Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 153]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

156

UNIYEESITY OF ILLINOIS.

I would respectfully renew my recommendation of last year that some small instruments be added to the equipment for mine surveying. This subject is broader and more important than is generally understood, and much attention is drawn to it in this and other coal-yielding states. The methods and appliances are distinctively characteristic of our profession. As taught here, the subject includes above ground and underground surveys for various purposes of mining and exploration, the laying off of mineral claims by transit, solar compass, etc., as required by the United States mining laws; also tunnel surveys for location, alignment, grade, etc., with a variety of other applications, such as the determination by survey and calculation of the probable continuation of faulted beds, the selection of favorable points of attack, the location of drainage tunnels and the surveys required in placer mining. Eventually we should have the necessary instruments (or rather attachments) for making such surveys as are demanded in prospecting for iron ore and special minerals, including some simple solar attachment to the transit; but there is more immediate need of two plummet lamps for surveying dark passages, a current meter for studying the movement of air through passages, and an aneroid barometer. These can be purchased at a cost of $75. A small expenditure, say $25, under my direction could very advantageously be made for illustrative material in the study of tools, explosives, etc., under the heads of mining attack and timbering. A matter of much concern to this department is the cost of making excursions with the classes to the mines and works in the State, which have all most generously responded to our requests for courtesies, or have extended invitations without solicitation. The expense of such trips is a considerable burden, for which at present there is no provision, and without some means of reducing the bills, this very important adjunct to instruction will probably have to be abandoned, as it has been this year. Physics.—There is little change in this department, so far as relates to the instruction of the two classes in physics proper. We are accomplishing all that is possible in the time allotted to this subject. If there be anything to report, it is a tendency to condense and systematize the work, which comes of personal experience with the students and the apparatus. Our work is not in all respects what I could desire, but little more can be expected while the department is carried along with another which is constantly demanding increased attention. The customary weekly illustrated lecture has been continued with voluntary attendance of the students. Perhaps this has been somewhat more effective than last year in the winter term, because I have had less than the usual routine work in mining engineering. The students are diligent and the senior assistants are doing good service.