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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Robert Henry Thurston Biography THURSTON,
Robert Henry (1839-1903). An American engineer and educator, born in
Providence, R. I. He graduated at Brown University in 1859. During the Civil War
he served in the Federal navy as an engineer, and in 1865 he was appointed
assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at Annapolis. He was
professor of engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology from 1871 to 1885,
and in the latter year conducted a series of important experiments on steam
boilers. Thurston was a member of the United States Scientific Commission to the
Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and edited the Report
of the commissioners, which included his individual report on machinery and
manufactures (1875-76). From 1885 till his death he was director of Sibley
College, Cornell, and professor of mechanical engineering in the university. His
thoroughness, organizing ability, and genius as a teacher placed him in the
front rank of educators in his field. His writings, notably influential because
clear, comprehensible, and reliable, include: A History of the Growth of the Steam Engine (1878; 4th ed., rev.,
1902; Ger. and Fr. trans.); Manual of
Steam Boilers (1888; 7th ed., 1961); Manual
of the Steam Engine (1891; 5th ed., 1900-02); Materials of Engineering (3 vols., 1883-84; new ed., 1907-10); Stationary
Steam Engines (1884; 7th ed., 1902); Treatise
on Friction and Lost Work in Machinery and Mill Work (1885; 7th ed., 1903); A Handbook of Engine and Boiler Trials, and of the Indicator and Prony
Brake (1890; 5th ed., 1903); A
Textbook of the Materials of Construction (1890; 6th ed., 1900); Life
of Robert Fulton (1891). Professor Thurston's inventions include a
magnesium-ribbon lamp, a magnesium-burning naval and army signal apparatus, and
autographic recording and testing machine, a steam-engine governor, and an
apparatus for determining the value of lubricants. From 1880 to 1883 he served
as first president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Consult W.
F. Durand, Robert Henry Thurston (Washington, 1904). |