Purdue University - Debris Yearbook (West Lafayette, IN)

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James Whitcomb Rile) ' , the recital by David Again Fowler Hall enters promi- nently into the University life, in that it has made possible the lecture and entertainment course which was so suc- cessfully carried out this year. The faculty committee having the matter in charge, of which Professor Waldo was chairman, arranged what was without doubt the equal in point of excellence of any similar entertainment course ever given in the United States. The regular course included the following numbers : George Hamlin and Henri l!rn. The Kneisel Quartette, Albert Jf Armstrong, F. Hopkinson Smith, Jacob Riis, Inaugural Organ Recital by W. H. Donley, Leland-T. Powers, Russel Con- well, and WilHam Butler Yeats. Other notable events were the reading by spham, and the concert by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. The new Physics Building, which is now well under way, will be ready for occupancy January i. It is to be 130 feet long by 75 feet wide, and include two stories and a basement. The basement and first floor will be devoted to laboratory work, and the second floor to lectures and recitations. The lecture room will accommodate three hundred students. It is to be thoroughly ventilated by means of an exhaust fan situated in the attic. The windows are to be arranged with vertically moving shutters that can be raised and lowered by means of a hydraulic lift controlled from both the lecture table and the lantern table. By means of a heliostat placed on an iron shelf outside of an opening in the south wall of the lecture room, sun- light can be brought into the lecture room even when it is otherwise darkened. The lecture table will be sup- plied with connections for gas, water, air pressure, exhaust, and electrical currents of various potentials. The four recitation rooms are of good size, and well lighted and well ventilated. The first floor contains the two main laboratories connected by a general apparatus room. Each of these laboratories is a room nearly double the size of that now being used in the Electrical Building as the general Lab- oratory of Physics. One of these laboratories will be fitted for work in Dynamics and Heat, while the other will be equipped for work in electrical measurements. Opening out of these laboratories are two instructors ' offices and six small rooms for special experiments.

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west walls of the balcony. At night the room is lighted b}- a special grouping of incandescent lamps, causing a very beautiful effect. By far the most prominent feature of the auditorium is the organ. .This magnificent instrument, one of the finest in the State, is the gift of Mr. James M. Fowler, of Lafayette. It was built by Messrs. Hilgreen and Lane, of Alliance, Ohio, according to the plans and specifications of Mr. W. H. Donley, who also supervised the erection and voicing of the instrument. Its cost was approximately $5,500. The gift by Mrs. Fowler, of S6o,ooo, was publicly announced on the day preceding Thanksgiving, in 1901 The donation was subsequently increased to $70,000. Work was begun on the building in the summer of 1902, and continued for over a year. The first public use of the building was for Memorial Day exercises, May 30, 1903 ; shortly after this, on June 10, the Commencement exercises of the class of 1903 were held within the building. The architects were Vonneger Bohn, the contractor Wm. P. Jungclaus Co., of Indianapolis. The total cost was in round numbers .?8o,ooo. The building was formally received in August, 1903. The building and organ were dedicated on May 4, 1904, with elaborate ceremonies in the forenoon, afternoon and evening. With the opening of Eliza Fowler Hall to use came the abandonment of the daily chapel exercise of fifteen minutes ' duration, and the substitution for it of the weekly convocation, lasting one hour. Even while the old chapel room was yet in use, the chapel exercise had become almost an impracticability, with an assembly room too small to accommodate all, and with the different classes scattered over so wide an area as- to make it difficult to assemble within the allotted five minutes. The convocation exercises vary in character from week to week. They most frequently consist of an address by some prominent personage ; sometimes of special music, and not infrequently take the form of announcements concerning the welfare and interests of the University body, or of a mass meeting for the discussion of affairs of the University body by students and faculty. As indicated before, one of the first public exercises to be held in Eliza Fowler Hall was the commencement of 1903, the events of which it falls to us to record. The Class of 1903 numbered 147 graduates. The Baccalaureate Address on Sunday, June 7, was given by John P. D. John, D. D., LL. D. The Class Day exercises were held on Tuesday following. Alpheus J. Crane deliv ered the President ' s Address, John M. Lammadee was the Class Orator, Weeden Green read the Class Poem, Mina J. Crampton the Class History, and Hollie C. Lewis the Class Prophecy. The most remarkable thing about Commencement Day, Wednesday, June 10, itself, was that it did not rain. Eliza Fowler Hall was taxed to its utmost to hold the audience. Abstracts of theses were read by Charles L. Miller, Martin L. Fisher, Anna M. Wurster, Alfred W. Gregg, Watson Conner, and Alpheus J. Crane. The address was given by Edwin D. Mead, of Boston, on the subject : Emerson ' s Message in Education. Following this came the conferring of the degrees, in which the Seniors lined up around the platform and received their sheepskins, and the Class of 1903 was thus finally launched upon an unsuspecting and long-suffering world.

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The basement is designed for experiments requiring isolation and great stability. Each of these laboratories is supplied with brick piers and numerous electrical circuits extending to the great switchboard situated in the general apparatus room. Altogether the new Phj sics Building will be not only modern in every particular but, in addition, it will con- tain a number of innovations designed especially for making it possible for a large numb er of students to work simultaneously on experiments of considerable delicacy. The University and the State are to be congratulated on the possession of such an important addition to their scientific and educational equipment. Another important step in the material progress of the institution was made with the completion of the Power and Heating Plant. The building and its appointments are of the latest and most approved type. An appropriation of $75,000 for the construction and equipment was made by the Legislature of 1903. The building was designed by Professor Goss, and was erected by R. P. Dagget Co. It contains four large tubular boilers, aggregating 1,000 horse-power. These are fed by automatic stokers, installed by Westinghouse, Church, Kerr Co. The apparatus for the handling of fuel and ashes is of the most modern and labor-saving type. A tunnel from the plant contains the steam pipes, its branches radiating to the various buildings. The boilers were first fired for use on January 13, and the last connection was made on February 29. Aside from its direct use for power and heating purposes, the plant furnishes valuable oppor- tunities for instruction in mechanical engineering. With the completion of the new heating plant came, of course, the abandonment of the old heating plant near the Pharmacy Building, and the boiler room of the Engineering Labor- atory. The old plant was dismantled, its boilers sold, and the building will be removed. With its abandonment the old bell, which for many years had sounded at each hour of the school day, at 7 :oo p. m., at 10 :oo p. m. and at 6 130 a. m., ceased to ring. The zone of student dence had long since extended beyond the sound of the bell, and little attention was paid to it except on the campus. Nevertheless, its passing was marked witli regret by many on account of sentimental reasons. In recognition of the valuable work done at Purdue in locomotive testing, came the Carnegie donation of $5,000 to Professor Goss to be used in carrying out locomotive researches. As this is one of the first of the donations of the Car- negie Institute to be made for the benefit of the applied sciences, it is significant that it should come to Purdue. The Laboratory for Testing Materials has been made an official timber- testing station of the Bureau of Forestry, United States Department of Agri- culture, with Dr. Hatt in charge. This adds greatly to the importance of the institution.