Background
Thomas Messinger Drown was born on March 19, 1842 in Philadelphia, United States. He was the youngest of the three children of William Appleton and Mary (Peirce) Drown of Philadelphia.
https://www.amazon.com/educational-value-engineering-studies-delivered/dp/B003HS4YPY?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003HS4YPY
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Proceedings Connected With The Testimonial Presented To Thomas Messinger Drown By Members Of The Institute, At Montreal, September 18, 1879 American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Thomas Messinger Drown Testimonial Committee for private distribution, 1879
https://www.amazon.com/Proceedings-Connected-Testimonial-Presented-Messinger/dp/1274324785?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1274324785
Thomas Messinger Drown was born on March 19, 1842 in Philadelphia, United States. He was the youngest of the three children of William Appleton and Mary (Peirce) Drown of Philadelphia.
Drown attended the public schools of that city and was graduated from the Philadelphia High School in 1859.
Drown’s pronounced liking for chemistry led directly to his study of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, since at that time chemistry had scarcely begun to maintain an independent existence.
Beginning in 1865, Drown spent three and a half years in Europe, studying first at the School of Mines, Freiberg, Saxony, in metallurgical chemistry, and later becoming a pupil of Bunsen at Heidelberg University, a teacher to whom he always paid a high tribute of gratitude for his influence.
Drown received the doctorate in medicine in 1862.
Drown immediately obtained a coveted opportunity to serve as surgeon on a packet steamer plying between Philadelphia and an English port, but a single round-trip constituted his entire formal career as a medical practitioner, as he determined that happiness for him would be found in the fields of chemistry or metallurgy rather than medicine.
He, therefore, devoted the next three years to study, first at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, where life-long friendships with Professors Brush and Johnson were begun, and later, at the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard. His work there with Wolcott Gibbs had a profound influence upon his later career as a teacher.
Gibbs referred to him as “a dexterous worker, attractive in personality, and a gentleman by nature. ”
At the age of twenty-seven he had acquired a “thorough theoretical and technical training in chemistry and metallurgy which was almost unique at that time and would be unusual now”.
After a brief instructorship at the Lawrence Scientific School, he opened, in 1870, a private analytical and consulting practise in Philadelphia.
In 1874, however, he began his fruitful career as a teacher and administrator in the educational field, by accepting a professorship of chemistry at Lafayette College, Easton.
Meanwhile, in 1871, the American Institute of Mining Engineers had been organized at Wilkes-Barre, and he was elected one of the managers at the first meeting.
He resigned this managership in 1873 to accept the much more important secretaryship, with which were combined the duties of editor of the Transactions, an office which, while onerous, was congenial to him.
He retained this position for ten years and during that time placed the secretarial office on a firm and lasting footing, and brought the Transactions to a degree of excellence which was widely acknowledged.
Simultaneously with his work for the institute he was establishing a sound system of instruction in chemistry at Lafayette College, based upon a maximum of personal contact between student and teacher and the fundamental thesis that it is the student and not the subject which it is most essential to teach.
contributed much of value in the development of exact and yet rapid analytical processes for commercial use, which were much needed at that stage of metallurgical developments.
A number of his papers were published in the Transactions of the institute.
In 1881 he was obliged to sacrifice temporarily his professional plans to meet complications in family affairs, consequent upon the death of his father.
He resigned his professorship in 1881 and the secretaryship of the institute in 1883. Still later (1893) the department of chemical engineering was placed in his care.
Here, as at Lafayette, he came into close and inspiring contact with his pupils and his previous years of critical survey of analytical wrork in metallurgical fields while editor served him in good stead.
In 1895, yielding to the appeals of many of his friends and former associates, he accepted the presidency of Lehigh University.
He entered upon the duties of the presidential office with exceptional qualifications, having already been successful in both teaching and administration, and possessing a gracious and sympathetic nature, a genial bearing, and a ripe culture.
His presidential reports, addresses, and other papers on educational topics were constructive and influential.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Drown married Helen Leighton, at her home in England.