 | 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. |
| GEORGE M. PEEK, M. E., | Instructor in 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 three distinct courses of study are offered, in Civil
Engineering, Mining Engineering, and 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 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
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 Frame 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 of the transmission of power. The course proceeds next
to a systematic exposition of the properties and modes of generation of steam,
and of the design of steam boilers and the management of steam plants. The
steam 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
are fully investigated.
Text-Books.—Reuleaux, The Constructor; Ewing's Steam and the Steam Engine;
Munro's Steam Boilers; Peabody's Valve-Gears; 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 a series of laboratory
exercises. Tests are made by all the students of the strength and elasticity
of constructive materials. Students of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
are required also to make tests of the pressure, temperature, and humidity
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, 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 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 | |