DRAWING.
Systematic instruction in engineering drawing is given through the
Freshman and Sophomore years. The student is carefully trained in the
technique of good draftsmanship. Especial attention is paid to lettering.
The importance of neatness, accuracy, clearness and completeness is constantly
impressed upon the student's mind. Frequent exercises in tracing
and blue printing are required. As the student advances in the course he
is taught more and more to use the graphical method not merely as a
means of representation, but as an instrument of research both in Geometry
and in Mechanics. To the Junior and Senior students are assigned by
their respective professors such further drawings as are needed for the
full development of the courses of instruction.
Drawing 1. [Thornton and Hancock].
The work is distributed over the several terms as follows, one finished
plate 15″ × 20″ being required of the student each week. The theoretical
instruction in the subjects of this course is given in connection with the
work of Engineering 1. The practical teaching is given at the drawing
board. Hours, 11-2, Monday, Wednesday.
Fall Term.—Mechanical Drawing; embraces careful training in
technique, assiduous practice in lettering, and the graphical solution in
the weekly plates of a series of carefully selected problems in practical
plane and solid geometry, and in graphical algebra and trigonometry.
Winter Term.—Machine Drawing.—Carefully constructed and finished
plates consisting of detailed working drawings of machine parts. The
drawings are made, in part, from free-hand sketches from the machine
itself, and, in part, from designs and specifications worked out by the
student in the class in Machine Construction.
Spring Term.—Topographical Drawing.—This course consists of nine
hours per week in the drawing-room throughout the Spring Term of the
Freshman year, and is devoted to the study of the conventional signs employed
in making topographical maps. Each student is required to make
a number of plates, and to become reasonably proficient in the preparation
of such maps. Particular attention is given to the study of contour maps,
and the solution of problems relating thereto.
Drawing 2. [Thornton and Gallalee].
This course requires each week three hours of lecture work and nine
of study and practice, of which six are in the drawing-room under the
tuition of the instructor. The distribution of topics is as below: Hours,
12-2, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Lectures, 11-12, Monday, Wednesday,
Friday.
Fall Term.—Graphical Statics.—The necessary preparation is such
knowledge of experimental mechanics as is given in Physics 1. The theory
and use of graphical methods in mechanics are carefully taught and
illustrated by means of problems in the composition and resolution of
velocities and accelerations, and of forces and moments. Applications
follow to the determination by graphical methods of centers of gravity and
moments of inertia, to the construction of stress sheets for the simpler
forms of roof trusses and bridges, to the study of the stability of reservoir
dams and retaining walls, and to the calculation of internal stress in
girders and shafts.
Winter Term.—Descriptive Geometry.—The required preparation is
given by Drawing 1. The fundamental problems on the point, line, and
plane are carefully studied, with applications to the construction of
shadows on polyedra and to the graphical statics of force systems in three
dimensions. The projections, tangencies, sections, and intersections of
curved surfaces are then taken up, with applications to the determination
of shades and shadows on such surfaces. The course concludes with an
elementary theory of linear perspective.
Spring Term.—Structural Drawing.—The methods of Graphical Statics
and Descriptive Geometry are applied to the design and analysis of a
series of simple structures in masonry, timber, steel, concrete, and so on.
Incidental instruction is given in the elements of stereotomy, the construction
of joints in carpentry, and the analysis of simple types of roofs
and bridges.
