Henry Marion Howe
Professor Henry Marion Howe (1848-1922)
1922 Obituary [1]
HENRY MARION HOWE, A.M., LL.D., Sc.D., Emeritus Professor of Metallurgy of Columbia University, and an original member of the Institute of Metals, died on May 14, 1922, after a protracted illness, at the age of seventy-four.
Born in Boston on March 2, 1848, he was the son of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who was among the first to assist the Greeks to freedom and independence. His mother, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, was the author of the famous "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Henry Marion Howe graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1865, from Harvard College in 1869, and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1871, receiving the Harvard A.M. in 1872, the LL.D. of Harvard and Lafayette Colleges in 1905, and also the Sc.D. of the University of Pittsburg.
From 1872 to 1883 he was actively engaged in metallurgical manufacture, chiefly that of iron and steel, and in 1877 was engaged in Chile in connection with copper smelting.
Between 1880 and 1882 he designed and built the works of the Orford Nickel and Copper Company at Capelton and at Eustis, Canada, and from 1883-1897 practised in Boston as a consulting metallurgist and expert in metallurgical patent clauses, as well as being Lecturer in Metallurgy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1890 he introduced into America the manufacture of manganese steel and of the Hadfield projectiles, and took an active part in the management of the company which carried on this industry.
He became Professor of Metallurgy at Columbia University in 1897, and on his retirement to take up work as consulting metallurgist he was appointed Professor Emeritus. In addition to "The Metallurgy of Steel," he was the author of "Copper Smelting," 1885 ; "Metallurgical Laboratory Notes," 1902:— the first text-book written for the metallurgical laboratory, and which was subsequently translated into French ; "Iron, Steel, and Other Alloys," 1903, which has also been translated into the Russian language ; and " The Metallography of Steel and Cast Iron " in 1916. To the eleventh edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica " he contributed a masterly article on iron and steel, and he was the author also of over 150 papers on metallurgical subjects.
At different times Professor Howe was Vice-President of the Taylor-Wharton Iron and Steel Company ; Chairman of the National Research Council ; Consulting Metallurgist of the United States Bureau of Standards, and Research Associate of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He was a Past-President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the Alumni Association of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the American Society for Testing Materials. Professor Howe was an Honorary Vice-President of the Iron and Steel Institute, and an Honorary Member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, the Swedish Academy of Science, the Cleveland (England) Institution of Engineers, the Russian Imperial Technical Society, and of the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale of France. He was a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society and of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Many honours came to him from various countries.
In 1895 he received the Bessemer gold medal of the Iron and Steel Institute, and he also received a special prize and gold medal from the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale, the gold medal of the Verein zur Befiirderung des Gewerbfleisses, Germany—the highest distinction which it could bestow upon a foreigner, the Elliot Cresson gold medal—the highest award of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and finally in 1917 the John Fritz gold medal, which honour was shared by Lord Kelvin in 1905, Sir William White in 1911, and Sir Robert Hadfield in 1921. He was also the recipient of several foreign orders, being a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur of France, and a Knight of the Order of St. Stanislaus of Russia. In the death of Professor Howe the world loses a great metallurgist, whose integrity and honesty of purpose made his scientific, technical, and educational work of special value.