THURSTON R.H.

THURSTON R.H. 25.10. 1839 Providence RI/USA 25.10. 1903 Ithaca NY/USA Robert Henry Thurston obtained the PhB degree from Brown University, Providence RI, in 1859 and a certificate as draftsman in civil engineering from his father’s firm. During the Civil War he was third assistant engineer of the US Navy. After a visit to England, he became in 1865 assistant professor at the US Naval Academy. He then moved in 1871 as professor of mechanical engineering to the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken NJ, leading to his creation of a new educational model and curricula for engineers. During this era engineering education was mainly a ‘shop culture’, where students with skill learned how to make mechanical machines. Thurston introduced novel methods for engineering education based on science and mathematics, which were widely published. He presented this novel curriculum to the US State Department, moving in 1873 to Europe visiting the then leading Berlin University and the Vienna Universal Exhibition, which led to the first mechanical laboratory in the USA at Brown University in 1875. Thurston presented his educational model at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1885, impressing the panel judge, who was the president of Cornell University, Ithaca NY. Thurston moved in 1885 to Ithaca, becoming first director of Cornell’s Sibley College. He created a college of engineering, transforming the engineering study into one with a classroom culture and more laboratory tests and scientific principle-based classroom time. He introduced the idea that students should build upon work done in the classroom by testing theories in the laboratory, thereby establishing the first mechanical engineering laboratory, giving first-hand experience combined with applied engineering aspects. This idea was widely adopted at other universities after 1900. It was stated that ‘Thurston was an intellectual and institutional visionary whose creative initiatives made him a strategic agent in the stabilization of engineering formation in schools’. Cornell University still has a collection of Thurston’s models and instruments. He was the first president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1880 to 1882. Anonymous (1929). A pioneer in engineering education. Mechanical Engineering 51(11): 805. P Anonymous (1980). Thurston, Robert H. Mechanical engineers in America born prior to 1861: 297-298. ASME: New York. P Thurston, R.H. (1878). A history of the growth of the steam engine. Appleton: New York. Thurston, R.H. (1889). A treatise on friction and lost work in machinery. Wiley: New York. https://www.asme.org/kb/news---articles/articles/energy/robert-henry-thurston P

THURSTON R.L. 13.12. 1800 Portsmouth RI/USA 13.01. 1874 Providence RI/USA Robert Lawton Thurston, father of Robert H. (18391903), developed talent as a mechanic, so that he began to learn the trade of a machinist. He was apprenticed in the manufacture of an experimental steam engine which was placed in a small ferry-boat for use near Fall River MA. Its success led to the construction of engines for the Rushlight and the Babcock, which ran between Providence and New York. The engine was of 0.27 m cylinder diameter and of 1 m piston stroke. The boiler was a form of ‘pipe-boiler’. The water was injected into the hot boiler as fast as required to furnish steam, no water being retained in the steam generator. The boat had 80 tons of weight, and steamed from Newport to Providence, a distance of 50 km, in only 3.5 hours, and to New York, a distance of 280 km, in 25 hours, using almost 2 cords of wood, corresponding to some 4 m3. Thurston then entered the iron business at Fall River MA, but in 1830 returned to Providence, where he founded in 1834 the first steam-engine factory in New England, the Providence Steam-Engine Co. The patent for the drop cut-off for steam-engines was purchased from Frederick E. Sickles (1819-1895) to manufacture a standard form of expansion steam-engine. For years the company was engaged in litigation with George H. Corliss (1817-1888), against whom was brought suit for infringement of his patent. Thurston introduced in 1863 the Greene Engine developed by David M. Greene (18321905), which was at the time considered to be one of the best steam engines. The unsettled condition of affairs resulting from the Civil War, with incidental lack of business, led to Thurston's withdrawal from his company. His decision was certainly influenced by his son, who did not want to pursue the affairs in the father’s company, and made a different, yet highly successful career. The father Thurston was considered a practical, intelligent, far-seeing and enterprising machinist, whose energy and capacity developed successfully the long latent power of steam, and he applied it to navigation, railroad transportation, driving spindles, and to many other purposes which became familiar in the 19th century. Miller, J. (1873). Robert Lawton Thurston 1800-1873. Providence RI. Thurston, B. (1892). Robert L. Thurston. Thurston genealogies 1635-1892: 568-569. Thurston: Portland ME. P Thurston, R.H. (1886). A history of the growth of the steam-engine. Appleton: New York. https://familysearch.org/photos/images/2706519/robert-lawton-thurston P