 | University of Virginia |  |
EQUIPMENT.
The new Mechanical Laboratory, designed especially for the work of
instruction in Engineering, is a handsome building, one hundred and
eighty-five feet long and seventy feet deep. The lecture-rooms, the
offices for the professors, and the drawing-room are upon the first
floor, and the latter is in close contiguity with rooms for blue-printing
and other photographic work, which have been conveniently
arranged under the roof.
The lower floor is devoted to the purposes of laboratory instruction
in engineering mechanics. The equipment for engine tests consists of a
high-speed Ball automatic engine, arranged so that it can be operated
either condensing or non-condensing, a Wheeler condenser, indicators,
and friction brakes, thermometers, calorimeters and gauges, the whole
constituting a complete outfit for illustrating the best methods of
determining the power and efficiency of the steam engine.
For work in the strength and elasticity of materials there has been
provided a Riehle automatic and autographic testing machine of one
hundred thousand pounds capacity, a plain Olsen machine of the same
capacity, an Olsen torsional tester for specimens up to five feet in
length and one and one-half inches in diameter, an Olsen transverse
tester for loads up to eight thousand pounds, and a full outfit of the
extensometers, deflection meters, micrometers, and so on, needed with
these machines.
For testing cements, mortars and concretes, an Olsen lever machine and
an automatic Fairbanks machine have been provided, with a proper outfit
of accessory apparatus. In addition, a machine for compression
tests is now in process of construction in the Laboratory, and will be
used later for special researches.
For testing lubricants an Olsen machine for journal friction has been
secured, an Engler, viscosimeter, apparatus for flash tests and chill
tests, thermometers, hydrometers, and so on, and, in addition, a new
machine is now under construction in the Laboratory specially
designed for experiments on pivot friction.
For tests of fuels, furnaces and boilers, the heating plant of the University
furnishes an ample basis for experiments. It consists of two large
horizontal, return tubular boilers, each with capacity of over one hundred
and forty horsepowers. Adequate provision has been made for
complete tests of the heating power of the fuels used, the quality of
the steam, the temperatures in the furnaces, flues, and chimneys, the
constitution of the furnace gases, and the economy and efficiency of
the plant. A Favre and Silbermann calorimeter, a Siemens pyrometer,
Orsat gas analysis apparatus of an improved type, steam calorimeters,
thermometers, gauges, and scales constitute the outfit for this work.
Careful attention has been paid to the means for standardizing the
apparatus employed. A mercury column for direct measurements of
pressure up to two hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch is now
under construction, and will provide for the exact calibration of steam
and hydraulic gauges, indicators, and so on. An accurately constructed
Regnault air thermometer, with the usual apparatus for testing
the fundamental points of thermometric graduation will be used
to standardize all calorimeters, pyrometers, and thermometers. Standard
weights and measures are provided for testing apparatus for
measurements of length and mass. The attempt has been made in
every particular to provide an equipment which will afford the student
of engineering adequate and accurate training in rational and practical
methods of test and of research.
The investigations and studies of the Testing Laboratory constitute
the center towards which all the processes of instruction will converge.
Students will be induced, as far as possible, to secure their
training in shop-work before entering upon their engineering studies.
For those who are unable to secure such training, the time and energy
devoted to mere shop-practice will be reduced to a minimum. Each
member of the school will be assigned to some special problem; will
prepare in the drafting-room the necessary drawings, tracings, and
blue-prints for his work, execute the patterns in the wood-shops, make
the castings and forgings needed in the foundry and forge room, finish
and fit the parts in the metal shop, and finally carry out in detail the
experimental investigation contemplated. The object of the course
of instruction will be to make engineers rather than machinists, and
all details of the work will be organized with that end in view.
For the purpose of carrying into effect this programme of instruction
all the departments accessory to the Laboratory have been simply, but
effectively, fitted up with hand and machine tools of the best modern
construction. Needless duplication has been avoided and the various
the best present practice of American designers.
The Wood-shop contains lathes of various sizes, a swing-saw, a saw-table
with slitting and cut-off saws, a band-saw, a scroll-saw, a jointer,
a planer, a trimmer for pattern work, and a grindstone, with a suffident
number of benches for hand work, and a proper outfit of hand
tools.
The Metal-shop contains Fitchburg and Reed engine lathes of various
sizes, a 24-inch Whitcomb planer, a 20-inch Barnes drill-press, a 26-inch
Davis and Egan drill-press, a 15-inch crank-shaper of the same make,
a Universal milling-machine and a Universal grinder, both from Brown
and Sharpe, an emery grinder, a grindstone, a cut-off saw, a gas forge
and Reichhelm blower, for forging and tempering tools and other small
pieces, with work benches and a full outfit of hand tools.
The Foundry is fitted up with a 30-inch Whiting cupola, a brass
furnace, and the necessary founders' tools, benches and moulding
troughs for sand moulding and core work. The Forge-room is provided
with four Sturtevant forges, a smiths' bench, and the necessary outfit
of smiths' tools for each forge. Both the Foundry and Forge-room
are located in the Boiler House, and the blast and exhaust fans for this
work are operated by a small Sturtevant automatic steam engine
located in the same building.
The equipment of the department in field instruments is modern and
complete. It contains a Y level, a dumpy level, a plain transit, a complete
transit with vertical arc, stadia wires, and gradienter, a planetable,
a sextant, compasses, leveling rods, mercurial and aneroid
barometers, tapes, chains, planimeter, protractor, and all needful
accessory apparatus for land, city, railway, and hydrographic surveying.
Instruction in field engineering as well as in the construction of
plans and maps is thorough and practical.
| University of Virginia | |