Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Technique Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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0 5 - J ORN in Troy, New York, lVIarch 29, 18118, and brought up in Newburyport, lVIassachusetts, the family home for gen- erations, Charles Robert Cross developed in early child- hood that fondness for science and experiment which was to determine his life-work and to dominate his whole career. As a child, he showed this fondness by his interest in natural history. During his boyhood, however, he turned his attention to physics, some of his youthful experiments in this science resulting in consternation to his parents and in no small degree of surprise to himself. He entered the Putnam Free School in Newburyport in the autumn of 1862, and graduated from it when seventeen years of age. He continued here for a part of the next year as a teacher, and then taught for a year in the High School in New London, Connecticut. During this time he prepared himself to enter the second year of the Institute. It was an address by Dr. Jacob Bigelow before the Society of Arts on the Limits of Educationi' which chiefly determined young Cross to enter Technology rather than the Lawrence Scientific School. Furthermore, the Institute prospectus, supplemented by an inter- view with President Rogers, made it clear that he could obtain the education in physics which he desired here and nowhere else in the country. He accordingly entered in the fall of 1867. During his senior year at Technology, Cross acted as a student assistant to Professor Bocher of the Department of lVIodern Lan- guages. . A' Graduating in 1870, he assumed the duties of an Instructor in Physics. From this position he rose rapidly until, seven years after graduation, he was put in charge of the Department of Physics when Professor Pickering resigned to take charge of the Harvard College Observatory. In the summer of 1873 he was married to Miss lVIariana Pike, of Salisbury, Massaclitisetts, who died in June, 1900, leaving one son, Charles Robert Cross, J r. It was due to the efforts of Professor Cross that the Department of Electrical Engineering was established at the Institute in 1882. E91

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fi B QWIED GME 13 Y ECHNIQUE 1911 wishes to offer heartfelt thanks to the many who haveaided in the publication of this annual. The task has been no slight one, and all encouragement and help have been greatly appreciated. Particularly do the editors Wish to acknowledge the kind assistance of the following people:- IN GENERAL hir. I. YV. Litchfield, Professor Arlo Bates, Professor H. G. Pearson, Professor H. L. Seaver, Mr. S. E. Gideon, hir. F. lXI. Gracey, Nfr. lX'I. R. Scharff, and the University Press. LITERARY Frank hlaurice Kanaly, Harvey Smith Benson, 1912, Mark Adolph Oettinger, 1912, Eugene Leland lwacdonald, 1913, and all who contributed to the Grind Department. ARTISTIC Raynor Huntington Allen, 1909, John Frank Alter, 1911, John Taylor Arms, 1911, John Leonard Bagg, 1911, Philip VVeeks Burnham, 1910, Kenneth Earle Carpenter, 1909, Charles Cameron Clark, 1910, VValter Sizvindell Davis, 1910, Gurdon Irving Edgerton, 19192, Stafford Allen Francis, 1911, Margaret Alexina Fulton, 1911, Henry Orange Glidden, 1913, Louis Grandgent, 1911, William Edward Haugaard, 1910, Benjamin Shuman Hirschfeld, 1911, Harold Eric Kebbon, 1912, lVIark Curtis Kinney, 1911, Edward Herman Kruckemeyer, 1911, VVilliam Henry March, 1910, Charles Henry Mills, 1910, Frederick Dorr Rich, 1913, Charles Raymond Strong, 1911, John Henry Scarff, 1910, Kurt Vonnegut, 1908. PHOTOGRAPHIC The ofhcial photographer for TECHNIQUE 1911 was Marceau, 160 Tremont Street. Portrait of Professor Cross by Notman. Pictures of Technology Reunion by Notman and Richard Stuart Bicknell, 1910. Pict- ures of Civil Engineering Summer School by Alexander VVoodWard Yere- ance, 1911, and Ralph Earle Runels, 1911. Pictures of N. E. I. A. A. Meet by Williani Somers, of I. C. A. A. A. A. Cross-Country Race by Daniel Quinn, and of Field Day by Prof. H. YV. Smith. E81

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X, 10 TECHNIQUE Vol.XXV This was the first of its kind in the country, and one of the Hrst in the world. The Institute at the time was averse, for financial reasons, to the opening of a new course, but Professor Cross, from his knowl- edge of the growing electrical industries, was led to a firm belief in its practicability. He instituted a series of optional lectures on the Industrial Applications of Electricityf, and these had such a large attendance that he was induced to suggest to President VValker the introduction of the study of Electrical Engineering as an option in Course VIII. The option very soon developed into a separate course, and from five years after its establishment to the present day it has always been one of the threefmost popular courses at the In- stitute. Professor Cross was in charge of the department for twenty years. , Professor Cross has held many public offices. He was president of the Appalachian lVIountain Club in 1880. At the foundation of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers he was one of the original vice-presidents. He acted as chairman of one of the three sections of the International Electrical Congress held in connection with the Columbian VVorld,s Fair at Chicago in 1893. During the past ten years he has been chairman of the Rumford Committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among other scientific bodies, Professor Cross is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the British Association, the American Physical Society, the Physical Society of France, the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society, and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Professor Cross has acted as adviser and expert in many matters of litigation relating to electrical patents. He was the principal expert for the Bell Company in all its suits upon the Bell patents, and has been connected with most of the great electrical cases of the past thirty years. He has published many papers on acoustics and te- lephony, and has lectured publicly on almost every branch of pure and applied physics. In the regular Institute course in Physics he has instructed about half the Faculty. A firm believer in the Institute and its ideals, a man always enthusiastic for its success and welfare, a sincere friend of every earnest student, Professor Cross stands out as a pioneer' of applied science, a promoter of learning, and an encourager of the true Institute spirit.