author
Robert Henry Thurston
1839–1903
An early giant of American mechanical engineering, he helped turn the subject into a serious field of study in the United States. His books on steam engines, materials, and engineering practice carried his ideas far beyond the classroom.
1 Audiobook
A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine
by Robert Henry Thurston
About the author
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1839, Robert Henry Thurston trained at Brown University and grew up around machinery in his father's steam-engine works. He went on to become one of the best-known engineering educators of his generation.
Thurston was the first professor of mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he helped build one of the country's earliest formal programs in the field. In 1885 he moved to Cornell University, reorganized Sibley College, and served as its first director, shaping the way mechanical engineering was taught to a growing number of American students.
He also wrote widely read technical books, including A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, and was known for work on materials testing, engines, and engineering education. Remembered as both a teacher and a builder of institutions, he played a major part in establishing mechanical engineering as a modern profession in the United States.