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

   Sprague Electric Company--Jersey City; Keystone Bridge Company--Pittsburgh;
   Trigg Shipbuilding Company--Richmond; Newport News Shipping and Dry Dock
   Company--Newport News; Virginia Southwestern Railroad--Elizabethton,
   Tennessee; Electric Light and Power Company--Richmond; Richmond Locomotive
   Works--Richmond; Electric Works--Mystic, Connecticut; Trevor Binford
   Electric Company--Richmond; Atlantic Coast Line--Rocky Mount, North
   Carolina; Rich Patch Ore & Mining Company--Low Moor, Virginia; United Gas
   Improvement Company--Jersey City; and Virginia-Carolina Improvement
   Company--Richmond. (18)

Ten alumni were listed as instructors at VPI, and seventeen were teaching at other institutions: in high schools, trade schools and in colleges and universities. (19) Dr. McBryde's prediction was becoming a reality, and VPI students were indeed finding jobs that required a familiarity with the new emerging technologies. In his opening speech to the Board of Visitors, McBryde spoke of the need for and costs of providing technical education, saying:

   The men and materials demanded, in accordance with the terms of the acts of
   endowment ... are sufficient to send out, well equipped for their life
   work, not only agriculturalists and mechanics, but analytical chemists, and
   civil, mechanical and mining engineers as well. A small additional outlay
   would enable them to train architects, biologists, mineralologists,
   geologists, electrical engineers, horticulturalists, vita-culturists, etc.
   It must be remembered, however, that these men are to be trained not only
   as specialists, but as citizens ... It is not only possible ... but proper
   for these schools to educate men for manufacturing and commercial purposes.
   (20)

VPI was catching up, by the turn of the century, with many of her peers in other states. Companies hiring electrical engineers were not looking for candidates with Ph.D.s or even masters degrees. It was sufficient for most of these new engineers to have a general knowledge of the industry and the new technology, and the majority found "continuing education" on the job. Many schools could offer only a broad introduction, but it did not matter since other schools were in the same situation:

   The electrical content of the early electrical engineering curricula was
   minimal. Engineering knowledge about electrical phenomena was limited,
   there were few if any textbooks, and laboratory facilities were meager ...
   Cornell lab was "little more than the electrical section of the physics
   laboratory of that day." The "little more" was one direct current generator
   built by Prof. Wm Anthony in 1874 ... At MIT the laboratory situation was
   only slightly better until the completion of the 40,000 square foot
   Augustus Lowell Laboratory of Electrical Engineering in 1902 financed by a
   memorial gift of $50,000. (21)

Much has been written about the history of the General Electric Company and its phenomenal growth and success. There are many ways to explain the success, but it is good to remember that the founding fathers had no guarantee of success during the early years of the company's history. According to Bernard Colson: