EGBERT HENRY THURSTOIST. 845 



following December was ordered to the Naval Academy as assistant 

 professor in the department of natural and experimental philosopliy. 

 He remained on this dut}- for the next tive years, activel}' occupied in 

 his duties at the Acadeni}^ and in developing his invention of a type of 

 magnesium lamp intended for use in a proposed S3"stem of military 

 and naval signals. 



In ISTO he was invited by President Morton, of Stevens Institute, to 

 take part, as professor of mechanical engineering, in the organization 

 of that newl}" founded educational enterprise. It was here that Pro- 

 fessor Thurston, on 1>road and practically independent lines, first 

 entered on his career as an engineering educator, and in which he 

 won so large and enduring a place in the modern development of tech- 

 nical education. There were then existing no technical schools to 

 serve as guides or precedents, especially in higher engineering work, 

 and these early developments were largely pioneer in character. In 

 all of the earh' work of organization and development Professor 

 Thurston took a leading part as head of the department of mechanical 

 engineering. He earh^ organized a laboratory of mechanical engi- 

 neering, the first of its type in the country, and thus sounded a new 

 keynote in higher technical education. Now every technical school 

 of approved standing has its engineering laborator3% and work of this 

 character is yearl}" assuming an increasing importance in all lines of 

 technical education. His earh^ plans for such a laborator}' were first 

 published in 1871 and later amplified in 1875. In Europe work of 

 this character had been inaugurated in a few institutions in 1870 and 

 1871, or only slightly earlier than the initial organization by Pro- 

 fessor Thurston. He has said that the need of such a laboratory and 

 of opportunities for such instruction had been strongly impressed on 

 his mind when a boy in his father's workship, and during his entire 

 career as an educator he gave much prominence to such work and much 

 time and effort to the constant improvement and extension of the 

 equipments of the laboratories over which he exercised supervision. 



In addition to his Avork in Stevens Institute, Professor Thurston 

 found time during these yesLvs to serve on several important commis- 

 sions and juries. He was a member of a United States commission 

 on boiler tests; was- member of an international jur}' and United 

 States Commissioner at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and edited the 

 report of the commission on that exhibition, comprising four large 

 volumes, and writing one of them, on manufactures, as his own con- 

 tribution. He Avas also an active member of the American Society of 

 Civil Engineers, and in the proceedings of that society reported fre- 

 quently the results of his investigations on the strength of materials. 

 In 1875 he was appointed member of the United States ))oard for the 

 testing of iron, steel, and other metals, and took for many years a 

 leading part in the work of that board. 



