Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

Page 32 text:

THE AFTERMATH CLASS OF NINETEEN FIFTEEN men at heart and no one wishes them more Frederic Bonnet, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Frederic Bonnet, Jr., received his B.S. at Washington University in 1899 and his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1903; hence the war¬ rant for his usual handle, “Doc.” “Doc” has studied molecular compressibility, he is an adept at glass-blowing and is always will¬ ing to talk sanitation, especially garbage dis¬ posal and pigs. In fact “Doc” is “there” in all lines of chemistry, but he is, nevertheless, a firm believer in discipline. Who will forget the day when in Freshman Chemistry, fol¬ lowing Professor Coombs’s advice, we all stamped our feet in an attempt to get him to stop the lecture after the bell had rung? Vain effort! He finished the Chemistry lec¬ ture, and another besides. “Doc” is one of the few Faculty members who never “screws” a man on 59.9 -(- per cent. He either gives him 55 or 65 (accord¬ ing to the Freshman it is more often 55). But, be that as it may. Dr. Bonnet is a friend of every Tech man and as such he will be remembered by the Class of 1915. Carleton Allen Read, B.S. Professor of Steam Engineering. Professor Read received his B.S. degree from M. I. T. in 1891, returning to that Institution as Instructor in Mechanical Engin¬ eering. In 1 908 he came to Worcester and has been since that time the Professor of Steam Engineering. We were told that he believed in conducting a boiler test where the students should meet with all of the troubles and difficulties which might arise; also that no equipment should be provided. After having conducted one of the student tests we may well believe it now. During the last part of the Senior year Professor Read arranged a lecture course which rivaled the “Chatauqua” in novelty. He is deeply interested in refrigeration and he has spent considerable of his time in the various plants in the vicinity. When he gets out the little red book and looks around with a vacant stare we know something is sure to happen. In the class room and outside Professor Read is the same congenial and agreeable person. He has the interests of all Tech success than he. 1 28 ]

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WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE Robert Chauncey Sweetser, B.S. Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry. In “Bobby” we have a splendid illustra¬ tion of the principle that “appearances are deceitful.” His stony, immovable face sug¬ gests a cruel questioner of the type of the ancient sphinx, with impossible problems and a harsh fate. But, oh how different he is! His ques tions are of the type one should know —not some little things slid over in a lecture. He shows how simple analysis is,—“Fresh¬ man chemistry and grammar-school arith¬ metic.” No one sharks his courses and no one fails, a happy medium. His smile is his great characteristic. Yes, he really can smile and has done so three times publicly in our four years. But though you don’t smile, “Bobby,” we know from ex¬ perience that your heart is larger than that of many a man and your many little kind acts more than make up for it. As a disciple of simplified pronunciation and spelling, “Bobby” puts “T. R. in the shade. It saves time but it would never “get by Coombsie” on a theme. At first “pscptate,” “slooshn,” rackshun and “pseedja” will puzzle your mind, but at length they become a part of Bobby to all. Anyone who comes in contact with “Bobby” is impressed with the fact that he is deal¬ ing with a straight-forward gentleman, whose aim is to be helpful in a kindly, unobtru¬ sive way. 1 27 ]

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WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE Carl Dunham Knight, E.E. Assistant Professor Experimental Elec¬ trical Engineering. The E. E. lab. is presided over by a tall, dark complexioned gentleman who is known to us as Professor Knight. We began to feel that he was one of us, a man who knew our petty difficulties by having been con¬ fronted by those same difficulties not a great while before. (He graduated from W. P. I. in 1903.) He is one of those few on the Hill who help us to remember that the saying, “Tech is Hell,” is erroneous. Professor Knight is a man of ordinarily quiet habits and never seeming to be in a hurry—except when he is synchronizing the big set; then his arms look like windmills, his eyes view approximately fifteen meters at once, his hands operate countless switches and circuit breakers; so that a person with an observing eye would state that he was decidedly a man of action. The real estate company must have had Professor Knight in mind, when they origi¬ nated the saying, “You say good morning to good neighbors at Lenox.” John Harland Nelson, M.S. Professor of Applied Mechanics. “That is,—‘Impoo’ities.’ ” These words immediately bring to our minds “Prof” Nel¬ son together with remembrances of “Junior Mechanics” and “Materials of Construc¬ tion’ ; but we can forgive him when we think that our suffering lasted but a year, while his—no one can tell. H is one delight is to watch a poor helpless piece of steel writhe and squirm while he coldly applies more “load.” Proficiency in in the subject of “stwesses” and “stwains” earned him the work for the government at Washington, which he has but recently com¬ pleted and of which we are justly proud. As a lecturer we prophesy that his would be a brilliant career, for although his “audi¬ ences” have, up to the present, been “rather inattentive,” his courage is undaunted. However, it is the man, and not the sub¬ jects, that leaves the true and lasting impression, for Professor Nelson meets every¬ one with a genial smile and a friendly spirit which no one can help but enjoy and re¬ member. [ 29 ]