 | University of Virginia |  |
Department of Engineering.
| WILLIAM M. THORNTON, LL. D., | Professor of Applied Mathematics. |
| WILLIAM H. ECHOLS, B. S., C. E., | Professor of Mathematics. |
| FRANCIS H. SMITH, M. A., LL. D., | Professor of Physics. |
| JOHN W. MALLET, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., F. R. S., | Prof. of Chemistry. |
| FRANCIS P. DUNNINGTON, B. S., | Professor of Analytical Chemistry. |
| WILLIAM M. FONTAINE, M. A., | Professor of Geology. |
| JAMES M. PAGE, A. M., Ph. D., | Associate Professor of Mathematics. |
| J. WALTER MAYO, | Assistant Instructor in Applied Mathematics. |
| W. J. HUMPHREYS, B.A., C.E., Ph.D., | Assistant Instructor in Physics. |
This department, constituted from the schools of Applied Mathematics,
Pure Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry,
Geology and Mineralogy, furnishes a complete course of instruction in
the principles and practice of Engineering and the sciences upon which
it is founded.
The general scientific courses have been described in the earlier
portion of this catalogue. In each school two courses are offered, a
general or B. A. course and an advanced or M. A. course. The first
deals with the general principles of the subject and those developments
of them which are best adapted for the purposes of a liberal
education. The second expands the field by the introduction of the
more difficult extensions of the science and such as become necessary
in its industrial applications.
In addition to these general courses there is offered in the school of
Applied Mathematics a complete series of technical courses, covering
the various branches of engineering—Civil and Mining, Mechanical and
Electrical. In each of these courses three lectures are given weekly,
and each course is further divided into sections, terminating at the
time of the Midwinter, Spring and Final Examinations respectively.
METHOD AND COURSES OF INSTRUCTION.
The method of instruction is by systematic lectures, and the study
of appropriate text-books, combined with a large amount of practical
work in the drawing-room, the laboratories, and the field. With each
lecture-course a series of such practical exercises is associated and the
student is not permitted to present himself as a candidate for graduation
until these exercises have been duly performed.
1. Projective Geometry.
a. Mechanical Drawing, including the instruments and their uses;
orthogonal projections; elementary problems in the intersections of
surfaces, and in shadows and perspective. Morris's Practical Plane and
Solid Geometry.
b. Descriptive Geometry of plane and curved surfaces, with applications
to shades and shadows, and to axonometric and perspective projections.
Faunce's Descriptive Geometry; Hill's Shades, Shadows and Perspective.
c. Building Construction in masonry, timber, and metals, introductory
to the design of structures and machines. Lectures with Burrell's
Elementary Building Construction and Drawing as a guide in drafting.
II. Engineering Geodesy.
a. Land, Mine, and City Surveying; Leveling; Construction of maps
and plans; mensuration of areas of land and of volumes of earthwork
and masonry. Raymond's Surveying, Nagle's Field Book.
b. Railway Engineering; location and construction of railways,
earthwork, rockwork, foundations, masonry, carpentry, ironwork,
track construction and maintenance. Nagle's Field Book; Tratman's
Railway Track and Trackwork.
c. Municipal Engineering, including the location, construction and
maintenance of roads, streets, and street railways; the water supply
of cities; sewerage and drainage of cities; and street cleaning and
lighting.
III. General Mechanics.
a. Theoretical Mechanics treated by elementary mathematical methods,
including the Kinematics and Dynamics of a particle, Statics,
Graphical Statics, Hydrostatics and Hydraulics. Jessop's Elements of
Applied Mathematics; Lectures.
b. Strength of Materials, including the theoretical principles of
stress, strain, elasticity, and resilience, and their applications in the
design of the parts of structures and machines. Greene's Structural
Mechanics, with lectures.
c. Graphical Statics, applied to girders and Trusses, to Retaining and
Reservoir Walls, and to Masonry Arches, Jacoby's Graphical Statics, with
lectures.
IV. Advanced Mechanics.
a. Dynamics of a particle and a rigid body with the application of
dynamical principles to the general theory of machines and to the
discussion of the special methods employed in the measurement, regulation,
and transmission of power. Lectures.
b. Hydraulics, including the general principles of the equilibrium
and movement of water, and their applications in the theory of
hydraulic motors and pumps. Bovey's Hydraulics.
c. Thermodynamics, including the study of heat as a form of energy,
with special applications to air, and to steam, and the discussion of the
laws of flow of elastic fluids and the thermodynamic action of Steam
and Gas engines. Peabody's Thermodynamics.
V. Civil Engineering.
a. Structures in Timber, Iron, and Steel, including the analysis and
design of rolled beams, plate girders, lattice girders, trusses, elastic
arches, and suspension bridges. Wright and Wing's Manual of Bridge
Drafting; Merriman's Bridge and Roof Trusses, Parts III and IV;
Lectures.
b. Structures in Masonry, including bridge foundations, abutments,
piers, arches, domes, retaining walls, and reservoir walls. Baker's
Masonry Construction; Lectures.
c. Canal and River Engineering, including the principles and practice
of Hydrographic Surveying, the regulation, improvement, and control
of rivers, the location and construction of canals, and the canalization
of rivers. Vernon Harcourt's Rivers and Canals; Lectures.
VI. Mining Engineering.
a. Exploitation of Mines, with special reference to the mining of
metals and of coal. Foster, Ore and Stone Mining. Hughes, Coal Mining.
b. Hydraulic Mining, with particular regard to the details of placer
mining. Bowie, Hydraulic Mining. Wilson's Hydraulic and Placer Mining.
c. Mining Machinery, including the prime movers employed in mining
operations, the methods of transmission of power, and the special
machinery employed for hoisting, pumping, ventilating the mine, and
handling the ores. Lectures.
VII. Mechanical Engineering.
a. Steam Boilers; their design, construction, operation and testing,
with the principles and practice of the heating and ventilation of buildings
by direct and indirect methods. Peabody and Miller's Steam
Boilers; Carpenter's Heating and Ventilation of Buildings.
b. Steam Engines; the thermodynamics of steam and the steam
engine; the mechanism of the engine; valve gears, governors, and flywheels;
typical forms of steam engine. Ewing's Steam Engine; Peabody's
Steam Tables.
c. Machine Design; the strength and proportions of parts of
machines, including the construction of fastenings, bearings, couplings,
of steam engine. Low and Bevis's Manual of Machine Drawing and
Design; Hermann's Graphical Statics of Mechanisms; Lectures.
VIII. Electrical Engineering.
a. Direct current machines, their design, construction, testing and
operation, with detailed study of typical forms of continuous current
generators and motors. Wiener's Dynamo-electric Machines; Jackson's
Electromagnetism and Construction of Dynamos.
b. Alternating currents and alternating current machinery; design,
construction, testing and operation of generators and transformers;
polyphase circuits, alternating current motors. Jackson's Alternating
Current Machines; Loppé and Bouquet's Alternate Currents in Practice.
c. Electrical systems for the conveyance and distribution of light,
heat, and power, and the storage of electrical energy. Lectures.
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 non-condensing, 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 for experiments. 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 chimneys, 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
measurements 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 center 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
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, a trimmer for pattern work, and a grindstone, with a suffident
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 planetable,
a sextant, compasses, leveling 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.
GRADUATION AND DEGREES.
In each school of this department a special diploma of graduation is
awarded to the successful student either in the general or in the
advanced courses. In the technical courses similar individual diplomas
are awarded. The titled degrees of Civil, Mining, Mechanical, or Electrical
Engineer are awarded to students who complete the work as
indicated in the following scheme.
| Civil. | Mining. | Mechanical. | Electrical. |
| A. Mathematics. Projective Geometry. Chemistry. |
A Mathematics. Projective Geometry. Chemistry. |
A. Mathematics. Projective Geometry. Chemistry. |
A. Mathematics. Projective Geometry. Chemistry. |
| B. A. Mathematics. Engineering Geodesy. Physics. |
B. A. Mathematics. Engineering Geodesy. Physics. |
B. A. Mathematics. General Mechanics. Physics. |
B. A. Mathematics. General Mechanics. Physics. Electricity. |
| M. A. Mathematics. General Mechanics. Geology. |
Analytical Chemistry. General Mechanics. Geology. |
M. A. Mathematics. Advanced Mechanics. |
M. A. Mathematics. Advanced Mechanics. Elec & Magnetism. |
| Advanced Mechanics. Civil Engineering. |
Mining Engineering. Industrial Chemistry. Mineralogy & Geology |
Mechanical Engineer'g Industrial Chemistry. |
Electrical Engineering. Industrial Chemistry. |
For a student whose preparation is not above the average in extent
and thoroughness each of these courses represents the work of four
years. Men who are able to enter with advanced standing in Mathematics
and are willing to apply themselves with diligence should be
able to complete the course in three years.
PROGRAMME OF HOURS.
The following programme shows the arrangement of hours for
lecture in this department:
| Mon. Wed. Fri. | Tues. Thurs. Sat. | |
| 9-10 | Civil Engineering. Geology (M. A.) |
Mechanical Engineering. General Geology. Mathematics (A.) |
| 10-11 | Projective Geometry. Analytical Chemistry. |
Engineering Geodesy. Electricity and Magnetism. Analytical Chemistry. |
| 11-12½ | B. A. Mathematics I. M. A. Mathematics. General Chemistry. Mining Engineering. |
B A. Mathematics II. General Physics. Electrical Engineering. |
| 12½-1½ | General Mechanics. | Advanced Mechanics. |
The afternoons, from 2:30 to 5:30, are devoted to practical work.
The lectures in Industrial Chemistry are given in the afternoons of
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
EXPENSES.
The necessary expenses at the University of a student in the Department
of Engineering may be estimated at from $265 a year upward,
according to the mode of living. This is somewhat diminished in the
case of Virginia students by the provisions for their free tuition in certain
schools. A fuller statement of expenses, including the conditions
under which Virginia students are entitled to free tuition, may be
found in a subsequent section.
| University of Virginia | |