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ENGINEERING GEODESY.
This course is required of all students of Civil or Mining Engineering.
Its aim is to teach the construction and use of the standard field
instruments of the engineer, the methods of field work, the best
and their use in the location of lines for roads, railways, sewers,
waterpipes, and so on, the mathematical processes for estimating
quantities—as lengths, angles, areas, volumes, velocities—the location
and construction of roads and railways, and the execution and maintenance
of works of municipal engineering.
1. Surveying.
The work of the first term is a systematic study of the standard
field instruments, their construction, adjustments, and uses in Surveying.
The class takes up in order, the chain and tape, the level
and levelling rod, the compass, the plain transit, the complete transit
with vertical arc, stadia wires and gradienter, and the current meter,
studies their details in the class-room and practises their use in the
field; the arrangement of the field notes and the methods of recording
observations are taught at the same time. The methods for
reducing the field notes are next taught and practised; elevations and
profiles are obtained, lengths and angles are computed, areas are estimated
from the notes and determined graphically and mechanically
from the map, volumes and discharges are computed, and the methods
of subdividing areas and determining the values of inaccessible
lengths, heights, and directions are taught. This section of the course
is concluded by the discussion and solution of the chief problems of
geodetic astronomy—the location of the true meridian and the
determination of the declination of the needle, the determination of
latitude, the determination of local time and of longitude, with a
degree of precision sufficient for the needs of the engineer. Suitable
attention is given at proper points in the course to field instruments
of minor importance, such as the hand level, the barometer, the plane
table, the sextant, and so on.
2. Railway Engineering.
The next term is devoted to the subject of Railway Engineering.
from the field notes of a preliminary survey, furnished by the methods
of surveying already discussed, the student is required to construct
a map of the line, to interpolate the contours, and to complete the
paper location. The methods of field location are then carefully developed
and abundant exercise is given in determining the elements of
simple, compound, and reverse curves, in the location of transition
curves, and in the computation and setting out of frogs, switches,
and turnouts. Methods of construction are then studied and the
details of earthwork, rockwork, tunneling, and trestling are carefully
discussed. Finally the problems connected with track work are considered,
and the cross-section of the roadbed, the ballast, the ties and
and ballasting, and the general questions connected with track construction
and maintenance are carefully reviewed.
3. Municipal Engineering.
The last division of the course deals with the chief topics of Municipal
Engineering. The questions connected with street pavements
are first examined and a careful exposition is given of the principles
of construction of driveways and sidewalks for city and suburban
streets, and incidentally for country highways. All the standard
forms of paving material are discussed with reference to their technical
and economical features, and the rational methods of constructing
the road bed, laying the pavement, and maintaining its surface
are developed. The problems of location and construction of street
railways also receive due consideration. The subject of water supplies
for cities is next taken up. The sources of supply and their sanitary
values are considered, together with the methods of collection, the
construction of storage and distributing reservoirs and their dams
and outlet-works, the processes of filtration and their economic and
sanitary relations, the design and construction of aqueducts and pipe
lines, and the distribution and measurement of individual supplies.
Finally, the sewerage and drainage of cities is discussed. Methods
are investigated for the removal of house sewage and of storm drainage,
and the rules of design of separate and combined sewers are
carefully expounded. The construction of pipe and brick sewers is
then explained, together with the manholes, flush tanks, syphons,
tide outlets, and other accessory works embraced in a sewage system,
and the problems of maintenance are considered. In conclusion the
questions of sewage disposal are concisely investigated and the principles
of the various methods in use with their sanitary and economic
relations receive due attention.
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