Profile – John R. Freeman, President ASME circa 1905

John R. Freeman,  President ASME circa 1905

John R. Freeman, President [American Society of Mechanical Engineers] ASME circa 1905
from Cassier’s Magazine 1905

[as reprinted from Cassier’s magazine v. 27 Nov. 1904-Apr. 1905]

It has been stated more than once, semi humorously, that an essential qualification for prominence in later life seems to be country birth and early education, away from the atmosphere of large towns, and that qualification Mr. Freeman has, having been born in the little community of West Bridgeton, Me., in 1855, and having received his early training in the district school of that place. Later he attended the public schools at Portland, Me., and Lawrence, Mass., winding up finally at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he took the civil engineering course and was graduated in 1876.

Hydraulic engineering from the first attracted him, and for the next ten years he was on the engineering staff of the Lawrence (Mass.) Water Power Company, rising there in a short time to the position of principal assistant to Mr. Hiram F. Mills, chief engineer. Opportunities for important and varied engineering experience were many in Mr. Mills’ office, and the time which Mr. Freeman spent there furnished an excellent foundation for subsequent work as a consulting engineer in hydraulic engineering and mill work which he had in view.

Before opening an office on his own account, however, he received the offer of a position as inspector and hydraulic engineer for the Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies, which he accepted for a year only, in the belief that the acquaintance to be gained in this way with mill men and mill architecture would be a valuable asset later on when he undertook consulting practice. In this manner he entered the insurance field, in which he has since remained, although not to the exclusion of other business and engineering enterprises. He found a comparatively new specialty in fire protection engineering, which not even now receives the recognition it should.

In the course of this work he has been called upon to make tests of the efficiency of many public water works, as well as to investigate the new appliances for fire protection which are constantly coming out. His experiments on the discharge of fire nozzles and the hydraulics of fire streams are among the standard investigations of engineering and too well known to need more than mention.

In a short time he was called on to reorganise the inspection service of these companies, of which he was placed in charge, with the title of chief inspector and chief engineer. In this work he appreciated from the outset that it afforded good openings for the best engineering talent, and accordingly recruited his staff of draughtsmen, experimenters, inspectors and engineers from the graduates of engineering schools as far as possible. To show what a field exists in this line of work it is only-necessary to state that more than two thousand large mills, valued at over a thousand million dollars, unite for fire protection purposes in the Factory Mutuals. Mr. Freeman has particularly sought to perfect standard methods and appliances for fire protection, and to unite manufacturers of fire appliances on certain standards of quality while preserving to each his individuality of detail.

The specifications almost universally adopted for underwriter fire pumps, underwriter nozzles, fire hose, and the like, were drawn up by him after much experimental work, and even since his advance in the companies to a position of larger responsibility, he keeps in close touch with all engineering work as chairman of the committee over the inspection department. It was in 1896 that he became president and treasurer of the Manufacturers’ Rhode Island and Mechanics Mutual Fire Insurance Companies, which were virtually a consolidation of the oldest two organisations of this character. Under his charge their business has in about eight years increased more than three-fold. Mr. Freeman a little over a year ago was called upon to become president and treasurer of three more companies of this [nature, the] State, Enterprise and American. At the present time he is accordingly in charge of the fire-protection and insurance interests of manufacturing property valued at more than $330,000,000, making his office the largest of its kind, and thus bringing him into close business relations with many industrial leaders. Fondness for engineering work has caused him to steadfastly decline to devote his time exclusively to business interests, and he has reserved a portion of it for continuing his practice in the congenial fields of pure engineering.

In these fields water supply engineering has received probably most of his attention, and his chief labours there have been in connection with the new water works for the city of Boston and neighbouring towns as a member of the Massachusetts Metropolitan Water Board. This was in 1896. Three years later he was selected to investigate and report upon the water supply of the city of New York, — a work of exceeding importance and magnitude, which culminated in a report in the shape of a 600-page volume generally acknowledged to be the most elaborate water works report ever prepared by one engineer.

Mr. Freeman, in addition to his membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers. The Norman Medal of the former society was twice awarded to him for papers of special merit, — one on the hydraulics of fire streams and the other on the nozzle as a water meter. Of the Boston Society he was president in 1893. At the present time he is identified as a director with several banking institutions; he is also a member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a trustee of the Rhode Island School of Design. The honorary degree of Doctor of Science was conferred upon him this year by Brown University.