THOMAS MESSINGER DROWN R. D. B ~ L I N G ELEHIGH R, U N I V E R ~ IBBTELEEEM, ~, PENNSYLVANIA
Some day a history of American education will be written which will adequately show the influence of the scientist on our higher education. The influence of the chemist will rank high in any such historical summary. A number of our eminent educators have been chemists. Among these were Eliot of Harvard, Remsen of Johns Hopkins, and Smith of Penusylvania. To this list may be added the name of Drown of Lehigh. Thomas Messinger Drown's career was distinctly academic. Trained as he was at no less than five universit i e s t h r e e in this country and two abroad-he was ably fitted for a life of teaching and research. His immediate influence as an educator was extended to three institutions of learning for almost equal intervals of time--to Lafayette College as professor of chemistry (1874-81); to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as professor of chemistry (188595); and to Lehigh University a s president (1895-1904). His influence, however, reached much farther. To the analytical chemist of the metallurgical and mining industry he was known for his help in devising shorter methods of chemical analysis. Again through his important work in the field of sanitation he became an authority on this subject. Most of this work was done for the State Board of Health of Massachusetts. And to the engineers of the country he is known as one of the founders of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, for ten years (1873-83) its secretary and later (1897-98) its president. 2875
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Certainly a life so rich in contacts and so full of service commands our interest and esteem. A review of Dr. Drown's career helps us to understand much better the trend of technical education in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Drown was born in Philadelphia, March 19, 1842. His father, William Appleton Drown, was a prominent merchant in that city. The parents had come from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Thomas was the youngest of three sons. His early schooling was in the public schools of Philadelphia, where he began to show his love of books and desire for learning. While still a boy he became interested in chemical science and set up a small laboratory at home. Certain experiments must have been objectionable to the other members of the family, and soon the little laboratory was moved to an adjoining building where odors would offend none but the young scientist. Drown's father did not attempt to curb his son's efforts entirely (it is doubtful if he could have done so) but he tried to make him thoughtful of the rights of others. After graduation from the Philadelphia High School in 1859, Drown entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. His choice of medicine was made after considering the possibilities of a future in this professioncompared to the apparent scarcity of demand for chemists. His study of medicine, therapeutics, and surgery was followed with zeal and his thesis, "An Essay on Urological Chemistry," was highly praised. While Drown was at the University of Pennsylvania the chair of chemistry and natural philosophy was held by Professor John F. Frazer (181272), a student of the celebrated Dr. Robert Hare. The curriculum was still largely influenced by the work of Hare, whose lectures and text had been among the best in America some thirty years before (1). In 1862 Drown received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, but his practice in this field was to be short. He obtained a position as surgeon on a packet steamer traveling between Philadelphia and England but made only one round trip. A humorous story of his voyage was afterward related by Drown. Upon returning to port he reported to the ship's owner, a Philadelphia Quaker, that he had gotten all of his passengers safely across. The Quaker replied that he had nothing to boast of since most physicians arrived with more. After his brief medical experience Dr. Drown decided that chemistry would be his life study. The next six years were devoted to intense study under some of the most prominent chemists in this country and Europe. F i s t he worked with Professors Brush and Johnson at the Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, and then, attracted by the analytical work of Wolcott Gibbs, be went to the Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge. Dr. Gibbs was able to give him some real chemical problems in the separation of the rare earths. His association with Gibbs, to which he was
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always proud to refer, influenced his method of teaching in later years. Much of his ability to impart the spirit of investigation to students, he attributed to his own training with Professor Gibbs. Next we find Drown abroad devoting about three and onehalf years to study, first a t the School of Mines, at Freiberg, Saxony, and later a t Heidelberg. At Freiberg there was Plattner, the master of blow-pipe analysis, and at Heidelberg Drown became a pupil and friend of the great Buusen. To work in the laboratories of these famous institutions was a great advantage to the student of chemistry about 1865. Even today a period of graduate study abroad is recommended, but then it afforded exaerience not obtainable elsewhere. Contact with the great teachers of chemistry at a time when the science was making rapid changes and developments, was an invaluable aid to American students. During Dr. Drown's stay in Heidelberg he met Miss Helen Leighton, and in 1869 they were married at her home in Learnington, England. Upon returning to America in 1869 he accepted a position as instructor in metallurgy a t the Lawrence ScientificSchool, but in 1870 he resigned and went to Philadelphia to work as an analytical and consulting chemist. Most of his work was done in conjunction with Dr. F. A. Genth, a German chemist, who had come to Philadelphia as professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania and who also conducted a laboratory where various types of consulting work were done. This experience afforded Dr. Drown a wide range of materials for investigation and put himin touch with many industrial problems. A humorous story which Drown told of this period with Dr. Genth concerned the analysis of some whiskey. Genth requested the firm for which the analysis was being done to send up five gallons of whiskey. Drown asked him if that much was necessary. "Oh, no," said Genth, "hut I'll be able to use it all right." In 1874 Lafayette College called Dr. Drown to become professor of chemistry in Easton, Pennsylvania. Here he remained until 1881 and
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this period was rich in the development of his teaching experience and in the associations formed both at the college and with chemists and engineers throughout the Lehigh Valley. During this period of his life the American Institute of Mining Engineers was being organized, and the early history of the society was largely the record of work done by Drown and his intimate associates. The Institute was organized in May, 1871, a t a meeting at Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, and he was one of the original body of twenty-two mining engineers and metallurgists. Active from the start, he was a t first one of the hoard of managers, and then the active secretary during the years 1873-81. The latter position was one requiring an immense amount of work in correspondence, issuing publications, arranging meetings, and all the numerous details which arise. One instance of his faithfulness to his task is attested by his heroic and successful efforts to preserve the Institute's records from a fire which threatened them. In June, 1879, a fire broke out in Pardee Hall, a t Lafayette College. It was on the fourth floor of this building where the library and records of the Institute were housed. Dr. Drown humedly organized and directed the removal of the most important records and back volumes of the Transactions. The work was done by students and others who responded to the cool example of their director. But in the swiftness of the conflagration there was no time left for Dr. Drown to save his own professional library and apparatus, and so his treasures were sacrificed for others which he deemed more precious to the Institute. That the members of the Institute appreciated the great work of Dr. Drown is evidenced by the testimonial dinner which was tendered him several months later a t
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Montreal, September 18,1879. Through the efforts of several of his friends (Eckley B. Coxe, Frank F i s t o n e , and R. W. Raymond) money was collected from Dr. Drown's friends and associates to help reimburse him for his personal loss. This came as a complete surprise following an address by Dr. Raymond. It was humorously presented in the form of a note as follows: To the Cashier of the Seventh Ward Bank: Sir: The undersigned would thank You to pay, cash down, To the order of T. M. Drown, The sum which fallers Three thousand dollars. Yours, with pleasure, R. W. Raymond, Treesurer
Dr. Drown was partial to laboratory rather than classroom instruction. His method of close contact with students followed the old peripatetic style where master and pupil talked and worked side by side. This required small classes and was much easier in the early days of chemistry than later. He taught his students to criticize their work and also to study closely the accepted analytical procedures. He was always alert for improved methods and believed that research should be started early in the student's career ( 2 ) . The student should live in the atmosphere of investigation. There should be no separation of beginners, advanced pupils and professors, but all should work together as far as possible. No teacher is primarily interested in teaching who does not like to have students about him when he is experimenting.
Drown not only preached research. He practiced it. During his busy career as a teacher and secretary of the Institute he found time to write some fifteen articles. These dealt with determinations of sulfur, phosphorus, silicon, and titanium and aluminum in pig iron and steel; notes on coal-washing and metallurgical processes. Dr. Hart has said "there was hardly a comer in iron-analysis which he did not explore and illuminate. So rapid is progress that some of his work has been lost sight of; but i t is there; and it all counted in the present-day development." Besides these researches there were large numbers of notes and comments on work of other investigators; helpful criticism which kept interest in the Transactions of the Institute from lagging. Dr. Drown was fortunate in the formation of early friendships which helped him through life. Two of his closest friends were Coxe and Raymond, prominent mining engineers, who were closely connected with education. Coxe was a trustee of the neighboring Lehigh University, while
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Raymond was a lecturer on economic geology a t Lafayette College. This trio had much in common. AU had studied abroad a t Freiberg. Coxe and Drown were native sons of Philadelphia and were graduates of the University of Pennsylvania. Their combined interests were centered in the Institute of Mining Engineers. They all acted a t various times as president of that society. Dr. Raymond once said of the students who were trained by Dr. Drown, "Drown's men were universally recognized as intelligent, practical, and skilful chemists, and were in special demand on that account." Two of the most prominent of these students are Dr. Edward Hart and Dr. F. W. Shimer. Hart was brought to Lafayette by Dr. Drown andsucceeded Drown as professor of chemistry a t that institution. Dr. Shimer was an assistant to Dr. Drown from 1879 to 1885 and later became prominent as a consulting analytical chemist. Both of these gentlemen have furnished the writer with many interesting sidelights and facts for this biographical sketch. The high esteem in which Dr. Drown was held is witnessed by this quotation from a letter from Dr. Hart: I never had a better or kinder friend. I was happy enough to be an invited guest to tea nearly every Sunday evening a t his house. After tea Davy King, John Meigs and Frank Firmstone usually came in and spent the evening. Sometimes Eckley B. C o x and R. W. Raymond were on hand. Then we made a night of it and wonderful gems of merriment and learning flew thick and fast. They were all notable men and I said nothing but drank in all the nedar. To me Drown's friendship was a benediction and the good-will of his friends little less.
In 1881 Drown resigned from Lafayette and in 1883 he also resigned as secretary of the Institute. The council accepted Drown's resignation and elected him as an honorary member. Thirteen years later he was elected president of the organization which he had worked so hard to build. Dur-
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ing his secretaryship the Institute had grown from twenty-two members to thirteen hundred. For a time he conducted an analytical laboratory on Cattell Street in Easton. Then business conditions in his father's k m in Philadelphia called him away from his profession for several years. The business, the manufacture of umbrellas, had fallen away due to illness of Drown's brother. Dr. Drown reconstructed the business until it could be liquidated and thereby saved the fim name of Wm. A. Drown and Company from bankruptcy. R. W. Raymond says of this period of Drown's life: Other men, chivalrously m d y to make a similar sacrifice, might have made it in vain; other men, capable of comprehending the business situation, might have refused the quixotic s a d c e ; few indeed, I think wuld have accomplished what Drown did, and fewer still could have remained silent concerning it thereafter.
In 1885, Dr. Drown re-entered the educational field when he accepted the professorship of analytical chemistry a t the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His success here is shown by his appointment as head of the chemistry department in 1888 and in 1893 he also assumed charge of the course of chemical engineering. The laboratory where he worked had been opened in 1876 under the direction of Professors Eliot and Storer (3). Other prominent chemists who had directed the work at "Tech" were James M. Crafts, William Ripley Nichols, Charles H. Wing, and Lewis M. Norton. I t was no easy matter to keep up a standard as high as that set by his predecessors, but Drown threw the whole weight of his experience into his task and built up a large and successful department, which included twenty-one instructors and five hundred students. He still spent many hours in visiting the laboratories and personally advising his students, but larger classes forced more lecture work upon him, a condition which he regretted because he liked to be at the student's elbow rather than lecturing to large groups. The course in chemical engineering at the Institute had been introduced in 1888. When Professor Norton died in 1893, Dr. Drown took over the direction of this new venture. It was not clear what subjects should constitute a course in chemical engineering. Should a chemical engineer be primarily a chemist or a mechanical engineer? The problem was to educate young men who could assist in the construction of dye works, sugar refineries, paper and pulp manufactories, soap works, chemical works, and the many problems where chemistry and manufacturing meet. His friend and colleague, Professor Henry P. Talbot, wrote: In this capacity he exhibited clear judgment in the extension of the curricula of these courses demanded by changing canditions; and he enmuraged the co-workers of all grades in the department by helpful advice, urging the expansion of the work of the individual and promptly recognizing success and ability hy unsolicited rewmmendations for promotion.
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Equally important with Dr. Drown's administrative work and teaching a t Massachusetts Institute was his connection with the State Board of Health in the investigation of sources of water supply. In June, 1887, Dr. Drown began this chemical survey, which was done in the Walker Building of the Institute by a group of workers under the immediate direction of Mrs. Ellen H. Richards. Another phase of sanitation work with which Dr. Drown was connected was that of sewage purification. Most of this work was done at Lawrence, Massachussetts, where he traveled almost weekly for eight years. Some $250,000 was spent on these investigations. The wisdom with which the funds were spent is shown by the important results achieved and the attention they have since attracted in the field of sanitation. Dr. Drown was peculiarly fitted for such a survey. In addition to his work with chemists and engineers, his early medical training helped him to understand the work of biologists and the physiological significance of the problem. The result of this extensive and systematic examination (over 18,000 water analyses were made in ten years) was the construction of a "Map of Normal Chlorine" for the State of Massachusetts. This showed the normal composition of a surface water in any given district. An increase of chlorine over the normal indicated a measure of contamination. This procedure served as a model for other states and the value of the work was widely acclaimed. Most of the reports of this work have been issued in the publications of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, references to which are made in every authoritative text on sanitation and water analysis. Other papers were written in the Technology Quarterly and the Journal of the New
England Water Works Association. Sometimes a prophet is honored in his own country. Dr. Drown's early career in the Lehigh Valley, as we have already learned, had won him many influential friends. His successful researches and executive ability demonstrated in Boston had further confirmed the trust of his many early associates. Thus when Lehigh University was in need of a president in 1895, it is not strange that she should have sought the services of Thomas M. Drown. His views on "technical training" were well known to Lehigh, since he had addressed the Alumni Association of the University on that subject in June, 1883 (2). When Drown was first approached on the question he said he did not believe "that a majority would look favorably on the selection of a man for president whose training and experience had been mainly scientific and technical." But Lehigh wanted Drown, and the warm appeals of his friends, Eckley B. Coxe, John Fritz, and H. S. Drinker, prompted him to leave his chemistry and accept the larger task of directing the university. When he left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, General Francis A. Walker said:
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In taking from us Dr. Drown, you have taken a man whose place we do not expect to fill adequately for many years to come. There is no man in the country of more scholarly attainments or greater administrative ability.
On June 19, 1895, Drown was inaugurated as president of Lehigh University. The same month he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Columbia University. Shortly before he assumed his new duties his good friend E. B. Coxe died. This was a sad loss, because it was largely with the hope of Coxe's cooperation and aid that he had come to Lehigh. Serious financial troubles beset the college, about this period, due to fluctuations in Lehigh Valley Railroad stock, which had been its chief source of endowment. But trustees and alumni rallied to support the new executive. Moreover, Dr. Drown and his capable advisor, H. S. Drinker, appealed to the Pennsylvania state legislature for funds to tide over this critical period and their efforts were successful. Drown's career as a college head was marked by his endeavors to further develop Lehigh as a technical school. He formulated his ideas in an address, "The Educational Value of Engineering Studies," delivered shortly after he accepted his new work. He helieved in "a severe drill in mathematical and mechanical subjects, aided by laboratory practice, which permits the student to handle apparatus and machines and to observe the results of his experiments." By this training the student should learn the methods of original research and become a seeker after truth. Side by side with the scientific and technical studies he insisted on the broadening and hnmanizing influence of cultural studies. If this could not reasonably he done in the normal four-year course, then he would advocate a five-year term. He believed the prime business of a college was to train students in accurate, logical thinking so as to strengthen their whole mental and moral fiber. He had no sympathy with the "steady increase of luxurious dillettantism" which had entered our colleges. Recreations, gymnastics, and athletics were considered healthy and useful in college life, but if limitations were not placed upon them athletics would run riot and take time and thought which should be devoted to study. In addition to training students for various occupations and professions he believed the college should also aim to develop character and prepare for the duties of citizenship. To this end he advocated the study of political economy for all engineering students. Dr. Drown was a genial and mild-mannered man with an exceptional charm of voice and hearing, and a keen sense of humor. He established most cordial relations in dealing with both the faculty andstudents. With the hearty cooperation of Mrs. Drown his beautiful home was opened to all who cared to enjoy his hospitality. Despite the cares of an unusually difficult period in Lehigh's history, his secretary, Mr. F. R. Ashbaugh, says he only once saw Dr. Drown give any display of anger. When nettled too
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OF TEYNPLOGY FROM (895 18 AN0 AT THE h CHEMIST TO TH E STATE
