 | University of Virginia catalogue |  |
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. D., 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, C. E., | Instructor in Civil Engineering. |
| GEORGE M. PEEK, | Instructor in Mechanical Engineering. |
| HARRISON RANDOLPH, M. A., | Instructor in Mathematics. |
| JAMES H. CORBITT, M. A., B. Ph., | Instructor in Physics. |
| WILLIAM J. MARTIN, A. M., M. D., | Instructor in Chemistry. |
In this Department four distinct courses of study are offered, in Civil, Mining,
Mechanical and Electrical 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 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;
Johnson's Modern Framed Structures.
5. Steam Engineering.—The general principles of Machine Design are
first given and applied to the study of the elements of machines and the ordinary
methods for the transmission of power. The course proceeds next to a
systematic exposition of the properties and modes of generation of steam, and
engine is then considered, and the rules deduced for its proportions, and the
construction of valve-gears, governors, and fly-wheels carefully analyzed.
Finally, a careful study of the thermodynamics of the steam engine is given,
and the methods for testing the performance of engines and boilers are fully
investigated.
Text-Books.—Low's Manual of Machine Design; Jamieson's Text-Book of Steam
and the Steam Engine; Munro's Steam Boilers; Peabody's Valve-Gears; 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; Bodmer's Turbines; Turner and Brightmore's
Water-Works Engineering; Baumeister's Sewerage of Cities; Lectures on Thermodynamics;
Clerk'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
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 boiler, 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, themometers,
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
measurements of tensile strains have been 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
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 and Mining. | Mechanical and Electrical. | |
| First Year. |
Engineering Geodesy. Descriptive Geometry. General Chemistry. B. A. Mathematics. |
Descriptive Geometry. General Mechanics. General Chemistry. B. A. Mathematics. |
| Second Year. |
General Mechanics. General Physics. B. A. Geology. Assaying (M.) M. A. Mathematics (C.) |
Steam Engineering. General Physics. Electricity and Magnetism. M. A. Mathematics. |
| Third Year. |
Hydraulic Engineering. Bridge Construction (C.) Mining (M) Determ. Mineralogy (C.) M. A. Geology (M.) |
Hydraulic Engineering. Industrial Chemistry. Electricity and Magnetism. |
| University of Virginia catalogue | |