author
Robert Henry Thurston
1839–1903
A pioneering American engineer and teacher, he helped turn mechanical engineering into a serious academic discipline in the United States. His work on steam engines, materials testing, and engineering education shaped how the field was taught for generations.
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 grew up around machinery and engineering work. He studied at Brown University, served as an assistant engineer in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, and later taught at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Thurston became the first professor of mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he helped build one of the earliest formal mechanical engineering programs in America. In 1885 he moved to Cornell University, where he led Sibley College and continued to expand engineering education and research.
He was also a prolific writer whose books and articles made technical subjects more accessible to students and working engineers. Best remembered today as both an engineer and an educator, he played a major role in giving mechanical engineering a stronger scientific foundation in the late nineteenth century.