Michael Hinton
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, which opened in 1888, was originally designed after the Worcester Free Institute of Industrial Sciences. The school came from the demand for engineers in the south as it rebuilt after the war. Atlanta was chosen for the school’s location because of the growing economic and industrial success of the city. The city also offered $100,000 to help start the school. The Georgia School of Technology emerged from a struggle in the engineering world between two philosophies on how engineering should be taught. The shop approach focuses on hands on experience in the work room as its name implies. The other method takes a more scholarly approach through lab and classroom work. Georgia Tech was originally designed to follow the shop model so that goods produced by students in the work room could be sold to help support the school. Georgia Tech initially offered only technical classes as not to compete with the liberal education offered at the University of Georgia in Athens. Local businesses in Atlanta disliked the competition for selling goods that Georgia Tech’s shop brought. Growing trends away from the shop culture in America also affected Georgia Tech. In 1892, a fire destroyed Georgia Tech’s shop, and though it was rebuilt, the school shifted towards a more scholarly approach in teaching engineering.
Brittain, James E.; McMath, Robert C. Jr. “Engineers and the New South Creed: The Formation and Early Development of Georgia Tech,” _Technology and Culture_Vol. 18 (April, 1977): pp175-201
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, which opened in 1888, was originally designed after the Worcester Free Institute of Industrial Sciences. The school came from the demand for engineers in the south as it rebuilt after the war. Atlanta was chosen for the school’s location because of the growing economic and industrial success of the city. The city also offered $100,000 to help start the school. The Georgia School of Technology emerged from a struggle in the engineering world between two philosophies on how engineering should be taught. The shop approach focuses on hands on experience in the work room as its name implies. The other method takes a more scholarly approach through lab and classroom work. Georgia Tech was originally designed to follow the shop model so that goods produced by students in the work room could be sold to help support the school. Georgia Tech initially offered only technical classes as not to compete with the liberal education offered at the University of Georgia in Athens. Local businesses in Atlanta disliked the competition for selling goods that Georgia Tech’s shop brought. Growing trends away from the shop culture in America also affected Georgia Tech. In 1892, a fire destroyed Georgia Tech’s shop, and though it was rebuilt, the school shifted towards a more scholarly approach in teaching engineering.
Brittain, James E.; McMath, Robert C. Jr. “Engineers and the New South Creed: The Formation and Early Development of Georgia Tech,” _Technology and Culture_Vol. 18 (April, 1977): pp175-201