Eugene Ferguson's 1974 essay, "A Sense of the Past"

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Eugene S. Ferguson, Member ASME, then professor of history at the University of Delaware, curator of technology at the Hagley Museum, and first chair of ASME's History and Heritage Committee. Colonel Clarence E. Davies, long-time secretary of ASME, always a moving force in history and heritage issues and possessor of an extraordinary memory, contributed bits of personal experiences to Ferguson's treatise.

Footnotes to the essay:

a) Clarence E. Davies, ASME's long-time Secretary, added some remarks: "The ASME Council was concerned about the headstrong attitude of John A. Stevens, Chairman of the Boller Code Committee in 1915, and put Arthur M. Greene, a Council Member (Professor of ME at Rensselaer) on the Boller Code Committee to keep Stevens in line. Greene was later Dean of Engineering at Princeton and his successor as Dean, Kenneth Condit, asked me to find something to keep Greene busy because his active mind kept him on the move and he was getting into Condit's hair. I suggested that he write the Boiler Code history. The Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee gladly assented and Greene went to work. Chapters of the history were carried in Mechanical Engineering in 1952 and the complete book appeared shortly thereafter."

b) Clarence Davies again: "The mention of Robie's history of the Diesel, and Gas Engine Power Division points to the "History of the Fuels Division" by Ralph A. Sherman, published In draft in 1972. This document by an expert reports the meetings of the Fuel Division but also gives an interesting account of the changes in combustion of coal. From about 1907 until 1915, the ASME had a Gas Power Section and a list of those affiliated with the Section appeared in the Annual ASME Membership Lists. I recall that Dr. Charles E. Lucke of Columbia wrote a history of this operation. Hutton, In the 'History,' mentions the Gas Power Section on page 294 in his discussion of professional sections. I am making a serious search for the Lucke paper."

c) Having been at the anniversary celebration, Clarence Davies recalled the following: "The 50th Anniversary meetings started on Saturday with a luncheon at McGraw-Hill to recognize the contribution of The American Machinist on the founding of the Society. It then moved to Hoboken where the pageant was given in the Great Hall at Stevens Institute where the first meeting of the Society was held. Then back to New York for a banquet Saturday evening at the Roosevelt. Sunday there was a special service at St. John the Divine and a special train to Washington. Elmer Sperry was stricken on the train and died a few days later. The representatives of foreign societies who gave the papers at Washington were granted special 50th Anniversary Medals and were given honoraria of $1000 each. At the ceremony when the medals were presented, each foreign representative was escorted to the dais by the ambassador from his country. At the banquet, there was no head table, only a platform. There were 1161 honor tables at each of which the foreign representative and his ambassador were the honor guests. Also at the banquet the Hoover Medal was inaugurated by the presentation of the first Hoover Medal to Mr. Hoover."

d) Clarence Davies had this to say: "The challenge to Whither Mankind was taken seriously by 'me,' who aroused the interest of the Publications Committee, particularly William A. Shoudy who worked assiduously with me to interest Charles Beard and to secure the contributors to Toward Civilization."

e) A fill-in from Clarence Davies: "The Westinghouse commemorative publication was prepared for the specific purpose of producing a document for use In the Society campaign to get Westinghouse into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University. Charles F. Scott at Yale was the public leader of this effort. Scott had worked for Westinghouse. He also knew Andrew Carnegie and with Calvin Rice, they were the principal instruments in getting $1,500,000 from Carnegie for the old Engineering Societies building on 39th Street and the building for the Engineers Club on 40th Street. Herman Westinghouse, brother of George, presented a bust of George, by Daniel Chester French, to the Society with the stipulation that when George was eligible for the Hall of Fame, the Society would bend its efforts to get George Westinghouse elected to the Hall of Fame. Westinghouse was eligible In 1940 and under Scott's leadership we conducted a campaign which resulted in 38 votes. The 1945 and 1950 campaigns resulted In 44 and 34 votes. The 1955 campaign was mounted as the final effort and arrangements were made to interview all of the 100 Electors. 62 favorable votes resulted and on December 1, 1957 the bust of George Westinghouse was placed in the Hall of Fame. The bust of French held by ASME was not used, however, because by 1957 French had his allotted number of busts in the Hall of Fame and the French bust, while at ASME, had been exposed to public view. This violated the rule that the bust for the Hall of Fame must not be exposed to public view until it is unveiled at the installation ceremony. You can see the French bust on the 6th floor of the United Engineering Center. It is interesting to note that Westinghouse was admitted to the Hall of Fame as an inventor, not an engineer. (There is only one engineeriIn the Hall of Fame, James Buchanan Eads). At the installation ceremony a bust by Quattrochl was presented by William F. Ryan, President of ASME; Herbert Hoover made the address."

f) Clarence Davies on the way it was: The "depression" was a rugged time for ASME from about 1932 through 1935. We were short of cash and paid our rent with notes. We sold bonds to the members. Rice and I took 30 percent cuts in salaries. All staff people suffered reduced pay and many of the staff were separated. This cannot be read in Mechanical Engineering.

Reference Notes 1-34

[1] From typescript of statement made in April 1974, before the Subcommittee on the Department of Interior and Related Agencies.

[2] Hutton, Frederick Remsen, A History of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1880 to 1915 (New York: ASME, 1915) 355 pp., illus.

[3] Ibid, pp. 296-306. In 1959 or 1960, I collected for the National Museum of History and Technology the "hook tool," a long-handled, hand-held, lathe tool for turning metal, donated to the Society by John Fritz. A number of other objects that I asked about could not then be readily located.

[4] Arthur M. Greene, Jr., History of the ASME Boller Code (New York, c. 1955), 145 pp.

[5] Robie, T.M., A Fifty Year History of the Diesel and Gas Power Division. 1921-1971 (N.p., 1971). 21 pp.

[6] A typescript of Sherman's history is in the files of the ASME History and Heritage Committee. Sherman viewed in the light of an energy crisis a generation's activities in promoting unlimited use of irreplaceable resources. His essay should be published.

[7] Mechanical Engineering, XLII (Dec. 1920), 712-715.

[8] Mechanical Engineering, XLVII (Jan. 1925), 37-40; William F. Durand, Robert Henry Thurston (New York: ASME, 1929), p. 196; Clarence Davies, in a memorandum of October 2, 1973, to Rogers Finch, recalled that "The Carnot book was included because John Roy of Baltimore was interested in fine typography and he hand-set the book in type. We published the book as a gift token for the Society to present to important foreign engineers. The first edition, published in 1939, had a foreword by A. G. Christie, then ASME President. A second edition came out in 1959 when Walker Cisler was President, and he wrote an additional foreword."

[9] ASME, Record and Index, I (1927), 24.

[10] Mechanical Engineering, "Ur" (May 1930), 509-528. It may be recalled that the ASCE Centennial Celebration in 1952, in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, also included an elaborate pageant. For a brief notice of advance planning for foreign participation (550 invitations to scientific and engineering societies, etc.), see ASME Record and Index, III (1929), 95-96.

[11] ASME, Record and Index, I (1929), 97.

[12] Beard, Charles A., ed., Whither Mankind (New York: Longmans, Green, 1928), 48 pp.; Clarence Davies to author, personal communication, Sept. 20, 1974.

[13] Beard, Charles A., ed., Toward Civilization (New York: Longmans, Green, 1930), 307 pp.

[14] American Society of Mechanical Engineers, George Westinghouse Commemoration: A Forum Presenting the Career and Achievements of George Westinghouse on the 90th Anniversary of his Birth, December 1, 1936 (New York: ASME, 1937). 78 pp., illus. Quotation is from p. 5. Reprinted from Mechanical Engineering, LIX (Mar., Apr. 1937).

[15] Fritz, John, Autobiography of John Fritz (New York: ASME, 1912), p. vii.

[16] ASME Transactions; XXXVIII (1916), 20.

[17] The respective committees are named in the prefaces of the books. For full titles, see Appendix A.

[18] Mechanical Engineering, LII (April 1930), 266-267. Clarence Davies, in a memorandum of October 2, 1973 to Rogers Finch, wrote: "Calvin Rice, my predecessor, was deeply interested in the museum problem and he gave me great moral support on the biography program."

[19] The George Westinghouse biography was presumably financed by his brother, Henry Herman Westinghouse, who was "always in consultation" while the volume was being prepared; certainly he provided the money to produce the biography of Walter Craig Kerr (see prefatory statements in the respective volumes). An annual statement of Society finances in 1928 includes a line for the "Gleason Gift for Thurston biography." (Record and Index, II [1928], 95).

[20] Pickering, Thomas H., "American Machinery at International Exhibitions," ASME, Transactions, V (1884), 113-130; Hobb's story is related in pp. 123-130.

[21] Hobbs, Alfred C., "Locks and their Failings," ASME, Transactions, VI (1885), 233-235,

[22] Allison, Robert, "The Old and the New," ASME, Transactions, XVI (1895), 742-761. A series of lively, intensely interesting reminiscences was recorded by Charles T. Porter, of high-speed steam engine fame, and published serially in Power and American Machinist. Brought together in a volume in 1908 by John Wiley, the volume predated the Society's biography series. I hope that the book may be reprinted in the ASME series.

[23] Adams, Edward Dean, "Early Hydraulic-Turbine History," Mechanical Engineering, LII (Apr. 1930), 395-399; discussion, 719; correction, LIII (Jan. 1931), 67. F. W. Dean, "An Account of the Engineering Work of Erasmus Darwin Leavitt," ASME, Transactions, XXXIX (1918), 993-1036.

[24] Babcock, George H., "Substitutes for Steam," ASME, Transactions, V11 (1886), 680-741.

[25] "The Steam Turbine in the United States," Mechanical Engineering, LVI I I (Nov. 1936), 683-96; LIX (an., Apr. 1937), 71-82, 239-56.

[26] For example, a series of lectures on "Engineering's Part in the Development of Civilization," given in 1938 at the North Carolina State College, Raleigh, by Dugald C. Jackson, was published serially in Mechanical Engineering, LX (July-Dec. 1938), and reprinted in a duodecimo hardcover volume (New York, 1939). 114 pp.

[27] ASME Transaction, XLVI (1924), 10. The Historical Guild Committee included J. W. Lieb, chairman; D. S. Jacobus; R. Adm. R. S. Griffin; and W. Roe.

[28] The quotation is from a mimeographed sheet, dated May 31, 1934, kindly supplied by ASME Life Member William J. Ellender, who identified the twenty-four "proposers" as ASME member. See also I. N. Lipshitz, "The Study of Technical History; A Plea for an Organization in This Country Devoted to the Study of Engineering History," Mechanical Engineering, LVII (March 1935), 143-147. Lipshitz's paper was given at the 1934 Annual Meeting of ASME.

[29] "Report of Committee on National Museum," ASME, Journal, XXXV (an. 1913), 37-39.

[30] Mechanical Engineering, X LV (Feb. 1923), 138-139.

[31] National Museum of Engineering and Industry (New York, 1924), 24 pp. I am indebted to William J. Ellender, who loaned me a copy of this brochure. The Rosenwald and Towne gifts are mentioned on p. 21; the statement regarding the abortive New York Museum of Science and Industry is based upon my own recollection. In the aftermath of the Museum's failure, a number of unique early machines were lost and probably destroyed.

[32] Lange, Forrest F., ed., Historic Engineering Record (Portsmouth, N.H.: ASME, Northern New England Section, 1974), 28 pp. illus.

[33] Beichley, F. W., Ferries and Cliff House Cable Railway, 1887 (San Francisco, Nov. 30, 1973), 12 pp. illus.; James J. Matera and Robert F. Metcalf, Jr., The Leavitt Pumping Engine at Chestnut Hill Station of the Metropolitan District Commission, Boston, Mass. (Boston, December 14, 1973), 8 pp. illus.; The A. B. Wood Low-Head, High-Volume Screw Pump, No. I Pumping Station (New Orleans, June 11, 1974), 14 pp. illus.

[34] Marlowe, Donald E., to author, personal communication, Sept. 12, 1974.

Note to researchers: For copies of these publications, try your local library or Linda Hall Library reference.