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Every student at Stevens is required to take the complete course of study, with no options or specializing. This has been the distinguishing feature from the beginning of the Institute, setting Stevens apart from all other technical institutions, and giving a strength to her degree of Mechanical Engineer that is not surpassed.

Stevens graduates have risen everywhere to high positions in nearly every branch of engineering work, as may be seen by examining the list of positions of the Alumni of Stevens, published annually in the Institute Catalogue. It is there shown that more than one-third of the graduates have risen to or above the responsible position of Superintendent, many being Managers or Presidents. Among the remaining two-thirds, are largely the Alumni of the past eight years, who comprise fifty per cent of the total number of living graduates; of the latter, who are yet very young men, many

ONE OF THE DRAFTING ROOMS, RECENTLY ENLARGED.

are doing responsible work although regularly rated as assistants, etc. As an example of the various lines of work in which the Stevens graduate is successfully engaged, we find in the above-mentioned list, officers of railroads, superintendents of iron and steel mills, electric light engineers, electric railway engineers, manufacturers of electrical apparatus, gas engineers, specialists in steam, marine engineers, designers and builders of various kinds of engines, hydraulic engineers, bridge builders, sugar manufacturers, flour manufacturers, refrigerating engineers, oil refiners, locomotive builders, copper refiners, manu

facturers of instruments, superintendents of paper mills, manufacturers of textile machinery, mining engineers, etc. This list of occupations is quoted from a recent address by President Alexander C. Humphreys, M. E., Sc. D., LL. D., who also states in this connection, that "the same college course furnished each of these men a solid foundation upon which to build the superstructure required for his selected vocation."

President Morton, who had successfully developed the work of Stevens Institute from the beginning, and who had made this his life work, was called to his eternal rest in May, 1902. His labors for the advancement of Stevens were taken up in September of the same year by Pres. Alex. C. Humphreys, who had been his close personal friend for a number of years. President Humphreys was graduated at Stevens. with the Class of '81. He had always taken the greatest interest in the affairs of the Institute; and when the question of electing a successor to President Morton came up, the Trustees were unanimously petitioned by the Faculty and Alumni of the Institute to extend a call to Mr. Humphreys. This the Trustees promptly did without a dissenting voice.

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Endowment and Equipment

The original endowment of Stevens Institute, as already mentioned, was $500,000. The principal sources of revenue received since the establishment of the Institute, have been from the late President Morton, who, at various critical periods, gave sums ranging from $2,500 to $50,000, and aggregating $145,000. Not all of this remains as an endowment fund, for much that President Morton gave was applied to meeting the growing demands for accommodation. For example, he gave $10,500 toward fitting up a workshop in 1881, and $15,000 for the building of a new boiler room in 1901. In 1899, Mr. Andrew Carnegie donated $65,000 for a new Laboratory of Engineering; and, upon its completion in 1902, he gave $100,000, and a year later an additional $125,000, making a total of $225,000 as an endowment fund for the building. In 1897, Mrs. Martha B. Stevens, widow of the found

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DYNAMO ROOM, ELECTRICAL LABORATORY, LOOKING EAST.

dergone considerable change in the past two years. The drafting rooms have been enlarged to an uninterrupted floor space of 60 by 40 feet each, with ample window space for light. They are also equipped with individual adjustable electric light pendants, permitting each student to place the lamp, when required, so as to avoid shadows. The workshops have been entirely overhauled during the past year, the metal- and wood-working rooms each being large (60 by 40 feet) and well lighted, and well equipped, the former with lathes and planers, drill presses and milling machines, shapers, etc., and the latter with wood lathes, a wood planer, circular and band saws, etc., all of the latest types.

equipped for the exercises in steam-fitting and vise work.

After the student has finished the course in Shop Work, he takes up exercises in handling and testing boilers, engines of various kinds, machinery, and apparatus likely to be met with in professional life. These exercises are conducted in the thoroughly equipped new Carnegie Laboratory of Engineering.

Electrical Laboratory work is conducted in two large rooms, each recently equipped with much up-to-date electrical apparatus. The "Instrument" Laboratory is equipped with a large variety of measuring instruments and standards.

The Chemical Laboratories include two entire floors in the west wing of the

main building, and are especially equipped for carrying on work in Engineering Chemistry. Plans are now nearly complete for a new Laboratory of Chemistry, to be named the Morton Memorial Laboratory of Chemistry, in memory of the late President Henry Morton.

A large and attractive auditorium, seating 700 people, was constructed in the central wing of the main building last summer.

In conducting the course of study at Stevens, advantage is taken of the proximity to New York City, and to the great industrial and manufacturing centers near by. Classes, or sections of classes, may be taken conveniently on short halfday or day trips by the instructors, when such visits fit specially well with any particular class-room topic.

The enrollment of students at the Institute during the current college year is 346. The Faculty has steadily grown from the seven original members to twenty-four at the present time.

In connection with the Institute, and on the same grounds, there is a prepara

tory school in which there are 309 students in attendance. Boys who can pass satisfactory examination in geography, elements of English grammar, and arithmetic, may enter the lowest class in the preparatory school and take up a thorough course not only for Stevens Institute but for any University or College. Complete English, classical, and scientific courses are provided. The close relations of the Stevens Preparatory School with the Stevens Institute, give the former peculiar advantages in carrying out its courses of study.

The Institute building and grounds are situated on rising land, one block from the river front, and overlooking lower New York City and New York Bay down to the Narrows. A large athletic field, situated about eight minutes' walk from the Institute, is available to the students. A plot of land, now part of the private grounds of Castle Point, two minutes' walk from the main building, was given to the Institute recently by Col. E. A. and Robert L. Stevens, for dormitory purposes.

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Ignition in the Automobile Engine

A Comparison of the Different Methods Employed in Starting

F THE TWO GENERAL METHODS OF IGNITION— the jump spark and the make

and break-an observation of the different motors shows that either method can be successfully used with either the high or low speed, single or multi-cylinder motor. The jump spark method possesses the advantage of mechanical simplicity and the disadvantage of electrical complication, while the make and break possesses electrical simplicity and mechanical complication. Either

method can be successfully used with any of the regular apparatus for furnishing the electric current-that is, the battery, dynamo, or magneto, or combination of dynamo or magneto and battery, providing the complete apparatus is consistently designed.

It is noticed that the jump spark with battery is meeting with probably the greater favor by American automobile manufacturers, while the European builders are using the make and break spark more extensively with the alter

nating-current magneto. The alternating-current magneto is also used with the jump spark on a number of foreign

cars.

Batteries possess the advantage over other forms of current generators, that their maximum strength can be used for starting the engine, but the disadvantage, that, after the engine is running, they

INDUCTION COIL FOR IGNITION PURPOSES.

grow weaker rapidly, until they are exhausted. Some kinds can be recharged to advantage; others must be replaced with a new battery when exhausted. The first cost of batteries is low, and their care is fairly well understood by the average operator. The fact that it is im

possible to determine in any practicable way just when a battery will become exhausted, and the cost of maintenance, are probably its most objectionable features.

The dry battery, which is used most extensively, is reliable and cleanly, but of short life, making it expensive to maintain. It will regain part of its original strength, if allowed to rest after being exhausted; but, when once exhausted, a new battery should be considered a necessity of the near future.

The storage battery, in connection with the dynamo or direct-current magneto, forms an ignition system which is almost ideal theoretically, but ofttimes impracticable. The storage battery is of great strength and is reliable until exhausted, providing proper care is taken of it; but unless it is given more attention than is generally given such a small part of an automobile, it will prove a failure. For instance, if it be charged above a certain maximum rate, it will not receive a normal charge, and will therefore become exhausted earlier than it would naturally do. If it be discharged above a certain maximum rate, the battery will not only fall short on its present charge, but on

all subsequent ones; and the time of its ultimate complete destruction is hastened by the excessive discharge rate. If the battery has been allowed to discharge after the voltage has reached a certain minimum indicated by the makers of the battery, generally about one and eighttenths volts per cell, sulphating and its consequent troubles result. Owing to the nature of automobile work, this last abuse is probably responsible for the bad reputation that storage batteries have acquired with those experienced with them. The storage battery should be both charged and discharged through ammeters; and the discharge should be watched with a voltmeter, not to mention tests with hydrometer for specific gravity, etc. It is not practicable to observe these precautions for ignition purposes.

The dynamo system for ignition, with the speed-governing pulley, is theoretically a very fine ignition system; and, if operated by one familiar with caring for electrical apparatus, it is really a very satisfactory method. This system, however, possesses two very great disadvantages: first, the dynamo generates a direct current of low voltage, necessitating close care and attention to be given the dynamo; second, the dynamo must run at a constant speed, necessitating the use of a speed-governing device, which, for

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JUMP SPARK COIL.

the service required, has not proven altogether reliable. The dynamo system will sometimes work perfectly for a very long time, and then fail at a time most disastrous to its operator, without any apparent reason for its stubbornness.

The combination of a comparatively high-voltage direct-current magneto with a reliable battery for starting purposes, forms a very satisfactory ignition system,

even in unskilled hands; but it possesses the disadvantage that it is sometimes impossible to find room for such a system. Then, too, the batteries must be attended to occasionally, and the apparatus should be overhauled each season.

The writer is decidedly prejudiced in favor of ignition by means of the alternating-current magneto. The alternating-current magneto, from an electrical standpoint, is the simplest electrical generator made. For ignition purposes, it al

for every revolution of the armature. The above, it is obvious, would be the proper speed for four-cylinder engines. If eight cylinders are to be fired from one magneto, the magnetos are run twice as fast as the engine shaft.

The magneto alternator, when used with either make and break or jump spark, permits of the ordinary spark timing, except that the timing mechanism for the jump spark is very greatly simplified. Since the spark is generated at certain points in the revolution of the armature of the magneto, it is necessary, in order to change the time, only to change the relation of the armature to the engine crank; and this is accomplished by a simple construction made a part of the magneto. Probably the

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JUMP SPARK COIL, WITH VIBRATOR.

lows of the most simple, positive installation in use. When used with the jump spark, a coil without vibrator is used with it, and but one coil for single or multicylinder engines. When used with the make and break spark, no coil is used. Owing to the very efficient designs of these magnetos, they will furnish a satisfactory spark at any speed between 30 and 3,000 revolutions per minute. An alternating-current magneto, not like the direct-current machine, generates its current only at certain points in the revolution of the armature. It is evident, then, that a magneto of this type must be driven by the engine through some positive mechanism, such as gears, chain, or pitman rod, and that the magneto and engine must be so connected mechanically that the spark will be generated at the required point of the engine's revolution. Owing to the ability of this magneto to generate a large spark at so low a speed as 30 r. p. m., engines can be readily started from it with the magneto driven at the same speed as that of the engine, at which speed it is usually driven. The magnetos now in use generate two sparks

VERTICAL MAGNETO.

greatest advantage in the magneto alternator system of ignition, lies in its simple and positive construction. The magneto, not having either commutator or collector rings and brushes, conducts its current through the simple bronze bearings of the machine, which are oiled. in the usual manner. There are no adjustments, and oil and dirt cannot damage the apparatus.-FRANK REMY in Automobile Review.

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