The Roots of Industrial Engineering

Practical Mechanics
(1878-1938)

The principal purpose of this brief history is to recap the events of the first thirty years of operation of the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. However, since the rotts if Industrial Engineering date almost from the origin of en gineering at Purdue, it seemed desirable to include an overview of the many events that led to the establishment of a curriculum in Industrial Engineering.

Purdue took its first steps towards becoming a technical school during the administration of its third president, Emerson E. White (1876-1883). It was White's belief that Purdue should conscientiously endeavour to fulfill the will of the Congress as se t forth in the Morrill Act - that the mechanics arts and sciences should have precedence in the curricula of land-grant colleges. Purdue was thus steered in that direction and has been ever since an outstanding technical university.

President White was responsible for bringing W.F.M. Goss to Purdue in 1879 to head a Department of Practical Mechanics and for establishing a full curriculum in mechanical engineering in 1882. Both of these actions were to have an effect on the develop ment of the School of Industrial Engineering.

When President James Smart took office in 1883, the Practical Mechanics staff consisted of W.F.M. Goss and two assistants, Joseph E. Clapper and Elroy A. Dillon. The equipment in the department was quite impressive and most of it was housed in Building No. 2 (one of Purdue's original buildings located near the present Education Building). The purpose of the laboratory was to teach students the principles of wood working and metal working. For example, the curriculum for mechanical engineering in 1884 s hows that much of a student's time during the first two years was spent in courses in technical instruction, mechanical drawing and shop work.

Michael Golden, whose tenure at Purdue has acquired legendary status, came to Purdue in 1884 and joined Goss in helping build Practical Mechanics into probably the strongest department on the campus. In 1885, the first engineering building, Mechanics H all (later Mechanical Laboratory and also Hall of Science), was completed and provided a new setting for Practical Mechanics. The new building stood on the site now occupied by Stanley Coulter Hall and contained facilities for shop work, drawing, steam, e ngineering, and materials testing. From the outset, however, it proved to be inadequate and much too small to accommodate the current 120 in space designed for fewer than 40 students. Additional equipment and laboratories were housed in the cramped baseme nt of Building No. 2.

In 1886, William P. "Deacon" Turner was appointed, and he too achieved a unique place on the Purdue campus. For the next 52 years, he worked faithfully in the machine shop and the forge and was of great assistance in helping Practical Mechanics attain its high stature. In the machine shop, he maintained the highest standard and insisted campus celebrity during the latter days of his career, serving as the marshall and leading the faculty on Commencement Day.

During the 1880's, Purdue engineering grew to include three schools: Mechanical Engineering (founded in 1882), Civil Engineering (founded in 1887), and Electrical Engineering (founded in 1888). In 1890, W.F.M. Goss, after a year of study and travelling , was appointed the first dean of the Purdue Schools of Engineering. He started a new career in experimental engineering at that time and provided stimulating leadership to the Schools of Engineering over the next seventeen years until his resignation in 1907. Michael Golden suceeded him as head of Practical Mechanics.

In January 1894, following the dedication of the beautiful, new Heavilon Hall, it seemes as though many of the space problems for engineering were at an end. But that rosy outlook was extremely short lived. Only four days after its dedication, nearly a ll of the building - with the exception of a portion of the west wing - was destroyed by fire. Fortunately, however, there was a great pooling of forces under the dynamic leadership of President Smart and Dean Goss and the building was rapidly rebuilt and once again made available for use by December 1895. This new building was said to contain the finest engineering teaching, laboratory, and shop facilities of any school in the world. The second Heavilon Hall provided greatly enlarged facilities for Pract ical Mechanics and housed the wood working shop with 50 work benches, machine shop, forge shop with 30 forges, drafting rooms, and offices.

Michael Golden did an excellent job of keeping his department up to date and was responsible for introducing the following: group assignments on larger jobs in 1898, automatic machinery in 1900, time cards in 1906, and time studies in connection with s hop work in 1909. He also earned a reputation for making rigorous demands on his students and many anecdotes have been collected about his colorful, Irish personality. His student tended to say they "hated" him while they were in classes, but they were "g rateful" to him after graduation.

Practical Mechanics reached its peak in 1910 when a costly and spacious new building (named Michael Golden in 1920) was built for the department. Practical Mechanics remained strong all through the 20's and 30's until it was absorbed into the new Gener al Engineering Department in 1938.

Michael Golden made it a practice to hire staff members with considerable practical experience to teach in the laboratories. Two of those people were Anthony "Tony" J. Vellinger and Paul J. Panlener, both of whom later became instructors in the Departm ent of Industrial Engineering.

"Deacon" Turner made a pioneering step toward having Practical Mechanics move into the domain of Industrial Engineering by trying to have his students produce a product. One of the contributions that grew out of this assignment was a 4-horsepower marin e engine designed and built by the students. Using Industrial approaches, they made the drawings, castings, jigs, and took the final steps of assembly. Although commercial production was considered, it proved to be a touchy issue and only a few engines we re actually completed.

Michael Golden was head of Practical Mechanics until his retirement day in 1916. He was suceeded by James D. Hoffman, who was characterized by Dean A.A. Potter as "the salt of the earth." Hoffman was faced during much of his tenure with a shortage of f unds for equipment and insufficient space for instruction to be carried on as it should be. One change he was able to make during his leadership was to decrease elementary exercises and prepare advanced courses that led in the direction of industrial engineering. He retired in 1938.

In the 1930's, Professor Roy W. Lindley (who became chairman of manufacturing processes in the General Engineering Department in 1946) and Tony Vellinger began to investigate the optimum condition for the cutting of metals. Their work was introductory and was forerunner of research that was to be continued by O.D. Lascoe, Moshe Barash, and others throughout the years.

Earlier in the 20's, Hoffman and Lindley, had gone to considerable trouble to show instructional movies. Their efforts were eventually followed in 1932 by Professor Justus Rising (in Engineering drawing), who produced movies for teaching mechanical dra wing. These movies were Rising's start in making visual aids, an activity which would grow and eventually lead him to well-equipped quarters in the basement of Stewart Memorial Center. Further, this early use of visual aid material set a precedent for the preparation and use of such instructional aids that was to continue in later years in industrial engineering courses.