Getting ready for the electrical age: Virginia Tech, General Electric, President McBryde, and the scientists in the 1890s

International Social Science Review, Spring-Summer, 2002 by Ellen A. Brown

The Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College had been in existence for almost twenty years when, in 1890, electric lights and an electric power plant were first installed. No one at this small land-grant college in Blacksburg, Virginia, could have predicted the changes that electricity would bring--to the campus, the curriculum, and to the job prospects for its graduates. The school had gone through many changes of administration and had been hampered by political interference, but with the arrival of Dr. John M. McBryde, in 1891, technology began to blossom and flourish. By 1900, the word Technological had officially been added to the school's name, and electrical engineering had become the most popular course of study. (1) The decade of the 1890s was one of impressive growth and leadership, preparing the V.A.&M. College, or VPI, as it came to be known, to participate fully in the expanding technological revolution of the Twentieth Century.

Meanwhile, far to the north, scientists, inventors and businessmen were busy developing, manufacturing and selling light bulbs, turbines and electric motors. When the General Electric Company first emerged, in 1892, as a consolidation of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company, many small companies were undergoing similar changes. General Electric continued buying up smaller companies throughout the 1890s, finding that it was easier to buy a company (thus acquiring its patents and its talented scientists and inventors) than to try to compete with them in the marketplace. Although the company struggled during the economic downturns of the 1890s, by 1900 G.E. was posed to lead the country into the electrical age. (2)

It is hard for us to imagine a world without electricity, but up until 1890 Blacksburg was a typical small Southern town, with no electric streetlights or power plant. The college was woefully ill equipped to house its students or offer them an agricultural or mechanical education, and it certainly could not provide much in the way of technological training. According to E. A. Smyth's history of the college when Dr. McBryde took charge, in June 1891, the new administration found on hand to begin with:

   two brick academic buildings; one brick dormitory; the old Preston-Olin
   Building, converted into a poorly equipped shop building; two old wooden
   buildings (one, a small one, used as a shop) ... there were practically no
   shops or laboratories; no waterworks, sewerage, public hall, infirmary,
   laundry or adequate lighting system. (3)

The dilapidated buildings may have disappointed President McBryde, but he did not become discouraged. His background as a professor of agriculture and botany and his recent experience as President of South Carolina College, reorganizing it into the University of South Carolina, prepared him well for the challenges in Virginia. He had a clear vision of what a land grant college could be, and he knew how to accomplish his goals. He wrote up a comprehensive plan for the college and presented it to the Board in the summer of 1891:

   I am convinced that the true development to be given to such schools
   [land-grant schools] should lie in the direction of technology. They should
   be made, as far as our social and economic conditions will allow, more and
   more professional and technical. This field ... is virgin, the demand for
   such training is great, and increasing, the line of work is definite and
   clear cut. (4)

McBryde reorganized the curriculum, made many significant changes to the faculty, and began to develop new sources of much needed revenue. Evidence suggests that he was familiar with other institutions that were, in fact, several schools that had already established electrical engineering programs by this time. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had started training men for careers "in the new electrical industry" in 1882, and educators were beginning to recognize "engineering as a challenging profession." (5) Other colleges started offering electrical engineering, including Cornell University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Missouri and Stanford University. Frederick Terman, a historian writing to Proceedings of the IEEE, notes these early engineering programs were started before careers for electrical engineers had been very well defined:

   Thus, the first electrical engineering programs were created more in
   anticipation of what was expected to develop than to meet an already
   existing need. However, events quickly justified the supporters of these
   programs, and by the 1890s enrollment in them was as great if not greater
   than in the older fields of civil and mechanical engineering. Thus, at MIT
   27% of the entire institute graduates in 1892 were electrical engineers.
   (6)

The VPI catalogues tell the story of Dr. McBryde's commitment to technology, and especially to electrical engineering. The catalogue for 1891-92 includes the following description of equipment, under electrical engineering: