Albion College - Albionian Yearbook (Albion, MI)

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YEAR BOOK 15 It is provided with circles, coarse and fine, driving clock, filar micrometer, with fie ld 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 ascension and declination, levels sensitive to one second of arc and verticle circles reading to single seconds by micro- meter microscopes. The Sidereal Clock and Chronograph are by the same makers. All of the instruments are in electrical connection. PROVISIONS FOR THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. The Biological Department occupies the new Biological Laboratory, erected as an addition to Robinson Hall. This addition is 45 by 60 feet, three stories high, above the base- ment. It contains large laboratories for the classes in Zool- ogy and Botany, accommodating respectively 60 and 40 stu- dents. Besides the large windows at the end of each table there are electric lights and gas arc lights that afford ample illumination for evenings or dark days. There are commodi- ous lecture rooms adjoining each. Besides these laboratories there are smaller laboratories for more advanced classes, with the same lighting arrangements as in the larger labo- ratories, as described above. The main supply room, in the basement, is 13 by 31 feet, while above this and connecting with it by elevator, are smaller supply rooms for the classes in Zoology and Botany, 11 by 13 and 13 by 17 feet. Adjoining the Botanical Laboratory is a Botanical Working Museum, 20 by 23 feet. In the basement there is a workshop, beside the above, 18 by 20 feet, and two rooms, one 20 by 22 feet, occu- pied by the Co-operative Association; the other 18 by 31, which is used as a store room for biological and other mate- rial. On the third floor will be the Museum workroom and taxidermic workshop. The remainder of this floor is gi ven to photographic purposes. The Biological Department is well supplied with such ap- paratus as is needed for its work, including over sixty com-

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LIBRARIES, LABORATORIES AND OBSERVATORY. LIBRARY. The Library Building, the gift of Mrs. Charlotte T. Ga- zette, of Albion, Michigan, is a substantial new brick struc- ture, well equipped, well heated, well lighted, containing 18,- 500 volumes, besides unbound volumes and pamphlets. The Reading Room, ample and attractive, is abundantly supplied with encyclopedia, dictionaries, lexicons, and gen- eral works of reference, together with such books as are temporarily assigned by members of the Faculty for refer- ence work and collateral reading. A generous supply of papers and leading magazines of the day is provided. The contents of periodicals is made available by the use of Poole ' s Index and its supplements and the Reader ' s Guide to Period- ical Literature. The Dewey system of classification is used and a new card catalogue makes the books easily accessible. Free ac- cess to the shelves is allowed, and in addition to their use in the Library building, books, with some restrictions, may be drawn for home use. The Library is open on school days from 8 :00 a. m. to 12 :00 m. ; from 2 :00 p. m. to 5 :30 p. m., and three evenings in the week from 6:30 to 8:30; Saturday from 8:00 a. m. to 12:00 m. PROVISIONS FOR THE STUDY OF ASTRONOMY. In Astronomy, the facilities offered by the College are excellent. The equipment is fully adequate for purposes of instruc- tion or research. The Equatorial Telescope is of eight inches clear aperture, made and mounted by Alvan Clark Sons.

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16 ALBION COLLEGE pound microscopes, rocking and sliding microtomes, incu- bator, aquaria embedding apparatus and a collection of sev- eral thousand mounted slides. The Botanical Working Museum is especially designed to contribute to the work in Ecology. It already contains nearly nine hundred species in the herbarium, nearly all from this locality, and many of them represented in numerous specimens which show the plant in immature and winter condition, as well as in flower, etc. There is also a large number of specimens of seeds, woods, barks, fibers, medicinal and commercial products. It is designed to make this collection as completely representa- tive of local plant life and plant products as possible. The Zoological Lecture Room is so arranged as to be speedily darkened and is provided with a stereopticon ; and while there is an ample supply of lantern slides on hand for purposes of instruction, others are being continually added as occasion demands. The photographic equipment of the laboratory is such as to highly facilitate the rapid increase of this collection. All the laboratories have individual private lockers, each with its own combination lock, and water and gas connec- tions are liberally provided throughout. The supply of material for study and dissection is large and is ample in amount and range of species for both ele- mentary and advanced study. It is constantly enriched through purchase as well as by the collections made by the department and friends of the College. The study and private laboratory of the professor in charge is on the first floor, adjacent to the Zoological Labo- ratory where he may be constantly consulted by those having need of his assistance. The department hereby acknowledges the generous gift, from Mr. Harvey N. Ott, of the class of ' 89, of a Spencer Lens Company ' s Rotary Microtome, complete, with all at- tachments. PROVISIONS FOR THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. The laboratory work in the department of Physics has