Research Shop History

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Research Shop History

History of Excellence

The Research Shop is the largest open area of space in Weaver Labs. It was wisely built this way to accommodate large-scale machinery and equipment being built for agriculture as well as to support the machinery and supplies needed to create the agricultural projects.

The first BAE shop area was located In Mangum Hall (now David Clark Labs) and built in 1947. Due to the explosion of agricultural mechanization after World War II, this facility was quickly outgrown. The Weaver Labs facility was quickly built and occupied by the shop in 1957. Figure 18 shows a corner view at that time. Three typical projects are identified in the caption along with three of the mechanics. R.B. Greene, Head of the Shop, is the man at the lathe. At the time Green was responsible for moving the shop into its more spacious quarters in the first phase of Weaver construction.

Greene was an essential figure in the development of the shops great reputation. Greene had a purpose, “to develop the best equipped and managed shop for agricultural mechanization in the nation.” With a budget under his control, he did exactly that. He retired in 1973 holding the position of Instrument Shop Supervisor and had five full-time mechanics under his supervision.

Greene was replaced by R.G. Gaines who earned a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering Science in 1966 in the department. Following graduation he had worked with E.G. Humphries on cucumber and sweet potato harvesting and H.D. Bowen on electrostatic dusting and plant-growth studies.

Figure 19 shows the shop in 1977; the photo was taken from about the same position as shown in Figure 18. All the shop staff appear in the foreground flanked by Gaines on the left and Greene on the right. The shop staff are identified by name in the caption. In the rear background is an experimental cucumber harvester built by the shop. Humphries, project leader, is standing beside the machine and technician H.D Burns is in the seat.

In 2000 Gaines retired and Charles Sherwood supervised the shop until his retirement in late 2006. In early 2007, David Buffaloe accepted the Supervisors position after serving as the lead Instrument Maker for a number of years. Buffaloe proudly accepted the position noting, that Research Shop products are in use throughout the entire state of North Carolina and that currently the BAE Research Shop is the largest and most diverse machine shop available on NC State campus. Buffaloe would like to see the excellent work of the shop continue and expand to offer its services to the entire university community.