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From its beginning, the EE Department continued to grow steadily. By
1904, as soon as half of the present West Engineering Building was completed,
the Department moved out of the Physics Laboratory and into the south end of
the new building's basement. To us, "new" sounds inappropriate
for "West Engin," but both new and modern it must have been back in
1904. The next year Patterson was appointed the first Professor of
Electrical Engineering -- and is thus the only man in history to have been
made Chairman first and Professor second. Patterson's Christian name,
"George Washington," sound peculiarly appropriate for the
Department's first Chairman, Bailey's comments on Patterson are interesting:
He was undoubtedly the best loved of our
teachers and is still thought of by his old students as "Pat."
He was by no means a "practical" engineer but he was a thorough
mathematician and had a wide grasp of electrical theory. As a teacher he
was very poor except for the better students as he never could realize that
students were not as brilliant as he was. If he ever "flunked"
any one I never heard of it. He never wrote or carried on much research
but was nevertheless one of the strong men of the faculty. For those who
could "take it," he was a real inspiration.
The number of courses offered during the
decade 1905-15 increased from 16 to 32 and the staff grew from four to eight
members, with two assistants. Part of this growth came from the
introduction of required courses in electric communication work, which was at
first under the direction of Lyman Foote Morehouse. Morehouse's success
in this field led to his resignation in 1910 to join the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company.
Others who joined the EE Department at
an early date are Henry Harold Higbie (1905) and Alfred Henry Lovell
(1910). Higbie transferred from Mechanical to Electrical Engineering,
and is remembered for his work in illumination. Thanks largely to his
efforts, Michigan became one of the leading US universities for study in
illumination. Lovell had interests and experience in power-plant work,
and was responsible for a group of courses relating to power-plant design and
transmission (with special emphasis upon economic aspects of power generation
and utilization). In 1920 Lovell became Assistant Dean of the
Engineering College, and in 1945 became Chairman of the EE Department.
When the north end of the West
Engineering Building was completed in 1909, the Department's dynamo
laboratories were moved into it. The communications laboratories were
left in the south end, and a little later the illumination laboratories were
moved to the attic. Thus the Department, like ancient Gaul, was divided
into three parts. Geographical division has characterized the Department
to this day; its research and instructional facilities are now located in many
widely separated places.
In 1915, Professor Patterson left the EE
Department to become Chairman of the Department of Engineering
Mechanics. John Castlereagh Parker took his place as EE Chairman.
Parker had a background of extensive power system experience and a decided
inclination toward scholarly pursuits. He remained with the University
until 1922, during a period of rapid expansion; and under his chairmanship,
radical changes took place in the Department's curriculum and general
philosophy. To the staff, it was quite evident that electrical
engineering was "growing up."
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