Eastern Michigan University - Aurora Yearbook (Ypsilanti, MI)

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The stairs leading to the attic are broad and easy, and will be much used, as important store and work rooms, and an astronomical laboratory will be located here. The stairs leading to the roof will also be of easy ascent, and will open upon the roof on one side and upon the floor of the dome on the other. A nearly level space, 20 X 30 ft., surrounded by a balustrade will furnish an open-air observatory for astronomical and meteorological purposes. The barrel of the dome will be carried up through the roof, but the dome itself will not at present be erected, as the 5500 or 5600 needed for the purpose cannot now be spared. Astronomy has always been a leading subject in the Normal School, and for a long time more money was expended upon this department than upon all the other scientific subjects together. The refractor, transit, sidereal clock, and chronograph purchased by Professor Mc Louth nearly twenty-five years ago are still in perfect order and in constant use, but the Whole plant needs bringing up to date and adapting to the modern astronomy. The tixtures, fittings, etc., as well as the teachers' and the students' Work tables and benches, will be modern and substantial, the pier tables and the balance tables, of stone, and the Wall-bracket tables, of slate. There will be a goods lift running from the basement to the attic, lavatories on each floor, depart- ment libraries on both sides of the building on each floor, and rest rooms and offices for each department. The fan system of heating and ventilation will be installed in the most thorough manner and supplemented by direct radiation to provide for exigencies. Interiorly the walls will be of brick, painted a pleasant tone, and the ceilings will show the con- struction, as in most modern laboratories. The halls, While neither wide nor imposing, will be cornmodious, well lighted, and airy. Externally the building will be of good proportions, but will be plain and substantial rather than elegant. Indeed, it will appear what it is, a place for serious work. The cut upon the opposite page will show far better than words can do, the general appearance of the building. 16

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The New Normal College Science Building HE new Normal College Science Building, provision for which was made at the last session of the Legislature, is now in proctss of erection on ground kindly donated for this purpose by the people of Ypsilanti. It is a substantial brick building of three stories and a basement, and contains lecture rooms, laboratories, etc., for manual training, and the biological and physical sciences. When completed, it will not only provide much-needed and long-promised facilities for scientific instruction, but will release for the general purposes of the school, the rooms now occupied by these departments. The manual training rooms are located on the first floor, which also contains lecture rooms, laboratories, and collection and apparatus rooms for all the courses in geology and in advanced physics and astronomy, as also lavatories, shops, and rooms for general purposes. The basement, accessible at three points from this floor, is appropriated entirely to heating, ventilation, and store rooms. Here Will be located the fan blower and the hot-air ducts to the various parts of the building, and also the main steam, water, and drain pipes. The special chemical ventilation will be actuated by a large electric fan in the attic, driven by an electric motor. . The second floor is appropriated to elementary physics and elementary and advanced botany, and con- tains spacious lecture rooms and laboratories, dark rooms, shops, and work rooms for these subjects Upon this floor are also the oliices and libraries for these departments. A mezzanine floor immediately over the collection and apparatus rooms and connected with them by stairways, practically doubles the floor-space devoted to these purposes. The third door is given up to elementary and advanced Zoology, physiology, and chemistry, and contains lecture rooms and laboratories for these subjects, together with the necessary dark, collection, combustion, and balance rooms. u 15

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