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International Activities in Land and Water Resources |
Agricultural Engineering at the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota celebrates its 150th year in 2001. Established as a preparatory school in 1851 with one instructor and twenty students, the University has grown to a world-class institution with four campuses and over 50,000 students. To mark the sesquicentennial, we have assembled some facts about our history. 1. The first course related to Agricultural Engineering at the University was a class in "manual training" that was offered through the Agriculture School.
2. Student William Boss was head carpenter in charge of repair work at the University Farm when Charles Aldrich hired him as a student assistant in the manual training course. 3. The first course entitled "Agricultural Engineering" was introduced into the Agriculture School curriculum in 1895-96. 4. William Boss was appointed a professor of Farm Structures and Farm Mechanics in 1905.
5. The School of Traction Engineering (a four week short course) was organized in 1906. 6. The interest in farmland drainage in the early 1900s was responsible for the inclusion of agricultural physics, which included instruction on drainage, in the curriculum. 7. On July 1, 1909, the Division of Agricultural Engineering was created out of several different curriculums in the University Department of Agriculture (later to become a College). 8. In 1909, William Boss made a request for funds to house the division, which was scattered all over campus. The state legislature appropriated $100,000 to fund the project and the building was completed in 1913 after an addition appropriation of $160,000. 9. In 1909-1910, agricultural engineering became a part of the Agricultural Experiment Station. 10. The Tile Testing project began in 1912 in response to concerns about a large number of tile failures in southern Minnesota. 11. The Tile Testing lab was funding by the state legislature in 1921. 12. Farm motors were added to the curriculum in 1913.
13. Division staff were involved in tile drainage installation at the state experiment stations in the early 1900s. 14. Professor Harry Roe oversaw the design and construction of the intercampus trolley in 1913. 15. During World War I, the division trained enlisted men in blacksmithing, electrical work, carpentry, and general shop work. 16. William Boss became division head in 1919, a post that he held until his retirement in 1938. 17. After World War I, when land clearing became an important activity, the division was involved in the deployment of a train that traveled around the state demonstrating use of explosives. 18. The "Red Wing Project" in the 1920s investigated the utilization of electricity in agriculture. 19. A four-year curriculum in agricultural engineering first appeard in the 1925-1926 Engineering College catalog. 20. The graduate school recognized agricultural engineering in 1929. 21. The first regular graduate student, William Nivison, received his master's degree in 1934. 22. The Mechanized Agriculture program began in the late 1930s when a curriculum review recommended that agricultural students be separated from engineering students. 23. The first Agricultural Engineering Extension Specialist, William Ives, was appointed in 1939.
24. During World War II, a considerable amount of space in the building was given over to offices for special naval training staff and for classrooms and labs for training. 25. After the war, the department obtained a selection of the naval training tools, which are still used in the shop today. 26. In 1947, the PhD degree was authorized for agricultural engineering. 27. The department obtained 35 acres at the Rosemount Experiment Station in 1947. 28. The building housed the mechanical telephone switchboard for the campus until 1949, when an automatic dial system was installed. 29. From 1946 to 1965, the Institute of Technology curriculum requirements changed from four years to five years. 30. The Department of Rhetoric shared the building from 1956 until the early 1970s. 1909-1919 John Stewart 1919-1938 William Boss 1938-1939 Harry Roe
(interim) 1939-1964 A. J.
Schwantes 1964-1972 Landis Boyd 1972-1983 Arnold
Flikke 1983-1987 Fred
Bergsrud 1987-1991 George
Foster 1991-1992 Fred Bergsrud
(interim) 1992- Vance Morey 31. The first PhD was awarded in 1959. 32. Development of the agricultural engineering farmstead at Rosemount began in 1960 with the assignment of an additional 160 acres to the department. 33. In 1965, extension personnel were integrated into the department under the direction of the head. 34. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, research expanded into areas such as food processing and agricultural waste management. 35. In the 1970s, the Mechanized Agriculture program was revised to include more mathematics and renamed Agricultural Engineering Technology. The program was dropped in 1985. 36. During the 1990s, the curriculum was adjusted to include more biology. 37. Soil and water research moved from irrigation to water quality in the late 1980s and 1990s. Today there is renewed interest in agricultural drainage.
38. In 1993-1994, the south part of the laboratory building was reassigned to the Fisheries Department, and the rest of the building and parts of the main building were updated to provide facilities for new lines of research. 39. In 1995, the department changed its name to Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. 40. A pilot plant equipped with steam, ventilation, and other utilities was constructed in the northwest corner of the laboratory building in 2000. This facility will enhance research on value-added processing of agricultural and biological products, and utilization of waste materials.
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