Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1882-1883 [PAGE 46]

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44

Illinois Industrial University.

PEOJECTS AND PRACTICE.

The shop practice of the first year has already been described. The second year practice will have for its object the production of some model or machine. The students, under the immediate direction, of the teachers, carefully determine the dimensions and shapes best suited for the parts of some machine, produce them in neat and accurate working drawings, and make tracings for shop use. No student will commence his advanced shop practice without working drawings. The designs are such as require execution in iron, brass, and wood, for the purpose of giving variety of practice. The student is required to make the patterns and castings, finish the parts, and put them together in accordance with the working drawings and the required standard of workmanship. This acquaints him with the manner in which the mechanical engineer carries his designs into execution, and teaches him to so shape, proportion, and dispose the parts of a machine as to secure the greatest economy of construction and durability in use. The practice of the third year will include the careful construction of mechanical movements, strictly in accordance with the theoretical determination of the form of the parts. Besides these practical exercises, students of sufficient skill may be employed in the commercial work which is undertaken by the shop. For this work they receive compensation. This work includes all kinds of machine building and repairing, and will serve to extend and confirm the practical experience of the student. Experiments and Practical Problems.—Experiments in the testing of prime movers and other machines, are undertaken by each student. They take indicator diagrams from the engine of the mechanical laboratory and in factories in the adjoining towns, and determine from them the power developed with different degrees of expansion, and the possible defects of valve movement in distribution of steam.

APPABATTJS.

This school is provided with plates and a cabinet of models illustrating mechanical movements and elementary combinations of mechanism. This collection is rapidly increasing by our own manufacture, and by purchase from abroad. It includes many of Riggs' models, and others from the celebrated manufactory of J. Schroeder, of Darmstadt, Germany. About two hundred valuable models from the United States Patent Office are also included in the cabinet. The State has provided a large Mechanical Laboratory and Workshop furnished with complete sets of tools, benches, vises, and forges.