EXPERIMENTAL ENGINEERING LABORATORIES
Roads 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-pound 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.
Cement Laboratory.—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 interchangable 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.
