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PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY.
This course, which is required of all students in the Department of
Engineering, is intended to familiarize the student with the use of
drafting instruments and the conventions of mechanical drawing, to
train him to accuracy and readiness in the constructive processes of
Plane and Solid Geometry, and to give him a large amount of thoughtful
exercise in the practical processes of machine design and building
construction.
1. Mechanical Drawing and Descriptive Geometry.
The work of the first term is devoted especially to the training of
the student in Mechanical Drawing, the use of drawing instruments
and practice in the solution at the drawing board of geometrical
problems in the plane and in space. It begins with the systematic
study of the constructive geometry of the plane, including problems
on lines and angles, triangles and quadrilaterals, the construction of
regular polygons, the division of lines and arcs, and the construction
of similar figures. The rules for the projection of prisms, pyramids,
cones, cylinders, and spheres are then studied, and their sections and
intersections are constructed. The descriptive geometry of the line
and the plane is next taken up, and the fundamental problems of
tangencies and intersections are solved for ruled surfaces and revolutes.
At the conclusion of the course the processes of graphical
arithmetic are explained and the methods of graphical addition and
subtraction, multiplication and division, involution and evolution, and
differentiation and integration are carefully taught and practised, and
instruction is given in the theory and use of the planimeter.
2. Building Construction.
The second term is devoted to a systematic exposition of the principles
and methods of general Building Construction. The subject
of foundations is discussed and illustrated by examples, and exercises
in the design of ordinary foundations, pile foundations, raft foundations,
coffer-dam foundations, and pneumatic foundations are carefully
worked out. The materials and processes of masonry construction
are then considered; the properties and preparation of building
stones and bricks, of limes and cements, of mortars and concretes are
explained; the specifications for stone and brick masonry are critically
considered and the methods for estimating quantities of material and
cost of workmanship are explained and practised. A similar discussion
follows for timber construction, and the carpentry of floors and
partitions, framing, roofs, ordinary timber bridges, trestles, and the
woodtrim of buildings is carefully criticised. The next section of the
course deals with iron and steel in their structural uses, the sources
and properties of the materials, the methods of manufacture, and the
assembling and fireproofing of modern skeleton steel structures. The
final division of the course is devoted to a discussion of the materials
and processes employed for roofing, plastering, painting, glazing,
paper-hanging and so on. Numerous exercises in drafting and design
accompany the course and are worked out in detail by the student.
In connection with these suitable instruction is also given in the
theory and practice of perspective and axonometric projections, and
of shades and shadows.
3. Machine Drawing and Design.
The third term is given to study and practice in Machine Drawing
and design. The conventional methods of representation for rivets,
bolts, screws, keys, gibs and cotters, and other fastenings are
explained and illustrated. The principal elements of machines are
then taken up and discussed in order, and the rules for proportioning
shafts and their journals, pulleys, toothed gears, cranks, connecting
rods, crank and wrist pins, cross-heads and their guides, pistons,
cylinders and so on are developed and applied. As in all other parts
of the course the exercises of the lecture room are paralleled by
practical examples at the drawing board, and each student is required
to execute a sheet of machine details designed by himself.
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