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DYNAMO LABORATORY. Department of Electrical Engineering.

engines, and describes the general design of different types of steam engines, treating such subjects as valve gearing, crank effort, fly wheels, and other problems of detail connected with design and operation. In the senior year a course is given which takes up quite fully elementary thermodynamics, the theory of heat engines, heat engines and boilers, refrigerating machinery, air compressors, and pumping machinery. This course also includes consideration of the design of the modern power house, having in view the economics of the problem. The aim The aim is to give the student a working knowledge.

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engines and boilers of various forms and types. There is also a very finely equipped laboratory for testing strength of materials. A fine assortment of gas and oil engines furnish opportunity for testing and research in this line; and elaborate apparatus has been provided for making almost all other kinds of tests. Here students are instructed in the use of all kinds of measuring instruments used in commercial testing and in the making of actual test runs. Advanced students have many opportunities to go out on commercial tests made by the department for manufacturing concerns. The scope of the work in this department is of great importance to the engineer. Special attention is paid to research, and a very considerable output of this class of work has come from this department. Provision has recently been made for electrical experimental work on a much broader basis than heretofore, and this special line of work will be operated in conjunction with the regular courses which are offered in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

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SMALL ENGINE LABORATORY. EXPERIMENTAL ENGINEERING.

Department of Electrical Engineering Since the art of Electrical Engineering has its greatest root in the science of physics, students in this course receive particularly strong instruction in this subject in the Department of Physics before taking up the engineering work proper. The facilities and instruction of the Department of Physics at Cornell, are of the very best, and particular attention is paid to the wants of the student in Electrical Engineering. The work in engineering proper, which is under the direction of Sibley College, is carried on by men who are experts in their various

ical Laboratory, is the electrical-experimental work, which is expected to increase greatly the value of the course. There are many interesting power plants in the near vicinity of Ithaca which afford excellent opportunity for inspection. Among the best of these are the University power plant and the interesting and economical plant of the local lighting and railway company, where much of the waste heat of the exhaust steam is reclaimed in the manufacture of salt from brine pumped from the great salt bed underlying this region.

Advanced students here, as in Me

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student with this particular branch of engineering and thus enable him to adjust himself more quickly to his surroundings after graduation. The practical application of the first two years is therefore directed along the lines which the student expects to follow after graduation. Facilities are at hand for research work, among which may be mentioned an experimental tank 450 feet long, in which experiments on propellers, etc., are conducted. Graduate courses are also provided for more advanced students and for those returning from practice for further study and research.

Department of Railway Mechanical Engineering

As in the course in Naval Architecture students are trained for a special purpose, so in this department provision is made for those who have chosen this branch of engineering as a life work. Students in this course can begin to specialize in the drafting room in their Sophomore year. In the Senior year about one-half of their time is devoted to railway subjects. Special arrangements are made for inspection tours to railway shops, and also for summer work in these and other shops. Opportunities are given for actual tests of locomotives and

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Among other interesting features connected with Sibley College are the extensive collections in the Museum, and the modern hydro-electric power plant now nearing completion on the University's property, erected at a cost of $70,000, for the purpose of supplying power for the shops and laboratories and for lighting purposes.

The various departments enumerated above are all headed by men who are not only informed on the technical side of their specialty, but who have also had wide practical experience in their profession, as only such men can intelligently direct the instruction in the efficient way the engineering student of to-day requires.

While it is possible in Sibley College to specialize in any one of the departments, yet the degree given to all students on the completion of the four

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Air-Valves

Indispensable Aids to Circulation in Steam and Hot-Water Heating Systems— Information of Value to All Housekeepers

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N all systems of steam and hot-water heating, it is necessary to provide means for allowing the air to escape. Air is much lighter than water, and will gather in any bends that are convex upward, and in the upper part of radiators filled with water. Unless this air is removed from the radiator, it will always cause trouble and reduce efficiency by preventing circulation.

For freeing the radiators of air, valves

of various kinds are used. Those which are known as "air-valves" are usually made of 4-inch or -inch pipe size, varying in design from very simple forms

ical end. D is a strip composed of a layer of iron or steel and one of brass soldered or brazed together. The action is as follows:

When the radiator is cold and filled with air, the valve stands as shown in the cut. When steam is turned on, the air is driven out through the opening B. As soon as this is expelled and steam strikes the strip D, the two prongs spring apart, owing to the unequal expansion of

the two metals due to the heat of the

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B

FIG. 1. SIMPLE AIR-VALVE.

opened by hand to complicated automatic. valves. It is claimed for some of these valves, in addition to merely freeing the radiator from air, that, with suitable adjustment, the temperature of the radiator will be automatically maintained at any desired point. This is brought about by a mixture of air and steam in the required proportion. The simplest type of air-valve is that shown in Fig. 1, which is operated by hand. The more desirable kinds are those which operate automatically.

Of the latter type, Fig. 2 illustrates an example. It consists of a shell which is attached to the radiator. B is a small opening which may be closed by the spindle C, which is provided with a con

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