ROBERT HENRY THURSTON. 



Bv Prof. W. F. DuRAND. 



The splendid legacy of material civilization which the nineteenth 

 century has bequeathed to the twentieth is due in principal measure to 

 the achievements of the engineer and the scientist, and among- those 

 whose names and influence are written large on the practice and the 

 achievements of the latter part of the last century, the name of Prof. 

 Robert Henry Thurston will hold an assured and a1)iding place. Suc- 

 cess as a scientist or engineer is a complex result of many factors, 

 natural capacitv, industry, devotion to high ideals, persistence, faith, 

 with some measure of opportunity". These and others might be speci- 

 tied, and all of them in high degree were joined in the character and 

 personality of Professor Thurston. 



Robert Henry Thurston was born in Providence, R. I., October 25, 

 1839; son of Robert L. Thurston, one of the pioneer steam engineers 

 of the country. He spent much time in his father's engine works, 

 Thurston. Green & Co. and Thvirston, Gardner & Co., where he 1)ecame 

 acquainted with the engineering practice of the day, especialh' in rela- 

 tion to the design and construction of steam boilers and engines, and 

 in general power-plant practice. 



At the age of 16 he entered Brown University, where he graduated 

 in 1859 with the degrees of Ph. B. and C. E., and later received from 

 the same institution the degrees of A. M. and LL. D., and from 

 Stevens Institute the degree of doctor of engineering. 



He first entered business with his father's firm at Providence and 

 was later their representative in Philadelphia, where he was located 

 at the outbreak of the civil war in ist;!. At this time, when the ques- 

 tion of duty to country was pressing in upon the hearts and thoughts 

 of all serious men, he decided early in the summer to oft'er himself 

 for service in the Engineer Corps of the Navy, believing that in this 

 branch of the national service he would find the best scope for his 

 natural genius and personal tastes, and would furthermore thus be 

 able to render service in Avhich his previous experience might be of 

 some ready value. In reply to his letter to the Secretary of the Navy 

 he was ordered to report for examination to the naval examining 



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