Academics, 1886-1900
Department of Chemistry
In 1885, Charles F. Mabery becomes the Head of the department. His research speciality was petroleum research and he remained active in research until 1927.After the fire, a separate wooden building was opened in 1887 for the Chemistry lab. The building was replaced by a new brick building that opened in 1892.
In 1897, Albert W. Smith, became Professor of Metallurgy and Analytical Chemistry. He became Head of Mining Engineering department in 1907.
The department added a graduate program in ???. In 1900, the department had three graduate students, seven seniors, seven juniors, and nine sophomore as chemistry majors.
Department of Physics
Physics instruction was started in the sophomore year, continuing for three years, and all majors in Physics had to write a senior thesis. At first all Case BS degrees were without designation, i.e., they were simply designated as B.S. degrees.
In 1889, Professor Michelson resigned and was succeeded by Dr. Harry F. Reid as Head of the Physics Department. In 1893, Dr. Reid resigns and Dr. Dayton Miller becomes the department head in 1895. At that time, the Physics department occupied 5 large rooms on the first floor of the Main Building and nine rooms in the basement.
Technology in the physics laboratory that year consisted of: comparator, balance, hectogram balance, reversible pendulum, chronometer and chronograph, cathetometers, dividing engines, level trier, harmonograph, tuning forks and organ pipes, standard thermometers, spectometers, concave grating spectroscope, chemical spectroscopes, difraction and inference aparatus, chemical aparatus... (continued pg. 5 in the history).
In 1900, Harry W. Springsteen is awarded the first M.S. in physics.
Department of Mathematics and Astronomy
Dr. Stockwell the first professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at case School of Applied Science. Stockwell was famous for his work on lunar motion and the prediction of eclipses. He became the first Kerr Professor of Mathematics and was considered it first head until his 1887 leave.
The Kerr Professorship in Mathematics was established in 1885 by Mrs. Laura Kerr Axtell to honor her brother Levi Kerr who was was one of the first five members of the Board of Trustees. After Dr. Stockwell left, Dr. Harry F. Reid became the second Kerr Professor of Mathematics but he resigned from the faculty in 1894. In 1889 Dr. Charles S. Howe joined the staff and became the third Kerr Professor from 1890-1908 and the first official head of the Mathematics Department.
It is interesting to note that during that period, Civil engineers students were required to take a course in astronomy which included descriptive astronomy, study of the constellations, telescopic observations, method of least squares and its application to geodetic work.
In 1898 through the efforts of Prof. Howe working with Ambrose Swasey and Worcester F. Warner a student observatory was erected on the campus between Old Main and the Old Chemical Engineering Building. They were most helpful in making this first observatory at Case a reality being both amateur astronomers and telescope builders. This campus observatory was a very simple, one-story affair of corrugated iron sheets, but at one end had a two-story dome for the telescope. When first built, however, there was only the two-story cylinder, called by the students "The Star Theatre."
This first observatory of corrugated iron included were a 3-inch astronomical transit and a zenith telescope, made by the Warner and Swasey Company of Cleveland, a chronograph made by the same firm, an astronomical clock by Riefler, a 2-inch altazimuth with 8-inch circles read by micrometer microscopes, a sextant, and a solar transit. The students' observatory on campus was used for instruction in astronomy and geodesy until the Warner and Swasey Observatory was built on Taylor Road, East Cleveland, in 1920.
Civil Engineering
In 1884, Prof. John Eisenmann becomes the Head of the department until 1886. He was replaced by Prof. Cady Staley in 1887. Dr Staley also was the President of the School. In 1887, Frank Neff was appointed Instructor in Mathematics and Civil Engineering. After Staley resignation in 1902, Prof. Neff becomes head of the departments and continues as head until 1931.In 1887, a new course in sanitary engineering was added to the curriculum. In 1888, the civil engineering department added Student Inspection Trips as part of the practical instruction. These trips took students to "the various engineering works, quarries and industrial manufacturers of practical interest to the engineer."
At the beginnings of 1890, more emphasis was given to the road and bridge engineering.
In 1894, Prof. Charles Trumbull joins the department.
Mr. Charles Gaffing, a graduate of the class of 1888 received the first Civil Engineering degree in 1897 with a thesis entitled “The Extension of the Cleveland Water Supply."
Mechanical Engineering
The first instructor in Mechanical Engineering was Mr. George Armington, who taught the fundamentals of mechanical engineering from 1887 to 1889. The Mechanical Engineering Department was located in the south end of the basement of Case Main. The total equipment in 1889 consisted of three lathes, a band saw, and one set of small tools in the pattern shop and two lathes, a shaper, an upright drill and an emery grinder in the machine shop. In 1889, there were four students enrolled in Mechanical Engineering and the number continued to increase to twelve in 1892, and sixty in 1900.In 1889 Staley hired Charles Benjamin as department chair for mechanical engineering. As the chair of the new department, he created the curriculum, supervised building plans for the new mechanical engineering laboratory, and acquired the necessary laboratory equipment.
The Mechanical Engineering Laboratory design effort started as the “Senior Thesis” of Comfort A. Adams (1890) and was opened in 1892. Most of the space in the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory were dedicated to teaching mechanical manufacturing. The building was located at the south end of the campus and included a wing to be used for the Metallurgy Department.
The Mechanical Engineering Laboratory was occupied by at least two drawing rooms, several machine shops, and a metals processing lab (Forming and forging) and included a central heating plant and an attached assaying room. Benjamin constructed a testing lab in the basement. Also included in the building were several machines for determining material properties, testing steam engines and generating electricity.
By 1894 there were three staff members in the department. The testing laboratory equipment had been considerably increased to include a 50-hp Corliss engine, a 20hp Porter-Allen high-speed engine, a Deana steam pump, a 10-hp Webber transmitting dynamometer, a belt testing machine, a Prony brake, a 60,000-lb testing machine, a 50 hp boiler with mechanical stoker, a surface condenser, and indicators, gauges, barometers, etc.
The laboratory was shared by Mechanical Engineering and Mining Engineering Departments until 1905, and then it was used by the Mechanical Enginerring Department only until 1927.
Faculty in the Mechanical Engineering department were publishing on the strength of malleable and steel castings, the effect of punching on steel plates, the tensile strenght of belting, the transverse strenght of different mixtures of cast-iron.
Mining Engineering
The curriculum for the Mining Department was established in 1886 and the first instructor was Albert W. Smith who taught Chemistry and Metallurgy. Dr. Frank van Horn joined the department in 1987.The first degree in Mining is confered in 1988 to A.M. Campbell. Course catalog states "The couse in mining engineering comprises the studies common to all of the endineering couses and, in addition, special instruction in mining, surveying, mining machinery, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and metallurgy."
In 1893, a new wing is added to the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory building to host the Mining Department. In 1897, the department added a graduate program in minining and metals. The first degree in mining engineering was granted to Frank Humel.
Electrical Engineering
Initially, the department was located in the basement of Case Main. In 1887, the catalogue includes a four-year curriculum in electrical engineering.For the first three years, students took basic courses in rnathematics, chemistry, rhetoric, literature, French and German, history, physics, descriptive geometry, and drawing, mechanics, logic, steam enginess and design. The seniors were given courses in Thermodynamics,. Engineering construction, Graphical Statistics, Details of Practice and Design, Electrotechnics, Physical Laboratory (Electrical Testing), Advanced course in Electrical Engeering Construction; Specifications and Contracts, and thesis work.
In 1891, Prof. John Langley was hired as the Head of the Electrical Engineering department, position he occupied until 1905.
In 1896, a new building was opened for the department. The first (basement) floor of the building housed the motors and dynamos laboratory surrounded by several small labs and a shop. There was an extensive collection of generators and dynamos. A shaft in a tunnel connected a 50HP Corliss engine in the Mechanical Building to a 500 light AC dynamo capable of powering the lighting in the building. The second floor (which the main entrance led to) contained a large lab area, offices, and a drafting room area. This lab area was initially used for the junior-senior labs involving precise measurements of voltage, current and power. The building initially contained a calibration laboratory with standard resistances, two Lord Kelvin's Ampere Balances, an Aytoun and Perry Sechometer and a number of precision Ammeters and Voltmeters for student use. The third floor contained a large lecture room which sat 500 people and several smaller recitation rooms. The lecture hall, or Electricity Hall as it was called, was used for early commencements beginning with the 12th commencement held on June 4, 1896. The fourth floor contained several additional recitation rooms and a large drawing room for all first year students. It also contained a small area dedicated to lighting measurements.
In 1899, the first degree in electrical engineering was granted to Irvin H. Sherwood. Class of 1894 shows four men as Electrical Engineering majors plus four graduate students.