1897
McKinley inaugurated president. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett defeated Bob Fitzsimmons in a 14-round
heavyweight prize fight. In England, J. Thompson discovered the electron.
Cultural Requirements
New Director
Tuition
Chapel
Mechanical Engineering
Director’s Duty
Cultural Requirements.
The Trustees felt so strongly that an engineering education "should have the culture
that comes from language and literature study," that they insisted Clarkson should require of all students
seeking admission the same preparation in English, Language, etc., as the Association of Colleges and
Preparatory Schools prescribes.
New Director.
On January 12, 1897, the Trustees approved a resolution terminating the services of Director
Eaton at the end of the fall term of the school, and authorized payment of $350 to him in addition to his
regular pay for that first term. One can only speculate the reasons for this action; probably, he desired to
move on to another position after completing the satisfying job of setting this new school on its way
successfully.
Later that same month, the Trustees appointed Frank K. Rogers, professor of woodworking, as acting
director of the Clarkson School after January 26, 1897, at a salary of $1,200. Rogers remained in that office
until August 7 of the same year when Barton Cruikshank assumed the position.
Tuition.
The tuition remained at $80 per year.
Chapel.
All officers and students were required to attend daily chapel at 8:45 a.m. in the assembly hall on the
third floor of Old Main.
Mechanical Engineering.
Director Cruikshank began the program in Mechanical Engineering which was
added to Electrical Engineering as the second engineering major. This course of study considered the
development of power and its transmission and utilization by machinery. It treated the principles of machine
design; power development by steam and gas engines and hydraulic motors; experimental study of strength
and characteristics of various construction materials; methods and practice of economical workshop
production and mechanical construction; tests of motive-power machinery and power plants calibration and
standardization of instruments and apparatus used in measuring power; and other work pertaining to the
profession of mechanical engineering.
Mechanical engineering majors took the common first two years of engineering curriculum, and then
in their junior and senior years enrolled in the following courses of varying credits (1, 2, 3, or 4):
JUNIOR YEAR
I Semester
Sociology
Theoretical Mechanics
Experimental Mechanics
Electricity and Magnetism
