872 WILLIAM WATSON. 



i 



n the Massachusetts Institute of Technology then in process of organ- 

 ization. 



He was elected to membership in this Academy February 9th, 1864 

 and in 1884 was chosen to fill the office of Recording Secretary. This 

 he continued to hold up to the time of his death which occurred on Sep- 

 tember 30, 1915. 



He was a staunch friend of the Academy and devoted to its interests. 

 He realized very fully the desirability of a more general personal 

 acquaintance among its members than formerly existed and was 

 anxious to remove the frigidity which characterized its sessions in 

 earlier times. To him was chiefly due the institution of the social 

 features of the monthly meetings which have proved so successful. 



Mr. Watson was one of the original professors in the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology at its beginning, having in his charge the 

 instruction in mechanical engineering together with descriptive 

 geometry and stereotomy. Upon him devohed the planning of the 

 Course in Mechanical Engineering under the conditions demanded for 

 it in this country and also most of the teaching in its professional sub- 

 jects as well, so few in number was the instructing force, a serious 

 task for any man. To this work he devoted himself most earnestly 

 sparing no pains to make his subject clear to classes of rather insuf- 

 ficiently prepared students. The lack of text-books in mechani- 

 cal engineering based upon American practice hampered him greatly. 

 His special interest, however, was in descriptive geometr^^ and its 

 applications of which he possessed a wide knowledge. To illustrate 

 these he secured for the Institute what was for that time a remark- 

 able collection of models of various surfaces. He also gave for the 

 first time in the United States laboratory instruction in the practical 

 applications of stereotomy, the students of which were required to 

 construct actual models in plaster from their drawings. He retained 

 his professorship until 1873 when he resigned to devote himself more 

 exclusively to study. In the same year he married Miss Margaret 

 Fiske of Boston who died a number of years later. 



Professor Watson contributed much in an informal way to advance 

 the interests of the many instructors in mathematics and physics in 

 Harvard and Technology as a very active member of the Mathemati- 

 cal and Physical Club, or M. P. Club as it was colloquially called, an 

 organization which from its beginning in the early eighties for over 

 thirty years played a large part in bringing the older and the younger 

 instructors at these institutions together for scientific discussion and 

 friendly intercourse. 



