of the engines. On these shafts are also provided brakes with a capacity sufficient to absorb the maximum power of the engine, a traction dynamometer indicating the tractive effort. Thus mounted, the action of the engine can be studied and its performance tested while it is run at any desired speed and under any load, the conditions being similar to those on the road.

Besides the above-mentioned equipment, excellent opportunity is afforded for testing and experimental work on apparatus deposited with the University by the Master Car-Builders' Association, including a brake-shoe testing machine, on which all of the brake-shoe experiments of the Association are conducted; an air-brake testing rack, consisting of a rack on which is mounted a complete air-brake equipment for a train of 100 freight cars; and a drop-testing machine. for testing couplers, draft riggings, car axles, rails, etc.

For further reference work in Railway Engineering lines, there have been deposited in the Locomotive Museum one English and two American locomotives, together with a wooden model of an historical engine, and a varied equipment of car bolsters, boxes, couplers, trucks, etc.

It is purposed in the Course in Mechanical Engineering to prepare the student for the active engineering field in mechanical lines. Accordingly the students, upon graduation, are found in the railway service, shops, and manufacturing and power plants, and with steam

enable him to find employment in any branch of the Electrical industry. Graduates of the department may now be found in the employment of lighting and power companies, interurban and street railways, the engineering and construction. departments of electrical manufactories, as managers and superintendents of municipal and isolated lighting plants, instructors in technical institutions, and in various departments of the telephone engineering field.

In connection with thesis work, considerable original research is conducted, and much important information has been obtained through the medium of such work on the part of students and instructors. Civil Engineering Course

The varied and responsible positions

conditions to be expected in his own future practice.

The School of Civil Engineering was inaugurated at Purdue University about 1886, the first graduating class dating from the academic year 1887-88. The enrollment fluctuated more or less, gradually increasing until it reached 87 in 1898-99, after which there was a marked increase in the rate of growth. In March, 1904, the enrollment of Civil Engineering students was 306-an increase of 250 per cent in the five-year period since. 1898-99. At the present time, the number of students in the Purdue School of Civil Engineering is within six of that at Cornell University, where the enrollment in this course is greater than at any other American technical school.

Within recent years, the Civil Engineering course at Purdue has been extended considerably in various directions -notably in railway lines-in which most important work has been accomplished.

The curriculum includes such culture subjects as English Literature, German, History, etc. in the first two years, and Economics in the Senior year. In addition to the course of Mathematics studied in the first three years, the sciences given include Physics in the Sophomore year, Chemistry in the Junior year, and Geology in the Senior Senior year. Throughout the course an effort is made to train the student to proficiency in the routine work of his specialty; accuracy and self-reliance are constantly encouraged. Evidence of this training is well shown by the experience of many of the under-class students during their vacation employment in actual engineering work. In one of the accompanying illustrations is shown a party of Sophomore students generaled by a Junior during the summer of 1903, engaged on a complete topographical and general survey of a tract of some 2,000 acres for the State Board of Forestry for Indiana.

Field Work

The class work is arranged to present the theoretical aspects of the various subjects in a complete and vigorous way, and at the same time the field work and class exercises are based, as far as possible, upon actual engineering problems. For example, within the last two years, the Sophomore class work has included.

the surveys for the location, grading, ballasting, etc., of a four-mile electric railway line from the City of Lafayette to the State Soldiers' Home; the location and construction of a macadam park driveway and electric railway roadbed from the Wabash river road up to the Soldiers' Home (costing $15,000); the survey and establishment of a large cemetery, etc. The class in Railway Location and Construction has recently been engaged in making location surveys and estimates for a six-mile through-freight cut-off line for the Lake Erie & Western and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railways, with a view to eliminating a pusher grade at Lafayette.

The equipment available for field work includes all makes and types of instruments in general use.

Buildings and Grounds

The University is laid out on gently rolling ground, there being some 40 acres in the campus proper, and 180 acres in The the campus and farm combined. location is is unusually healthful, the campus being on high, open ground just back of the steep hills bordering the Wabash river, and 114 feet above the latter.

To the late President James H. Smart, much credit is due for untiring efforts in behalf of Purdue; and to him, to his able successor, Dr. W. E. Stone, the present head of Purdue, and to Dean W. F. M. Goss, is largely due the marked growth which the University has experienced in late years, the enrollment last year numbering 1,433.