Talbot's Contributions

Professor Talbot's work before 1900 brought him distinction. During that period he developed a background of experience and a ripened judgment which prepared him to take full advantage of the increased facilities which were provided when the Engineering Experiment Station was organized. He was active and influential in the formation of the Station. His leadership in formulating policies, ideals, and methods made the Engineering Experiment Station an immediate success. A comprehensive and thorough investigation on reinforced concrete, conducted and directed by him, was started in 1903 and continued for many years on reinforced concrete beams, slabs, columns, footings, pipes, frames, and buildings. This experimental work became a principal source of the early knowledge on which the properties and requirements for the design of reinforced concrete structures were based by engineers and engineering organizations and on which principles and methods of practice were formulated. The conception of relations existing between the strength of a concrete mixture and items involving the absolute volume of the cement, the fine and coarse aggregate, and the voids in the mixture, as well as the so-called relative water content of the mixture, put forth in a paper in 1921, and in a later bulletin, has proved useful to concrete engineers. Tests of stone, brick and concrete, the investigation of steel columns and timber stringers, and a variety of other experimental and analytical work have also added to engineering knowledge. Contributions were also made in experimental hydraulics.

Doctor Talbot's written contributions are along numerous lines. The reports of the University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station researchers on concrete and reinforced on concrete are given are given in seventeen Station bulletins, with five other bulletins on hydraulics, timber, steel columns, etc. Reports on concrete, reinforced concrete, cast-iron water pipe, methods of testing, and other topics may be found in the Proceedings of the American Society for Testing and Materials. The report of the first Joint Committee on Concrete and Reinforced Concrete, in the preparation of which he participated, was published by several technical societies. A fairly complete list of Dr. Talbot's technical publications will be found in this document, starting on page 13. Various nontechnical articles and addresses have also been written.

Doctor Talbot exercised a far-reaching influence on engineering developments through committee activity in engineering societies. Taking a leading part in the work of the first joint committee on Concrete and Reinforced Concrete (1904-1916) as a representative of the American Society of Civil Engineers, he was influential in formulating principles and methods of design based on the tests he had made and upon other data and analyses. A chairman of the sub- committee on design, he formulated and advocated many of the views that were adopted by the committee. The report of this committee exercised a marked influence, among engineers and architects, on the ideas and practices in engineering design and on building regulations, in the pioneer period of reinforced concrete construction. Most of the fundamentals of design then put forth are still accepted. The tests of reinforced concrete made at the Illinois laboratory were widely used by engineering schools and thus the information spread even more rapidly to engineering offices. In the field of testing materials he has been active in the American Society for Testing and Materials since its beginnings in 1898 and has taken a leading part in the work of several of the technical committees that have done constructive work. In sanitary engineering, in railway engineering, and in municipal lines he has contributed to technical committee work and in other ways.

Doctor Talbot has attained high rank among engineering teachers and has been influential in the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education [now the American Society for Engineering Education] since its formation in 1893, holding various offices including that of president. He has been prominent in the work of the American Society of Civil Engineering, serving on its research committee and on other committees and on its Board of Direction; he was president of the society in 1918. He was president of the American Society for Testing and Materials in 1913-1914. He is a member of a number of other engineering societies, including the Institution of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Western Society of Engineers, American Railway Engineering Association, American Concrete Institute, American Water Works Association, American Public Health Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science. In all these he has given service in one way or another by writing or direction.

Doctor Talbot by reason of ability, aptitude in teaching, scholarly attainments, and discriminating judgment has been, and continues to be, an active participant in the planning and in the development of the College of Engineering. He made a noteworthy contribution in the development of laboratories dealing with the testing of materials and structural elements. Starting with a small testing machine in 1888, the facilities have grown to those of the laboratory now housed in the building which is hereafter to bear his name. The development of a hydraulics laboratory whose useful and unique features have been carried over into the new building was another contribution. For both of these early laboratories, and their successors, the variety and completeness of the facilities and the productiveness of the research activities testify to the usefulness of the developments. Few laboratories have produced as great a variety of experimentation and as influential a series of experimental researchers.

In his long career as an administrator, Dr. Talbot has selected and trained many men for teaching and research. He has always taken a great interest in the men on his staff and has used various means to promote their progress and development. Those associated with him could not be unaffected by the force of his example, by his high ideals, and his strong personality. Among those who have work with Dr. Talbot are many men in all parts of the world who have become leaders in education and research.

After taking up teaching work, he continued during vacations and at other times to engage in engineering work on railroad construction, on pavements, sewerage and water works, and on reinforced concrete design and construction. He has acted as consultant to cities and business organizations on various occasions. He served on a board to determine the type of structure for the Galveston causeway and was one of a board in 1927 to make a preliminary report on the location of a bridge over the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland. However, his research and administrative work and his connections with technical committees have so occupied his time and energy that he has limited the principal contributions of his life to engineering education, engineering research, and the utilization of the fruits of research through engineering society channels.

A portrait of Professor Talbot, painted by Ralph Clarkson of Chicago, was presented to the University by former students, colleagues, and other friends. The portrait hangs in the Engineering Library. The formal presentation was made by Dr. W. L. Abbott, '84, at a convocation of the College of Engineering on March 27, 1925. The principal speaker at the convocation, Edward J. Mehren, '06, Vice President of the McGraw-Hill Company, after a biographical sketch of Professor Talbot's life and activities and a critical estimate of the value of his work to society, concluded as follows:

"This is his great achievement. This is the work that makes him brother of those giants who since the days of Watt have been bearers of gifts to humanity. Into that grand galaxy of engineers' names fits worthily his name, the name of our teacher, our inspiring leader in science and in engineering, our lovable friend, Professor Arthur Newell Talbot."