drawing for constructions in wood, stone, and iron, special designs, working drawings for modeling, platting, drawing of profiles and cross sections, and drawings for theses. 4. Course in mechanical engineering. The instruction in the course in mechanical engineering is given by the professor in charge of the department, aided by four instructors and assistant instructors, as follows: Henry W. Spangler, Whitney professor of dynamical engineering; A. W. Schramm, B. S., M. E., and L. E. Picolet, instructors in mechanical engineering; H. W. Huffinton (U. S. N. A.), instructor in electrical engineering; David R. Griffith, assistant instructor in mechanical engineering; J. J. Morris, assistant instructor in mechanical engineering. This department has recently been provided with mechanical and electrical laboratories and shops, and with recitation and drawing rooms, all well equipped with the necessary machinery, apparatus, and tools required for illustrating and investigating the principles of mechanical and electrical engineering, with reference to their practical applications. These are located in a large building constructed for the purpose in connection with the Central Head and Light Station, from which all the buildings of the University, over a space of forty acres, are supplied with steam heat, forced ventilation, and electricity for power and light. A very large and practical working plant, containing various types of boilers, engines, and electrical machinery is thus made additionally useful in illustration of the teaching of the department. The instruction for students in mechanical engineering is eminently practical, and is given by recitations, lectures, and exercises in the laboratory. The recitations are principally from text-books, which thus form the basis for the work to be done in each subject. Whenever these are not available the instruction takes the form of lectures, with use of the books of reference in the Rogers Engineering Library and in the private collections of the professors. To render the work of the student regular from day to day, and to assure self-reliance in study and certainty that the principles of the subjects are thoroughly understood, whenever possible, practical problems are given to the class for solution. The subject of applied mechanics is divided into a number of parts for facility of instruction, and is taught under the following heads: Graphical statics, under which is taught the general theory of the graphical method of determining the strain in framed structures, and its practical application to numerous examples. Statics, as applied to rigid bodies, the strength and elasticity of materials, and forms of uniform strength. As an accurate knowledge of this branch of the subject is indispensable to a well-equipped engineer, the class-room instruction is made as exhaustive as possible, and each student is required to carry out, on the testing machine in the laboratory, a series of experiments in tension, compression, and crossbreaking. The work in this branch is continued until the instructor is satisfied that the subject is thoroughly understood. Hydrostatics and hydraulics, embracing the equilibrium and pressure of fluids, determination of specific gravity, velocity, and flow in pipes, channels and jets, continuity of flow, etc. Kinematics, under which head is taught the principles underlying elementary combination of mechanism, theory of the teeth of wheels, and the practical methods of laying them down, cams, belts, pulleys, speed cones, and link work, epicyclic trains, and other aggregate combinations of mechanism. Hydrodynamics, covering dynamic head, contracted veins, surfaces of equal pressure and head, laws of fluid friction, hydraulic mean depth, resistance of mouthpiece, pressure of jets and water meters. The theory and practice of building water wheels and turbines are also given. As a sound knowledge of steam engineering is one of the most important parts of a mechanical engineering training, a large proportion of the time is devoted to this subject. The work is divided into several branches, and extends over the last years of the course. Nomenclature.-An elementary course in the general nomenclature of the steam engine and boiler and their attachments is given in the junior year. The ordinary forms of engines and boilers are described, and the general details of cylinders, valves, pistons, connecting rods, bearings, indicators, gauges, etc., rendered familiar by blackboard sketches and by the practical use of the apparatus in the workshops and laboratories. To make the students more conversant with ordinary forms of engineering appliances, their fundamental differences or similarities, and many of the advantages and disadvantages of their use, a more extended course is given in senior years. A majority of the pumps, gauges, indicators, dynanometers, speedindicators, and counters, and other appliances in common use are thoroughly studied. Trade circulars, a complete set of which is kept in the department, are used to a very great extent for examples. The steam engine.-In junior year is given a full course on the Zeuner diagram, as applied to slide valves; and in the cases of many of the automatic cut-off engines, now so common, the method of applying the Zeuner diagram to designing is taught. The radial gears, such as the Hackworth, Marshall and Joy, are treated in the same way, and in nearly all cases the accuracy of the Zeuner diagram is shown from actual examples. In the senior year the designing of the parts of the steam engine is begun. All those parts which must be designed from a consideration of the stresses acting on them are first considered, and the method of applying the formule of statics shown. Each student is then assigned one of the more familiar types of engines, such as the Armington and Sims, Porter-Allen, Corliss, Ball, or Westinghouse, and is required to design the principal parts of the engine, using his calculations where the question of strength enters, and studying the particular type for the details, which can only be determined by experience. Working sketches and many of the working drawings of the engines are made. Steam boilers.-The study of steam boilers is taken up in much the same manner as that of the steam engine. The methods of determining the sizes of the parts from a consideration of their strength, such as the thickness of shell, size of rivets, braces, furnaces, etc., the character and physical properties of the materials used in the construction and the operation of the boilers are discussed. The methods of constructing boilers of different types, with their advantages and disadvantages; boiler mountings, and the proper and improper methods of connection; considerations affecting the life of a boiler; boiler explosions; the methods of determining the efficiency of fuels, of heating surfaces and of boilers, and the usual methods of calculating and erecting chimneys are treated in their turn. Each student is required to make the principal calculations for one of the well-known boilers, and to make working sketches and drawings from his own designs. 1 Thermodynamics. In the post-senior year the subject of thermodynamics, as applied to perfect and imperfect gases, is taught, and the principles are applied to the solution of practical questions pertaining to air, gas, and steam engines, refrigerating machinery, injectors, condensers, etc. The steam laboratory has been newly fitted with a complete set of apparatus for carrying out tests in steam engineering. A new steel boiler of 25-horse power capacity is fitted for making boiler tests, the water supply being so arranged that the water can be drawn from tanks or fed through a meter. A 10 by 24 Hamilton-Corliss engine is especially fitted for test purposes. Through the kindness of Mr. Frederick M. Wheeler, the department has been furnished with a surface condenser, so that the steam from the engine can be discharged into the condenser or into the air, thus enabling the students to measure the quantity of steam used after passing through the engine. Indicator rigging is provided, and the department is well supplied with indicators, speed counters and indicators, planimeters, and special gauges, and all apparatus necessary for carrying out routine or special work in this direction. Calorimeters of the various types are in use, and provision is made for comparing and standardizing gauges, indicators, thermometers, and all apparatus used in the tests. This engine is fitted with a brake for absorbing and measuring the power given off by the engine, or it may be connected with a line of shafting in the laboratory for the purpose of running the other apparatus in this department. A Thurston standard oil-testing machine is used for carrying out tests on oils, and the 50,000-pound testing machine and Thurston torsion machine are used for experimental purposes. Dynamometers of different kinds, to fit different experimental work carried out, are provided, so that a 1180-20 |