DRAFTING ROOMS, SHOPS, AND FIELD INSTRUMENTS.
The material equipment of the University of Virginia for practical
instruction in engineering studies is abundant and excellent. The policy,
steadily followed in assembling it, has been to purchase only what
was of the best quality and best adapted for the purposes of the
zealous and intelligent student.
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 classes of the First and Second years execute each one
plate a week under the supervision of the Instructor in Drawing. The
more advanced students have such 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.
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 engine 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, a 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 the same 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.
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; a plane table; a sextant; together with an
adequate supply of levelling 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. A polar planimeter is
provided for facilitating such estimates and a pantagraph for making reduced
copies of finished drawings.
