632 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 143 



1865, he received the degree of A.B. from Har- 

 vard in 1869 and tlie B.S. in mining and metal- 

 lurgy from the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology' in 1871. The following year he 

 received the degree of A.M. from Harvard, 

 followed by the LL.D. in 1905. 



The practical side of his life began in iron 

 and steel. He was superintendent of the Bes- 

 semer Steel Works, Joliet, in 1872, and of the 

 Blair Iron and Steel Company, 1873-74. For 

 some five years he devoted himself to the metal- 

 lurgy of copper and improved copper smelting 

 in Chile for the heirs of Augustas Hemenway, 

 and then designed and built the works of the 

 Orford Copper Company at Capelton and 

 Eustis in the Province of Quebec and at Ber- 

 gen Point, N. J., 1879-1882. This latter year 

 he was manager of the Pima Copper-mining 

 and Smelting Company of Arizona. 



From 1883-97 he was a consulting metallur- 

 gist in Boston and at the same time lectured 

 in metallurgy at the Institute of Technology. 

 In 1897 he was called to the chair of metal- 

 lurgy at Columbia University and became pro- 

 fes.sor emeritus in 1913. 



His notable books were "The Metallurgy of 

 Steel," 1888 (translated into French) and 

 "The Metallography of Steel and Cast Iron," 

 1916. They were both epoch making. In the 

 first he accumulated all the notable interest- 

 worthy material in the metallurgy of steel and 

 with amazing insight arranged it so logically 

 and so clearly as to bring out the significant 

 similarities rather than the striking differences. 

 In his last book we have a record of his own 

 crea)tive work and his interpretations of the 

 newer results in metallography, striking out 

 into a path far remote from the ordinary text- 

 book and leading to a new country of thought 

 and investigation. 



His honors were many and varied and 

 showed that his work and life were appreciated 

 not only at home but abroad. He was Knight 

 of the Order of St. Stanislas of Russia and 

 Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France. 

 He had honorarj' membership in many of the 

 societies, from the Royal Swedish Academy of 

 Scientists to the Societe d'Encouragement pour 

 L'Industrie Rationale of France. He held fel- 

 lov/ships in many of the academies and was 



president of the American Society Testing 

 Materials, the American Institute Mining En- 

 gineers, the International Association for Test- 

 ing Materials and honorary vice-president of 

 the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain. 



He received the Bessemer medal of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute of Great Britain, Eliot 

 Cresson medal, Franklin Institute of Phila- 

 delphia, gold medal of the Verein zur Befoer- 

 derung des Gewerbfieisses, Berlin, gold medal 

 of Societe d'Encouragement pour I'lndustrie 

 Nationale of France, 1916, and John Fritz 

 medal. United Engineering Societies, 1917. He 

 received honorary doctor's degrees from Har- 

 vard, Lafayette and the University of Pitts- 

 burgh. 



But it is as a teacher and as one who has 

 followed the paths of research that Professor 

 Howe should be honored above all. As a lec- 

 turer his diction was most simple and his ideas 

 and logical development of thought so clear 

 that the dullest could not help but understand 

 it. In fact, his courses seemed very easy com- 

 pared with collateral reading from text-books 

 and the like, and to those of us who had the 

 privilege of working with him in the laboratory 

 his inspiration was immeasurable. Possessed 

 of a kindly personality, he took a fatherly 

 interest in us all and spared no pains in our 

 training. His methods were new, too new for 

 many of his associates to understand or appre- 

 ciate, for he believed that science must be fol- 

 lowed in an orderly and well-thought-out man- 

 ner, that the problem should first of all be 

 stated, our knowledge of the subject be re- 

 viewed and then a complete plan of campaign 

 laid out before any experimental work was 

 started, for he had no use and less respect for 

 the old cook book methods of metallurgy, 

 which unfortunately are not yet quite a thing 

 of the past. Another marked characteristic 

 was his tolerance and patience. While the 

 systematic planning of work came naturally to 

 him, yet he realized the difficulties in the paths 

 of others and was never intolerant or unkindly 

 critical when things went wrong, even when his 

 advice had been neglected. Each of us was 

 made to feel that he was a co-worker and not 

 merely an assistant, and in that way the best 

 of each of us was brought out and developed. 



