Vision of John Fritz

http://library.lehigh.edu/omeka/files/original/a5564fa6e1e215c5a5d9c15e88aea746.jpg

Fritz Laboratory faculty and staff, ca. 1986.

John Fritz (1822-1913), an engineering visionary, following the tradition established by Asa Packer, shared his fortune and ideas about practical education for engineers when he personally built and equipped the first engineering material testing lab on an American campus 1909 to 1910.

In 1909 at age 87, John Fritz personally funded and supervised the design and construction of the $150,000 original section of Fritz Engineering Laboratory. In June 1910 he turned his Lab over to Lehigh. The Lab was built of modern steel framed construction, 115' in length, 94' wide, with its main section 65' high. It was designed to serve as an instruction lab for students, but Fritz saw the need for a first-class research laboratory. He funded and selected the Lab's equipment, ordering the largest testing machine of its age, the Riehle Universal Testing Machine (800,000 lb) to be installed in his lab. Fritz's foresight made possible a large number of unique studies. On this machine was tested for the McClintic-Marshall Company, the steel plates of the Panama Canal's Gatun Locks and for Bethlehem Steel Company the unique cable anchorages for the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge (display photo). John Fritz's laboratory was declared in 1991 an ASCE National Civil Engineering Landmark. The Fritz Laboratory centennial occurs in 2009-2010.

The Lab's seven-story addition, 130' by 98', built adjacent to the original Lab, stands as a monument to the generosity and foresight of alumni and industry especially the late Bethlehem Steel. Dedicated in 1955 under the leadership of William J. Eney (MS '38), the new Fritz Lab accommodates the University's Baldwin five million pound testing machine. On this machine was tested Telstar, the United States' first telecommunications satellite.