268 OBITUARY. 
HUIBERT COP 
MEMBER 
Professor Cop was born in Deventer on the 9th of November, 1853. At the Poly- 
technic School in Delft, he chose in 1873 to study for mechanical engineer and passed his 
B examination, after studying only two years. The Dutch Government having promised a 
liberal college allowance to an applicant for the vacant position of naval engineer, provided 
he obtained within two years successively his diplomas for shipbuilding and mechanics, Pro- 
fessor Cop presented himself for the vacancy. 
In 1877 he obtained the first-mentioned certificate and was appointed naval engineer and 
allowed to continue his studies in Delft. After one year he obtained the certificate of me- 
chanical engineer and was appointed at the governmental shipyard in Amsterdam. After two 
years’ service in Amsterdam he was advanced to second class engineer and embarked, in 
the latter part of 1880, on board the screw-steamer Leeuwarden, one of the units of a 
squadron, which successively put in at Madeira, Teneriffe, Paramaribo, Lissabon and sev- 
eral ports on the Mediterranean. 
After his return he worked a few months at the governmental shipyard in Willem- 
soord, and later in Amsterdam, where he was the assistant of the principal consulting en- 
gineer from 1883-1887. In that function he supervised the building of the police vessel 
Zeemeeuw, the steamer Condor for the Royal Navy, floating drydocks for Sourabaua 
and the screw-steamers Flores, Reiger and Lucifer, destined for the service in the 
Dutch Indies. 
In 1887 he was entrusted with lecturing on scientific shipbuilding at the Polytechnic 
School in Delft, and on the first of the following year he was appointed professor in that 
branch. When the appointment was made he had been recommended as one of the most 
capable and industrious members of the corps of naval engineers. He remained on the list 
of that corps pro memorie, and in 1887 he was promoted engineer first class. 
Professor Cop lent powerful assistance to all efforts made in the Netherlands in order to 
complete a modern installation which would enable one to apply methods of testing ship 
models by means of a tank. His assistance in that direction culminated during his member- 
ship of “Staatscommissie Sleeptank” established in 1918. In this commission he was one 
of the most industrious members. On one of his scientific trips he visited in 1919 the tanks 
in London and Paris. He thoroughly realized the limits of practicability and insufficiency 
of this otherwise indispensable method, and considered the building of a tank above all things 
desirable in the interest of the industry to solve concrete questions. 
Professor Cop, as a teacher, tried to cultivate in his pupils clear notions and a real zeal 
for study, by showing and explaining to them the work of the most advanced examiners and 
engineers. He gave no prescription of his own, but desired to develop the critical acumen 
of his hearers and to give them an opportunity to form their own opinion. 
The Dutch Government recognized his merits by bestowing upon him the decoration 
known as Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion (Orde van de Nederlandsche Leeuw). 
Professor Cop became a member of this Society in 1900. He died December 8, 1921. 
