100 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 604. 



The foundation of our own school came 

 about in this way. In the year 1865 John 

 Boynton, of Templeton, in this state and 

 county, placed in the hands of his former 

 partner, David Whitcomb, of Worcester, 

 the sum of one hundred thousand dollars 

 for the endowment of a free school, which 

 was to be located in Worcester if the citi- 

 zens of Worcester should provide the land 

 and suitable buildings. This condition was 

 complied with by a gift of the land and of 

 $61,111 contributed by two hundred and 

 thirty-two individual names and from 

 twenty shops and factories. The institute 

 was incorporated May 9, 1865, under the 

 descriptive and perhaps prolix title of Wor- 

 cester County Free Institute of Industrial 

 Science, which was changed in 1887 to the 

 name which the institute now bears. 



December 2, 1865, Ichabod Washburn, 

 of Worcester, offered to establish a machine 

 shop as one of the departments of instruc- 

 tion of the institute. 



The selection of the location of the school 

 was an appropriate one. Worcester, then 

 a city of 30,000, had long been famed for 

 her industries and for the intelligence 

 and public spirit of her citizens. Her in- 

 dustrial growth had taken place since 1830, 

 prior to which time her manufactures had 

 been of the most primitive sort. The Rev. 

 Edward Everett Hale, whose life work, 

 happily not yet concluded, has been so 

 productive of good to his fellow-men, told 

 me that Judge Merrick, a resident of Wor- 

 cester, once met Samuel Slater, the pioneer 

 cotton manufacturer, on the street in Wor- 

 cester. Judge Merrick said to Mr. Slater: 



We shall never be a manufacturing town in 

 Worcester because we have so little water power. 



Mr. Slater said in reply: 



Judge Merrick, you may live to see the time 

 when Worcester will need all the water of Mill 

 Brook to provide the steam for her steam engines. 



This conversation must have occurred at 



some time prior to 1835 and perhaps about 

 1830. 



It is difficult to realize that William A. 

 Wheeler, of Worcester, who is credited 

 with having installed in 1825 the first 

 steam engine in the state west of Boston, 

 should have discarded it and used horse 

 power until 1840, when he put in another 

 engine, William T. Merrifield at the same 

 time put in an engine of from four to six 

 horse power. These were probably the first 

 efficient steam engines in Worcester. 



An indication that this was congenial 

 soil in which to plant an institution like 

 ours is found in the formation of the 

 Mechanics' Association, first attempted in 

 1819, and successful in 1841. The object 

 of the association was : 



The moral, intellectual and social improvement 

 of its members, the perfection of the mechanic 

 arts, and the pecuniary assistance of the needy. 



Another object was the holding of an an- 

 nual fair for the exhibition of the mechan- 

 ical products of the city, and the first fair 

 was held in September, 1848. 



In July, 1854, in commenting upon the 

 association and its work, the statement was 

 made that: 



Notwithstanding the inadequate supply of 

 water power which is everywhere deemed so 

 essential for the successful development of the 

 mechanic arts, without the- aid of a single act 

 of incorporation, mechanical business has increased 

 in this city by individual enterpris'e alone more 

 than tenfold. 



The mechanics as a class are more enlightened 

 than formerly, their course is onward and upward; 

 they are not only increased in numbers, but con- 

 tinually expanding in influence and usefulness. 



Ichabod Washburn was very much inter- 

 ested in this association, and eight or ten 

 years before the founding of the institute 

 had discussed with the Eev. Dr. Sweetser 

 the feasibility of establishing a school in 

 connection with the Mechanics' Association 

 for giving scientific instruction to mechan- 

 ics in the fundamental principles of me- 



