Full Steam Ahead

Purdue Mechanical Engineering Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

John Norberg

• Publisher: Purdue University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781557536884
• eBook ISBN:
  9781612493428
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Mechanical Engineering was the first school of engineering to be established at Purdue University in 1882. From just 120 students, the School has grown over the last 130 years to serve over 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students annually. Originally located in Mechanics Hall, a one-story red brick building, Mechanical Engineering now has extensive facilities that include two major satellite research laboratories, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories and Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, named in honor of the first director. There are more than 30 additional instructional and research laboratories, including the Roger B. Gatewood wing, which opened in 2011, and increased the space available to students and faculty by 44,000 square feet. Full Steam Ahead tells the story of the School of Mechanical Engineering and looks to a future where Purdue engineers are leading the world and making advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, design and manufacturing, and renewable energy. Distinguished alumni included in this publication range from astronauts, like Gus Grissom and Jerry Ross, to Bob Peterson, lead writer and co-director for the Oscar-winning animated film, Up.

Bird’s eye view of the city of Lafayette,
Tippecanoe County, Indiana 1868

Drawn by A. Ruger. Library of
Congress, Geography and Map
Division

12

A Story of Purdue Mechanical Engineering

Full Steam Ahead:

Purdue Mechanical Engineering

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

The Beginning

On April 15, 1869, John Purdue sat at his
desk in Lafayette and penned a letter to
“His Excellency” Conrad Baker, Governor of
Indiana. Purdue believed he had never made
a bad business decision in his life. He was
about to take the most momentous
step of his career.

In his letter to the governor, Purdue
offered $150,000 of his own fortune
toward a new college for the state
of Indiana, provided that: it would
be located in his home county of
Tippecanoe; he would be appointed
to its board of trustees; and “an irrepealable
law” would seal its name as Purdue.

Within three weeks Baker and the Indiana
General Assembly had accepted the proposal,
and May 6, 1869, has ever since been marked
as the founding of Purdue University.

It was a bold decision in a state and a
community that were just several generations
beyond the nation’s frontier. Lafayette had

only been platted 44 years earlier. The
landmark Battle of Tippecanoe—where
future U.S. President William Henry Harrison
defeated a coalition of Native
American forces—had taken place
only 58 years earlier. With a population
of 33,515 in the 1870 census, Lafayette

was not the center of commerce
in a state of 1.7 million people.

But Lafayette was a growing,
prosperous community, located
on railroad lines and a navigable
river. And it was home to a
visionary, though egocentric man, who

believed in education and wanted to link his
name in perpetuity with learning.

Purdue succeeded beyond his greatest
dreams and launched a university that is now
recognized globally, especially for its excellence
in engineering and its School of Mechanical
Engineering. He never could have imagined the
impact engineering and his Purdue University
would have on life, business and technology,
now reaching into a third century. 15 u

The Purdue water sculpture,
often called the Engineering
Fountain, with the Bell Tower
and Hovde Hall.

John Purdue

Michael Golden

Tucked behind Knoy Hall of Technology, a short walk
from the Mechanical Engineering Building, is the
Michael Golden Engineering Laboratories and Shops.
It’s a facility that holds a special place in the history of
Purdue Mechanical Engineering.

Used for multidisciplinary work today, it was part of
a larger facility at the intersection of Northwestern
Avenue and Grant Street.
Built in 1910, it was
originally named the
Practical Mechanics Building,
but was renamed at the
request of alumni to honor
one of the University’s most
colorful and loved faculty
members—Michael Golden.

Practical Mechanics
Building in 1918

The name of the facility was changed in
1920 to Michael Golden Shops and in 1950
to Michael Golden Laboratories. Students
called the building “Mike’s Castle.” In 1982
the main portion of the building was taken
down to make way for Knoy Hall, but
laboratories attached to the original building
have been remodeled and remain in use.

Who was this popular professor,
remembered so fondly by his former students?

Professor Michael Golden was serious and all business
in the classroom. He also was known to challenge
argumentative students to a boxing match if they crossed
him. In 26 years at Purdue University, not one student

was foolish enough to accept the challenge. 15 u

Michael
Golden

MICHAEL GOLDEN

13

Aerial view of campus

14

A Story of Purdue Mechanical Engineering

q ME Story—The Beginning

Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong, commander
of the Apollo 11 space mission that
accomplished the first moon landing, wrote
a foreword for A Century of Innovation, the story
of the greatest engineering achievements
of the 20th century, as determined by the
National Academy of Engineering.

“If any of (the achievements) were removed,
our world would be a very different and less
hospitable place,” Armstrong said. “Each
of these achievements has been important
to the transformation of society in the past
hundred years. These are technologies that
have become inextricable parts of the fabric
of our lives—some spectacular, some nearly
invisible, but all critically important.”

The automobile, the airplane, spacecraft,
air conditioning and refrigeration are only
a few of the transformational 20th-century
achievements that were led by developments
in mechanical engineering—
and Purdue Mechanical
Engineering, in particular.

Morrill Land
Grant Act

Purdue University began
with a focus on engineering,
and Mechanical Engineering
was the star...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• The Gatewood Wing
• Mechanical Engineering History
• Our People
• References and Acknowledgements