test the metals used in construction. He is a member of various scientific associations in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, and has written numerous papers on technical subjects, which have appeared in scientific journals in Europe and America, and has prepared articles upon similar topics for this Cyclopedia. He was made vice-president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1875; he was made vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Nashville, in 1877, in the absence of Professor Pickering, elected at the preceding meeting, and was regularly elected to serve again in 1878, at the St. Louis meeting of the association. From 1880 to 1882 Thurston was the first president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1885 he left the Stevens Institute of Technology to replace John Edison Sweet as director of Sibley College at Cornell University, reorganizing it as a college of mechanical engineering. In 1885, he received an honorary Degree of Engineering from Stevens. In 1902, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. He died on October 25, 1903, his 64th birthday, in Ithaca, New York. Work Thurston's research interest was in the areas of materials, thermodynamics, steam engines and boilers, friction and energetics. Mechanical engineering curriculum At the Stevens Institute of Technology he established Stevens' mechanical engineering curriculum. He was committed to the French and German science-based models of technical education and soon would gain an international reputation for his view of engineering as applied science. His enthusiasm in involving students in funded research led to remarkable pioneering success of the early Stevens' graduates. Historians credit Thurston with establishing the first US mechanical engineering laboratory for conducting funded research at an academic institution for higher learning. Other papers Thurston wrote a number of papers embodying accounts of original investigations of the strength and other properties of construction materials. Among his numerous inventions are the magnesium ribbon lamp, a magnesium-burning naval and army signal apparatus, an autographic recording testing machine, a new form of steam engine governor, and an apparatus for determining the value of lubricants. In 1875, he also developed the three-coordinate solid diagram for testing iron, steel, and other metals. He made a significant contribution to the field of tribology and Duncan Dowson named him one of the 23 "Men of Tribology". Patents Thurston held two patents: one for an autographic recording