7 févr. 1732 - 128 bituminous MIT150

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Rogers collapsed and died while addressing ’s graduating class at the commence-ment exercises of 1882. Runkle quoted Rogers’s last words in a memorial address de-livered that same year:“As I stand here today and see what the Institute is,. . .I call to mindthe beginnings of science. I remember one hundred and fiy years agoStephen Hales published a pamphlet on the subject of illuminating gas,in which he stated that his researches had demonstrated that 128 grainsof bituminous coal – ” “Bituminous coal,” these were his last words onearth. Here he bent forward, as if consulting some notes on the tablebefore him, then slowly regaining an erect position, threw up his hands,and was translated from the scene of his earthly labors and triumphsto “the tomorrow of death,” where the mysteries of life are solved, andthe disembodied spirit finds unending satisfaction in contemplating thenew and still unfathomable mysteries of the infinite future.In the words of Francis A. Walker (’s third president):All his life he had borne himself most faithfully and heroically, and hedied as so good a knight would surely have wished, in harness, at hispost, and in the very part and act of public duty.175