ASME
Founders
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Holley,
Sweet, Worthington, and Thurston, among others |
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"Thirty of the most prominent men in American mechanical industry
attended that first meeting of ASME founders in the New York editorial
offices of American Machinist on 16 February 1880. They chose as chairman
the brilliant consultant to the American Bessemer Steel Association,
Alexander Lyman Holley, and, characteristically, he provided a focus
for the gathering profession and the advantages to be derived from
association."
(A
Centennial History of ASME, by Bruce Sinclair, Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 1980)
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Alexander
Lyman Holley (1832-1882), Henry Rossiter
Worthington (1817-1880), and John
Edson Sweet (1832-1916) are the foremost
organizers among the founders. Samuel S. Webber acted as secretary. Eckley
B. Coxe, General Quincy Gillmore, Jackson Bailey, Professor W.P. Trowbridge,
and M.N. Forney are among the lesser known today who also worked on organizing
committees. Erasmus D. Leavitt and Charles T. Porter are among the better
known. Charles W. Copeland suggested the name of the society.
On April
7 a formal organizational meeting was held at Stevens Institute of Technology,
Hoboken, New Jersey, with about 80 engineers. The first annual meeting
was held in early November 1880. Robert H. Thurston
was the first president. Leavitt served as second president and Sweet
as third.
Who were
the others in attendance on February 16? Stephen W. Baldwin, George A.
Barnard, William Lee Church, George M. Copeland, J.S. Coon, A.B. Couch,
Charles E. Emery, John Fish, Robert Grimshaw, F.F. Hemenway, D.S. Hines,
Wiliam H. Hoffman, H.T.C. Kraus, Lewis F. Lyne, C.C. Newton, W.H. Odell,
T.R. Pickering, Frank C. Smith, Egbert P. Watson, Samuel Webber, and Albert
R. Wolff.
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