Profile – Albert William Smith, Director Sibley College, Cornell University

Albert William Smith Director Sibley College at Cornell University

Albert William Smith Director Sibley College at Cornell University

Born on August 30, 1856, he lived in Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, until he entered Cornell University with the class of [18]78. His first position after graduation was with the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company, at Providence, R. I. Next he was associated with Professor John E. Sweet at the Straight Line Engine Works, at Syracuse, where he became foreman of the shops, and later he was mechanical engineer of the Kingford Foundry & Machine Works, at Oswego.

After about seven years thus spent in practical work, he returned to Cornell University as a graduate student, receiving the degree of M. M. E. with the class of ’86. He next had charge of the mechanical laboratory of Sibley College; was then for four years assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and later laid the foundations of the present department of machine design.

Leaving Cornell, he was, for one year, professor of machine design at the University of Wisconsin, and in 1892 became professor of mechanical engineering at Leland Stanford Junior University, which latter position he has now relinquished to again become associated with Cornell University.

During this period he employed his vacations, or sabbatical years, in active engineering work. He spent one year with the Dickson Manufacturing Company, at Scranton. Pa., principally designing large steam engines; two years with Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co. in engineering work and investigations, and a summer vacation with the Solvay Process Co. , of Syracuse, N. Y. It will be seen that his experience alternated between educational and industrial occupation, and, therefore, to an unusual degree combines the knowledge and opportunities of the university and the world.

Professor Smith is thus not the typical professor whose life has been lived in college halls, nor yet is he the practicing engineer whose life has been lived in the whirl of commerce and construction; but by taste and experience he is a well balanced product of the university hall and the field, competent to judge each in the light of the limitations of the other and to carry from one into the other that almost indefinable touch which inspires within the university the spirit of the outside world in which the students must perform.

The tendencies in engineering education have diverged from the purpose for which it exists, — not so far as to injure the character of such education, but rather reducing the rate of growth of its efficiency. To prepare young men for a given world the preparer must understand that world and be of it. He must understand the world of to day and not of yesterday. Thus engineering schools require close contact with, and the inspiration of, the engineering world. This can be aided in many ways, but nothing is so effective as to have the professor impart knowledge, stimulate ambitions, direct methods, and in many ways lead young men toward their goal by his own self-knowledge of the world for which he is training them. In the mission of enhancing the efficiency of engineering education at Cornell University, Director Smith has the sympathy, backing, and co-operation of the board of trustees, faculty, and graduates, many of whom are large employers of young men from such institutions, and who have practical knowledge of what is needed.

It is not within the scope of this sketch to outline the ways and means by which betterment of the educational conditions at Cornell will be brought about; but they lean toward greater practicability, effectiveness, and that high form of intellectual training which follows from achieving knowledge for use. Perhaps the most specific and immediate feature is the method already approved by the board of trustees and referred to the President and to Director Smith for administration, namely, the providing of opportunity for the professors to alternate periodically between the university and practical engineering, thus bringing instruction into close touch with actual engineering work. This should in time tend to create a new type of professor, a man of much broader experience, better fitted in every way for the instruction of youth. Those who conduct the plan will be left entirely free to carry it out through whatever ways and means may be found most practicable.

Nothing revolutionary is contemplated at Cornell. The Department of Mechanical Engineering is, and has been for years, of the highest order. It has to an unusual degree represented a well filled mission, conducted on a well rounded plan, and it is the intention of its managers and friends to further enhance its value, chiefly by internal development, in such a way that it will prepare young men, even better than heretofore, for their engineering missions.

This demands additions to the financial resources of the University. All engineering education is ultra expensive, and if the available income for this work could be doubled or quadrupled, results would be obtained in a few years which otherwise would require a generation. Large additional expense is required to do justice to all of the young men who are now ready and competent to take up engineering studies. With less financial opportunity, less will be done, and the eventual development will be delayed; but never-the-less this department, under the administration of Director Smith, will continually draw closer to the spirit of the engineering world than has been common in technical institutions. The motive will be strong to develop standards of competency which recognise that success depends less upon the amount of knowledge acquired than upon ability to use it.

[as reprinted from Cassier’s magazine v. 27 Nov. 1904-Apr. 1905. Article by Walter C. Kerr]