420 ROBERT HENRY THURSTON 



Philadelphia which port was reached on February 8, 1863. 

 Assistant Engineer Thurston was then detached and ordered 

 on February 11 to examination for promotion. This gave him 

 the rank of Second Assistant Engineer. Following the exami- 

 nation he was placed on waiting orders where he remained till 

 June 13, 1863, when he was ordered to the Chtppezva at Port 

 Royal in charge of the Engineer's Department. About a year 

 later the ship returned north to Philadelphia where he was de- 

 tached on June 23, 1864, and placed on waiting orders. On 

 July II, 1864, he was ordered to the Maumee at the Brooklyn 

 Navy Yard, but a few weeks later, on August 10, was de- 

 tached and ordered to the Pontoosuc. This vessel saw service 

 as consort to a Pacific Mail steamer to Aspinwall and return. 

 On October 18, 1864, he was detached from the Pontoosuc and 

 ordered to the Dictator, then fitting out and making preliminary 

 trials in New York harbor. On June 6, 1865, he was ordered 

 to examination for promotion to First Assistant Engineer, receiv- 

 ing his commission as such dated July 18. Shortly after on 

 September 5, 1865, he was detached and placed on waiting 

 orders till December of the same year when he was ordered to 

 the Naval Academy as Assistant Professor in the Department 

 of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. 



He remained at the Naval Academy till 1870 when he was 

 invited to the chair of Mechanical Engineering at the recently 

 founded Stevens Institute. Here he organized this department 

 of the Institute, started an engineering laboratory and directed 

 for 15 years, or until 1885, the energies of this growing center 

 of engineering educational influence. In addition to his work 

 at Stevens Institute he took part in many important pieces of 

 engineering work and served on many government commis- 

 sions. Among these may be mentioned the U. S. Commission 

 on Boiler Tests, the U. S. Board to test iron, steel and other 

 metals, and the U. S. Commission to the Vienna Exposition in 

 1873, the report of which he edited, writing Vol. Ill as his own 

 contribution to the work. 



In 1885 he was invited by the Trustees of Cornell University 

 to undertake the reorganization of Sibley College as a profes- 

 sional engineering school. 



