Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Transit Yearbook (Troy, NY)

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some drawings. We received our cards in the Alumni building this year, and, after the Director told us what we were to take next term, he said: Gentlemen, I want to con- gratulate the class on the way it passed the examinations. 'I did n't think you would do it. After that many of us breathed easier. During the second term we have had Thermo-dynamics under Prof. Anderson, and are now having Electro-dynamics. Neither of these courses is especially interesting and I doubt if any of us know any more about them than is required. We are now having a course of lectures with Prof. Parsons on steam engines. This consists of two lectures a week, each two hours long, and it almost goes without saying that these lectures are not especially exciting. Geology, which we are now taking under Prof. Clarke, is quite an interesting subjectg nobody studies very hard over it, though. All that remains for us now is a short course in Metallurgy under Prof. Mason and the preparation of our graduating theses. Some of the men have started working on their theses, but the majority have not done so as yet. Because this history deals largely with the Work we have, one must not imagine that we are unable to devote any of our time to pleasurable pursuits, for most of the class believe in the principle of pleasure first and then study. HISTORIAN '99. ffiaisss Ng' 'W urfhwllf QSM! , vain XS x Q me e 23

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in this course, that was to learn about the method of least squares, Since the time we were freshmenthe different Profs. have had a faculty of saying to numerous questions asked them, Oh, you do that by the method of least squares, and it seemed a great relief to know what that was. We had no electrical experiments this year as Prof. Anderson did not have time to get the apparatus ready for us and also keep up his reci- tations with the other classes. Stone-cutting, which is the last course we have with Prof. Thompson, was a subject we had heard numerous things about for a long time, and we were not disappointed as one really has to bone the subject. During the first week we did rather poor work, z'. e., some of us, but Thompy made remarks at the end of the week and as that is quite unusual for him, we took a decided brace. As the course is only two weeks long one may see that it was quite necessary. It was very fortunate for us that the review and examinations came directly after the advance, as we would surely have for- gotten all we knew about it if there had been any intermission. We felt quite fine when Thompy gave -us our little cards with all the fly specks on them, and I do n't doubt but that every man in the class has his card where he can find it in a minute. Bridges, the next course we had with the Director, was a rather stiff subject. The topics were different from all others we ever had, for one could n't sit down and read them over, but it was necessary to take a pencil and paper and work them out. This accounts for some of our poor recitations in the nrst part of the course. This work was quite practical, though, and the computations we made on the plate girder and Pratt truss did much to Hx the whole subject in our minds. Raymond says: Economic theory of railroad location is the hardest easy course I have with you. It was, without doubt, rather lengthy, but, as we are good at guessing, we managed to rush sometimes. Our first lesson was from page 1 to 186 inclusive, and everyone in the class read it over QFD. Hydraulics, as the name implies, was all about water, and, being well posted in that subject, it was n't hard for us. It was noticeable, though, that some of the men took more interest in the flow of liquids through pipes than any other part of the book. This includes all the subjects we took during the first term, with the exception of 22

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