The Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University was so named in 1964. But it had its roots growing much, much earlier - right from the days when the University began. And though it is called 'Theoretical and Applied Mechanics' today, the Department has evolved and changed and moved on from the ideas that first went into its creation.
The Morrill Act of 1862 and the Federal Government's grant for the endowment of education in the several states realized Ezra Cornell's dream of setting up a university of learning and practical knowledge in Ithaca. When the University opened in 1868 there was a College of Engineering was in its first plan.
In this College there was a College of Mathematics and Engineering, and a College of Mechanic Arts.
The College of Mechanic Arts offered instruction in shop work, drawing, and elementary engineering in conformity with the Morrill Act and provided a theoretical and practical course of four years leading to the bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. The vision of the founding fathers was far reaching. They realized that the profession of engineering was growing in importance. Though, even as late as 1934, the subjects required for admission were proportionally more a knowledge of Greek, Latin, German, French, Spanish, English, Ancient History, Modern History than of the Sciences.
Realizing that Mechanic Arts needed a building to house its classes, Mr. Hiram Sibley, the founder of Western Union Telegraph Company and a trustee of Cornell University, built the beautiful, white, domed building at the north end of the Quadrangle (the Arts Quad today) in 1871. It bears his name to this day though the engineers have moved out and the architects have moved in.
In 1885, Robert H. Thurston became the first director of the new Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts . Ezra Cornell was a happy man when Thurston accepted the position. Thurston was a revolutionary educator and administrator. He had founded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He had successfully established the four-year educational plan at the Stevens Institute of Technology. And now he came with all his energy to thrust engineering knowledge to the forefront of the University!
Thurston died in 1903 but the groundwork had been well laid and in 1919, the Board of Trustees voted into being a new College of Engineering with structured teaching and research departments in the various disciplines of engineering.
The Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering was a medley of various departments: the Departments of Mechanic Arts, Machine Design, Mechanics of Engineering, Power Engineering, Experimental Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Administrative Engineering and Chemical Engineering.
The first Head of the Department of Mechanic Arts was Edgar Harper Wood. An inspiring teacher and author of "A Textbook of Mechanics", he helped in promoting Cornell University as one of the important engineering institutions of the country. Teachers to remember, among many others, are Walter Rodney Cornell, Seymour Stanton Garrett, Homer James Hotchkiss, Harold Charles Perkins (he was affectionately known as "free body Perkins") and Edgar Harper Wood.
By the early twentieth century the Engineering College had expanded mightily. Lincoln Hall housed Civil Engineering; Fuertes Observatory (north of Beebe Lake) housed Astronomical equipment; the Hydraulic Lab (lower end of Beebe Lake) was part of Civil Engineering; Rand Hall housed the machine shop, pattern shop and electrical labs; Sibley Hall housed eight departments; Olive Tjaden Hall housed Electrical Engineering. Besides these there were the foundry and forge shops.
By 1921, Irving Porter Church, head of the College of Civil Engineering, and Edgar Harper Woods, head of the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering, had authorized strong mechanic units in the syllabi of both the colleges.
In 1938, James Norman Goodier became Head of the new Department of Mechanics. The mechanics programs of both the Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering were amalgamated under this new department with a new Head who had great courage and wisdom. Teachers to remember, among many others, are Walter Rodney Cornell, Harold Charles Perkins, Edgar Harper Wood and Karl Dawson Wood.
The Dean of the College, Solomon Cady Hollister, helped to further merge the mechanics curriculum and gave the department a new name - the Department of Engineering Mechanics - which was headed by Dwight F. Gunder from 1947. As a development officer, Dean Hollister was outstanding. The engineering halls could no longer expand as Fall Creek bounded them on the north, so Hollister began the building of the Engineering Quadrangle on the southern edge of the campus. The Department of Engineering Mechanics was housed in Thurston and Kimball Halls. Teachers to remember, among many others, are Conway, Goodier, Gunder, Jeffrey, Lee, Mackay, Moynihan, Purcell, Switzer and Upton.
Heavy undergraduate teaching loads were typical of this period. The University was primarily a teaching institution. The purpose of instruction in the Department of Engineering Mechanics was explained as - "Instruction ... given in theoretical and applied mechanics .... and effort .. made to teach students to think rather than to memorize. With this in view the free-body method is used in the solution of problems involving force. Students work from fundamental definitions and principles rather than from formulas. The course of preparatory and professional studies was planned with a view to laying a substantial foundation for the general and technical knowledge so that the graduates would be guided by their theoretical education and engineering practice and may develop into useful investigators and constructors."
Classes were held five and a half days of the week. Faculty finished teaching at 1:30 PM on Saturday - and after that they had to find the time for research. Emeriti, Don Conway and Ed Cranch, remember those long days and the change in the policy towards research after the Second World War.
By 1951, the Department of Engineering Mechanics had expanded into the Department of Engineering Mechanics and Materials. Research prospered. Great strides were made in science in the University as well as the rest of the world.
In 1957, Russia sent the Sputnik into space. Immediately, Congress and President Eisenhower responded by creating the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to ensure the superiority of US science and technology. Changes came to the University too. Ed Cranch was the chairman of the Department of Engineering Mechanics and Materials in 1956. Dean Corson of the Engineering College reorganized the department and by 1962, the Materials contingent separated and became an independent department, and John R. Moynihan became acting head of the Department of Engineering Mechanics.
In 1964, the department broadened its vision and accepted the title of Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Ed Cranch resumed his chairmanship and stayed at the helm till 1968. Bruno Boley succeeded him as chairman and strengthened the fledgling department from 1968 to 1972. Teachers to remember, among many others, are Alfriend, Henry David Block, Bijlaard, Boley, Cook, Conway, Cranch, Dafermos, Dunn, Gold, Johnson, Lance, Geoffrey Ludford, McNair, Mitchell, Yih-Hsing Pao, Rand, Sather and Turcotte. Richard Lance served as acting chairman of the department several times during this period.
From 1974 to 1980, Yih-Hsing Pao was the chairman of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics while Ed Cranch was the Dean of the College of Engineering. Those were heady days!
And in the last twenty-four years, the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics was served sincerely with a deep-seated warmth by chairmen who spent many productive years with it. Francis Moon served as chairman from 1980-1987. Joe Burns served from 1987-1992. Jim Jenkins served from 1992-2000. Tim Healey has been the chair of the department since 2000. The department is responsible for Engineering Mechanics and Engineering Mathematics at the undergraduate and the graduate levels. Teachers to remember, among many others, are Burns, Cady, Caughey, Conway, Dashner, Dawson, Hart, Healey, Holmes, Hui, Jenkins, Leibovich, Ludford, Moon, Mukherjee, Pao, Phoenix, Rand, Rosakis, Ruina, Sachse, Seebass, Sinclair, Strogatz, Zehnder and Wang.
-By Sreemati Mukherjee
