Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 163]

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155 peculiar to this institution. It is expected that, by the work of this and the preceding term, the student will become familiar with the instruments and methods of orditary surveying, and form habits of precision and accuracy in field practice and in computations. ' TOPOGRAPHICAL DRAWING AND SDRVEY]NG is taken up in the spring term. The object of the first is to cultivate skill in the representation of topographical features and in mapping; of the second, to familiarize the student with the methods of topographical and hydrographical surveying, and to afford practical word in the drawing. This class is under the instruction of the assistant to this, department; for a number of years past it was ably conducted by Professor Sondericker, and it will be none the less ably conducted by his successor, Professor Talbot. EAILROAD ENGINEERING.—The mathematics of railway curves is studied from a text-book with practice, after which the questions relating to economic location are discussed in lectures, and then several preliminary lines are run. The lines are then compared to determine the most economical, due consideration being given to both constructing and operating expenses; a line is then located and the various engineering operations connected with the construction of the road are gone through with in order. A large amount of work is done in this term, and it is believed that the dissemination of the principles of economic location will save to the country money where in times past it has been lavishly wasted. ANALYTICAL MECHANICS is pursued during the two remaining terms of the junior year, all engineering students taking it together. A text-book is used. The results of this work are the least satisfactory of any which I have. This complaint is said to be common at other colleges. The subject, besides being difficult and requiring thorough mathematical training, is the first in which the student is required to apply his pure mathematics. Too often the value of a thorough knowledge of pure mathematics is not realized until the lack of it is felt in the attempt to apply it. The subject is one of great disciplinary and practical value, but often the student fails to realize this, and hence will not exert himself sufficiently. DESCRIPTIVE ASTRONOMY, in the third term of the junior year, is pursued by students from several courses; the class is taught in two sections. A text-book is used. The subject is interesting, and a very large amount of good work is done even in a short term at the end of the year. PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY AND GEODESY occupy the fall term of the senior year. About half a term is devoted to each; a text-book is used for the first and the second is given by lectures. The results obtained through the new instrument and the observatory have far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. From the first the results obtained by the students have been so surprisingly accurate that I have refrained from mentioning them for fear I might be mistaken. But, after further experience with students, and after mature reflection, I believe that a majority of the members of this class read angles an precisely as is done anywhere by anybody with ar similar instrument. It illustrates an important principle to know that a trained man, with a comparatively small amount of practice,.