EXPERIMENTAL ENGINEERING LABORATORIES
Road Materials Laboratory.—The apparatus for tests of non-bituminous
road materials includes a two-cylinder Deval abrasion machine, a ball mill, a
moulding press for briquettes of rock dust, a Page impact cementation tester,
a Page impact toughness tester, a rock crusher and a Purdue brick rattler. This
outfit the University owes to the generous aid of the late Dr. Logan Waller Page.
In addition, the Department has acquired a 40,000-pound compression tester, a
diamond core drill, a diamond rock saw, a grinding lap, a Westphal balance,
specific gravity apparatus, and a complete set of sieves. Useful researches in the
road-building rocks and gravels of Virginia, as well as the standard tests, are
conducted each year by the class in Civil Engineering.
The apparatus for tests of bituminous road materials includes the New York
Testing Laboratory penetrometer, the Kirschbaum ductility machine, the Engler
viscosimeter, the asphalt viscosimeter, the New York Testing Laboratory extractor,
the New York State Board of Health oil tester, Hubbard pyknometers, asphalt
flow plates, gas and electric hot plates, and the accessory apparatus needed for
research on bituminous road-binders.
Structural Materials Laboratory.—The Sinclair Laboratory for work in
testing structural materials 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 been considerably enlarged. It contains a Riehle 100,000-pound machine,
arranged for tensile, compressive, and transverse tests, with an attachment for
taking autographic diagrams; an Olsen 100,000-pound machine and fitted with a
suspended ball compression block; a 200,000-pound Olsen machine suitable for
compressive tests and also supplied with extension arms for making transverse
tests of beams; an Olsen torsion machine of 50,000 inch-pounds capacity; an
Olsen impact-testing machine of 100 foot-pounds capacity; three machines of
rotating beam type for fatigue tests of metals; Shore scleroscope; a Ewing machine
for finding the modulus of elasticity; hand machines for testing rods and wires
under pull, and small specimens of timber and cast iron under transverse loads.
It is also equipped with accessory measuring instruments; these include a Riehle
extensometer, an Olsen compressometer for metals and timber, an Olsen special
strain gauge extensometer, an Olsen special extensometer, Olsen wire extensometers,
a Ewing extensometer of great delicacy, and tools for shearing tests of
metals and timber.
The laboratory is completely equipped for making tests of cement, cement
aggregates, and concrete. It contains a Fairbank's tensile tester of 1,000 pounds
capacity; a compressometer for concrete specimens; Riehle dial compressometer
for concrete specimens; Riehle dial compressometer-extensometer for specimens up
to 3-inch diameter; tools for shearing tests of concrete; an Olsen steaming oven
for accelerated tests; a Freas electric drying oven with automatic temperature
regulation; moist air closets; sieves for mechanical analysis; moulds for tension
and compression tests; and the required small apparatus.
Fuel and Oil Laboratory.—For the determination of the heating value
of coal, petroleum, etc., the laboratory has an Emerson bomb calorimeter. For
gas and liquid fuel calorimetry, a Junker calorimeter made by the American
Meter Co. is used. The equipment also includes two electric muffle furnaces, a
Freas electric drying oven with automatic temperature regulation, sample crusher
and grinder, a Brown high resistance pyrometer, balances, platinum crucibles, etc.
For investigating lubricants, the laboratory is equipped with such apparatus as
flash and chill point testers, hydrometers, viscosimeters, etc., used in the determination
of the physical properties of oil.
Hydraulics Laboratory.—The laboratory equipment for work in hydraulics
comprises a steel tank for weir experiments with interchangeable bronze
notches; a hook gauge for measurement of surface levels; a stand-pipe provided
with a set of standard bronze orifices for experiments on efflux; commercial pipe
and elbows arranged for determining friction losses; Gurley current meter; and
the necessary scales, tanks, manometers, etc. It also includes a pump which is
piped to circulate water from a cement cistern to a tank in the attic of the building.
Additional equipment of this laboratory is a motor driven centrifugal pump
with a capacity of 350 gallons per minute at 100 feet head, equipped with a Venturi
meter and the necessary piping, valves and gauges to provide for complete performance
tests on the pump. This unit also supplies water at constant pressure
for the other hydraulic tests. Recently added were a motor driven centrifugal
pump with a capacity of 300 gallons per minute at 500 feet head, and a Pelton
wheel manufactured by the Pelton Wheel Company expressly for laboratory use.
Power Laboratory.—The laboratory is equipped to illustrate the theory
involved in Mechanical Engineering; to give practical instruction in the handling
of machinery; and to teach the fundamental methods of experimental work. It
contains a Ball high-speed engine; a De Laval turbine with condensing and noncondensing
nozzles, which is direct-connected to a 20-kva. alternating-current
generator; an Otto gasoline engine with a special piston for alcohol; a White and
Middleton 12 HP. Engine (gasoline or illuminating gas); two Liberty aeroplane
motors; a Wheeler surface condenser to which the exhaust from any of the steam
units may be connected; a Sturtevant engine and blower; an air compressor; an
A. B. C. Pitot tube; a steam pump; steam traps, etc. For boiler tests, the boilers
of the University Heating and Lighting Plant are used. The work of this laboratory
has been facilitated by the recent installation of a Wickes 50 horsepower three
drum bent tube boiler designed for a working pressure of 150 pounds. This boiler
supplies steam to the laboratory and also affords excellent opportunities for boiler
tests.
The instrument room contains all necessary apparatus for carrying out complete
tests. Among this may be mentioned indicators, thermometers, gauges, planimeters,
with standards for their correction and calibration; two types of Orsat apparatus;
separating and throttling calorimeters, etc.
