch, and took great pleas- ure in the development of chemistry as applied to photography. At the exposition in Paris of 1889 he was appointed by the United States government to make the report upon certain branches of chemistry, and later he was a representative of the State of Ohio, and judge in the Chicago Exposition of 1893. Assistant Professors William R. Orndorff, Ph. D., Louis Munroe Dennis, Ph. B., Joseph Ellis Trevor, Ph. D),, have contributed by investigation and instruction to extend the reputa- tion of the department.

BOTANY.

The Botanical Department was organized at the opening of the university in October 1868. Professor Albert N. Prentiss, then a professor in the Michigan Agricultural College, from which institution he had graduated in 1861, had been elected to the chair of botany, horticulture and agriculture, and placed in charge of the department. In the first general arrangement of courses of instruction in the univer- sity, the general and introductory course in botany was assigned to the spring term; but a more advanced course of lectures or systematic botany was offered for the fall term. This was attended by a class of four students who came from other colleges and had taken some botanical

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Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 59

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194