Repository: UIHistories Project: Engineering Open House Guide - 1920 (Watt Centennial) [PAGE 18]

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INVESTIGATIONS CARRIED ON BY THE ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION IN COOPERATION WITH TECHNICAL INDUSTRIES Car Wheel Investigation The Railway Engineering Department, under a cooperative agreement between the Association of Manufacturers of Chilled Car Wheels and the Engineering Experiment Station is carrying on a series of experiments upon car wheels. The investigation has been in progress for about three years- The experiments are for the purpose of obtaining information concerning the strength, wearing qualities, and design of car wheels. It is hoped that the results will assist in making stronger, safer, and cheaper car wheels. 25,000,000 of these wheels worth about $400,000,000 are in use in the United States and Canada. About 3,000,000 wheels worth about $50,000,000 have to be produced each year. Cooperative Mine Investigations The Engineering Experiment Station through the Department of Mining Engineering cooperates with the State Geological Survey and the U. S. Bureau of Mines in carrying on investigations, and in disseminating information based upon these investigations with a view of improving conditions in the mining, quarrying, metallurgical and other mineral industries; in safeguarding the lives of the employees; in preventing unnecessary waste of resources. A general survey has been made of the geological and mining conditions throughout the State. Investigations are now in progress which deal with problems connected with the methods of mining, with the percentage of extraction of coal, with the subsidence of the surface and with the manufacture of illuminating gas. Investigation of Warm-Air Furnaces and Furnace Heating Systems This work is being conducted in the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory under a cooperative agreement between the National Warm Air Heating and Ventilating Association and the Engineering Experiment Station. The determination of the efficiences and capacities of warm-air furnaces, as well as proper conditions of installation and operation, is necessary to secure accurate ratings and to guide in the selection of equipment which will give desired results. The two most important problems involved in the investigation are the accurate determination of the amount of air flowing through .the system when the furnace is operating under its own motive head as in an actual installation, and the correct measurement of the air temperatures throughout such a system. This investigation has been in active progress since October. 1918. The experimental furnace plant is the equivalent of a three story house equipped with a complete furnace heating system. The furnace manufacturers of the country contribute liberally toward the work.