The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 50
General Statement
General Statement.
The School of Engineering is designed to furnish the students the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge, theoretical and practical, of those sciences and arts which are playing the most important parts in the development of the material resources of our country, and the advancement of our civilization.
Besides the application of the higher analysis to engineering investigation, the professional preparation of the students comprises the following subjects: The location and construction roads, railroads, canals and water-works; the surveys and improvements of coasts, harbors, rivers and lakes; the determination of astronomical and geographical co-ordinates on land and at sea; the design and construction of roofs and trusses, girders and suspension bridges; drawing and constructing the various kinds of arches; the design, application and construction of wind and hydraulic motors, air and steam engines; blow-pipe analyses of minerals, and economic geology, mineralogy, chemistry, elementary and applied; the art of war; the preparation of the various kinds of projections and drawings used by the military, topographical, civil and mine engineer, and the selection, tests and application of materials used in constructions, and papers and essays on professional subjects.'
I— | Civil Engineering. |
II— | Topographica Engineering. |
III— | Military Engineering. |
The great subdivisions of engineering, which are embodied in these courses, are road and railroad engineering, hydraulic engineering, bridge architecture and construction, topographical engineering, and, as prerequisite to and auxiliaries of these, engineering eodesy and practical astronomy.
The course in civil engineering is designed for those who wish to make either road and railroad engineering, bridge construction, or river improvement, a specialty.
We especially ask the attention of those young men who desire to fit themselves for the duties of county surveyor and of government land surveyor, to the fact, that every effort will be made to enable them to accomplish this within a short time. To this end, at the beginning of each year, a class will be organized and instructed (theoretically and practically) in land surveying, with compass, theodolite and solar compass; in the surveys for, and location and construction of, roads; and in the surveys for and location of, and in the designs for, and construction of wooden bridges, and in locating and surveying base lines, meridians, and township and section lines, and in retracing old government, township and section lines-This class will also be instructed in drawing. This course can be completed in thirty-eight weeks; and the degree of surveyor (with its diploma) will be conferred upon those who complete this course.
The Professor of Engineering is the sworn deputy of the county surveyor of Boone for the corporate limits of the city of Columbia, and hence the surveys he here makes are legal—they are accurately made, carefully computed and plotted, and properly recorded on the records of the county. The fees received for the work are regulated by statute (see General Statutes of Missouri).
These surveys not only serve as means of instruction for the Surveying and Engineering classes, but they are also a source of financial aid to the students. The students assisting in these surveys will receive the fees provided by law for such work.
The methods of instruction embrace the use of text-books, which are changed from time to time, lectures (ilustrated by diagrams of the great engineering and surveying operations and results of the present age) and actual field and observatory practice. And recognizing the truth of what Dr. Laws so well expresses, that "the primary aim of the academic schools of science and language is culture; that of the professional schools is practice; that self is the end of culture, but self is the instrument of practice," the field and observatory practice and work in the chart room are made to bear a large proportion to the theoretical instruction. The data thus obtained, by actual field surveys and practice in the observatory, serve both to elucidate the principles and formula, and insure their ready and accurate application in professional life.
In addition to the field, class room, observatory and chart room work, the engineering students have access from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m., each day, except Sunday, to the University Library, and also to the private library of the Professor of Engineering, page 110 which together contain nearly all the standard works on surveying, engineering geodesy and astronomy. These they are expected to make constant use of and thus enlarge, by careful reference and judicious reading, their acquaintance with the subjects presented in the text-books and lectures.
We desire to call special attention to the increased facilities which this University now enjoys for teaching astronomy. It offers facilities for instruction in theoretical and practical observatory and sextant astronomy, equal to any in the United States. The most refined astronomical methods of the U. S. Engineer Corps and the U. S. Coast Survey, are taught by the head of the mathematical department, assisted by those who have had years of instruction and training at West Point and on the Coast Survey. With these facilities, young men can prepare themselves for efficient service on the astronomical parties of the great geodetic surveys of our States and nation; and can also acquire the nautical astronomy required in navigating a ship.
The attention of those interested in engineering and astronomy, is specially asked to the reports of Professors Schweitzer and Ficklin (in this catalogue).
Our present professional force, and the increased facilities in apparatus and room furnished the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy and Engineering, by the enlightened liberality of the Thirty-second General Assembly, will be such that we can now offer a complete theoretical and practical treatment of the above great subdivisions of Engineering, Surveying and Astronomy.
During the summer of 1881 we visited the U. S. Military Academy, the Rensallear Polytechnic Institute, School of Mines Columbia College, Stevens Institute of Technology, Mass. Institute of Technology, Lawrence Scientific School. West Point, Troy, Sheffield Scientific School, Johns Hopkins University, the U. S. Naval Academy, and Washington University, almost all of the first class Engineering Schools in the United States; and had the pleasure of gaining an insight into the internal workings of these schools, i. e., as to what they were doing, and how. And after a careful survey of the field of American Engineering, and a critical consideration of the work of our co-laborers in these schools, we found reason for few and very slight changes, indeed, in our course.
Report.
Senior class | Regulars | 8 |
Junior class | Regulars | 13 |
Junior class | Irregulars | 6 |
Sophomore class | Irregulars and Regulars | 23 |
Total | 50 |
In addition to the regular professional work with the above classes, I taught, during the second semester, the class in elementary mechanics through statics, consisting of four academic students.
The classes in topographical surveying and engineering have, by frequent practice in the field, familiarized themselves with the use of the theodolite, sextant, spirit and water levels, leveling-rods, chain and compass and plane-table. And the class in surveying, by frequent practice in the field, have familiarized themselves page 111 with the use, manipulation and capabilities of the theodolite, compass and chain, and leveling-rods and spirit-levels, and the solar compass.
The energy, enthusiasm, painstaking care and accuracy displayed by these classes, have confirmed me in the opinion previously formed from observations and experience of seven years with field officers of the U. S. Coast Survey and Navy, that the American mind possesses a fertility of resources, a power of adapting means to ends, and an acuteness of perception which peculiarly fits it for an observer in the exact arts.
The engineering classes of 1877-78-80, laid an accurate base line and completed a trigonometrical survey of the University campus, horticultural grounds, and a part of the agricultural farm. In this trigonometrical frame work they filled the detail topography with the plane-table—plotting in the live-feet contour lines with the greatest accuracy. This system of triangulation and plane-table topography, thus begun, has this year been extended over the agricultural farm; and after this, it is hoped, will be gradually expanded till it eventually covers the entire State of Missouri.
My colleague, Prof. Jno. J. Haden, has instructed the class in descriptive geometry during the entire session, and with great success. Of this class he makes the following report; "For instruction in Descriptive Geometry, 'Church's Descriptive Geometry' has been used as a text. Each member of the class has been required to construct graphically, on paper, and submit for correction in the classroom, all problems relating to Orthographic and Spherical Projections, and Shades and Shadows and Linear Perspective, given or suggested in the text. Besides, a number of practical problems like the following: In Spherical Projections each student was required to construct an outline map of the State of Missouri: in Linear Perspective, to construct the perspective of the Scientific building of the University, etc. I have endeavored to make the work very thorough and to see that each member of the class understood the principles involved and their practical application to the construction of projections in Engineering work, to map drawing, perspective, etc."
During this session my colleague, Prof. J. W. Spencer, who is a graduate of the Engineering Department of his University, has delivered to the Senior Engineering class an admirable course of lectures on Economic Geology and Geological Surveying.
Prof. George C. Pratt, Railroad Commissioner State of Missouri, furnished in manuscript, two admirable lectures on railroad engineering, which were read to the engineering classes. Subsequently Prof. Pratt visited the University and delivered to the Senior Engineering class two most excellent and practical lectures on the subjects—"How to Make a Reconnaissance for a Railroad," and "How to Make a Preliminary Survey for a Railroad."
Drawing has been made a more prominent feature of the course; and Warren's entire series of engineering drawing books is now used as the text. MacCord on Mechanical Drawing, and Smith on Topographical Drawing are also used as texts. The progress of the class in this subject is highly gratifying.
The course in Topographical Engineering has been strengthened by giving greater prominence to the subjects of Hydrographic Surveying and Hydraulic Engineering.
The fact that we have been able to secure positions (on the surveys and improvements of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, on the coast survey, on railroad sur- page 112 veying and engineering parties, and on government land surveying parties), for the graduates from this department, has assisted materially in awakening an intelligent interest—a healthy enthusiasm—in the cause of engineering education at this University. And the present revival in the industries which demands engineering and chemical skill, has already increased, and promises to further increase the number of students in this department.
Thomas J. Lowry
, Dean of the Faculty.