WILLIAM BARTON ROGERS. 415 



tributor, as well in the discussions of scientific questions as 

 in the communication of original papers, which, however, in 

 most cases, appear only by title in their Transactions, or are 

 to be found in other publications before mentioned. In 1857 

 he made another visit to Europe and attended the meeting of 

 the British Association at Dublin. 



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

 accepted the office of Inspector of Gas and Gas Meters for the 

 State of Massachusetts, and organized a system of inspection 

 in which he aimed to apply scientific principles more fully than 

 had hitherto been attempted in the United States. Some ac- 

 count of his methods was given by him at the meeting of the 

 British Association in 1864. 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 

 an opportunity for carrying out these views. In 1860, in 

 behalf of a committee of gentlemen who had become interested 

 in the subject, he drew up a scheme entitled " Object 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 

 Massachusetts, urging the establishment of such an institution. 

 Finally, in 1862, a charter for the "Massachusetts 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 Society of Natural 

 History, the other two thirds to the Institute of Technology. 

 Accompanied by Mrs. Rogers he went to Europe in 1864 to 

 collect models of machinery and apparatus for the use of the 

 school. The detailed plan for the departments of the school, 

 prepared by Prof. Rogers in that year, has been carried out, 

 with but slight modifications. A marked feature of this plan, 

 which has since been adopted in many other institutions, was 

 the introduction of laboratory teaching, not only in the de- 

 partment of chemistry, but in that of physics, mechanics, and 

 mining, a feature which has contributed largely to the reputa- 



