William Barton Rogers Information
William Barton Rogers (December 7, 1804 – May 30, 1882) was a geologist, physicist and educator. He is best known for setting down the founding principles for, advocating for, and finally obtaining the incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1861.[1] The university opened in 1865 after the American Civil War.
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Biography
Early life
Rogers was born on December 7, 1804, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son of Patrick Kerr Rogers and Hannah Blythe and was of Irish, Scottish, and English extraction. Patrick Rogers was born in Ireland and had immigrated at the end of the 18th century to America, where he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and practiced medicine. When William Barton was born, Patrick Rogers was tutor at UPenn.[2] In 1819 Patrick Rogers became professor of natural philosophy and mathematics at the College of William and Mary, where he remained until his death in 1828.[3]
William Barton Rogers had three brothers: James Blythe Rogers (1802–1852), Henry Darwin Rogers (1808–1866), and Robert Empie Rogers (1813–1884). The Rogers brothers would each grow up to be distinguished scientists.[4]
Education and career
Rogers was educated by his father, attended the public schools of Baltimore, Maryland,[5] and also graduated from the College of William and Mary. He delivered a series of lectures on science before the Maryland Institute in 1827, and succeeded his father as professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at William and Mary in 1828, where he remained until 1835. During this time, he carried on investigations on dew and on the voltaic battery, and prepared a series of papers on the greensand and calcareous marl of eastern Virginia and their value as fertilizers.[3]
In 1833, his brother Henry had returned from England filled with enthusiasm for geology. This had prompted Rogers to begin studies in the field. The practical value of his article on greensand caught the eye of the Virginia legislature. Rogers took this opportunity to lobby for a geological survey of Virginia, and he was called upon to organize it in 1835.[6]
By 1835, his brother Henry was state geologist of Pennsylvania, and together they unfolded the historical geology of the Appalachian chain. Among their joint special investigations were the study of the solvent action of water on various minerals and rocks, and the demonstration that coal beds stand in close genetic relation to the amount of disturbance to which the inclosing strata have been submitted, the coal becoming harder and containing less volatile matter as the evidence of the disturbance increases. Together they published a paper on “The Laws of Structure of the more Disturbed Zones of the Earth's Crust,” in which the wave theory of mountain chains was first announced. This was followed later by William B. Rogers's statement of the law of distribution of faults. In 1842 the work of the survey closed.[3] State revenues had shrunk beginning in 1837, and the funding for the survey had been cut back. Meanwhile Rogers had published six “Reports of the Geological Survey of the State of Virginia” (Richmond, 1836–40), though there were few copies. They were later compiled by Jed Hotchkiss and issued in one volume with a map as Papers on the Geology of Virginia (New York, 1884).[6]
In 1835 Rogers also began serving as professor of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia (UVA). There he added mineralogy and geology to the curriculum, and did original research in geology, chemistry and physics.[7] While he was chair of the department of philosophy at UVA, he vigorously defended to the Virginia State Legislature the University's refusal to award honoris causa degrees. He resigned in protest in 1853. (To this day, MIT does not award honorary degrees in any discipline.) Longing for a more stimulating atmosphere, and for other reasons, he had tendered his resignation in 1848, but was persuaded to remain. In 1849, he married Emma Savage of Boston.[5]
After the 1853 resignation, Rogers moved to Boston, where he became active in the scientific movements under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in whose proceedings and the American Journal of Science his papers of this period were published. About 1859 he began to interest the people of Boston in his scheme for technical education, in which he desired to have associated, on one side research and investigation on the largest scale, and on the other agencies for the popular diffusion of useful knowledge. This project continued to occupy his attention until it culminated in the organization of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of which he became first president.[3]
He delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute on “The Application of Science to the Arts” in 1862. In 1861, he was appointed inspector of gas and gas meters for the state of Massachusetts.[3] He accepted reluctantly. During his service, he improved the standards of measurement.[5]
MIT Presidency
An act of the Massachusetts State Legislature incorporated MIT in 1861, and Rogers became its first president in 1862.[5] He served as president of MIT until 1870, when he stood down because of declining health. By necessity, he returned to office in 1878 and continued to 1881, when he was made professor emeritus of physics and geology, which position he had held while he was president.[3]
He died after collapsing during a speech at MIT's 1882 commencement exercises. His last words were "bituminous coal".[8]
Other affiliations
Rogers was chairman of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists (AAGN; organized 1840) in 1845 and again in 1847, and contributed important memoirs to its Transactions, including observations on the temperature of coal mines in eastern Virginia. In 1847 he also called to order the first meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an enlargement of the AAGN. He was president of the AAAS in 1875, and elected its first honorary fellow in 1881, as a special mark of distinction. He was active in founding the American Social Science Association and its first president; also he was one of the corporate members of the National Academy of Sciences, and its president from 1878 until his death. In 1866, Harvard gave him the degree of LL.D.[3][7]
Works
Besides numerous papers on geology, chemistry, and physics, contributed to the proceedings of societies and technical journals, he was the author of:[3]
- Strength of Materials (Charlottesville, 1838)
- Elements of Mechanical Philosophy (Boston, 1852)
- Papers on the Geology of Virginia (New York, 1884)
Notes
- ^ Rogers, William B., Chairman, The Committee of Associated Institutions of Science and Arts, "Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology: including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School of Industrial Science; proposed to be established in Boston" - Boston, 1861, and archived at the MIT Libraries Collection.
- ^ "Rogers, William Barton". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- ^ a b c d e f g h This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Rogers, James Blythe". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
- ^ Elizabeth Andrews, Nora Murphy, and Tom Rosko, "William Barton Rogers: MIT's Visionary Founder," 2004.
- ^ a b c d George P. Merrill (1935). "Rogers, William Barton". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- ^ a b Trent A. Mitchell (1999). "Rogers, William Barton". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b "Rogers, William Barton". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
- ^ Phillips, Henry Ayling (1915). George Ward Blodgett, Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Cambridge: Riverside Press. pp. 27–30. http://books.google.com/books?id=2w8EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=%22william+barton+rogers%22+%22last+words%22#PPA27,M1.
Further reading
- Angulo A.J. (2009.) William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
- W. S. W. Ruschenberger, “A Sketch of the Life of Robert E. Rogers, with Biographical Notices of His Father and Brothers,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, v. XXIII (1886).
- Emma Barton (with William T. Sidgwick), ed., Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers (Boston, 1897)
- J. R. Killian, Jr., “William Barton Rogers” in Technology Review, v. 60 (1958), pp. 105–8, 124-30.
- R. R. Shrock, Geology at M.I.T. 1865-1965, vol. 1: The Faculty and Supporting Staff, 1977.
External links
- Official mini-biography
- Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers
- "Sketch of Prof. William B. Rogers". Popular Science Monthly 9: 606-611. September 1876.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Rogers, William Barton |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American scientist, founder of MIT |
| Date of birth | 7 December 1804 |
| Place of birth | Virginia |
| Date of death | 30 May 1882 |
| Place of death | Boston, Massachusetts |
Categories:
- 1804 births
- 1882 deaths
- The College of William & Mary alumni
- The College of William & Mary faculty
- Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Virginia faculty
- People from Virginia
- University of Virginia alumni
- American geologists
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