ENGINEERING SCHOOL EXTENDS SCOPE OF COURSES FOR 1919

An extensive increase in the number and scope of the courses to be offered at the Engineering School has been announced for next season. The new program, which has been made possible by the settlement of the disposition of the Gordon McKay bequest, will put the University Engineering School among the foremost scientific institutions of the country.

Seven general programs of study, all of which will lead to the degree of Bachelor of Science at the end of four years, will be open to students in the school, beginning in the fall of 1919. The programs which may be followed are Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Sanitary Engineering, Mining, Metallurgy and Industrial Chemistry. One hundred and eight courses will be offered in the school, in addition to 63 allied courses, given in the College, which will be open to the students in the Engineering School.

In addition to the undergraduate program outlined above, the general plan of instruction includes courses of graduate study and research. These are open to students who have the degree of Bachelor of Science from the School, or an equivalent degree from another institution. A qualified student may devote practically all his time to one special field, or he may select a diversified course of study with the approval of the authorities of the school. A year of graduate study satisfactorily completed leads to the degree of Master of Science with the department chosen, or Mining Engineer, or Metallurgical Engineer.

The first engineering school in the University was founded in 1847, when the Corporation and Board of Overseers instituted a school of applied science and named it the Lawrence Scientific school, in honor of Abbott Lawrence, its first benefactor. About sixty years later, when income became available from the fund bequeathed by Gordon McKay for the development of applied sciences in all its phases, particularly engineering, the scope of this work was enlarged, and the Graduate Schools of Applied Science were established, including the School of Engineering and the Mining School. These schools took over and developed the advanced professional and technical courses formerly given in the Lawrence Scientific School.

In 1914, the University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology agreed to co-operate in the conduct of instruction and research in engineering and mining. As this agreement involved the use of the McKay Fund, it was subject to the approval of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. After three years of litagation, that body declared that Mr. McKay had intended that his fortune should be spent solely for the University, and that it was therefore not within the powers of the University to combine with M. I. T. Thereupon the departments of Engineering and Mining, with a new department of Industrial Chemistry, were re-organized in 1918 as the Harvard Engineering School. Owing to the war conditions here, no attempt was made to expand the school this year, but an important extension is planned for next fall.

The school has now a very modern and complete equipment. In the department of Mechanical Engineering are heat engine laboratories, an applied mechanics laboratory, hydraulic laboratory, laboratory for testing materials, cement and concrete laboratories, the power room at Pierce Hall, and the Refrigeration plant at the Medical School. The electrical equipment includes dynamo, research, high tension, photometric, and standardizing laboratories. In addition are several chemical and physics workshops, as well as a laboratory of sanitary engineering, the Cruft Laboratory for radio-telegraphic engineering, the Simpkins ore-dressing laboratory, the Simpkins assay laboratory, and the laboratory of metallurgy.