Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 162]

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154

CIVIL ENGINEERING.

PROFESSOR IRA 0 . BAKER, C. E. 27, 1886.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Feb. DR.

Regent: In accordance with your request, I submit the following report in behalf of the School of Civil Engineering: The primary object of the instruction is to train students to think and reason for themselves. The secondary object is to give information concerning the various branches of civil engineering. The attempt is to ground the student thoroughly in the fundamental principles, and give him practice in applying these to specific cases.Whenever possible the theoretical instruction is accompanied and illustrated by practice. The field practice is arranged on the plan of what is known in mechanical engineering as the Eussian system of shop practice. The way in which these principles are carried out can probably best be described by considering separately the subjects specially under my direction. In the freshman year the civil engineering students receive instruction in common with other engineering students. The first distinctively civil engineering subject is LAND SURVEYING, which is pursued during the fall term of the sophomore year. The instruction is given by a text-book with practice. The chain, plain-table and compass are used in finding distances, areas, etc. In this work special stress is laid upon the accuracy of the work, and the results uniformly obtained have been very gratifying. This is believed to be largely due to the specially prepared area, whereby the instructor knows the precise result which the student should obtain. This is an incentive to the student, and enables the teacher to show him the degree of accuracy attained and to point out the errors. During the cold weather at the end of the term, instruction is given in the methods of the U. S. public land surveys, including the legal points involved in the re-establishment of boundaries. SURVEYING is continued during the winter term, the transit, level and stadia being used. The instruction is given by lectures and practice. In explanation of the term lectures, it may be proper to add that the teacher writes out at considerable length what he has to say on a subject, and passes the manuscript to a student, who copies it by a cheap photographic process and sells to the members of the class. The lectures thus virtually become text-books, from which recitations are had in the usual way. Particular attention is given to the form of instrument and the method of using it to secure speed and accuracy. The student always enter into the work with enthusiasm, and a large amount of work is done with satisfactory results. Not a single problem or exercise is given in which the instructor has not an absolute check upon the result. This is considered an important feature of the instruction in this subject, as well as of that in land surveying, and geodesy and practical astronomy; and, as far as can be learned, is in the main

PEABODY, DEAR S I R :

S. H.