University of Virginia Library

DRAFTING ROOMS AND SHOPS.

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 Instructors 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 free-hand
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 an 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 purpose 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 six first-class engine lathes, illustrating
the practice of the best American makers; with a planer, a shaper, two
drill presses, a universal milling machine (Brown & 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, grindstone, and so on.

The Wood Shop is furnished with five 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, six cabinet
maker's benches, and an ample supply of the familiar hand tools.

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.