Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Talbot Lab [PAGE 21]

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A T R I B U T E TO A R T H U R N E W E L L TALBOT

Of the buildings now in use by the College, five had been built by 1900; namely, Electrical Engineering Laboratory and Annex, Engineering Hall, Machine Laboratory, and Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. Those added since that date are:—Ceramic Engineering Building and Laboratory, Locomotive Laboratory, Materials Testing Laboratory, Mining and Metallurgical Laboratory, Physics Laboratory, Transportation Building, and the Woodshop and Foundry. The most extensive recent addition to the physical equipment of the College is the Materials Testing Laboratory, which is now being renamed in honor of Professor Talbot. Viewed with respect to its influence upon the research function of the College, the enhancement of its usefulness to the engineering profession and to industry, the stimulation of the faculty and students, and its effect on the reputation of the College, probably the most important event in this later period was the establishment of the Engineering Experiment Station which was authorized by the Trustees on December 8, 1903. It was the first research organization of its kind in any college in this country and has served as a model for the many which have since been established elsewhere. The chief credit for th^ conception and advocacy of this enterprise belongs to Dr. Lester Paige Breckenridge, who since September, 1893, had been Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, For several years he had tried to secure action of the federal Congress authorizing the establishment in engineering schools of experiment stations similar to those which, by congressional action, had been created in colleges of agriculture. Though he failed in this, the idea of establishing an engineering experiment station at the University of Illinois was kept alive. In December 1902, in its list of askings for Legislative Appropriations, the Board of Trustees asked, in a separate bill, for funds to enlarge the College of Engineering. Opportunity was given the engineering faculty to seek the assistance of alumni and the manufacturing and constructional interests of the State in support of such an appropriation. To

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