Cornell Alumni News - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

neering." He cited the teachings of
the late Director Robert H. Thurston
and George Burr Upton '04 of Sibley
College and Professor Adelbert P.
Mills, Civil Engineering, as evidence
that i 'metallurgy is not new at Cornell/'
"It has long been the policy of
the Engineering College to base all
curricula on the teaching of fundamentals,
with a minimum of instruction in
specialized fields. The new Metallurgical
Engineering curriculum continues
this broad basic policy." He explained
that the first two years are devoted
essentially to basic mathematics, physics,
chemistry, drawing, English, history,
economics, and public speaking.
Except for a short introductory course
in metallurgy and one in metallurgical
raw materials, the professional courses
do not begin until the third year. In
the last three years of the five-year
course, besides technical courses in
metals and metal processes, students
are required to go further in physical
chemistry, mechanics, and basic electrical
engineering, and to study psychology,
library use and patents, corporate
and industrial organization, accounting,
statistics, and quality control.
He described the curriculum as
providing "the fundamental training
needed in metallurgy, a broad training
in engineering, and sufficient work
in the cultural subjects and business
administration to give the student a
well-balanced educational program."
He referred to the need for welltrained
engineers in the foundry industry
and recent provision by the
Foundry Educational Foundation of
scholarships and equipment for this
specialized training.
Facilities To Expand
He spoke of present facilities for
teaching and research which are being
modernized and expanded, temporarily
in Olin Hall and the Foundry
behind Sibley until the new Materials
and Metallurgy Laboratory is built on
the site of the Old Armory, funds for
the first unit of which are now in hand.
He acknowledged also gifts from
alumni and others of equipment and
teaching aids, and "the helpful advice
received from many Cornellians
and others in the metallurgical industries
during the planning of the
curriculum and laboratories."
Francis N. Bard entered Sibley
College as a Sophomore in 1901 after
two years at the University of Chicago,
and received the ME in 1904.
He worked in the foundry, factory,
and engineering department of the
Platt Iron Co. in Dayton, Ohio, then
for Allis-Chalmers Co. designing steam
turbines, and in 1908 joined his father
in Chicago in the management of the
Norwall Manufacturing Co. A small
company which they acquired for research
has become the Barco Manu-
facturing Co., almost the sole maker
of special flexible ball joints, gasoline
percussion hammers, and similar devices
for railroads and industry, sold
all over the world. As an avocation,
Bard operates a citrus ranch and some
250,000 acres of range land in Arizona
where he has bred cattle suited to the
climate and terrain, and a 440-acre
grain, cattle, hog, and poultry farm at
Crystal Lake, 111. He is also a biggame
hunter, has been a director of
the National Association of Manufacturers,
is a member of Delta Tau
Delta and of the Cornell Clubs of
Chicago and New York.
Professor Kyle was appointed to
the Chemical Engineering Faculty in
January, 1946, as professor of Applied
Metallurgy, after twelve years at
MIT, where he received the MS in
ME in 1939. After receiving the ME
here in 1933, he spent the next year at
Lehigh as holder of the James Ward
Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering.
During the war, he was consultant
on materials, production methods, and
allied projects for the British Air Commission
and was research supervisor
for the US Metallurgy Committee.
He won a McMullen Scholarship in
Engineering, was Senior editor-inchief
of the Sibley Journal, and was
elected to Tau Beta Pi. Mrs. Kyle is
the former Fanny Sly '30.
Gives Thurstoniana
/COLLECTION of correspondence,
^-Λ books, diplomas, and medals belonging
to the late Robert Henry
Thurston, Director of Sibley College
of Engineering from 1885 until his
death in 1903, has been acquired and
given to the University by Trustee
Arthur H. Dean '19. The collection
will be exhibited in the Materials and
Metallurgy Laboratory to be erected
on the new Engineering Campus.
ROBERT HENRY THURSTON
All the letters, covering a period
between 1880 and 1895, were written
to Thurston, a noted inventor and
father of mechanical engineering education
in America. The 300 items are
from such contemporaries of Thurston
as Hiram Sibley, founder of the Western
Union Telegraph Co. and benefactor
of Sibley College; Thomas A.
Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Lord
Kelvin, President Andrew D. White,
George Westinghouse, Jr., Sir Hiram
Maxim, Nikola Tesla, and Andrew
Carnegie.
A letter from Sibley, written in
1886, warns Thurston against the
University adding schools of divinity
and medicine, "which might be the
destruction of Cornell." He urged
that the teaching of divinity would
"kill the efforts of the Founder and
the appropriation." One from Andrew
Carnegie in 1888 concerned Carnegie's
nephew who wanted to study at Cornell.
Included also is a petition from
Thurston's students, April 7, 1894,
asking that he give informal talks on
Engineering Reminiscences, "these to
include parts of your own varied
engineering experience, in the Navy
and later, and something of the personality
and achievements of the
noted engineers with whom you have
been associated."
Dean, the donor of the Thurston
collection, was born in Ithaca, the son
of the late William C. Dean whom
Director Thurston was instrumental
in bringing to the University in 1894
as Uμiversity superintendent of steam
heating and water service. Dean
learned that the collection was offered
to the University by a dealer in Philadelphia,
Pa., and bought it after it had
been investigated by Mrs. Edith M.
Fox, AM '45, acting curator of the
Collection of Regional History. Dean
was appointed to the Board of Trustees
by Governor Thomas E. Dewey
two years ago, for the five-year term
ending in 1950, He received the AB in
1921, the LLB in 1923; is a partner in
the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell,
48 Wall Street, New York City.
D RAMATIC
"Joan of Lorraine"
CLUB opened its
"thirty-ninth season" with an
ambitious and notably successful production
of Maxwell Anderson's "Joan
of Lorraine." The show virtually
filled the Willard Straight Theater,
November 6, 7, and 8, during "Autumn
Weekend" on the Campus.
The difficult drama of a play-inrehearsal
was remarkably well cast,
and all the student actors handled
their parts convincingly. Especially
impressive were the lead characters,
Robert D. Asher '47 of Leominster,
178 Cornell Alumni News