300 ROBERT HEYWOOD FERNALD 



It was October 14, 1835, that the first prospectus in Enghsh 

 of a school of civil engineering was issued. Among other 

 things it stated that the degree of civil engineer would be 

 conferred upon candidates of seventeen years and upwards 

 who are well quahfied in that department. One year is 

 sufficient for obtaining the Rensselaer degree of bachelor of 

 natural science, or of civil engineering for a candidate who is 

 well prepared to enter. Graduates of colleges may succeed 

 by close application during the twenty four weeks in the 

 summer term. Candidates are admitted to the institute 

 who have a good knowledge of arithmetic and can under- 

 stand good authors readily, and can compose with con- 

 siderably facility. The degree of master of arts is conferred 

 after two years of practical application. Rensselaer gradu- 

 ated from six to thirteen engineers a year, and these, with 

 the few from West Point, made up the list of directly trained 

 engineers for a period of some ten years, when the school of 

 engineering of Union college entered the field in 1845, with the 

 distinction of being not only the second engineering school, 

 but the first to be organized as a branch of a classical college. 

 The success of this institution was not marked, as it graduated 

 only two or three students of engineering a year for a long 

 period and remained very small until about 1860. 



In 1846, the year following the organization of the en- 

 gineering department of Union, the Lawrence Scientific school 

 became a branch of Harvard university, and was the third 

 institution to introduce engineering. The history of this 

 institution has been until within a recent period most unfor- 

 tunate, and in referring to it some writer has said : '' By others' 

 faults wise men correct their own, and as an example of the 

 noble art of how not to do it, it is perhaps without a parallel." 

 The conception of Hon. Abbott Lawrence, the donor, was 

 exceptionally fine, and had his wishes in the matter been 

 fulfilled the history of the engineering department of Law- 

 rence Scientific school might have been very different. The 

 following extracts from his letter of donation leave no doubt 

 as to his personal views and wishes. He desired it to be a 

 school for the purpose of teaching the practical sciences. 

 There existed a pressing want of an increased number of men 



