Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 157]

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160

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

the present sophomore class. When they reach the senior year it is proposed to introduce a new technical study which will consist of the consideration of several subjects of importance to t h e mechanical engineer, which have been but briefly touched upon owing to lack of time. As already stated in this report, the freshman class which entered the shop last fall was so large that the employment of an assistant instructor became a necessity, although the class was taught in two divisions. By this means we can teach still larger classes satisfactorily, as the students can be distributed through the shops, some at the benches, others at the lathes, and so on; but with the sophomore class the case is very different. This class is engaged upon work which must be mostly done upon the machine tools, and it has required considerable planning to keep the students employed. A small increase in numbers will make this still more difficult. While the work of advanced instruction in the shop is thus embarrassed by the lack of tools, some changes in the arrangement of the building must be made before more tools can be added. Compared with modern manufacturing machine shops, our shop is crowded with tools, and when the three hand lathes now finishing are added, which can be done by some re-arrangement of machines, it will be completely filled. We need more engine lathes, a second and larger planer, another milling machine, and. a small drill press, but we could not put any of these into operation in the room to which the machine shop is. now confined. I think that the best plan for providing more space is that which you have suggested, viz.: the removal of the boiler from its present location and the addition of the space thus vacated to the machine shop. This would add about five hundred square feet to the shop floor space, and would greatly improve the form and lighting of the shop. The boiler should properly be placed in a separate boiler house and the coal shed immedmtely south of the shop building. In this connection I would call attention to the condition of the shop boiler. I t is a sectional or safety boiler, costing $1,000 when put in place in the fall of 1871, and has been in almost constant, use since that time. I t is not large enough to supply sufficient steam both for the engine and for heating the building in cold weather. I t has been frequently repaired and although $120 were spent upon it last summer, an expenditure of about the same sum will probably be required next summer to put it into safe working condition. It is not worth removing and resetting, and I would therefore recommend that when the proposed re-arrangement can be made a new boiler of greater power and of simpler construction be purchased.