Purdue, and had written an exceedingly lucid textbook on Mechanics. He
immediately won the respect and affection of students, and his death
in October, 1911, was a great shock to all who had known him. At
thirty-eight, he had given promise of being one of the greatest
teachers in Institute tradition.
Charles M. Allen was promoted to professor of Hydraulics in 1909. His
work in this field and his commercial tests at the Chaffins laboratory
were establishing him as one of the foremost hydraulic
engineers. Also, for a decade, he had been giving a popular discourse
on the use and abuse of gasoline, an enlightening talk that was to be
in demand for decades to come. Elmer H. Fish resigned in 1909 to
become head of the Worcester boys' trade school, which had been
founded by the city as a result of Milton P. Higgins' long
efforts. Two new instructors were appointed in 1910, Francis W. Roys,
'09, in general mechanical subjects, and Burton L. Gray in foundry
practice.
Various instructors served short terms in the Civil Engineering
department, but only Arthur J. Knight, '07, was retained. He was
appointed in 1910, following three years of railroad experience in the
Northwest. Likewise in the Physics department, only two appointees
became longtime members of the staff. Dr. Morton Masius, who had been
educated in Germany, completing his graduate work at the University of
Leipzig and at Harvard, came to the Institute in 1909, as did
Dr. Albert W. Hull, who had just finished graduate work at Yale. Both
were unusually capable physicists and teachers. Dr. Ewell was promoted
to professor in this department the following year. To the Modern
Language department in 1908 came a delightful gentleman named Charles
J. Adams, a graduate of Amherst and an experienced newspaper man, who
immediately won favor with students by assuming the role of "professor
of things in general."
The death of Dr. Leonard P. Kinnicutt, February 7, 1911, was a most
serious loss to the Institute. His illness, diagnosed
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