History of manufacturing at michigan

Mortimer Cooley: The Birth of University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing

In 1881, Naval officer Mortimer Cooley, an 1878 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was one of naval officers appointed by Congress to UM to establish an ME program. In the beginning, UM ME’s original curriculum consisted of Workshop Appliances and Processes; Pattern Making, Moulding and Founding; Mechanical Laboratory Work (Shop Practice in Forging); Machinery and Prime Movers (Water Wheels and Steam Engines); Machine Design; Thermodynamics; Original Design; Estimates, Specifications, and Contracts; and Naval Architecture.

The first mechanical laboratory was built under Cooley’s appointment in 1882. “It was a two-story structure of frame construction with bricks placed edgewise between the studding. The ground floor was divided into two rooms, the foundry on the east end and the forge shop, brass furnace, and engine room on the west. The foundry also included two flasks, other necessary foundry tools, and molding sand. It is important to note that the shop contained the first steam equipment in the ME Laboratory, a forge, anvil, tools, a brass furnace, and a four-horsepower vertical firebox and steam engine. The second floor was also divided into two rooms, one of which was occupied by the pattern shop and the other by the machine shop. The equipment in these rooms consisted of a wood-turning lathe built by Cooley and members of his class, and an iron lathe, salvaged from the basement of University Hall and repaired by the students.” (An Encyclopedic Survey, pp. 1259-60).

In his first report to the Regents Cooley described the original course taught in the new laboratory, “Six students were permitted to take the first laboratory course held in the building. They were engaged for a large share of the time in overhauling and erecting machinery in the shop. The remainder of the time was devoted to grinding and putting in order the cutting tools, in performing some of the simpler operations at the workbench, in preparing work for the iron lathe, in wood-turning, forging, brazing, and soldering, and in running the engine.” (An Encyclopedic Survey, p. 1259).

Cooley’s first class was referenced in his autobiography, The Scientific Blacksmith, published in 1947. “How well I remember my first class in this little shop. Six engineers were taking the course. The first lesson was at the forge. I taught them how to build a fire. Then I wanted a piece of iron to heat. At the back door there was a wagon-load of scrap of different kinds of metal, and I sent the members of the class to bring me back a piece of wrought iron. Much to my surprise not one of the six could identify wrought iron, cast iron, steel, or anything else in the pile. I asked the differences between the various kinds of metal, and every last one of them knew the chemical differences and the process of manufacture, but not one of them could identify one piece of metal from another. That incident thoroughly convinced me of the need from practical work to acquaint engineers with the characteristics of the materials they would be using after graduation” (p.106).

Orlan W. Boston: the first Production Engineering Department in the US and a Pioneer of Manufacturing Science

In 1921, Orlan W. Boston joined the faculty. He established the first Production Engineering Department in the US at the University of Michigan. He supervised the design of a new engineering building on the main U-M campus in Ann Arbor called East Engineering (today this is called East Hall and the home for psychology and mathematics). The design followed a top-to-bottom product flow, with design of tools and patterns on the top floor, casting and primary processing processes, followed by finishing and metrology on the ground level in the "shops". The Production Engineering Department later merged into the Mechanical Engineering Department. O.W. Boston is also remembered for his landmark book Metal Processing (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1941) used as the textbook for educating engineering on the mechanics and machines for processing metals for many years.

Under Boston’s leadership, the emphasis in the plan of instruction moved from that of manual training to the teaching of principles related to modern industrial practice. Under the leadership of Boston, the Department played a major role in establishing the scientific basis for manufacturing processes, such as machining operations (e.g., turning, milling, drilling). In addition to curriculum development, Boston also initiated research projects including pioneering investigations on the fundamental principles involved in the machinability of metals. By 1935-1936 enrollment in Metal Processing courses was so large that crowded sections were taught every half-day during the week.