Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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and has done would be enormous if it were all collected in one pile, but when spread out makes a wonderful fertilizer for such brains as ours. His stories are always full of Thayer School experiences and of problems that he nonchalantly solved when the whole engineering world was baffled by their complexity. His slide rule and cigar are his omnipresent companions. The latter, despite the blazing “ No Smoking ” signs in Boynton Hall, still continues to send its wreaths through the portals of his sanctuary. Every Civil knows that in his relations with this man he gets a square deal, and that whatsoever he may make of himself in the future as an engineer depends to a large extent upon the thoroughness with which he has applied the common sense teachings of “ Prof ”. A. Wilmer Duff, D.Sc., Professor of Physics “ Ah, gentlemen, there is some little difficulty with this experiment. You see that the aphatus is not working well.” We a ll speak with reverence of Sophomore Physics. It was fine after it was all over. The little dif ' -fi ' - culties that Professor Duff got into were nothing compared to the ones we got into later, and some of us wake up in the night even now and catch glimpses of Nicol’s prisms and diffraction gratings. A. Wilmer is primarily a scientist. He could no more omit a tenth of a milligram than he could omit finding the possible error in the coefficient of expansion of a mustard plaster. We can see him now as he used to reach beneath the lecture table and draw “ a few drops of wau-ta ” or as he “ do-ra-me-fa-so-la-se-doed ” up the spiral stairs of the Lab and then “ do-se-la-so-fa-me-ra-doed ” down again. A finely educated man is Prof. Duff, and we who hit the high spots of his science and drop the milligrams and even the hundreds of pounds can hardly appreciate his place in the world of engineering. If some of us have our little bruises from contact with his work may we leave them behind us when we go, in the realization of the fact that it is the subject that influ¬ ences the man and not the man who makes the subject a stumbling-block in our path. William W. Bird, Professor of Mechanical Engineering “ Piggy ” is a familar sight on the Hill, where he takes particular delight in springing “ bum ” jokes and in sticking everyone with foolish questions. Occasionally when aroused by one of Prof. French s stories of

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Harold B. Smith, M.E., Professor of Electrical Engineering Professor Smith was born in Barre, Mass., in 1869. From Barre High School he entered Cornell, and on graduating was elected to Sigma Xi. After graduate work he became head of the Electrical Department of Arkansas State University. He remained there but one year, having accepted a position as Head Designer and Electrical Engineer with the Elektron Manufacturing Co., and a Professorship at Purdue University. In 1896 he came to W. P. I. as Head of the Electrical Department, where he has built the Department from a mere side study to its present high standing. He is a member of many prominent societies both at home and abroad, among them being the A. I. E. E., A. S. M. E. and B. I. E. E. He has also written many papers of engineering value. Since 1905 he has been Electrical Engineer and Designer for the Westinghouse Co. Last year he was granted a two years’ leave of absence to be spent in travel and study. H. B. is honored and respected by everyone with whom he comes in contact. He has been the dominant force of the Electrical Department since its institution in 1896, and we have missed him during the last year. His greatest ability seems to be in showing anything and everything by means of curves. He has even been able to tell by curves what a magnificent salary we will be receiving in 1920. No one could doubt him after seeing the curve; it’s self evident. Arthur William French, C.E., Professor of Civil Engineering Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers And “ Kink o’ de Civil bunch ” “ Prof ” has a versatile nature. Perhaps its chameleonlike qualities depend upon the point of view. Our first impressions of him alternated between an Ogre and a Stealthy Steve. When we began to know him bet¬ ter they alternated between a mental Hercules and a certain Biblical char¬ acter for whom a large modern club has been named. Now the impressions don’t alternate, because we know that he is not like any other character in history or biography. He is a summation, between the limits of hard work and good nature, of a multitude of characteristics, which, when integrated, give us a Man and an Engineer. In the real Engineering that we have studied we have run into “ Prof ” at every turn, and after each collision we have gotten up with more sense than we previously had. The amount that he has made us think he knows 22

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Dartmouth he retaliates with an account of his football prowess at Tech; no other representative of that distant time: being present the story is suit¬ ably inflated and he rolls his tongue around and chuckles, saying to him¬ self, “ He can’t beat that one.” “ Piggy ” and Prof. French love each other dearly and are often seen walking about hand in hand, one promising not to “ screw ” the Civils and the other not to “ get ” the Mechanics, never¬ theless, “ Piggy ” says that he does not feel the same toward Prof, since he caught him trying to get the New Olsen out through one of the win¬ dows of the Mechanical Laboratory and into Boynton Hall. The Mechanical Department is indeed fortunate in having at the helm a man of Professor Bird’s calibre. Only those who come into intimate contact with him can realize the self sacrificing interest and attention that he gives to any project which might be a benefit to the Institute. In some of our courses a short, generally suddenly interrupted siesta has been quite common, but such a thing never happened in Prof. Bird’s classes. In fact his good nature has become proverbial, and his kindly feeling for all the upper classmen in particular has won the respect of everyone on the Hill. Alton L. Smith, M.S., Professor of Machine Drawing We have simply got to have a nickname for all our profs, and so Pro¬ fessor Smith changes to “ Dingtoe ” in our third year and this is further shortened by more intimate contact as Seniors to just plain “ Ding.” He puts us through some pretty stiff paces as Juniors, in Kinematics, but he seems to realize that the stuff is hard and he always tries to use the men “ white.” His blunt and direct manner often disconcerts us and makes us feel our serious lack of knowledge along certain lines, but Senior year he gets pretty close to us. Outside the class room you find him at his best, and few students realize h ow interested and interesting he really is as a man. His little peculiarity, when you ask him in Design, how long to make a certain thing, is to jerk that ever present “ six-foot yardstick ” from the rear pocket of his “ jeans ” and casually say, as he holds the rule at arm’s length and slides his finger to the mark, “ ‘Bout three inches.” He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and very well thought of in the engineering profession. Charles M. Allen, M.S., Professor of Hydraulic Engineering “ You must live with a man to know him.” Let’s take any morning during the first half of the Senior year. Scene, M. E. Lecture Room, two 24