California Institute of Technology Cal Tech - Big T Yearbook (Pasadena, CA)

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MECHANICAL EXGINEERLXG DEPARTMENT LIK1-; all otlicr phases of cngineeriiii;, mechanical engineering is becoming more comprehensive every year with the increased complexity of modern life. Consequently in their senior year the men taking up mechanical engineering are given the opportunity of performing many varied and interesting experiments and problems which bring out the essential features of the work in store for them and correlate all of the knowledge obtained in their first three years of college. One of the most interesting of these experiments is the testing of lubricating oils, in which the Kingman bearing machine is used to test the relative lubricating values of diiiferent oils at difTerert speeds and temperatures. That thi . tvpe of work is highly practical is shown by the fact that Professor Robert L. Daugherty of the Institute has just completed an eight months ' series of tests for the (loulds Manufacturing Comjiany of Seneca Falls. Xew ' ()rk. on the suliject of puni|)ing oil with centrifugal pumps. At the rei|uest of the (ioulds Conipan - Professor Daugherty conducted an iinestigation to determine the variation in the characteristics of a centrifugal pump in handling liquids of different viscosities and vapor pressures. In the tests which were conducted at the Union Oil Company ' s plant near Los Angeles, various liquids ranging in viscosity from water to cold residium or from the least viscous to the most viscous liquids which can be handled by this style of pump were tested. The primary object of the tests was to determine the head, cajiacity and efficiency of a centrifugal pum|) as a function of the viscosity of the lii|uid pumped and to also find the effect of the variation of the vacuum in each case. The results of these tests have been published b - the Goulds Company in pamphlet form and are a very important contribution to the science of me- chanical engineering in general and pump design in particular. In their last year, the Mechanicals are assigned special problems in machine design in place of a thesis or other phases of mechanical engineering. These problems are very conducive to originality and are likewise very instructive, as the student must make his design complete down to the most minute detail, and to do this he of course must be exceedingly familiar with the subject in hand. One of the problems chosen last year was the complete design of a five cylinder gas engine, while another problem was the design of a turbine driven locomotive. For this latter problem the student collected data from several big companies in the east and numerous data that had been published from experiments carried on in England and Norway. ' Hiese are but two of the many interesting thesis problems chosen by the seniors, problems that do much to gi e the embryo engineer a taste of what he may expect to meet w lu ii he leaves college and enters the world of industry. tifcnty-tzi ' O

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CIVIL EXGINEERIXG DEPARTMENT To those men who have a desire to 1)uild things, the Civil Engineering course offers a tremendously interesting field of work, for no matter whether it be buildings, bridges, roads or dams, all these works come under the general head of Civil Engineering. For the student who doesn ' t know just exactly what his bent is, the civil course, next to a general course, offers the broadest and most representative group of subjects for his study. In the junior year, the men are given an insight into the type of work required of a sanitary engineer, a highway engineer and a railroad engineer. The senior work, while principally design, gives also some idea of the problems encountered in the water supply for cities, and irrigation i)rojects. The thesis work of the graduating Civils is especially interesting, for the thesis cover a wide range of topics, some of original design and some in the nature of extensive research into a subject of general and vital interest. For in.stance, last year several men did research work on the possibility of using the Colorado River as a water sup]jly for the city of Los Angeles, while others designed ware- houses. ele ators, chimneys and sim.ilar projects of great practical alue. The fact that civil engineering is a ' ery much alive profession is brought home to the men at Tech by the fact that the new Linda ' ista bridge over the Arroyo, built by the city of Pasadena, was designed by Professor R. R. Martel of the Institute. The bridge is not only of interest from a pure technical .standpoint, but is also of interest because it is a very beautiful structure. In the design, beauty was the first requisite and Mr. Martel was called upon to draw up specifi- cations for a bridge that would be sound technically and at the same time embody the particular lines as set down by the artists who were supjjosed to be authorities on the aesthetic properties of such structures. . ' Vnnther reason for the interest of Tech men in the bridge is that se eral old grads have been employed in its construction. The bridge has a central si)an of two hundred and forty feet, with a rise of forty feet and is one of the largest concrete spans in ilu- world. . n allowance was made for earthquake shocks in the design of the expansion joints so that the bridge has one inch of play laterally but will resist any further sideward motion. Since it was designed by a Tech man, and since Tech men ha e worked on its construction, the bridge can well be said to be a fitting reminder to all Ci ils of what they may some day be able to do. t-a ' cnty-jiiur