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 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 fitted
with a suspended ball compression block; an Olsen torsion machine of 50,000inch-pounds
capacity; 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 Henning extensometer, an Olsen compressometer,
and a Ewing optical extensometer of great delicacy.
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; an Olsen steaming oven for accelerated tests; an Olsen 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 calorimetry, a Junker calorimeter made by the American Meter Co. is used
The equipment also includes a Braun gas muffle furnace, a Brown high resistance
pyrometer, balances, platinum crucibles, etc. For investigating the coefficient
of friction for lubricants, the laboratory has an Olsen-Cornell oil tester,
and is further equipped with such apparatus as flash and chill point testers,
hydrometers, viscosimeters, etc., used in the determination of the physical
properties of oils.
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; 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.
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 non-condensing nozzles, which is direct-connected to a 20-kva
alternating-current generator; an Otto gasoline engine with a special piston
for alcohol; a Wheeler surface condenser to which the exhaust from any of
the steam units may be connected; a Sturtevant 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 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.
