Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 225

In 1903, another fraternity had adopted the name Theta Chi, but when the national organization of that name came to the campus, this group changed their name to Kappa Xi Alpha. Both of these latter groups eventually became chapters of national fraternities.

The activities of the Washburn Engineering Society were reduced to the one annual meeting at Commencement. The last address be ore the society under that name was given in 1904, after which the address was given before the combined engineering societies. The first of these to be organized was the Electrical Engineering Society, by Prof. H. B. Smith in 1902. It was actively supported by students and faculty of the department, and in 1904 became a branch of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. The Civil Engineering Society was organized in 1903, and the Mechanical Engineering Society replaced the one that had so long borne the name of Washburn. Chemists at the Institute and in the city formed the Worcester Chemical Club, most of the activities of which centered in the Salisbury Laboratories. A Physics Colloquium, was started about 1905.

The first honorary society to install a chapter at the Institute was the Society of the Sigma Xi, in 1908. A number of members of the faculty had become members of this research fraternity at other colleges, and it was through their influence that this, the twenty-sixth chapter, received a charter. The first student initiates were members of the class of 1908. Professor Kinnicutt was the first president. In 1910, the Massachusetts Alpha chapter of Tau Beta Pi, national engineering society, was installed with a membership of nineteen.

A Cosmopolitan Club, in the interests of students of foreign parentage, was organized in 1908, and later became affiliated with a similar national organization. A Wireless Association was formed in 1909, and an Aero Club in 1910. Members of the latter built a glider, "Tech I," which made successful flights of 100 feet or more. In 1911, "Tech II" was entered in the international glider meet, but was wrecked in a

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999