University of Virginia Library

ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.

                         

WILLIAM M. THORNTON, LL. D.,	Professor of Applied Mathematics.
CHARLES S. VENABLE, LL. D.,	Professor of Mathematics.
FRANCIS H. SMITH, M. A., LL. D.,	Professor of Natural Philosophy.
JOHN W. MALLET, M. A., Ph. D., LL. D., F. R. S.,	Professor of Chemistry.
FRANCIS P. DUNNINGTON, B. S.,	Professor of Analytical Chemistry.
WILLIAM M. FONTAINE, M. A.,	Professor of Mineralogy and Geology.
WILLIAM H. ECHOLS, B. S., C. E.,	Adjunct Professor of Applied Mathematics.
PHIPPS MILLER,	Instructor in Civil Engineering.
GEORGE M. PEEK,	Instructor in Mechanical Engineering.
HARRISON RANDOLPH, M. A.,	Instructor in Mathematics.
JAMES C. SOUTHALL, Jr.,	Instructor in Physics.
JAMES H. CORBITT, B. A., B. Ph.,	Instructor in Physics.
WILLIAM J. MARTIN, M. D.,	Instructor in Chemistry.

In this Department three distinct courses of study are offered, in Civil,
Mining, and Mechanical Engineering. Each course is designed to occupy for
a well prepared student a period of three years, and leads to the appropriate
professional degree. In addition to the general scientific courses described in
the earlier pages of these Announcements the following special professional
courses are offered. In each three lectures a week are given extending through
the entire session:

1. Descriptive Geometry.—The first half session is devoted to the Descriptive
Geometry of the point, the straight line, and the plane. Great stress
is laid at the outset on the cultivation of the power of forming clear mental
pictures of space-relations, and this capacity is disciplined and improved by the
copious use of constructive exercises, solved by the student at the blackboard
or the drawing table. The second half session is devoted to the study of the
projections, intersections, tangencies and developments of ruled surfaces and
revolutes, with their applications to the theory of shades and shadows, of axonometric,
and of perspective projections. Through the entire course the drawing
table is in constant use. (Mr. Echols.)

Text-Books.—Low's Practical Solid Geometry; Waldo's Exercises in Descriptive
Geometry; Lectures on Shades and Shadows, Axonometric, and Perspective Projections.

2. Engineering Geodesy.—In the first half session the field-instruments
of the engineer are studied theoretically and practically. Linear measuring apparatus,

the transit, the level, the plane-table, the solar transit, the sextant, and
the barometer are examined in detail. Thorough familiarity with all their parts,
adjustments and uses is insisted on. The fundamental problems of surveying
and location are then mastered, and with this preparation a complete study of
land, city, mining, and topographical surveying completes the first division of
the course. The second half session is given to a minute study of the reconnoissance,
preliminary survey, location, and construction of lines of communication.
The chief part of the work is in Railway Engineering. The study of
Highway and Canal construction and maintenance completes the course.
(Mr. Echols.)

Text-Books.—Johnson's Surveying; Baker's Instruments; Byrne's Highway Construction;
Vernon-Harcourt's Rivers and Canals; Lectures on Railroad Construction.

3. Mining.—The exploitation of mines is minutely studied from the preliminary
geological survey through the prospect, location and survey to the extraction
of the ore. The construction of works of exploration, blocking out the
ore, and extraction by shaft or incline or adit are discussed in detail. The
methods of drainage, ventilation, lighting and underground transport are investigated.
The subject of the mechanical treatment of the ore is next considered,
and the various processes of ore-breaking and wet and dry concentration are
discussed. The course closes with the study of Hydraulic Placer mining.
(Mr. Echols.)

Text-Books.—Callon's Lectures on Mining; Bowie's Hydraulic Mining.

4. Bridge Construction.—The sources and properties of the materials
used in bridge construction are first discussed. The principles of bridge
location are next considered, and the various methods of construction for bridge
foundations are studied. The statical analysis and design of arched bridges
in masonry are next investigated. The straining actions in framed bridge
structures are then examined, and examples of standard types of steel and iron
girder bridges are critically analyzed, complete designs being worked out for
certain of the more important forms. The preparation of the plans, specifications,
working drawings, and bills of materials are thoroughly discussed. The
course closes with a careful analysis of the more complex types of bridge design—the
continuous girder, the braced arch, and the suspension bridge—and
a critical review of some great illustrative modern structures. (Mr. Thornton.)

Text-Books.—Thurston's Materials of Construction; Baker's Masonry Construction;
DuBois's Strains in Framed Structures.

5. Steam Engineering.—The course begins with a systematic study of
the properties of fuels, the methods used for their combustion, the design and
construction of boilers, and the erection of plants for the generation of steam.
The methods of measuring the power of the engine and of designing engines,
both simple and compound, for given power and speed, are next considered.
The straining actions in all parts of the engine are computed, and the dimension

needed to secure strength and stiffness in the motor and the machinery of
transmission are fixed. The methods for regulating the motor are next taken
up, and the rules for the design of the fly-wheel and for the proportions of the
various types of governors are deduced. The valve-gears are then studied and
carefully analyzed by both arithmetical and graphical methods. The course
concludes with a study of the thermodynamics of steam and the steam engine,
and the application of this theory to the problems of condensation, boiler-feeding,
and testing engines and boilers. (Mr. Thornton.)

Text-Books—Schwackhöfer and Browne's Fuel and Water; Munro's Steam Boilers;
Jamieson's Text-Book of Steam and Steam Engines; Unwin's Machine Design; Cotterill's
Steam Engine as a Heat Engine; Peabody's Steam Tables.

6. Hydraulic Engineering.—The course begins with a systematic study
of the principles of Hydrostatics and Hydraulics and their applications in the
design of dams for reservoirs and of conduits for the transmission of water.
The fundamental problems of canal and river engineering are then approached,
and the methods used for the control and improvement of water-supplies for
power, irrigation, and navigation are examined. The subject of hydraulic machinery
follows, and a careful analysis of the action of water-wheels, turbines,
water-pressure engines and pumps is made, and rules for their design are deduced.
The problems of sanitary engineering are next examined under the
several divisions of city water-supplies, surface and subsoil drainage, sewerage
of cities, and sewage disposal. The course concludes with a study of theoretical
thermodynamics and the applications to the problems of heating and ventilation,
and to the design of air-compressors, gas-engines, and so on. (Mr.
Thornton.)

Text-Books.—Merriman's Hydraulics; Weisbach's Hydraulic Motors; Bodmer's
Turbines; Fanning's Water-Supply Engineering; Waring's Sewerage and Land Drainage;
Peabody's Thermodynamics; Cerk's Gas Engines.

In addition to the foregoing lecture courses, the following practical courses
are given:

Field-work with the chain and tape, level, compass, transit, plane-table,
barometer, and current-meter is required of all students of Civil and Mining
Engineering, the work extending over three years. A thorough drill is given in
the use and adjustments of the instruments.

Mechanical Drawing is required of all students in the School, and extends
over three years. It embraces a careful drill in the use of drawing instruments
with constant practice in the drawing-room in the preparation of the
various plates, maps, and designs required in connection with the above courses.

Shop-work in wood and iron is required of all students of Mechanical
Engineering, and extends over two years. It includes a series of graduated exercises
with hand and machine tools in wood and metal, and instruction in
forging.

Associated with the various lecture courses also are series of laboratory
exercises. Tests are made by all the students of the strength and elasticity of
constructive materials. Students of Mechanical Engineering are required also
to make tests of the pressure, temperature, and humidity of the steam used in
the engine, and to calibrate the gauges, thermometers, and calorimeters employed
for this purpose; to determine the evaporative power and efficiency of
the boilers, and to measure the indicated power and the brake power of the
engine.

The Mechanical Laboratory contains a twenty-five horse-power Ball
automatic high-speed engine; an upright tubular boiler; a forty-five light Edison
dynamo; a collection of hand and machine tools; gauges, thermometers,
barometers, dynamometers, calorimeters, and other apparatus for engine and
boiler trials; a 100,000-pound Olsen testing machine for tensile, transverse and
compressive tests of the strength and elasticity of materials; a 1,000-pound
cement-tester, and the necessary appliances for micrometric measurements of
strain. Apparatus for torsional tests of strength and rigidity and for the precise
measurement of tensile strains have been recently added.

The collection of Field Instruments contains a surveyor's compass, a
railroad compass, a wye level, a dumpy level, a plain transit, a complete transit,
with the Saegmuller Solar attachment, a plane-table, a sextant, a standard
barometer, an aneroid barometer, and a full supply of ranging-poles, flag-poles,
chains, tapes, and other accessories, with a planimeter, a trigonometer, and two
vernier-protractors for use in office-work.

To pursue successfully the foregoing courses, the student should have such
a preparation as is given by the work of the First Year in the School of Mathematics.
With this preliminary training, the following are the courses for the
several degrees. The order indicated is recommended, though not obligatory:

       

	Civil.	Mining.	Mechanical.
First Year.	Engineering Geodesy. Descriptive Geometry. B. A. Mathematics. General Chemistry.	Engineering Geodesy. Descriptive Geometry. B. A. Mathematics. General Chemistry.	Descriptive Geometry. General Mechanics. B. A. Mathematics. General Chemistry.
Second Year.	General Mechanics. M. A. Mathematics.[1] B. A. Physics. Mineralogy.[2]	General Mechanics. Practical Assaying. B. A. Physics. Descriptive Mineralogy.	Steam Engineering. M. A. Mathematics. B. A. Physics. Determ. Mineralogy.[3]
Third Year.	Bridge Construction. Hydraulic Engineering. B. A. Geology. Industrial Chemistry.[4]	Mining. Hydraulic Engineering. Geology. Industrial Chemistry.	Hydraulic Engineering. Electricity. Magnetism. Industrial Chemistry.