Purdue University - Debris Yearbook (West Lafayette, IN)

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a small traction ot an ohm u to toity liiousand uiims can be obtainetl. A comiilctc tciejiiionc system is in operation between the various buildings of the University, thus giving the students every opportunity to study this important branch of electrical vifork. That the importance of the work done in electricity at Purdue is recognized is shown by the fact that the National Fllectric Light Association has fitted up at considerable expense a photometric laboratory devoted to the solving of questions of great importance to the electrical world. The Civil Engineering Department is second to none in thoroughness and quality of equipment. Only the finest and latest makes of instruments are used. The students in this department receive practical training from the very beginning in s urveying, railroad location and maintenance, construction work, etc. The entrance of many of the students in civil engineering into practical work before they have finished their college course speaks volumes for the thoroughness of their training and the proficiency of their instructors. In the Science Department we find the greatest variation in the course of study. Owing to the elective system prevailing here a student may follow any one of si.x courses. These courses, which include Technical Chemistry, Sanitary Science, Industrial Art, Pre-Medical, General Science and Biology, overlap the engineering courses in many studies, as in mathematics, languages, physics, etc. While the equipment is naturally not so interesting and striking as that of the engineering dcjiartmenls, it is of the best kind and ]uality throughout. In the museum are found 16

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iJcLaval stcaiu Uubuio. Allogcthui there aic m the Ubutdlui), lull) blcaiu c) lindcrb, aggicgating over fifteen hundred horse-power. The Master Car-Builders ' Association has deposited here a brake shoe testing machine and an air-brake testing rack having a complete air-brake equipment for a train of one hundred freight cars. Apparatus for work in hydraulics, machines for testing strength of materials, pumps and, in brief, machinery found in none but the best machine shops of the country are housed here. Railroad and manufacturing companies have shown their appre- ciation of the work done at Purdue by placing at the University valuable pieces of machinery and also using it as a testing laboratory. Hardly a week passes but that some work of this kind is sent in and the students are thus given exceptional opportunities for observation and practice. Upon entering the beautiful Electrical Building we find ourselves amid machinery of every kind known and operated in the electrical world. Immediately that a machine becomes out of date it is replaced by one of recent build and make. Here are found a large number of gener- ators, the largest of which, a fifty kilo-watts alternator is used not only for experirnental work but also for the incandescent lighting of the buildings of the University. Two complete street-car motors are mounted in the laboratory for the purpose of study, power being supplied by means of a direct current generator. Nearly every form of American transformer is found in the trans- former rack. A switch board containing more than four hundred terminals occupies the center of the room and by the use of a German silver resistance and a large lamp board, any resistance from

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many collections of value and renown vvliich have been presented to the deparlnient by the collectors. The original research work done in this department has many times attracted favorable mention and considerable notice from those in no way connected with the University. Separated by a roadway from the main campus are the Experiment Station and Farm Build- ings. On the one hundred and si.-cty acres of land com[)osing the farm and in the model farm buildings are carried on experiments of vast importance to the agricultural and stock raising interests of the state. Realizing the importance to the country of trained men in this line of work instruction is given in every branch of agriculture and men are turned out who can utilize the forces of nature to their fullest extent. In response to the urgent need for trained pharmacists the School of Pharmacy was opened at Purdue. Although the course embraces but two years, the graduates from it are full) ' e()uippcd to enter any position open in th is line of work. The high positions now filled by the graduates of the School of Pharmacy speak volumes for the completeness and thoroughness of the work done in this department. Thus do the students receive their training, and in every line of activity into which they have entered, the graduates of Purdue have shown by their skillfulness and by the positions they have merited that this training fitted them in the very best manner possible for the com|)etition of active life. — R. L. N.