Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1882 [PAGE 33]

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27 iime at the bench in finding surfaces and forming shapes with the cold chisel and the file. His next lessons are at the hand lathe in turning iron and brass, and afterward at the engine lathe and the. planer in turning, cutting screws, and in facing up various forms. I n all this work he is under the constant supervision of a watchful master, who holds him strictly to correct methods, and makes him accountable for accurate results. The object of this work is to teach correct ideas of the use and care of tools, and the development of forms, and the only result sought is accurate workmanship. The pieces, when finished, may go upon the scrap-pile, or into the melting-pot, if not wanted for samples. In the second year, the student is employed upon some form of actual construction. The interest pertaining to doing a new thing is increased by giving that new thing a recognized utility. Some form of machine is chosen, such, for example, as the need of the shop itself may require. The subject is taken into the Drawingroom, its purposes and requirements are fully discussed, and the steps of the design are worked out. If at all complex, the whole class works upon the same drawings until the design has crystallized into definite shape. Then the parts are assigned to individuals. One takes a wheel, another a piece of the frame, or if the item be large, two persons work together upon it; detailed drawings are made and offered ror inspection. If found satisfactory, the drawing is taken to the Pattern shop and the pattern is made, which must also undergo rigid inspection before it can go forward to the Foundry. Thence the rough casting goes to the Machine shop, and receives such finishing, by such methods and with such tools, as the case may require. Thus the Sophomore class of 1879-80 have built the heavier parts of a large drill press. The standard of this machine is 84 inches high; its circular table, 25 inches in diameter, swings on the main pillar, and is raised and lowered by rack motion; it will be adapted for automatic or hand feed; its spindle will have a quick return motion; it has the usual fast and loose pulleys and back gears for use in boring large openings. In all respects the machine will be first-class. Having furnished class instruction to the class of last year, it is now doing a similar service to the present class, which will finish it during the present term. When complete all the work upon it will have been done by the students of the University, except the cutting of the gears, for which the shop has, as yet, no suitable machinery. The building of a milling machine will furnish useful instruction to classes yet to come. The students of higher classes have a greater proportion of the" oretical work, which their practical training will the better enable them to appreciate and profit by, with drawing and as much construction as time will permit. The commercial work which comes to the shop gives paid employment to the older pupils, whose elementary and practical courses have prepared them for such work. There is usually as much such work as the students have time for. As in the other Schools, the time required to complete this full course is four years; the student taking, with the above, literary and scientific studies sufficient to keep him busily occupied during this time.