6 io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the request of his friend Governor Andrew, in 1861, he accepted the 

 office of Inspector of Gas and Gas-Meters for the State of Massa- 

 chusetts, and organized a system of inspection in which lie aimed to 

 apply scientific principles more fully than had hitherto been attempted 

 in the United States. Some account of his methods was given at a 

 meeting of the British Association. During this time Prof. Rogers 

 was often called upon for public lectures on scientific subjects in 

 Massachusetts and elsewhere, and gave several courses before the 

 Lowell Institute in Boston. 



Prof. Rogers had long felt the need, in our educational system, of 

 giving to the physical sciences a higher place and more practical 

 methods of teaching than had hitherto been allowed them, and he 

 was therefore eager to avail himself of the opportunity for carrying 

 out these views. In behalf of a committee of gentlemen who had 

 become interested in the subject, he drew up a scheme entitled " Ob- 

 ject and Plan of an Institute of Technology," embracing a society 

 of arts, a museum of arts, and a school of industrial science ; and he 

 subsequently addressed a memorial to the Legislature of Massachu- 

 setts, urging the establishment of such an institution. After some 

 delay a charter for the " Institute of Technology " was granted, and 

 Prof. Rogers was placed at its head. A whole square of land on Back 

 Bay was granted for building-purposes one third to the Boston So- 

 ciety of Natural History, the other two thirds to the Institute of 

 Technology. But the popularity and increasing prosperity of the 

 Institute make it already cramped in its present stately hall, and it 

 will soon be necessary to have another edifice. The detailed plan for 

 the departments of the school, prepared by Prof. Rogers in 1864, has 

 been carried out, with but slight modifications. A mai'ked feature of 

 this plan, which has since been adopted in many other institutions, was 

 the introduction of laboratory teaching, not only in the department 

 of chemistry, but in that of physics, mechanics, and mining, a feature 

 which has no doubt contributed largely to the reputation which the 

 school has acquired for thoroughness of scientific training. 



Besides being president of the Institute, Prof. Rogers filled the 

 chair of Physics and Geology for several years after the establishment 

 of the school. It may be added that he was active in founding the 

 American Social Science Association, and was its first president. 



But this inventory of the life-work of Prof. Rogers, extensive and 

 interesting as it is, leaves out a powerful element of the influence 

 he has exerted as a teacher over great numbers of young men 

 who have been brought within the spell of his personality. Prof. 

 Rogers is an orator of the first class, and we have loner regarded him 

 as the most impressive and delightful speaker that has appeared be- 

 fore the American Association. And it must be remembered that 

 science puts oratory to its highest test ; it is a field in which reason 

 is supreme, and w T here the speaker is not at liberty to throw logic to 





