Frank W. Hatten studied electrical engineering at the University of Illinois and was a childhood friend of Ralph Allen, Jr. On this tape, he is interviewed by Allen at his home in Delavan, IL. He discusses working his way through college, his apprenticeship with the Westinghouse Company, his work on the Panama Canal, and escorting President Taft through part of the canal. Other notable figures he mentions are Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Robert Byrd, William Jennings Bryan, and Roald Amundsen. The tape concludes with a recording of Hatten's funeral service in Delavan.
Austin Dyson (1915-2013) was a member of the Class of 1937. He studied Electrical Engineering, and he was a member of ROTC. Austin said his family had a hard time during the Great Depression. In fact, Austin worked as a golf caddy throughout college to pay for his education.
Joseph T. Tykociner was a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois from 1921 to 1949 and a professor emeritus from 1949 to 1969. In this interview, conducted on March 9, 1967, Tykociner discusses his early interest in sound recording and sound in moving pictures, experience as a student/research engineer/faculty at the University, research and experiments with sound recording, career as a research engineer for Marconi/German companies on radio telegraphy/radio communications at Russian companies/Army, his return to the US in 1920, his later demonstration of sound in film, and commercials and films using his sound system.
William Schaller completed his undergraduate (1910) and masters degrees (1912) in the electrical engineering department of the University of Illinois. He discusses electrical engineering at Illinois, various faculty, his engineering career as an army officer in World War I, and his graduate work.
