James Gilbert White
All of our alumni and undergradu
ates will, no doubt, be interested in
the following extracts taken from Cas
sier's Magazine for September. They
deal with biographical facts taken from
the life of one of State's most promi
nent and successful graduates. The
whole article, covering five and one
half pages, excluding a full page cut of
Mr. White may be obtained by refer
ing to the magazine mentioned.
-In 1877, when he was 16 years of
age, young White entered The Penn
sylvania State College, taking the
course in arts, and graduating with
the degree of A. B. in 1882. During
the summer vacations of his college
course, he devoted a large part of
his time to such engineering work of
one . kind or another as would give
him a better appreciation of his col
lege work and enable him to more
thoroughly understand and appreciate
the bearing of his scientific studies
upon industrial life. His most ex
tensive summer work was done in
1881, when he spent considerable time
with a party engaged in surveying in
Northern Pennsylvania, and later,
in the civil engineering department
of the Cambria Iron • Company, of
Johnstown, Pa. After receiving the
degree of A. 8., he returned to
The Pennsylvania State College and
concentrated his time upon civil en
gineering. Immediately thereafter he
tested his newly acquired knowledge
by putting in a summer on the
reconnaisance and location surveys
of a steam railroad in Central Penn
sylvania."
~l -le seems constantly to have been
drawn' from the class room into the
field of practical engineering activity,
and back again to the class room.
In 1883, he entered Lehigh Univer
sity with the intention of studying
mining engineering. While there,
and during the winter of 1883.-
1884, he became especially interested
in electrical investigations, and finally
determined upon making electrical
THE STATE COLLEGIAN
engineering his life work. His final
ambition, however, was not at once
open to attainment ; to his mind, his
ground work in both practical and
theoretical engineering had not been
made complete."
"One of the chief essentials of the
finished engineer is that he shall have
an exact conception of the means and
methods employed to perfect the
workmanship of engineering struc
tures. In the case of many engineers
of the present day such experience is
largely derived from college shops
and workrooms, bvt Mr. White
turned rather to the non-academic
field for this experience; accordingly,
he spent the summer of 1884 with the
Cambria Iron Co. in the office of the
master mechanic upon work em
bracing the designing of various
pieces of machinery required in the
manufacture of iron and steel."
"In 1884 Mr., White entered upon
his final work as a student in col
lege. After the summer spent in
Johnstown he entered Cornell Uni
versity, specializing in electrical en
gineering and physics."
"Here he found excellent facilities
for returning to and continuing his
study of electricity and electrical phe
nomena. His work while at Cornell
was highly gratifying and successful ;
in fact, he received a fellowship in
electrical engineering, followed by the
degree of Ph.D., conferred at the
commencement of 1885."
"In a measure, Mr. White may be
judged fortunate in having accepted,
after his graduation from Cornell, the
position of instructor in physics in
the University of Nebraska. It led
him for two years to give his atte4
tion to what was, in a great part, a
careful review of much of the work
he had gone over while in college,
with the added value of the constant
suggestion which comes to the in
structor from his contact with the
inquiring minds of the students. It
is not astonishing, however, in view
of the disposition he had previously
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