Columbia University - Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

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5 i ' :THE COLVMBIAN f LZQ - 1 ' 'V it 'QA-' gg, ,:.,.-,4 I Iffi vfiiigf iff 19 IZ , , ' ' Ulu the Qllaaa uf 1912 Tap -sq REETINC1: fi fx As the Senior Professor of Columbia University it seems proper that I should send a word of greeting to the COLUMBIAN of l9l0 and to the Class of l9l2, . E:-'.gQ:.5:-' whose record it is to be. - SL- ' JZ! 'E ' Two years ago you all came here with trembling steps and timid hearts as humble Freshman. You wrestled with the Class of l9l I with great success and disclosed your strength. Then you were gladly recognized and you began to take y-our places in the fraternities and in the clubs and on the teams. Moreover, you were recognized in the class rooms by your various instructors as most worthy successors ol the one hundred and fifty classes or more that have gone out from Columbia. My special interest in the Class of 1912 lies in the fact that so many of you belong to me. You are my boys, my old students and you will belong to me as long as l live, and wherever we may be. We have been associated for the past year, or the past two years. We have met day after day and we have considered together many of the most important subjects that are related to our lives, our existence on the earth, and our well-being. - But after all, we were very much limited in time, and l can only hope that the glimpses you gained of the great and important subjects which we studied together have created a desire for a greater and deeper knowledge, and that you will continue to pursue as far as possible the studies which we began together. Now that I have retired from active duty in the University, it is a comfort and gives me the great- est happiness to know that the members of the Class 1912 desire to include me in their COLUMBIAN. l shall be proud to be thereg and I assure the class of my continued affection. QAA-1 Q- 5 X November IS, l9I0. 5 -21-

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.. ffifi' . , ,... . ., . . ...1. . . .- . -. .- s- . -. -- '-'4: Qthzxrllzrf ilirrhrirk Glhsmhlrr ,, ,N I-IARLES FREDRICK CHANDLER, who, after more than forty years, connec- Qrd 555: tion with Columbia University, has recently been made Professor Emeritus, was e,L .SM born in Lancaster, Mass., December 6th, IS36. His boyhood passed in the usual F occupations of a growing lad, but as he approached manhood he became filled with 'i i95 '5 2 a desire to study science, and selected chemistry for his life work and Harvard as i s the place of preparation. In the Lawrence Scientific School where he worked the equipment was severely plain, for those were the days before the Bunsen burner had been invented. Quantitative analysis was in its infancy, and the religious prejudice of the day did much to retard the development of natural science. After a year's stay at Harvard, the young student moved to Germany, and matriculated in the University of Cioettingen, but later went to Berlin, where Wohler, then the great teacher of chemistry, was in the full tide of his activities. I-lis enthusiasm inspired the young student, who spent long, laborious, but happy hours on his work. I-le made his doctorate in IS56, when only nineteen years of age, and his Arbeit entitled Miscellaneous Chemical Researches was afterwards duly recorded in Dana's i'System of Mineralogyn and referred to as UC. F. Chandler's Inaugural Dissertation, .l856,', having been, among other things, based upon the analysis of a choice assortment of rare - and difficult minerals. Some years earlier there had returned to this country from Csermany another student of Chemistry, Charles A. Joy, who had become Professor of Chemistry in Union College, but in l857 he was called to tal-te the chair in Columbia College, and his place at Union was filled by Dr. C. F. Chandler, who for several years remained an active mem- ber of the Union College faculty. In 1863, Thomas Egleston, a graduate of Yale and the Ecole des Mines of Paris, and but recently returned to this country, proposed to the trustees of Columbia College that they start a School of Mines. He found a strong ally in Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, who a year later became President of Colum- bia and who realized the need of such an institution in America. Although gold had been discovered in California fifteen years before, mining was but in its infancy. Ten years before this D. Whitney had published his great work, Metallic Wealth of the United Statesf' and this had done much to pave the way for a favorable consideration of Mr. Eglestonis pro- posal, and in I864 the trustees authorized the inauguration of the new school without however attaching salaries to the new chairs. Thomas Egleston was made professor of mineralogy and metallurgy. Fran- cis l... Vinton, a West Point graduate, was made professor of mining engineering, and at the suggestion of Professor joy, Dr. Chandler was called to be professor of chemistry. From the faculty of Columbia Professors Van Amringe, Peck, Rood and Joy volunteered their services, and were the following year regularly appointed as professors. They were joined in i866 by Dr. John Newberry, in the chair of geology, and this faculty remained practically unchanged for the next ten years, Dr. Chandler serving as Dean. The School of Mines grew rapidly and soon became an institution for instruction in prac- tically all branches of engineering, mathematics physics and chemistry being fundamental to them all. Dr. Chandler's department has been basal in all subsequent development. In l872, Dr. Chandler became adjunct professor of chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was made full -22.-