 | University of Virginia record February, 1911 |  |
REQUIREMENTS FOR ADVANCED STANDING.
Applicants from other colleges will be admitted provisionally to
advanced standing as candidates for a degree in Engineering upon presentation
of proper certificates covering the courses for which credit is desired.
Such certificates must be filed with the Dean, and must be acceptable both
to him and to the professors in charge of the accredited courses. The
certificate must bear the official signature of the head of the college; must
specify the character and content of the course followed by the student;
must give his marks, which should not fall below the standard seventy-five
per cent. of this University; and must recommend the student as worthy
of admission to the University of Virginia in respect of both character
and scholarship. The final validation of such a certificate is effected by
the successful completion of the courses attended in this university.
The programme of studies offered by such a candidate for his degree
in Engineering must satisfy all the requirements for that degree as here
established. He must devote at least two full sessions to engineering
studies in this university.
Credits on Practical Work will be allowed to applicants, who have
accomplished successfully courses in Drawing, Field-Work, or Shop-work
equivalent to those given in this university, or have acquired in professional
practice the training which these courses represent. To secure credit for
such work the student must make written application to the Dean of the
Department, and with this application must file the certificate of the chief
draftsman or other officer under whom the work was done.
Applicants for admission to the Engineering Department, who are over
twenty years old, and desire to enter for the pursuit of special elective
courses, must present adequate proofs of good character and of the
needful maturity and training. Such applicants are then registered as
Special Students, and are admitted without formal examination to the
privileges of the university, but not as candidates for any titled degree.
HUMANISTIC STUDIES.
Students, who have enjoyed the benefits of sound preliminary training
in good high schools, are advised in all cases to enrich and liberalize their
professional course by the introduction of humanistic studies.
Under the elective system of this university it is easy to plan a
schedule of work for a well-prepared marticulate, which will at the end
of six years give him in addition to his professional degree the general
culture degree of Bachelor of Science or of Bachelor of Arts. The additional
courses required are two languages (elected from French, German,
and Latin), one historical science (History or Economics), English Literature,
or Biblical History and Literature, and one philosophical science
(Logic, or Ethics, or Psychology).
The following is a sample schedule leading at the end of six years to
the two degree of B. S. and C. E.:
First Year—
Mathematics 1A, Eng. Lit. 1A, German 1A, Chemistry 1B.
Second Year—
Mathematics 2B, Eng. Lit. 2B, German 2B, French 1A.
Third Year—
Physics 1B, French 2B, Engineering 1, Drawing 1.
Fourth Year—
Mechanics 1, Civ. Eng. 2, Economics 1B, Drawing 2.
Fifth Year—
Applied Mechanics, Civ. Eng. 3, Geology 1, Logic 1B.
Sixth Year—
Mechanics 2, Civ. Eng. 4, Mech. Eng. 2, Thesis.
The courses printed in italics are those added from the College.
DRAFTING ROOMS.
The drafting rooms are abundantly lighted and are provided with
solidly constructed tables with locked drawers for instruments and
materials. Each student is assigned to a table and has a drawer for his
exclusive use. The regular Drawing Classes execute each one plate a week
under the supervision of the Instructor in Drawing. The more advanced
students have such additional drawings assigned by their respective
professors as are needed for the full development of the courses of study.
Careful attention is given to the training of the students in lettering,
in the conventional signs of mechanical drawing, in the proper lay-out
of drawings, and in neat and accurate execution. Exercises are required
also in tracing and in blue-printing, the rooms for which are conveniently
arranged and in close contiguity to the drafting rooms. While, however,
technical dexterity is demanded, the graphical method is taught and used
primarily as a powerful and indispensable instrument of research, the
thoughtful mastery of which is essential for the instructed Engineer.
The construction and theory of the Polar Planimeter, the Slide Rule,
and the Pantograph are carefully taught, and the student is trained in the
practical use of these appliances for the rapid and accurate production of
estimates and copies from finished drawings.
SHOPS.
The Shop Equipment is throughout of the best quality, the machines
being all from good makers and of sizes ample for the purposes of instruction.
A full outfit of hand tools is maintained at all times. Each
shop is equipped for the instruction of a squad of sixteen students, this
being as large a number as one instructor can properly direct at once.
The Machine Shop is provided with four first-class engines lathes,
illustrating the practice of the best American makers; with a planer, a
shaper, two drill presses, a universal drilling machine (Brown and Sharpe),
and a universal grinder (same makers); also with a gas forge for tempering
tools, a cut-off saw for metal rods, an emery wheel, and so on.
The Wood Shop is furnished with several small lathes, a large pattern
maker's lathe, a jointer, a planer, a saw bench for slitting and cross-cutting,
a band-saw, jig-saw, and a wood trimmer for pattern making.
The Foundry has a cupola furnace for working cast iron, a brass
furnace, a core oven, and all needful accessories for moulding and casting;
the blast for the cupola is furnished by a special blower, driven by a small
high-speed steam engine.
The Forge Room is equipped with Buffalo down-draft forges; and the
necessary smith's tools; the draft is furnished by an engine-driven blower,
and the exhaust is operated by a fan driven also by the engine.
Shop instruction is given for its educational value. The purpose of
this Department is to train engineers, not artisans; and the claims of
the shops are not permitted to infringe on the truly vital functions of the
laboratories, the drafting rooms, and the lectures.
FIELD INSTRUMENTS.
The outfit of Field Instruments contains compasses, transits, and levels
of various approved makes; a solar transit, furnished also with stadia
wires and gradienter for tachymetric work; hand-levels and clinometers
for railway topography; plane tables; a sextant; together with an
adequate supply of leveling rods, telemeter rods, signal poles, chains, tapes,
pins, and so on. For hydraulic work and hydrographic surveys a hook
gauge and a current meter are provided. All students are instructed in
the theory and adjustments of the field instruments and in their practical
use in the field. They are also required to make up their field-books in
standard forms; to reduce their surveys and execute all the necessary
profiles, plans, and maps; and to determine lengths, areas, and volumes
both from the maps and from the original notes. Polar planimeters are
provided for facilitating such estimates and a pantograph for making
reduced copies of finished drawings.
ROAD MATERIAL TESTS.
In the Road Material Tests the machines used are mainly those
devised by Dr. Logan Waller Page, director of the United States office
of public roads. For measuring the strength of the stone cylindrical
samples are cut out with a diamond drill and tested under impact and in
a 40,000-pound compression machine. The resistance to abrasion is
measured on fragments of the stone, rotated in heavy cast iron cylinders
mounted on their diagonals. The binding power of the dust is measured
by impact tests on cylindrical briquettes formed under heavy hydraulic
pressure. The dust for these briquettes is produced in a ball mill fed with
fine stone broken in a small crusher. This part of the testing outfit has
been installed largely by the generous aid of Dr. Page. Useful experimental
researches on the road-building rocks and gravels of Virginia are carried
out with it each year, as well as class demonstrations of the standard
tests for road materials.
LABORATORY WORK IN STRENGTH OF MATERIALS.
The Sinclair Laboratory for work in Strength of Materials.—This
was founded on the original donation of Mrs. John Sinclair, of New
York City, as a memorial to her late husband. The collection has since
100,000 pounds capacity, arranged for tensile, compressive, and transverse
tests; an Olsen torsion machine of 50,000 inch pounds capacity; an Olsen
compression machine of 40,000 pounds capacity; a Ewing tester for the
elasticity of rods; hand machines for testing rods and wires under pull
and small specimens of timber and cast iron under transverse loads; Fair-banks
and Olsen cement testers of 1,000 pounds capacity each; apparatus
for torsional tests on both long wires and short wires; together with the
necessary accessory apparatus for utilizing these machines.
LABORATORY AND FIELD-WORK IN HYDRAULICS.
The equipment for this work comprises a steel tank for weir experiments
with adjustable bronze notches; a hook gauge for accurate measurement
of surface levels; a cast-iron stand pipe for experiments on efflux
with adjustable bronze orifices; a series of pipes with bends, elbows, and
tees for measuring pipe friction; and the proper manometers and gauges
for reading pressures. For the field-work the outfit of field instruments
has been enlarged by a current meter of modern construction and a set
of hollow copper ball floats for direct stream velocity measurements.
ENGINE AND BOILER TESTS.
The Steam Engine Tests are made on the high-speed Ball engine,
which operates the shops. This motor has been specially equipped for the
purpose. It receives steam from the main line through a Sweet separator;
humidity determinations are thus made twice—once by a separating calorimeter
before the steam enters the separator, and again by a throttling
calorimeter as it enters the cylinder. It is fitted with proper indicators,
and permanent indicator rigging so that at any time cards may be taken
and the indicated horse-power determined. In like manner a rope friction
brake is so arranged that it may be at once applied for the determination
of brake horse-power. Connections are so made with a Wheeler surface
condenser that the engine may at will be operated either condensing or
non-condensing. Provisions are made for measuring the temperatures and
the amounts of the condensation water and the condensed steam produced
during the run. With these data a complete heat balance of the experimental
run is attainable.
For Steam Boiler Tests the boilers of the university heating and
lighting plant are available. The department is equipped with the necessary
apparatus—thermometers, gauges, steam calorimeters, fuel calorimeters,
gas analyzers, scales, tanks, and so on. Students of Mechanical Engineering
are taught by practical lessons in the boiler room the standard methods
for boiler trials, and the class makes each session at least one complete trial.
The Gas Engine Tests are made on an Otto machine of 15 I. H. P.
and 12 B. H. P. This is also provided with its friction brake, indicator
and provision is made for observing not only its amount but the initial
and final temperatures. Gasoline or alcohol is used as fuel, and is run
in from a graduated wrought-iron bottle, so that the amount consumed is
determined. The heating power is obtained by an independent test with a
Rosenhain calorimeter. Samples of the burnt gases are drawn from the
exhaust pipe and analyzed in an Orsat gas apparatus. With these data,
and the observed numbers of revolutions and explosions, the heat balance
is worked out.
The Refrigerating Tests are made on a Remington Ice Machine of one
ton capacity. This is an ammonia compression machine driven by an
electric motor. Instead of brine, plain water is used, heated by a steam
jet to 100 degrees and then cooled down to 40 degrees by the machine. A
run is first made with the pipes empty in order to determine the friction
horse-power. The ammonia is then turned on and the run is made under
load. In both cases the power consumed is measured both by watt-meter
and by am-meter and volt-meter readings. The tanks are accurately
calibrated and careful measurements of the temperature are made through
the run. Indicator cards are also taken from the ammonia cylinders and
the number of revolutions is registered by counter. With these data the
mechanical and thermodynamic performance of the machine are figured out.
LABORATORY WORK IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.
The Scott Laboratory of Electrical Engineering.—This laboratory was
initially equipped and endowed by Mrs. Frances Branch Scott, of Richmond,
Va., as a memorial to her late son, an alumnus of this university. During
the past year, 1910, the equipment has been substantially increased
through the generosity of the Hon. Charles M. Crane, of Chicago, Ill., a
friend of the university.
In addition to full sets of electric meters with the appliances for
testing and calibrating them, galvanometers of the best modern types,
standard cells and resistances, standard condensers, and other pieces of
apparatus for minor tests, it contains numerous pieces of the very best
construction. Such are the Wolff Potentiometer, the Siemens and Halske
Thomson Double Bridge, the Koepsel Permeameter, the Duddell Double
Projection Oscillograph, the Station Photometer with Lummer-Brodhun
screen, the Carey-Foster Bridge and others.
For the work in machine testing there are a number of direct current
generators and motors, series, shunt and compound, an interpole motor, a
double current generator, a two phase alternator, a General Electric experimental
test set for alternating current comprising a generator furnishing
single, two, three, six or twelve phase current and in addition offering
three types of induction motors with all necessary starting and controlling
devices, a single phase repulsion motor, a two phase induction motor, two
a constant current transformer, a frequency meter, power factor indicator,
synchronism indicator, ground detector and the auxiliary apparatus used
in testing these machines.
The laboratory is being rapidly arranged with a system of universal
plug and receptacle connections to facilitate the setting up of all experimental
combinations.
The laboratory work is carried on in squads or groups of two or
three students and the work is so arranged that each student will become
familiar with all the details and connections of any particular test. A
most important feature of the laboratory instruction is the required
preparation of a preliminary report on each experiment before the actual
test is carried out. These preliminary reports are written up in the
classroom at assigned hours and consist of a complete résumé of the test
under discussion. The object, the theory, the scheme of connections necessary,
the choice of measuring instruments and all auxiliary devices needful
for the proper performance of the experiment are here worked out and
this preliminary report is handed in for correction or approval. After
approval the test is assigned for a definite laboratory hour and the work
is then carried through. A final report is then handed in consisting of the
preliminary and the additional data in tabulated and in graphical form.
Such a final report comprises a complete text on any given experiment
and will prove of great value in later work in commercial fields.
It is recognized that the outlined method for laboratory work is of
the greatest benefit to the student inasmuch as it requires a thorough
understanding of any given test, and at the same time inculcates habits
of self-reliance and a spirit of originality which cannot prove to be other
than beneficial in the later work when the engineer must rely upon his
own ingenuity to a great extent.
BUILDINGS.
The buildings devoted wholly or in part to the work of the Department
of Engineering are the following:
The Mechanical Laboratory is the main seat of the instruction in
technical studies. It is 180 by 70 feet and contains on the main floor
the Dean's office and the offices of the three adjunct-professors; the main
lecture room; the laboratory of electrical engineering; and the drafting
room for the First and Second Year students. Above are a smaller drafting
room for advanced students, and blue-print and photographic rooms. Below
on the ground floor are another classroom, the reading-room, the testing
laboratory, the wood shop, the metal shop, apparatus and store rooms, the
tool room, and the students' lavatory.
The Power House is a single-story building 110 by 40 feet. In addition
to the university boiler plant and the electric lighting plant this contains
horizontal return-tubular boilers, each of 140 horse-power. The lighting
plant consists of three electric generators directly connected to high-speed
engines, the respective capacities being 25, 50, and 75 kilowatts. The
whole plant is available for purposes of instruction, study and experiment.
The Laboratory of General Chemistry, situated at the southern end
of West Range, is one of the older buildings recently remodelled and
fitted up for the work of instruction in undergraduate chemistry. It is
furnished with all the necessary apparatus and supplies, and is comfortably
heated and lighted. The engineering students, who are taught in a separate
section, have three hours in lecture each week and six hours in the laboratory.
The work is specially adapted to their needs. The room used for
work in Organic Chemistry is at the northern end of West Range.
The Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry is 150 by 60 feet. It is a
single-story building, containing the lecture room, the laboratory of
analytical chemistry, the rooms for assaying, the balance rooms, the offices
and private laboratories of the professor of Industrial and Analytical
Chemistry, and a number of store rooms. These contain not only the
usual laboratory supplies, but an extensive collection of specimens, illustrating
very completely the processes and products of industrial chemistry,
and of especial interest to engineering students.
The Geological Museum is 120 by 50 feet. It is a three-story building.
The main floor is devoted to the very extensive geological collection of
specimens, charts, relief maps, and so on. The gallery above contains an
equally good collection of minerals and numerous models of typical
crystallographic forms. The upper floor contains the lecture rooms and
the new laboratories of Economic Geology. In the basement are stored
subsidiary collections and new material accumulated in more recent
geological surveys.
The Physical Laboratory faces the Mechanical Laboratory on the
opposite side of the quadrangle, and has almost the same proportions. The
main floor contains the lecture room, the professors' offices, the laboratory
of experimental physics, and the store room for the very large collection of
apparatus used in the lectures. On the ground floor is the laboratory of
theoretical electricity, the storage battery room, a well-equipped shop for
the repair and manufacture of apparatus, and numerous smaller rooms
for the work of graduate students.
| University of Virginia record February, 1911 | |