Springfield Township.

ous, and no disaster of any kind occurred to interfere with the usefulness of the institution until the fall of 1881, when a great loss was sustained and a temporary derangement of the school effected by a great fire. A few minutes before eleven o'clock on the night of September 25th an explosion occurred in the upper story of the main building, then used as a geological museum, and in a few minutes the roof of that portion of the college was in flames. The authorities were quickly on hand, and, with the aid of the students, efforts were made to confine the fire to the centre building; but the wind from the west soon drove it to the east wing, and then the attention of all was diverted from the building and devoted to the imperiled inmates of the dormitories in that wing. Very quickly all of the rooms were visited and their occupants aroused to their danger. There was no panic and little confusion, and the excellently arranged stairways allowed a speedy exit of the suddenly awakened sleepers. The safety of the students being assured, efforts were made to save as much of the contents of the college as possible. As the fire broke out in the museum, nothing in it was saved. The library, which was also inaccessible because of the intense heat, was also destroyed. In the west wing much of the property of the students was saved, as well as some belonging to the college; but from the east wing, where the fire spread more rapidly, little could be removed. By four o'clock the building and its contents were destroyed. The gymnasium, the meeting-house, and the houses of the president and professors were saved. The neighbors came from miles around and offered their homes as places of shelter to those who were suddenly turned out of their quarters. Among others who performed kindly offices was Theodore Hyatt, of the Military Academy at Chester, who at seven o'clock in the morning served a breakfast to the large college family upon the lawn in front of the smoking ruins.

The managers were summoned by telegraph, and an informal meeting was held in the meeting-house before noon, at which it was resolved to continue the operation of the college with as little interruption as possible. A committee proceeded to Media and made arrangements to secure the Chestnut Grove House. The Gayley House was also secured as a lodging-place for the boys and young men, and in less than two weeks from the time of the fire the classes were assembled at Media, at their regular work. Of the two hundred and eighteen students at the college on the night of the fire, two hundred and fifteen returned and there were a few admissions, making the number larger than before. The loss on the building and contents was not less than one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. It was fully insured.

Preparations for rebuilding were almost immediately begun. The walls of the old building were for the most part in excellent condition, and the work of reconstructing the destroyed portions, the interior and the roof, was pushed rapidly ahead. About two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars was required, and of this sum sixty-five thousand dollars had to be raised by subscription. This was easily accomplished, however, and at the meeting of the managers on Feb. 18, 1883, the Rebuilding Committee transferred the new building to them free from debt.

The new building was an improvement upon the old in appearance, and in many other ways. Architecturally it is quite imposing. It is three hundred and forty-eight feet long. The centre building is four and the wings three stories high. The arrangement is similar to that of the old building, which has been described. In addition there was erected a scientific building, which alone cost twenty-five thousand dollars or thereabouts. Of this it is not out of place to give a more extended notice. It is a two-story building, constructed of granite, trimmed with Leiperville granite, and was planned with particular reference to the scientific department of the college. The basement contains a blacksmith-shop, boiler-room, grinding- and polishing-room, brass foundry, storeroom, laboratory for beginners, a metallurgical laboratory, and electric battery room. The elevator connects the basement with the other floors. The first floor contains in the front part of the central projection a physical laboratory for experimentation, and is furnished, as well as all the other departments in the building, with a full supply of the best instruments and appliances. In the rear of this room are several smaller apartments, - one for quantitative analysis, a private laboratory for the professor of chemistry, and a chemical library. The western wing contains the large general or qualitative laboratory, and the eastern a complete mechanical laboratory and machine-shop, with power obtained by an engine driven by steam, either from the main college boilers or from the shop boiler, at pleasure. The second floor has an excellently constructed drawing-room, a lecture-room supplied with water, gas, electricity, oxygen, and hydrogen, and the attic contains a photographic room, with north skylight and dark-room.

The loss of the library, which contained three thousand six hundred volumes, and of the museum was the most difficult to replace, as the work had, from obvious reasons, to be carried on slowly, but the lapse of only a few years more will witness an improvement in these departments fully in keeping with that which has been made in the institution as a whole since the disaster of 1881. Samuel Willets, of New York, president of the board of managers, and one of the stanchest friends and supporters of the college, one of whose last acts had been the signing of a check for twenty-five thousand dollars to complete the subscription for the sixty-five thousand dollars needed for rebuilding, died in 1883. In his will he bequeathed to the college the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, the interest and income of which he directed should be applied "to educate in part or in whole such poor and