18. The GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY,
North Ave. between Williams and Luckie Sts., occupies a 55-acre
campus in a section of Atlanta that is rapidly changing from
residential to commercial. Along North Avenue old-fashioned frame
dwellings, now serving as lodgings, are interspersed with small shops
that cater to student trade. Near the south entrance of the campus the
severely modern brick buildings of a housing project replace a former
slum region, while to the west is the distant smoke of factories and
railroad yards. The entire scene is constantly animated by the life of
the students—in blue and khaki uniforms hurrying to the drill
field, or with levels, rods, and chains busily absorbed in surveying
the campus plots and adjacent streets. Several gayly painted "jalopies"
usually stand at the curbs, bearing on their sides lopsided letters
spelling out words of the school song "I'm a ramblin' wreck from
Georgia Tech,"
Grouped compactly within this area, the 32 buildings are dominated
by the administration building, conspicuous for its tall spire with the
word TECH emblazoned in electric lights on all four faces. The older
halls are plain red-brick structures with little adornment, but the
newer ones, designed by faculty members of the architectural
department, have limestone trim and other decorative details in
Collegiate Gothic style.
This institution, maintained by State appropriations, tuition fees,
and the income from a $574,000 endowment, is the technological school
of the University System of Georgia. Courses leading to bachelors
degrees are offered in aeronautical, ceramic, chemical, civil,
electrical, general, mechanical, public health, and textile engineering
and also in architecture, chemistry, and industrial management. In
addition the college grants masters' degrees in architecture and in
aeronautical, ceramic, chemical, civil, electrical, and textile
engineering. The graduate department, which was organized in 1922, is
still small. During the year 1939-40, the school registered only 41
graduate students but had 3,767 undergraduates, including those in the
evening and summerschools. The faculty numbered 165 professors, 37 graduate assistants, and several student assistants.
The Co-operative Plan, introduced in 1912, permits students to
co-ordinate theory and practical experience. Those who are accepted in
this department spend alternate quarters of five entire years attending
school and working in such industrial firms as construction, railroad,
and electrical companies and with such manufacturing plants as steel,
textile, and paper mills. Degrees are offered in chemical, civil,
electrical, mechanical, and textile engineering, and students are
fitted for positions in designing, production, and sales departments of
industries in these engineering fields.
Extension work is conducted on the campus by the Evening School of
Applied Science. This department, organized in 1908, offers two-year
courses in various technical fields, including automobile engineering,
building construction, heating, ventilating, and radio. Credits are not
applicable toward a degree, but certificates are issued upon completion
of the requirements.
The State Engineering Experiment Station, the engineering research
unit of the university system, is operated on the campus and is
affiliated with the various teaching departments. The purposes of this
agency, which was founded in 1934, are to aid industry by developing
the resources of the State, to integrate agricultural and industrial
activities, and to support scientific research, both fundamental and
applied, in the numerous university institutions. Here the varied
facilities of numerous laboratories and the services of technically
trained men are available in an academic atmosphere. The studies are
financed by the State in co-operation with private enterprises,
government agencies, or technical foundations, and the results are made
public through bulletins and circulars. During the school year 1939-40,
experiments were conducted on such problems as the more efficient
processing of cotton, analysis of the proper types of industry for
Georgia and the Southeast, the development of a new kind of aircraft,
the finding of new uses for pecan oil, improvements of the properties
of rayon, and the processing of domestic flax to suit cotton mill
methods.
Both a military and a naval unit of the Reserve Officers' Training
Corps are maintained at the Georgia School of Technology. The army
unit, established here in 1920, is the successor of the Citizens
Military Training Corps, which was organized as a war measure in 1917.
The War Department provides a staff of officers and equipment for
instruction in four divisions—infantry, artillery, signal corps,
and ordnance; these courses in military science and tactics are more
extensive than those offered at any other school in the State. Georgia
Tech was among the six colleges selected by the Navy Department in 1926
for the establishment of Naval R.O.T.C. units to train students in
navigation, seamanship, naval ordnance and gunnery, and naval
engineering. Enrollment in the naval unit is limited, and graduates may
receive appointments as Ensign in the Supply Corps of the U.S. Navy or
as Second Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps.
In addition to the physical equipment of the laboratories and shops,
five engineering departments have reading rooms where books and
magazines of special technical significance are kept. Writings of a
more general nature are housed in the main library. In all, the college
possesses 45,000 bound volumes, 5,000 unbound pamphlets, and many
periodicals.
An informal collegiate atmosphere prevails in the writing and editing of four publications: the Technique, a weekly newspaper; the Yellow Jacket, a monthly humorous magazine; the Georgia Tech Engineer, a serious magazine published four times during the school year; and the Blue Print, the
college annual. A more professional attitude, however, predominates at
the meetings of such local and Nation-wide technical organizations as
the Architectural Society, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Ceramic
Society. The college chapters of these associations meet frequently to
hear prominent lecturers, to see motion pictures on technical subjects,
to make inspection tours of industrial plants, to plan displays, or to
entertain practicing engineers.
Sports, under the supervision of the Georgia Tech Athletic
Association, occupy a prominent place in student life. Since intramural
and intercollegiate contests are scheduled in many sports, including
tennis, swimming, fencing, golf, track, rifle shooting, baseball,
basketball, and football, more than 50 per cent of the Tech men
participate in some form of exercise. The sport best known outside the
college halls is football. Tech's football team, the Yellow Jackets,
has steadily increased its popularity since its organization in 1893 by
Leonard Wood, student and coach, and has distinguished itself in games
throughout the United States. After the successful 1928 season, the
Tech team defeated the University of California in the Rose Bowl game
at Pasadena on New Year's day. The 1939 season culminated in an
invitation to play in the Orange Bowl at Miami, where Tech defeated the
University of Missouri in the New Year's Day game.
Georgia Tech was founded in that period when the general cry for
industrialization was finding a response in the establishment of
engineering schools in all parts of the Nation. A need for such a
school in Georgia, first voiced by W.T. Hanson, editor of the Macon Telegraph and Messenger, was also ardently advocated by Henry W. Grady in the Atlanta Constitution. As
a result, N.E. Harris of Macon, later governor of Georgia, introduced
before the legislature a resolution to consider the establishment of a
technical school in Georgia. This resolution was passed on November 24,
1882, and Governor Alexander H. Stephens immediately appointed a
commission of ten men to visit and study the leading engineering
schools of the United States. On the recommendation of the committee
the general assembly in 1885 appropriated $65,000 for the establishment
of the Georgia School of Technology.
One of five competing cities, Atlanta made the high bid of $130,000
in
land and money for the site of the new school. Professor M.P. Higgins,
of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, was engaged to supervise the
organization, and in 1887 construction of the first buildings was begun
on a five-acre tract purchased from the Peters Land Company. Later
Richard Peters donated an additional tract of four acres. Dr. Isaac
Stiles Hopkins, who had instituted the first technological course in
the South at Emory College in 1884, was chosen the first president.
School was opened on October 3, 1888, with 84students, and four days
later formal installation services were held at DeGive's Opera House on
Marietta Street.
Growth was steady from the beginning. After the first eight years,
during which the only degree offered was that of mechanical
engineering, other courses were added to the curriculum with the aid of
State appropriations, private endowments, and gifts from scientific
foundations. When textile engineering was introduced in 1899 and
ceramic engineering in 1924, these were the first such courses in the
South. A period of rapid expansion followed the Greater Tech Campaign
of 1920, when funds were raised for buildings and equipment. The
buildings program was accelerated during the 1930's by funds from the
various Federal public works agencies.
In 1931 the general assembly passed a law requiring the
reorganization of the State institutions of higher learning and the
creation of the University System of Georgia. During that year the
school lost its individual board of trustees and a few courses in
business and commerce that were duplicated at the State University.
Since January 1, 1932, when the measure became effective, the control
of the Georgia School of Technology, like that of all the State
colleges, has been vested in a central board of regents, appointed by
the governor.
The Guggenheim School of Aeronautics Building, corner North Ave. and
Cherry St., is constructed of red brick with concrete trim, its facade
ornamented with figures of Pegasus, the winged mythological horse, and
of the American eagle. In the building are an exhibit room and a
drafting room for the designing of model aircraft, a machine and
woodworking shop for construction, and laboratories, including two wind
tunnels, for testing. The course in aeronautical engineering, the only
one in the South, is open only to students who have received a degree
in civil, electrical, general, or mechanical engineering. It was added
to the curriculum in 1930 with the aid of a grant of $300,000 from the
Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. The founding
was the result of a previous survey made by Emory Land, a United States
naval aeronautics authority, who was the vice president of the
foundation. Because of its high scholastic standards, Georgia Tech was
chosen from 27 Southern colleges and universities for the location of
the school.
Brittain Hall, on Techwood Drive between North Ave. and Third St.,
was completed in 1928 and dedicated to Marion Luther Brittain, who has
been president of the Georgia School of Technology since 1922. With its
square central tower and loggia with pointed arches, this structure
shows a more marked Gothic influence than the other buildings on the
campus. It is set well back on a deep lawn and is flanked by
dormitories placed almost flush with the sidewalk. The interior of the
dining hall with its high gabled ceiling reflects the architectural
style of the exterior. A large four-pointed stained-glass window of
Tudor design in the right wing contains 14 panels, symbolizing
the various activities of the school. The design, chosen from plans
submitted by the graduating class of 1928, was made by Julian Harris,
who has since achieved distinction as a sculptor and become a faculty
member of the department of architecture. The panels were executed by
the J. and R. Lamb Studios of New York.
Grant Field, corner North Ave. and Techwood Drive, is the major
athletic arena of the Georgia Tech campus. Here in the fall, the Yellow
Jackets meet the teams of rival colleges and universities to the
accompaniment of frenzied cheering and the music of bands. The games
played here every alternate year with the "Bull Dogs" of the University
of Georgia are of unusual local interest because of the intense
traditional rivalry between these two leading schools of the university
system. Here, also, the churches hold Easter sunrise services and the
city schools present pageants. Charles Lindbergh spoke here October 11,
1928; Winston Churchill on February 23, 1932; and Franklin Roosevelt on
November 291 1935. The field, 800 feet long and 400 feet wide, is named
in honor of Hugh Inman Grant, the son of John W. Grant, who made
possible the purchase of the tract. The U-shaped stadium, completed in
1925 at a cost of about $350,000, seats more than 30,000 spectators.
The Naval Armory (open daily 9-4 during school term), SW.
corner Techwood Drive and Third St., is headquarters for the R.O.T.C.
Naval Unit, the Atlanta Naval Reserve Unit, and the Georgia Tech
Athletic Association, The two-story main hall, which is 196 feet long
and 60 feet wide, is equipped with a complete ship's bridge for
instruction in steering and compass computation and with various
instruments for training in seamanship and naval warfare. In the
entrance hall hangs a print in low relief of the frigate Constitution, which was framed in the woodworking shop with timber from the original boat.
This structure, completed in 1934, is a severely plain rectangular
building of two stories, stuccoed to blend with the adjacent stadium. A
four-foot bronze eagle in a niche above the entrance once formed a part
of the massive figurehead on the bow of the U.S.S. Georgia, a
battleship built in 1906 and scrapped as a result of the 1921
Washington Disarmament Conference. The grilled doors were designed by
Julian Harris and made from the heavy bronze scrollwork originally
attached to the eagle. On the lawn, across the driveway to the right of
the building, hangs a bell, also from the battleship Georgia, Two
four-inch cannon that stood for several years on the lawn were removed
in 1941, to be used in arming United States merchant ships.
The Auditorium-Gymnasium, facing Third St. between Techwood Drive
and Fowler St., is constructed of reinforced concrete to harmonize with
both stadium and armory. The sharp modern lines of the facade are
relieved only by ornamental concrete grilles above the double doors,
which open onto a terrace a few steps above the street level. The
auditorium is used for commencement exercises and the student lecture
series, which is open to the general public. When the removable seats
are stored beneath the permanent spectators galleries along each side,
a gymnasium floor is provided for contests in basketball, fencing, and
badminton. A wing on the south side contains a large tile swimming pool
and also a spectators gallery.
Laboratory work in process in many of the departments is of interest
to the technically trained. In the Ceramics Building are exhibited the
various clays native to Georgia and wares that have been made from them.
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