University of Virginia Library

XXX. Professional Departments—Engineering

The requirements which had to be met by the applicant
for admission to the department of engineering were
practically the same as those demanded of the applicant
seeking entrance to the medical department. If his object
was simply to be enrolled in the first-year course, he
must present the diploma of a reputable institution of
collegiate rank; or a certificate of a well known school of

engineering; or the diploma of graduation in a high
school, either public or private; or an equivalent personal
certificate from the principal of such a school. If
he was unable to show such testimonials, yet was able to
pass satisfactorily the general entrance examinations, he
was admitted to the department without further conditions.
Should he wish to obtain the advantage of advanced
standing, he had only to submit a certificate from
a respectable institution of learning which should indicate
that he had covered all the courses for which he was
asking credit. There was an allowance of credit also for
engineering work done in the summer school of the
University of Virginia or any other University.

The most salient features of the engineering course at
the beginning of the Ninth Period, 1904, were (1) the
length of time given up to pure and mixed mathematics;
(2) the requirement that, at the end of the lecture, the
student should work out on the blackboard problems
resembling those which he would have to solve in professional
life; and (3) the additional requirement, that,
instead of copying from tracings, he should cut out models
from his own designs. He was taught to illustrate
the principles emphasized in the lectures by designs reduced
to plates. This plate system was thought to be a
progressive step in imparting that branch of technical
education.

Five general lines of study were pursued in the engineering
department at this time simultaneously: (1) in
the lecture-room, the fundamental subjects were covered,
such as pure mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry,
mineralogy, geology, and the applied sciences; (2) in the
drafting-room, the technique of the graphic art and the
methods of the graphical analysis were mastered; (3) in
the laboratory, the ability to measure lengths, weigh

masses, time events, test the strength of materials, and
the like, was acquired; (4) in the surveying field, lengths,
angles, heights, depths, and velocities were determined;
(5) in the shop, exactness and accuracy in measurements,
skill in workmanship, and care in execution, were learned.

The successive courses included in the preceding general
lines of study were as follows: (1) required
courses,—in the first year, these were directed to the
mastery of the art of technical drawing, field work, and
laboratory testing; and in the second, to the acquisition
of such knowledge as would constitute an introduction to
technical mechanics; (2) elective courses,—these began
in the third year of residence, and continued through the
fourth and final year; they included courses in all the
three branches of engineering, civil, mechanical, and
electrical; (3) laboratory courses,—these, which were
protracted throughout the four years, consisted of a
series of tests of different materials; (4) drafting
courses; and finally, (5) work in shop and field. All
these courses were taught by the joint use of text-book
and lecture; they were made objective by parallel practice
in the drafting-room, the shop, the laboratory, and
the field; and they were enforced by daily oral examinations,
frequent written reviews, copious exercises in drafting,
and abundant illustration by means of specimens and
experiments.

After the reorganization,—which went into full operation
with the session of 1908–9,—the extent of the
technical instruction required of each candidate for a degree
was increased over one-third. Instead of two years
given up to technical courses in each branch of engineering,
three years were the number adopted. Every student
was introduced to his strictly professional studies at
the beginning of his second year instead of his third, as

formerly; and this contact was prolonged down to the
date of his graduation. Previously, the first and second
years had been limited to the fundamentals of education
in the applied sciences; and because of these fundamentals,
each engineering student had been required to take
the courses of these two years regardless of the branch
which he intended to pursue specially during the third and
fourth years. Each one, in his graduating year, about
this time, was called upon to submit to the dean of the
department some theme for independent study suited to
the particular course which he was following.

In 1907, at the request of the engineering faculty,
Professor T. L. Watson, the new incumbent of the chair
of geology, delivered a series of specialized lectures,—
accompanied by laboratory and field work,—on engineering
geology, economic geology, and petrography; and
in 1908–09, Professor R. M. Bird, of the chemical faculty,
gave instruction in chemical engineering.

Ultimately, the four years of the courses in engineering
were divided formally into the freshman year, the sophomore
year, the junior year, and the senior year; and in
each course, a definite set of studies were assigned to
each year. By 1912, there had been an important rearrangement
of the latter. The freshman class received
lessons in mechanical drawing, elementary machine construction,
and plane surveying. Associated with these
were practical courses in the drafting-room, the workshop,
the machine-shop, and the field. All the members
of the department were required to pursue these introductory
studies. With the sophomore year, the specializing
began in civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. A
series of general courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry,
and geology were also taught simultaneously.

The defective side of the instruction in engineering

now, as formerly, lay in engineering practice. The remoteness
from great industrial plants abbreviated the
number of visits to important engineering works, owing
to the expense of the journey and the length of time taken
up. There were, however, in the vicinity of Charlottesville
several foundries, machine-shops, and railway-shops
which proved highly useful. The courses were strong
in the emphasis that was laid on the fundamental sciences,
and in the influences brought to bear to encourage independence
and resourcefulness in the student. On the
other hand, it was thought that they were weakened by
the failure to require, as one of the conditions of admission,
work in at least the physical and chemical laboratory;
and also by the absence of facilities for a humanistic
training. But in spite of these shortcomings, the
department continued to make satisfactory progress.
"The last decade," said Dean Thornton, in 1916–17,
"has seen a general advance in the work of instruction.
The laboratory equipment has been improved and enlarged.
Modern text-books have been introduced.
The most vital force of our growth has been the laboratory
teaching. In strength of materials, in cement testing,
in roads material testing, in hydraulics, in steam engineering,
in general testing, in experimental study of
engines and boilers, and in all the branches of electrical
engineering, there has been a steady improvement in the
apparatus and methods of study."

After the World War began, the engineering faculty
adopted measures to broaden the curriculum of the department.
By omitting certain courses of a post-graduate
nature, and by condensing others, room was obtained
for a new group of studies, including English, general
economics, cost accounting, specifications, contracts, and

engineering economics. These were now required of the
candidates for all the engineering degrees.

In 1904–05, there were eighty-eight students enrolled
in the different sections of the general department. The
attendance in 1909–10 was divided into two nearly equal
groups, one of which was specializing in civil and mining
engineering, and the other in electrical and mechanical.
There were, at this time, one hundred and eight students
present in all these classes; and there were one hundred
and thirty-three in 1916–17,—the session that saw the
entrance of the United States into the great world conflict.
The impression, however, prevailed that this department,
throughout the Ninth Period, ought to have
drawn to its lecture-halls a larger number of matriculates,
for, in no other, was the instruction more faithful, more
thorough, and more modern than in this. The only explanation
that could be offered for the comparative paucity
of students was that the University of Virginia was
known primarily as an institution in which the humanities
held by far the most conspicuous place in the general
esteem.

Beginning with the graduating class of June, 1904,
and ending with that of June, 1917, there were thirty-nine
young men who had received the diploma of electrical
engineer, while, during the interval between June,
1906, and June, 1917, there were sixty-one who had received
the diploma of civil engineer. The diploma of
mechanical engineer, on the other hand, had, between
June, 1904 and June, 1917, been won by only twenty-nine.

The expansion in the courses and facilities of the department
was indirectly demonstrated by the increase in
the membership of its faculty. There were, in 1904–05,
thirteen persons employed in instructing its different

classes; in 1905–06, sixteen; in 1906–07, twenty-three.
This list included the professors of physics, chemistry,
analytical chemistry, and geology, as well as the professors
of mathematics and applied mathematics. The
names of the men so employed have been already mentioned.
In 1910–11, W. S. Rodman was adjunct professor
of electrical engineering, and Charles Hancock,
associate professor of mechanical engineering. There
were, in 1914, nine assistants. The two senior professors
were still William M. Thornton and John Lloyd
Newcomb. Another useful teacher, during many years,
was Jared S. Lapham. "No greater improvement in
the discipline of applied science at the University of Virginia
has ever been made," said Professor Thornton,
"than when all the laboratory work,—in strength of
materials, hydraulics, steam-engines, gas-engines, fuels,
lubricants, road materials, etc., introduced by the several
professors as the needs of their specialties demanded, and
continued under their individual direction,—was grouped
under the one title of experimental engineering, and, in
1913, put in the hands of Jared S. Lapham."