Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 156]

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148 solution of practical problems, and is far better suited to mediaeval times, when both books and facts were infinitely more scarce than they are to-day. 4. Problems and Designs.—Problems are employed for testing theaccuracy of the knowledge acquired by the student, and are arranged to be as nearly similar to those occurring in actual practiceas possible. They afford the best means of. determining whether the student has merely memorized the instruction or has actually digested and assimilated it. Designs are merely graphical solutions of problems, capable of this expression, and are required wherever possible throughout the course, not being limited to the work of the two terms in Architectural designing alone. Students are referred to examples of similar problems, worked out by professional draftsmen, just as students of English Literature are advised and required to study some of the classical writers, to observe their modes of expression, peculiarities, etc. Whenever the number of students in a class permit this the average character of their work is considerably improved by individual emulation, especially if some member of the class possessesconsiderable talent and a refined taste. This is the chief means employed in the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris, everything else being subordinated to this idea, resulting in the production of a small number of expert designers. The following grades of paper are now used in the School of Architecture: Paragon, for Architectural Drawings. Universal, for Construction Drawings. Duplex, for Details, Tinted Sketches, etc. To better systematize the work, the following standard dimensionsof drawings have been adopted, taking imperial paper as a basis: Full size to be cut 20x28 inches. Half size, cut 14x20. Quarter size, cut 10x14.

TECHNICAL STUDIES.

GRAPHICAL STATICS.—This is a study of the effects of equilibrated

forces, employing scale diagrams instead of algebraic formulae. The course of instruction now comprises composition and resolution of forces, moments of forces, center of gravity of figures, moment of inertia of figures. The principal application is. made to the determination of the strains in roof-trusses of various type-forms, caused by wind, snow and dead loads. The modes of determining the sections of trussmembers required to resist these strains, the calculation of th£ actual lengths of members, dimensions and detail drawings of joint connections, are also fully given, though properly belonging to resistance of materials, studied later in the course.