Mechanical Engineering Collection

The Mechanical Engineering Collection represented on the Universitys most historically-significant engineering collections, and also one of its greatest tragedies. At its height, the collection included: [1]

A 600 h.p. vertical, triple-expansion engine, directly connected to an electric generator, a type of machine in use in power-stations twenty years ago; [as of 1935] machines of historical value, including a 25 h.p. horizontal, double-acting, single-expansion steam engine, designed and built in 1871, with the help of students, by Professor S. W. Robinson, the first professor of mechanical engineering at the University. This engine supplied power to the first shop in which instruction in the mechanic arts was given in the United States

Despite the spectacular significance of the 1871 engine and the contributions to modern learning made by the other engines, all were lost in the early 1960s when the main bay of the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory was renovated. [2]