372 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-V 



which such a department needed ; that its graduates must 

 have a direct, practical acquaintance with the construction 

 and use of machinery before they could become leaders in 

 great mechanical enterprises ; that they must be made, not 

 only mathematicians and draftsmen, but skilled work- 

 men, practically trained in the best methods and processes. 

 A very shrewd artisan said to me: "When a young me- 

 chanical engineer comes among us fresh from college, only 

 able to make figures and pictures, we rarely have much 

 respect for him: the trouble with the great majority 

 of those who come from technical institutions is that 

 they don't know as much about practical methods and 

 processes as we know. ' ' 



I felt that there was truth in this, but, as things were, 

 hardly dared tell this to the trustees. It would have scared 

 them, for it seemed to open the door to great expenditures 

 demanded by a mere theory; but I laid my views before 

 Mr. Cornell, and he agreed with me so far as to send to 

 us from his agricultural works at Albany sundry large 

 pieces of old machinery, which he thought might be re- 

 built for our purposes. But this turned out to be hardly 

 practicable. I dared not, at that stage of the proceedings, 

 bring into the board of trustees a proposal to buy machin- 

 ery and establish a machine-shop ; the whole would have a 

 chimerical look, and was sure to repel them. Therefore it 

 was that, at my own expense, I bought a power-lathe and 

 other pieces of machinery ; and, through the active efforts 

 of Professor John L. Morris, my steadfast supporter in 

 the whole matter, these were set up in our temporary 

 wooden laboratory. A few students began using them, and 

 to good purpose. Mr. Cornell was greatly pleased. Other 

 trustees of a practical turn visited the place, and the result 

 was that opinion in the governing board soon favored a 

 large practical equipment for the department. 



On this I prepared a report, taking up the whole subject 

 with great care, and brought it before them, my main 

 suggestion being that a practical beginning of the depart- 

 ment should be made by the erection and equipment of a 



