Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - Engineering Experiment Station and Industry (1909) [PAGE 16]

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Breckenridge—Engineering Experiment Station

B

Breckenridge—Engineering" Experiment Station

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(4) Brake Shoe Testing Machine.—For the testing of brake shoes the department has constructed a brake shoe testing machine similar in design and identical in operation with the standard machine owned by the Master Car Builders' Association. By means of this apparatus it is possible to determine the coefficients of friction and the wearing qualities of various makes of brake shoes, as well as the wear of the wheel under the action of the shoes. The above list will serve to show what facilities are now available for investigations in certain lines of work; but after all it is men and not facilities that determine what of value will finally be done. The men who have been giving thought, direction, energy and work to the Station during the last year are in a general way indicated by the following groups:— (a) (b) (c) The heads of the different departments of the College of Engineering 9 The special investigators of the Station. Experts devoting all their time to this work, doing work, directing work and planning work 9 Research Fellows of the Station appointed for two years, devoting one half their time to the investigations of the Station and one half to Graduate Work, receiving the Master's degree at the end of the period 9 Various members of the corps of instruction of , the College of Engineering who are able to devote a small part of their time to some investigation or who are able to direct some work in progress by assistants, fellows or scholars. . 10 Some Fellows and Scholars doing research work in the Graduate School 4 Heads of other departments of the University. Experts of the Federal Government, chiefs of state department bureaus, all cooperating with the Station for the mutual advance of special investigations 8 Advisory Committees representing various engineering societies and commercial and civic organizations giving counsel, advice, suggestions and criticisms 10 Draftsmen, computers, clerks, mechanics, assistants and laborers 12 persons persons

The Work Already

Accomplished.

The work which has thus far been undertaken may be divided into three parts:— (a) Work completed and results published. (b) Work in progress. (c) Work of preliminary investigations. (a) There have now been published (a few now in press) thirty-six (36) bulletins" of the Station. As these bulletins are sent to all members of this Society it wili not be necessary to refer in detail to their titles or to the character of the investigations to which they refer. When an investigation has .been completed and the manuscript and drawings are ready for the press, a publication committee of three is appointed who are asked to read the material prepared, to look out for errors, and to criticise the work as they desire. The number of each edition published varies from six to twelve thousand copies, depending upon the character of the work and the estimated demand for the number. In several instances a second edition has been found necessary. At present about one-half of the bulletins printed are sent to residents of Illinois, the other half are sent to residents of other states and foreign countries. That the work of the Station is fully appreciated by engineers, manufacturers and others is shown by the hundreds of congratulatory letters received by the Station as well as by the very considerable space given in the best technical papers at home and abroad, to the reproduction of its papers and to favorable editorial comment. It is particularly desired that the bulletins of the Station should be received by all persons in Illinois interested in the numerous problems which connect its many industrial activities with the researches of engineering and applied science, such as manufacturing, mining and railway transportation; the chemical and heat values of Illinois fuels; coal consumption in boiler furnaces, in gas producers, or in residence heating furnaces; the strength of materials used in building engineering structures; the strength of concrete both plain and reinforced; the durability of road material; the flow of water in pipes, conduits and channels; the sanitary problems of industrial corporations and municipalities; the generation, transmission and use of electricity; the problems of architectural construction, roof trusses, columns, base plates, piers and foundations; the cost of power and the problems of heating and ventilation; the problems of heat transmission, radiation and absorption; the problems of speech and signal transmission and many other problems which the above enumeration will suggest. In the wise distribution of the publications of the Station, the members of this Society may be most helpful and they should request that bulletins be sent to such persons, particularly those living in Illinois, as they believe would use and appreciate them. There are in Illinois about one hundred and fifty public libraries, all of

persons

(d)

persons persons

(e) (f)

persons

(g)

persons persons

(h)

It will thus be seen that more than seventy persons are now more or less directly interested in the work of the Station; of this number about fifty are actively engaged in the work of the Station for a part of their time and approximately twenty persons are devoting all their time to the interests of the Station. %