Albion College - Albionian Yearbook (Albion, MI)

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1 6 ALBION COLLEGE PROVISIONS FOR THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. The laboratory work in the department of Physics has been greatly strengthened by the recent purchase of a con- siderable amount of well-selected modern physical apparatus. Among the instruments now available for class illustration and laboratory work are the following: Vernier calipers, micrometer gauges, microscope, telescopes, spherometer, Jolly ' s balance, Hawkes-Atwood ' s machine, Toepler-Voss self- charging electrical machine, diffraction grating, optical bench with accessories, photometric apparatus, Geneva spec- trometer, highly polished prisms, laboratory clock with sweep second hand, bending apparatus with telephone attach- ment, Boyle ' s law apparatus, Mohr ' s specific gravity balance, laboratory recorder for vibrations of tuning forks, simple pen- dulum apparatus with sounder for time work, pyknometers, moment of inertia apparatus, Kundt ' s apparatus for velocity of sound in metals, specific heat apparatus, heat of vaporiza- tion apparatus, micrometer cathetometer, rheostat, commu- tators, electric keys, electric motor, turning lathe with tools, magnets, lenses, torsional apparatus, linear expansion appa- ratus, fountain in vacuum apparatus, Magdeburg hemispheres, batteries of various kinds, Rhumkorff induction coil, resist- ance boxes, Weston voltmeter, Weston ammeter, wireless telegraphy outfit, single valued and subdivided multiple con- densers, direct reading D ' Arsonval galvanometer, tangent gal- vanometer, Rowland D ' Arsonval reflecting galvanometers with telescopes and scales, astatic galvanometer, earth inductor and other electrical measuring instruments. PROVISIONS FOR THE STUDY OF CHEMISTRY. The Chemical Laboratory is well supplied with all neces- sary chemicals and apparatus required for the various lines of work. One hundred and forty students can be accommo- dated at one time with tables fully supplied with gas and water, Bunsen burners, condensers, beakers, flasks, test-tubes, platinum ware, etc. A large amount of pure chemicals is

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YEAR BOOK 15 clear aperture, made and mounted by Alvan Clark Sons. It is provided with circles, coarse and fine, driving clock, filar micrometer with field and side illumination and eye pieces giving range from a low-power comet-seeker to eight hundred diameters. The Transit Circle, by Fauth Co., is of a four- inch aperture and is provided with micrometers in right ascen- sion and declination, levels sensitive to one second of arc and vertical circles reading to single seconds by micrometer mi- croscopes. The Sidereal Clock and Chronograph are by the same makers. All of the instruments are in electrical con- nection. PROVISIONS FOR THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. The Biological department occupies the second and third stories of the Central Building. The northern half of the third floor, 40x50 feet, is given to the Museum, while the southern half contains the Lecture Room and Laboratories. The Lecture Room will seat sixty students, and is so arranged as to be quickly darkened for stereopticon lectures. The gen- eral Laboratory is 25x66 feet, and will accommodate sixty students at one time. It is excellently lighted and provided with all needful facilities for work, including fifty-seven com- pound microscopes, microtomes, embedding apparatus, in- cubator, aquaria, and private lockers for students. The rest of the space is occupied by a private room for the instructor, storage room and two rooms especially arranged for photo- graphic work. The equipment is ample for both elementary and advanced work, and is increased as the needs of the work demand. Preserved specimens are kept on hand as material for dissection. A working Biological Library is kept in the general Laboratory, always open to students for reference or research. The microscopical cabinet contains several hundred mounted specimens, and is supplemented by the large collec- tion of over two thousand slides belonging to the professor in charge.

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YEAR BOOK 17 kept on hand, and additions are constantly being made. The weighing room contains five accurate balances. Nitrometers, burettes, graduates, pipettes, thermometers, hydrometers, etc., are supplied to each student as they are needed. A battery of sufficient current for ordinary electrolytic operations is now in use, and it is expected, by the beginning of the year, to take the current from the lighting system so as to command facilities for all classes of electrolytic work. The assaying laboratory is equipped with furnaces for the complete fire- assay, crucible fusion, roasting and cupeling of gold, silver, lead, etc. The Portland Cement Laboratory is thoroughly equipped with all the necessary apparatus for analyzing the raw ma- terials, clay and limestone, furnaces for burning the cement, tensile strength machine and other apparatus for the complete testing of Portland cement. In this connection facilities are also provided for the examination of coal, peats and other forms of fuel. During the present summer, it is expected to install a complete laboratory for the analysis of gases, with especial reference to its application in the manufacture of illumina- ting gas. As an important and indispensable adjunct to the other apparatus may be mentioned a good working library of refer- ence works. This is located in the reading-room of the Laboratory and is in constant use. The leading chemical journals are kept on file, The Journal of the Chemical Society of London, The American Chemical Journal, The Berichte de Chemischen Gesellschaft, The Chemical News, London Pharmaceutical Journal, while the general library contains full files of the American Journal of Science and Arts, Sci- ence, Popular Science Monthly and others. For detailed statement of courses in the Laboratory, see Outline of Work.