Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Technique Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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THE GRE TER TECHNOLGGY WE who attended the Institute in 1938- 1939 will remember that year as signi- ficant of the progressive policies of the ad- ministration. Additions to and renovations in the Institutes physical plant have made this year a strong rival for honors in advance- ment against the days which witnessed the construction of the Eastman laboratories and the undergraduate dormitories. The aerial picture on the following two pages indicates the developments completed and in progress at the time of graduation in 1939. To care for the ever-increasin g roll of grad- uates, the Institute purchased the old River- bank Court Hotel and remodeled it to pro- vide comfortable living and studying facili- ties. The new Graduate House also includes complete dining service open to the entire staff and student body. It has contributed a great deal toward easing the student housing problem by accommodating about 390 grad- uates. Behind the Graduate House on Coop field is the first concrete evidence of the new ath- letic development, an excellent cinder track and a modern field house made possible through funds raised in the 1938 Alumni Drive. The track is a quarter mile oval with a 220-yard straight-away, it is completely marked in both English and Metric units. The field house, completed late in the spring, includes three offices, a rubbing room, show- ers, sundeck, equipment room, visiting team rooms, and lockers, all providing accommo- dations for about 520 men. Its facilities will serve six or more outdoor sports. By far the largest and most important construction completed in the past year is the new Rogers Building. Designed by Alumnus Welles Bosworth and built by the firm of Stone 84 Webster, Technology alumni, this latest addition to the Technology Group fills 300 feet of a former bare looking gap on Massachusetts Avenue. The beginning of the fall term marked the end of fifty years of service to the Institute of the old Rogers Building on Boylston Street, and for the first time in that period the old building was not the scene of some Technology activity. Al- though the new building, known as number 7, is primarily designed as a home for the School of Architecture, the needs of that di- vision require only half of the available floor space. The remaining half has been put at the disposal of other overcrowded depart- ments, including the Military Science, Mod- ern Language, and Mechanical Engineering Departments. Offices of the Alumni Associa- tion, the Division of Industrial Cooperation, and the Lowell Institute School are also located here. The vacating of space in other parts of the Main Group by these activities has allowed other departments to expand, notably that of Electrical Engineering. The Architectural wing includes a modern 10,000 book library, ample drawing rooms, a large exhibition room, and a comfortable Com- mons Room, the William Emerson Room. Adjacent to the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratories is the recently completed Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel, designed by Professor Continuing Remzrcb Progmfnr of Unique Clonmctern

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1939 TECHNIQUE PUBLISHED BY THE TECHNIQUE - E QARD - VOLUME LIV CAMBRIDGE - MASSACHUSETTS

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Heinrich Peters. This structure is composed of a welded, rectangular metal tube, occupy- ing an area ninety by forty-five feet, and varying in diameter from ten to twenty feet, and a small brick balance house. Air is pro- pelled by a six-bladed, variable-pitch pro- peller of unique plastic construction which delivers a velocity of 400 miles per hour. The most remarkable feature of the tunnel is that the pressure can be changed at will from one- quarter to four atmospheres, thereby allowing more extensive aerodynamic testing by means of models than has been possible heretofore. A proposed gymnasium and swimming pool will be located near the present Barbour Field House on the site of the old track. Work on the swimming pool, east of the Barbour Field House, is expected to begin this summer, while the gymnasium will be constructed as soon as funds are available. When this project is completed it is expected that the Walker gymnasium will be con- verted into an auditorium. Professor Robley D. Evans will direct the important program of research into artificial radio-activity with the aid of the recently dedicated cyclotron. This device, popularly called an atom-smasher, is located on the far side of Vassar Street, in a small, neat building, the whole unit made possible by a grant of the John and Mary Markle Founda- tion. Hard by the cyclotron building is a large metal, dome-shaped structure into which has been moved Professor Robert Van de Graflps electrostatic generators which were formerly at the Round Hill experi- mental station. By means of the new cyclo- tron and the new location of the Van de Graff machines, the various tools used in the lnstitute's nuclear research program have been brought to within a step of each other. Continuing the policy of improving stu- dent housing, the old Graduate House has been converted into a Senior house. This ex- pansion of facilities serves the double pur- pose of enlarging the undergraduate dormi- tory capacity by about 210 and of separating the seniors from the perhaps less studious and serious lower classmen. This is but a cursory glance at the physical developments at the Institute in the year 1938-1939, but it is sufhcient to show that the conception of a Greater Technology is surely becoming a reality. Toward Adequate Dormitory Focilifief'