Repository: UIHistories Project: Engineering Open House Guide - 1920 (Watt Centennial) [PAGE 19]

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Investigation of Stresses in Railroad Track The investigation was undertaken to learn the way the rails, ties, ballast, and roadway act under the load of locomotives and cars. Most engineering structures have been designed with a knowledge of the action of the component parts and of the structure as a whole obtained from tests or in other ways, but, strange to say, very little was known of the amount and nature of the stresses developed in track until this series of tests was begun five years ago. Engineers in charge of railroads felt that the increasing size of locomotives and cars and the difficulties found in constructing and maintaining track of adequate strength and durability made it highly desirable that a comprehensive investigation be carried out* The tests have given results of much value to engineers interested in railroad work. With a poorly counterbalanced locomotive, stresses in the rail as great as 50,000 lb. per sq. in. have been measured. The stresses in the cross ties are found to vary greatly .with the conditions of the tamping* The field tests have been conducted on the Illinois Central Railroad and other important lines. The laboratory tests have been carried on in the laboratories of the University. The work is under the charge of a joint committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Railway Engineering Association, with the cooperation of the Engineering Experiment Station. A leading engineering journal says of the preliminary report: *The investi. gation is a classic. A new page in the book of engineering has been written/* Investigation of Fatigue of Metals Under Repeated Stress An investigation of the resistance of metals to breakdown under repeated loading is being carried on in the Materials Testing Laboratories of the University* There occasionally occur failures in automobile springs, crankshafts, car axles, and in other machine parts which are subjected to millions of loadings in their daily use. Occasionally, too, cracks develop and spread in steel bridges and elevated railroad structures* Such gradual breakdown of metal is a subject of great interest to all who use machinery, and became of acute moment in connection with the -airplane during the war. A of committee the National Research Council was formed to study this phenomenon and the work of that committee is being continued under a joint arrangement between the Engineering Foundation, which finances the work, the National Research Council, and the Engineering Experiment Station. Investigation of the Coking of Coal An investigation of the coking of coal, in cooperation with Mr. A. T. Hert of the American Creosoting Company, has been completed recently. A new process developed during the investigation may revolutionize the coking industry.