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EQUIPMENT.
The new Mechanical Laboratory, designed especially for the work of instruction
in Engineering, is a handsome building, one hundred and eighty-five feet long and
seventy feet deep. The lecture-rooms, the offices for the professors, and the drawing-room
are upon the first floor, and the latter is in close contiguity with rooms
for blue-printing and other photographic work, which have been conveniently
arranged under the roof.
The lower floor is devoted to the purposes of laboratory instruction in engineering
mechanics. The equipment for engine tests consists of a high-speed Ball
automatic engine, arranged so that it can be operated either condensing or noncondensing,
a Wheeler condenser, indicators, and friction brakes, thermometers,
calorimeters and gauges, the whole constituting a complete outfit for illustrating
the best methods of determining the power and efficiency of the steam engine.
For work in the strength and elasticity of materials there has been provided a
Riehle automatic and autographic testing machine of one hundred thousand pounds
capacity, a plain Olsen machine of the same capacity, an Olsen torsional tester for
specimens up to five feet in length and one and one-half inches in diameter, an
Olsen transverse tester for loads up to eight thousand pounds, and a full outfit of the
extensometers, deflection meters, micrometers, and so on, needed with these machines.
For testing cements, mortars, and concretes, an Olsen lever machine and an automatic
Fairbanks machine have been provided, with a proper outfit of accessory
apparatus. In addition, a machine for compression tests is now in process of construction
in the Laboratory, and will be used later for special researches.
For testing lubricants an Olsen machine for journal friction has been secured, an
Engler viscosimeter, apparatus for flash tests and chill tests, thermometers, hydrometers,
and so on, and, in addition, a new machine is now under construction in
the Laboratory specially designed for experiments on pivot friction.
For tests of fuels, furnaces and boilers, the heating plant of the University
furnishes an ample basis of experiment. It consists of two large horizontal, return
tubular boilers, each with capacity of over one hundred and forty horsepowers.
Adequate provision has been made for complete tests of the heating
power of the fuels used, the quality of the steam, the temperatures in the furnaces,
flues, and chimney, the constitution of the furnace gases, and the economy
and efficiency of the plant. A Favre and Silbermann calorimeter, a Siemens pyrometer,
Orsat gas analysis apparatus of an improved type, steam calorimeters, thermometers,
gauges, and scales constitute the outfit for this work.
Careful attention has been paid to the means for standardizing the apparatus
employed. A mercury column for direct measurements of pressure up to two
hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch is now under construction, and will
provide for the exact calibration of steam and hydraulic gauges, indicators, and so
on. An accurately constructed Regnault air thermometer, with the usual apparatus
for testing the fundamental points of thermometric graduation will be used
to standardize all calorimeters, pyrometers, and thermometers. Standard weights
and measures are provided for testing apparatus for measurement of length and
mass. The attempt has been made in every particular to provide an equipment
which will afford the student of engineering adequate and accurate training in
rational and practical methods of test and of research.
The investigations and studies of the Testing Laboratory constitute the centre
towards which all the processes of instruction will converge. Students will be
induced, as far as possible, to secure their training in shop work before entering
upon their engineering studies. For those who are unable to secure such training,
the time and energy devoted to mere shop practice will be reduced to a minimum.
Each member of the school will be assigned to some special problem; will prepare
in the drafting-room the necessary drawings, tracings, and blue-prints for his
work, execute the patterns in the wood-shops, make the castings and forgings
needed in the foundry and forge-room, finish and fit the parts in the metal-shop,
and finally carry out in detail the experimental investigation contemplated. The
object of the course of instruction will be to make engineers rather than machinists,
and all details of the work will be organized with that end in view.
For the purpose of carrying into effect this programme of instruction all the
departments accessory to the Laboratory have been simply, but effectively, fitted
up with hand and machine tools of the best modern construction. Needless duplication
has been avoided and the various sizes and makes of machine tools have
been selected, so as to illustrate the best present practice of American designers.
The Wood-shop contains lathes of various sizes, a swing-saw, a saw-table with
slitting and cut-off saws, a band-saw, a scroll-saw, a jointer, a planer, and a grindstone,
with a sufficient number of benches for hand work, and a proper outfit of
hand tools.
The Metal-shop contains Fitchburg and Reed engine lathes of various sizes,
a 24-inch Whitcomb planer, a 20-inch Barnes drill-press, a 26-inch Davis and
Egan drill-press, a 15-inch crank-shaper of the same make, a Universal milling-machine
and a Universal grinder, both from Brown and Sharpe, an emery grinder,
a grindstone, a cut-off saw, a gas forge and Reichhelm blower, for forging and
tempering tools and other small pieces, with work benches and a full outfit of hand
tools.
The Foundry is fitted up with a 30-inch Whiting cupola, a brass furnace, and
the necessary founders' tools, benches and moulding troughs for sand moulding
and core work. The Forge-room is provided with four Sturtevant forges, a smiths'
bench, and the necessary outfit of smiths' tools for each forge. Both the Foundry
and Forge-room are located in the Boiler House, and the blast and exhaust fans
for this work are operated by a small Sturtevant automatic steam engine located
in the same building.
The equipment of the department in field instruments is modern and complete.
It contains a Y level, a dumpy level, a plain transit, a complete transit with vertical
arc, stadia wires, and gradienter, a plane-table, a sextant, compasses, levelling
rods, mercurial and aneroid barometers, tapes, chains, planimeter, protractor, and
all needful accessory apparatus for land, city, railway, and hydrographic surveying.
Instruction in field engineering as well as in the construction of plans and
maps is thorough and practical.
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