Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1870 [PAGE 63]

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suppose that only one-half an acre each be planted this year, and after a year or two, another half acre be added—all the plantations of one year making a compact body, and thus giving all the conditions of a continuous forest. The experiment thus made under the varying conditions of successive seasons, will throw a more conclusive light upon the whole question, and will lead to results much safer and more satisfactory. I commend the whole subject to the wisdom of the Board.

T H E MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT.

We have had considerable numbers of mechanical students here from the outset, and from the very outset instruction has been given in Mathematics and Mechanical Philosophy, the two main branches of learning relating to the mechanic arts. A shop was opened the first year, in which more or less of the students sought and found employment. A Professor of Mechanical Science was also appointed, but, after a year, he finally declined the appointment. The Executive Committee soon after appointed to the vacant chair Prof. S. "W. Robinson, late of the Michigan University, and at the opening of this term, Prof. Robinson entered upon service. Of the legislative appropriation for books and apparatus, $2,000 had been set apart for apparatus for the Mechanical Department, and after a full discussion of the matter with the Professor in charge, the Executive Committee decided that it was expedient to allow this sum to be expended for a steam engine, lathes and other tools and materials for a machine shop. These machines themselves are among the most important illustrative apparatus— being working models—and with the shop thus provided, we shall be able to produce for ourselves other apparatus, not only for this, but also for other departments of the University, and at cheaper rates than we can purchase them elsewhere. But still better, the shop helps us to carry out the great idea of practical instruction which we have sought so steadily to secure in the other departments. It is not to teach boys trades that we intend, but to exhibit to them the practical illustration in the shop of the scientific principles they study in the books or learn in the lecture room. Their science grows luminous under the light of such illustrations, and instead of mere learned theorists, our students will go forth as practical engineers, architects and mechanicians. On consultation with Prof. Robinson, I consented that he should attempt the manufacture of his engine, rather than purchase it ready made, as he desired one of his own devising, with different sets of valve gears, which would enable him to exhibit several distinct forms of the steam engine, without adding materially to the expense. Prof. Robinson accordingly employed, to assist him, Mr. Thomson, a skilled and liberally educated mechanic. They, with the assistance of the mechanical students, have made their own patterns, and an engine of ten-horse power is now completed. By raising the roof of the carpenter's shop and adding a second story, a good shop has been secured at slight expense.