Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - First Years of Engineering Experiment Station (1906) [PAGE 41]

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ILLINOIS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION

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I t is the hope of the station staff t h a t the Engineering Experiment Station may stand in the same helpful relation to the great mining, transportation and manufacturing interests of Illinois. What has been done for agriculture may well be done for manufacturing. The state's investments in the Agricultural Experiment Station have been rewarded with large dividends in the way of increased soil fertility and increased and improved agricultural product. Surely as large dividends await similar investments in the Engineering Experiment Station. Important problems in agriculture have been and are being successfully solved by the Agricultural Experiment Station. Important and difficult problems of engineering confront the manufacturer and power user, and press for solution. It is the aim of the Engineering Experiment Station to assist in the solution of these problems, and thus to aid and uplift the engineering industries of Illinois. It may be well to call attention here to the rapidly increasing popularity and value of the work of the Royal Testing Laboratory, located at Charlottenburg, Germany, which has been doing for the German Empire work similar in some details to that which it is now proposed shall be done by the Engineering Experiment Station. I n the following p a r a g r a p h s are discussed somewhat in detail the lines of work that may be taken up for the benefit of certain industrial interests. Fuel.—The fuel supply of Illinois is of prime importance in its industrial development, and no effort should be spared in the introduction and promulgation of improved methods and processes in the production and consumption of coal. P r o m broad economical considerations, wasteful methods of using coal, or the rejection of any combustible part as waste, are to be discountenanced. Exhaustive and careful experiments will be required before the best conditions can be attained. These experiments must include analyses of coals from all parts of the state, a determination of the best kinds of coal for specific purposes, best methods of burning Illinois coals, effects of various methods of preparation, experiments on various kinds of furnace construction, etc. Generation and Use of Power.—Along the line of power production there is opportunity for much investigation. New problems are confronting both the builders and users of steam and gas motors. There-is at present a noteworthy drift from the recip-