Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/869

Rh classes on general and agricultural chemistry, mineralogy, and geology.

In 1864 Professor Chandler became connected with Columbia College, joining Professor Egleston and General Vinton in the experiment of starting a School of Mines. The project originated with Professor Egleston, who, with his friend Vinton, had recently graduated at the École des Mines in Paris. It was not considered very promising, but the three professors were willing to begin without salaries. Mr. George T. Strong, W. E. Dodge, Jr., and several others, furnished about three thousand dollars to equip the modest laboratories. Hon. Gouverneur Kemble presented a fine cabinet of minerals. Dr. Barnard, the newly-elected President of Columbia College, Dr. Torrey, and the other Trustees, encouraged the enterprise in every possible way, and some vacant rooms in the basement of the college were assigned for laboratories. The success of the school was marvelous. Provision was made for twelve students; twenty-four came the first day. During the entire winter the carpenters and gas-fitters were constantly at work erecting new tables for additional applicants, and the number of pupils reached forty-eight. The Trustees of the College responded liberally. During the first vacation they placed a large four-story building at the disposition of the school, with ample funds for the equipment of laboratories and cabinets. Accommodations were arranged for seventy-two pupils. During the second year the school was thronged; eighty-nine students were in attendance. The success of the new school seemed so well assured that the Trustees arranged to place it on a substantial basis as a coordinate department of the college. Professor J. S. Newberry was called to the chair of Geology, relieving Professor Chandler of this subject, and a full faculty of professors and assistants was established. A new building was erected, and equipped with laboratory accommodations for one hundred and fifty pupils; these were outgrown, and a few years ago still larger ones were erected. The school is now in its sixteenth year; it has about two hundred and fifty students, pursuing a four years' course of study. Professor Chandler has been Dean of the Faculty of the School from the beginning, and has been the executive officer, besides having charge of the laboratories and giving his regular courses of lectures. The Assay Department was the especial hobby of Professor Chandler, and, with the aid of his successive assistants, Miller, Day, Blossom, and Ricketts, has been made the most complete of its kind to be found anywhere. To facilitate the work of assaying gold and silver ores, he devised an improved system of weights, which has been generally adopted by assayers.

When Professor Chandler first came to New York, he was asked to lend a hand in the development of the College of Pharmacy. This institution was then occupying a single room in the old University building on Washington Square, and numbered about thirty students.