Armour Institute of Technology - Cycle Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING The Department of Chemical Engineering commenced to plan better methods of in- struction and better facilities for instruction in the spring of 1931. These plans included the attendance of three of our teachers of chemical engineering at the summer school for chemical engineering given jointly by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering • Education and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at the University of Michigan. Professors Schommer and Bentley and Mr. Martin attended the entire three weeks of the conference, while Professor McCormack attended only the last two days of the con- ference. During this time various questions concerned with the training of chemical en- gineers and the preparation for future em- ployment were discussed. Representatives from sixty colleges and universities were present. Some topic connected with chemical en- gineering instruction was presented each day by a teacher presumably best qualified to pre- sent this particular topic. The paper was then discussed by those in attendance. This procedure led to an exchange of ideas impos- sible to secure in any other way and, un- Harry McCormack doubtcdly, will mean much in the unification and advancement of chemical engineering education. Several of the laboratories devoted to chemistry and chemical engineering were re- modeled during the summer and early fall. The laboratories receiving particular atten- tion were those devoted to electrochemistry, physical chemistry and chemical engineering unit processes. A considerable addition to the floor space available in laboratories was provided, en- abling such expansion to be made as would take care of our needs for the next few years. The changes possible in the chemical en- gineering unit process laboratory were par- ticularly desirable, as the equipment used in these courses was crowded in so closely that space was not available for satisfactory operation of the equipment by the students. This handicap has now been overcome and we believe that our laboratory facilities to date arc as satisfactory for these courses as any which may be found. Accompanying the remodeling of the laboratories was the revision of the laboratory instruction given to the junior and senior students in chemical engineering, this revision taking account of the increased facilities for accomplishing the work and of recent devel- opments in engineering theory and practice. T unity-sere n

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DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Melville B. Wells Both the faculty and the students of the Civil Engineering Department realize now, more fully than at first, the great loss that they sustained in the death last year of Doctor Alfred E. Phillips, for many years the head of the department. However, those upon whom the responsibility for the guidance and development of this branch of our school now rests have had the advantage of long association with him, know his plans and his ideals, and they arc following these as closely as possible. No changes have been made in the subjects taught or in the time given to them. Changes have been made in the faculty, however, and in the assignment of subjects. The transfer of Professor H. T. Heald to the Dean’s Office has reduced his teaching time so that he now has but one class in Strength of Materials each semester. Two new instructors have been engaged. Assistant Professor Harold A. Vagtborg is teaching Highway, Water Supply, and Sani- tary Engineering, also Contracts in Engineer- ing. Professor Vagtborg is a graduate of the University of Illinois. He is now a member of the firm of Allen and Vagtborg, Municipal Iinginecrs. The good work that he is doing as a teacher is appreciated by everyone in the department. The Structural work for the students in Architecture, that has been done by the Civil Engineering faculty, is now in the hands of one instructor who gives all of his time to it. Assistant Professor Sholto M. Spears is doing this work very satisfactorily. His problem is to find a way to adjust the requirements of Structural Design to the specal methods used by the Architects in most of their other studies, and he is meeting with success in the solution. Professor Spears has been en- gaged in structural work since his graduation in Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky in 1922. There has been no change in the subjects of the courses offered in the Aeronautical Option of the Civil Engineering Department, but the content of the courses is being changed each year to keep up with the rapid advances in the science of Aeronautics that results from the research and study that is going on. Each member of the faculty recognizes the fact that similar, though less rapid changes arc going on in the other branches of en- gineering included in the curriculum. Each man is endeavoring to have some part in these changes and to improve his work both in the material taught and in the method of teaching. Twenty-six

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Joseph B. Finnegan During the present school year the work of the department has proceeded satisfac- torily, with no radical changes in curriculum and methods, but with the progressive changes in details of course content that are desirable to keep abreast of developments in the field. For several years increasing atten- tion has been given to fire hazards and fire protection in buildings in course of construc- tion; to the grave problems involved in the widespread use of pyroxylin lacquers applied by spraying processes; to the hazards of nitro- cellulose films used in x-ray and portrait pho- tography; to the use of new and hazardous anestctics in hospitals; to the fire protection of hangars and other properties at air ports; to the many new designs of equipment for automatic sprinkler installations, particularly of heat-sensitive devices and of dry-pipe valve accelerating devices; and of valves for high-pressure standpipe systems. In the dis- cussion of insurance, time has been given to a consideration of recent changes of practice in the use of reporting forms”; to the marked increase in the activity of inland marine insurance departments in writing policies providing broad coverage; and to the assumption of liability for damage due to inherent explosion hazard and to smudge in dwellings, the latter two coverages being now more important than formerly on account of DEPARTMENT OF FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING the considerable use of oil and of gas for domestic heating. Students in fire protection engineering are registered in many courses given by other departments at the Institute, in some eases for fundamental humanistic, scientific, or en- gineering subjects, in others for instruction specially organized for fire protection en- gineers. In all cases this department has had • most satisfactory cooperation. The professional laboratory work of the department continues to be carried on at the well-equipped plant of Underwriters’ Labo- ratories, the testing station of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. During the past year the hydraulic equipment at the Labora- tories has had important additions. An Allis- Chalmers centrifugal pump, with a rated capacity of 1000 gallons per minute at 500 pounds pressure, is driven by a direct-con- nected 2300-volt alternating-current motor rated at 600 horse-power, with variable speed controller. The discharge line is provided with a 3-inch and an 8-inch Venturi meter with a direct-reading manometer. A Repub- lis flow-meter with direct-reading dial has been installed to measure flows in pipes of various sizes from 2 2 to 8 inches. T wtnly-tluhl