Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

652 APPENDIX M
Samuel W. Stratton at 21,
probably early in his 3d
year at Illinois Industrial
University, about the
time he entered the home
of Dr. Peabody, president
of the university.
Stratton as brevet captain, "Co. C., I.!.U. Battalion, Champagne, Ill., 2/25—84," as he
wrote on the back of the picture. Fourteen years later, his fledgling moustache fully
grown, he was in uniform again, serving under Commodore Remey during the Spanish-
American War.
a stockily built boy of slightly less than average height, with gray-blue eyes and light
brown hair, his serious face concealing a shyness that, except in the company of close
friends, was to last all his life.
With little money from home, he found work in the college machine shops where
he repaired farm machinery at 10 cents an hour. He also, with a wet-plate camera he had
brought from home, took pictures of the buildings and classrooms for sale to students
and visitors, and in the absence of satisfactory textbooks, began blueprinting the notes of
professors at the university, at 2 cents a sheet. The notes, which he copied neatly from
often illegible scrawls and then printed, sold well and enabled him to continue into his
second year. That second year also he secured a room rent free in the chemical labora-
tory building in exchange for serving as fireman and janitor.
Stratton's last 2 years at the university were assured when the president and head
of the department of mechanical engineering, Dr. Delim H. Peabody, offered him room,
board, and a small salary in exchange for tending the farm and grounds of the presi-