Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/421

Rh to the resignation of Prof. Joy, his successor in the chair of Chemistry in Union.

In 1857 Columbia College moved to its present site in Madison Avenue, between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets, and the chair of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry, then held by Prof. Richard McCulloh, was divided so as to form the chair of Mechanics and Physics, which was retained by Prof. McCulloh, while a call to that of Chemistry was given to Prof. Joy. It is perhaps worth recording that the only other candidate suggested for the new chair was Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, an alumnus of Columbia, in the class of 1841, then Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the College of the City of New York, whence, in 1863, he was called to the Rumford chair in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard.

With the prestige of a splendid education, a successful career at Union, and with fine social qualities. Prof. Joy was indeed well fitted to advance the course of chemistry in Columbia. Almost at once he founded in connection with his department a School of Chemistry, designed to give a complete professional education in chemistry to such as desired it. In the prospectus he wrote, “The laboratory is furnished with the best modern appliances for acquiring a thorough knowledge of chemistry and the applications of the science to agriculture and the arts.” Among those who availed themselves of this instruction were Major Clarence S. Brown, Captain William Jay, and other officers of the United States army; also such mining engineers as George William Maynard, Edward M. Pell, and others; while classed as chemists were Julius H. Tieman, Peter C. Tieman, and William J. Youmans. The success of this experiment made it easily possible, in 1863, to interest the trustees of Columbia College in accepting the plan proposed by Thomas Egleston, Jr., for the establishment of a School of Mines. Prof. Joy was a pronounced advocate of this undertaking from the outset. He was urged to assume charge of the department of chemistry in the new school, but this he declined, and recommended that his assistant at Union, Prof. Charles F. Chandler, be called to organize the department. This advice was at once favorably acted on by the trustees of Columbia College, and Prof. Chandler was given the chair of Analytical and Applied Chemistry, with charge of the laboratories. Although his duties in the academic department were already quite onerous. Prof. Joy promptly volunteered his services as lecturer, and in the first catalogue of the School of Mines his name appears as in charge of organic chemistry. Later, when the regular faculty was organized, he was made Professor of General Chemistry, and so continued until his retirement in 1877; also in the meanwhile he remained at the head of the chemical department of the college proper.