Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Talbot Lab [PAGE 22]

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HISTORY OF COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

the gratification of the university administration the Legislature recognized the needs of the College and in May 1903 passed the general bill with an item of $150,000 for the maintenance and extension of the engineering equipment. On the basis of a report, prepared after careful consideration by the heads of the engineering departments, Dr. Draper presented to the Board of Trustees a recommendation that a part of the $150,000 be used for the purchase of land, buildings, and equipment for undergraduate instruction. Further, he recommended that a State Engineering Experiment Station be established, and that the remainder of the appropriation ($77,000) be used for the purchase of apparatus having special reference to advanced work in engineering research and to experimentation in engineering problems, this research to be carried out by the regular departments. The recommendations of Dr. Draper were adopted by the Board of Trustees December 8, 1903, and the Engineering Experiment Station thus came into being. Throughout this time the leadership of Professor Breckenridge was an influential factor in the consummation of the whole project. From the beginning the aims of the Station have been to stimulate engineering research, to enrich engineering education, and to investigate problems of importance to the profession and to the manufacturing, railway, mining, and other industrial interests. Professor Breckenridge became, appropriately, the first Director of the Station and continued to direct its affairs until he resigned in 1909, to become Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University. Since that time the office and title of Director h^s been held by the Dean of the College. The control of the Station's activities is vested in an executive staff composed of the Director, the heads of the engineering departments, and the Professor of Chemical Engineering. The Station's work is conducted by a research staff of men who devote all, or nearly all, of their time to its investigations, and by various members of the teaching staff who are interested . 19 .