Northeastern University - Cauldron Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 20 text:

Gfte OJautorott, 191 7 (Eiuil Ipttgineering p f HE military engineers, who had to construct roads, ill fortifications, and other works essential to success ■ in war, were for a long time the only ones to whom the title of engineer applied. However, about the middle of the 18th century there began to arise a new class of engineers who concerned themselves with works which were not built by soldiers and which were not exclusively military in purpose. This class of engineers came to be known as Civil Engineers. All engineers were then known as either military engineers or civil engineers. Out of civil engineering, by a natural process of sub- divisions, have come the many other engineering profes- sions which will continue to be sub-divided as human knowledge progresses. Perhaps the first branch of en- gineering to be recognized as separate was Mechanical Engineering, which was soon followed by numerous other branches of engineering, so that Civil Engineering today is only one of many recognized branches of engineering. When the Co-Operative School of Engineering was founded in 1909, the Civil Engineering Department was not recognized as such as it had no equipment, no full time instructors, and only two students. The only strict- ly Civil Engineering subjects which were given were those offered by the Evening School of Engineering. However, the following year the enrollment had increased 16 Department to 14 and the Civil Engineering Department really had its beginning at this time. Mr. C. S. Ell, then a senior in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was engaged on a part time basis to give the Civil Engineering sub- jects in the first year, the work in the upper years being omitted. The equipment consisted of such surveying in- struments as could be rented for each exercise. At the beginning of the school year 1911-1912, the School purchased supplies consisting of a second-hand transit, stadia rod, tapes and pins and sufficient addi- tional equipment was rented to enable the Department to give all of the first and second year work in the curri- culum. In the fall of 1912 Mr. Ell was appointed as Head of the Civil Engineering Department, complete equipment for Elementary Surveying, Higher Survey- ing and Railroad work was secured and instruction was given in the first three years of the course. The department has continued to grow in enrollment so that this year there are 50 students enrolled. Several new members have been added to the Instructing Staff and the course has been revised and strengthened so that graduates will find no difficulty in competing with other Civil Engineers. The department has always been popu- lar with the students, as it has invariably enrolled a larger number than any other course in the School.

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Ofte (Jaulbron, 191F graduating class, four members of the original eight, who had started four years before. In the fall of 1913 the School moved into its present quarters in the new Association Building, starting out for the first time under favorable conditions of housing and equipment. At that time the enrollment was about one hundred and ten students. During that year it was de- cided to try a two-week alternation period in place of the single week, and this arrangement went into effect about the middle of the year. The longer period was found to be much better from the standpoint of employers and students, and so was adopted permanently and has been continued ever since. During this year, all night courses were given up, and the entire schedule of studies has since been carried on during the day. During the years of 1915 and 1916, the student body kept up its steady growth, and the present school year sees one hundred and sixty students enrolled in the various courses. The co-operating firms have been in- creased from the first four, to nearly forty, and whereas in the early years of the School, it taxed one ' s persuasive powers to the utmost to get a concern to even consider giving the plan a trial, at present, owing to the fine rec- ords made by the students in their work, we cannot supply enough men to fill the positions offered. In the School, the courses have been modified and added to, in pursuance of the policy that has predominated from the start, that our function was service to the young men, and that only by the best education that we could give, could such service be rendered properly. The standards, al- ways high, have been continuously raised, and the in- structing staff, steadily increasing in number and effi- ciency, has grown from the first four part-time instruc- tors to the present ten full-time and six part-time men, who are so ably working to bring the School to still higher efficiency and ideals. While the foregoing statements tell what the School has done, it is the graduates who are the only true measure of the work, and it is with the greatest pride that we look at the men who have gone into the world ' s work after their training with us and so ably demonstrated the value of our work to them. Although relatively few in number, being in all less than seventy-five, they are to be found scattered about the United States, in Canada, Porto Rico and the Philip- pines, some as electrical engineers, some designing drafts- men, others construction engineers, still others foremen, and yet others teachers, but, wherever they are found, they are showing the world that the School is doing its share to train men, not only to carry on the work of en- gineers, but to be men of high character and ideals, whose greatest satisfaction lies in the fact that they are per- forming their duties ably and conscientiously, and so are making the world better for their being in it. H. W. Geromanos.

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QJ lie OJaulbrnn, 191 r Mechanical ijEttnutcering Separtmcnt ? f HE Mechanical Engineering course at the Co- ll L Operative School of Engineering was started in H 1909 with four students, which was at that time just one half of the School. During the first years of the course there was no regular Mechanical Engineering In- structor, as no professional work was given until the third year. Mr. Penard taught thermodynamics in the evening school and the day school men had to attend the evening session for that subject. Mr. Penard also taught mathematics in the da) ' school which he continued doing until this year. In 1911 Mr. Albert L. Gardner, an assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came to the School as a part time instructor, and the next year as a full time instructor and head of the Mechanical Engineering- Course, a position which he held until 1915, when he left to accept a position with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company. Mr. H. C. Mabbott took Mr. Gardner ' s place in 1915 and is now in charge of the course. At the present time there are twenty-seven men in the course, of whom seven are in the fourth year. This is the largest number of Senior Mechanicals since the School began. Next year there will probably be about the same number. The Mechanical Course has not increased in the earlier years as it should have. The training with some of our co-operating firms is excellent and in some of the machines shops the work and pay are equivalent to that of the outside man. The best thing about it is that when the Co-op gets his diploma he is ready to take a position of some responsibility instead of going through a pro- bationary period that the average college man has to go through. At the present time the opportunities of the Mechani- cal graduate are greater than in most other engineering lines. High labor costs has forced engineers to design labor saving machinery to keep down the prices, and there is still room for all the good men that the schools of the country can produce. But it is the man who com- bines practice with theory who gives the most to his em- ployer. Neither all practice nor all theory can get along by itself, so it would seem that the opportunities for our Co-operative man with a balanced judgment and educa- tion should be ever greater than the average technical school graduate.