engineering

William Gurley

William Gurley is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William Gurley rather than just read about it. In short: William Gurley (March 16, 1821 – January 11, 1887) co-founded what is now known as Gurley Precision Instruments with his brother, and served as vice president and, from 1886 to 1887, acting president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Gurley was born in Troy, New York, March 16, 1821, the son of Ephraim and Clarissa (Sharp) Gurley.

Key takeaways

William Gurley belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect William Gurley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of William Gurley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William Gurley (March 16, 1821 – January 11, 1887) co-founded what is now known as Gurley Precision Instruments with his brother, and served as vice president and, from 1886 to 1887, acting president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Gurley was born in Troy, New York, March 16, 1821, the son of Ephraim and Clarissa (Sharp) Gurley. He received the best education afforded by the schools in this vicinity, and choosing the profession of a civil engineer, attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1839. He worked as a surveyor for a few years and then joined the firm of Oscar Hanks, who was a well-known maker of surveying instruments and church bells in Troy. He worked for Hanks for five years. In 1845, Gurley established his own scientific instrument manufacturing business in partnership with James Phelps. Phelps had had his own shop since 1838. They called the business Phelps & Gurley. In 1844, William Gurley's brother Lewis Ephraim Gurley joined Phelps' shop as an apprentice and he then attended Union College from 1847 to 1851. Lewis Gurley rejoined the firm in 1851, at which point it was renamed Phelps and Gurleys. In 1852, Phelps sold out his interest and the business was renamed W.& L.E. Gurley. The firm still exists today as Gurley Precision Instruments. William Gurley was involved in several local organizations. For many years he was connected with the YMCA, and in 1851 was elected its president. He served as alderman from 1860 to 1864, and as fire commissioner he helped to improve fire prevention systems in major cities. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Rensselaer Co., 1st D.) in 1867. In 1868, he was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to serve on a commission with Prof. Joseph Henry and other scientific experts to examine the best meter devised for determining the products of distillation, to be subsequently adopted by the department. Gurley was a long-time trustee of Rensselaer, having been elected to that position in 1855. He was secretary of the institution from 1861 to 1872, vice-president from 1872 to 1887 and acting president from 1886 to 1887. He died on January 11, 1887, in Troy. The W. & L. E. Gurley Building in Troy was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983.

External links Benjamin Franklin Greene, Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1824-1886. D.H. Jones & Co.: Troy, NY (1855).[1] Presidents of RPI: William Gurley Virtual Museum of Surveying: W. & L. E. Gurley

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Gurley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Gurley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William Gurley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William Gurley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William Gurley

In research: William Gurley appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William Gurley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William Gurley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1821 births, 1887 deaths, 19th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Gurley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study William Gurley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William Gurley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain William Gurley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William Gurley in simple terms?

Why does William Gurley matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William Gurley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William Gurley.