the second year in surveying and one for the third year in advanced surveying and railroad location. This enables each class to have one day each week. The only alternative to the present arrangement seems to be to concentrate the field work in the summer vacation, but this has so many objections, financial and practical, that it has never been attempted or, indeed, seriously considered. With the present arrangement, however, no considerable increase in the number of students can be allowed, without diminishing the efficiency of the instruction, nor will an increase in the number of inexperienced and young assistants solve the problem. It is a grave mistake to intrust the earlier classes entirely or largely to inexperienced teachers, reserving the experienced teachers for the higher branches. For the best results, it would, perhaps, be better to reverse the arrangement, if that were the only alternative. The satisfactory arrangement of the work becomes increasingly difficult as the number of students increases, and can be accomplished only by adding to the staff not simply inexperienced assistants, but also instructors and assistant professors.

The space at the disposal of the department is becoming very cramped, in view of the increase in the number of students, and will imperatively require enlargement if the increase continues. The space occupied has not been increased since 1898, when the Henry L. Pierce building was built, although the number of students that can be classed as belonging to the department has increased some 30 per cent. within the same period, not to mention the even larger increase in students of other Courses who take work in surveying. Moreover, the engineering library is now so crowded that it is little more than a store-room for books. There are but two large tables available in it for students, and not more than thirty or forty students can by any possibility be accommodated there at one time. The time has arrived when the space available for the Civil Engineering Department and the library should be increased.

The equipment of the department is being gradually added

to as occasion requires. During the past year the gauging station on the Charles River at Newton Upper Falls, which had been injured by the floods, has been rebuilt in a more substantial manner and has been made use of by the State Board of Health for gauging purposes. A Doble regulating nozzle has been added to the equipment of the hydraulic laboratory. Further additions to the equipment are needed, and it would be desirable if larger appropriations could be authorized for this purpose.

The demand for graduates in civil engineering has continued almost unabated. A larger number than the entire class graduated last June, which numbered thirty-one, could have been placed in positions before the close of the term, while since that time many additional positions have been available. I cannot remember a year since my connection with the Institute began in which the demand for graduates of the Civil and Sanitary Engineering Courses has not exceeded the supply, even during the dull years from 1893 to 1897. With the excellent records which our graduates are making, it is probable that the demand will continue to exceed the supply. Mention may be made of the very gratifying result of the recent examination held for the position of assistant civil engineer in the Navy, at which nine candidates presented themselves. Of this number four were passed; of these four, the three highest were graduates of our Civil Engineering Department in the class of 1900.

Professor Allen was in July last elected President of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education for the ensuing year.

It may be of interest to state that, out of about two hundred students in the three upper classes in Civil and Sanitary Engineering, sixty-five worked at engineering occupations, while forty were employed in non-engineering occupations, during the summer just past, the total amount earned by these students being over $16,000.

SUMMER SCHOOL IN CIVIL ENGINEERING. The sixteenth session of the summer school of the Civil Engineering Depart

ment was held during the past summer at East Machias, Maine. Twenty-four students were in attendance. Nine of these students were from the third-year class, and fifteen from the second-year class. The second-year students paid $25 tuition and by this work anticipated the field work of the third year.

The school was in charge of Professors Burton and Robbins, assisted by Professor Barton, Mr. Sweet, and Mr. Hosmer, together with Mr. Morse, Mr. Davis and Mr. Howard of the class of 1903.

A plane table survey, based on a base-line measurement and system of triangulation, was made of the village of East Machias, covering over a square mile of territory. The scale of the survey was I to 5,000, with a contour interval of 10 feet. Elevations were referred to mean sea level, determined by means of a tide-gauge set up near the mouth of the East Machias River. The plane table survey was connected with the general system of triangulation on the Atlantic Coast by occupying the United States Coast and Geodetic Stations. at Howard Mountain and Indian Hill, and measuring angles to triangulation stations in East Machias. These lines of sight were long enough to require the use of heliotropes for signalling.

A profile was made of the East Machias River, and hydraulic measurements were taken by means of floats and meters, thus procuring data for an estimate of the water power.

Geological sections were surveyed with a transit and stadia. Astronomical observations were made for the determination of latitude, meridian, and time. This school was the largest and most successful summer school which has been held by the Civil Engineering Department up to the present time.

GEORGE F. SWAIN.

COURSE II.— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.

The number of students for whom instruction is provided by the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics has, within the last few years, undergone a very large increase; partly on account of the growth of the Institute itself; partly on account of the fact that instruction in some of the subjects taught in these departments has been added in two of the four-year Courses in which it was not formerly included, and that in another case additional instruction had to be given; partly because work had to be provided for graduate students of certain departments; and partly for other

reasons.

'The number of students to whom instruction is given in applied mechanics is four hundred and seventy-five; while the number who receive instruction in mechanical engineering subjects is six hundred and twenty-eight.

In the case of the Engineering Laboratories, which are called upon to provide instruction for about three-fourths of all those who graduate from the Institute, no important addition has been made to the apparatus for the last four years.

In consequence of these facts, it follows that, in order to keep up with the times, we are in great need of a very considerable amount of additional apparatus, not only to enable us to pursue investigations along new lines of very great importance from an engineering standpoint, but also to provide for our regular laboratory classes the amount of instruction required. This would involve the addition of apparatus of kinds that we do not possess, and the duplication of some that we have. Indeed, in certain portions of the work, we have already been obliged to decrease the amount of laboratory instruction given to each student. The above stated needs have been yearly explained in detail, in the recommendations made to the Budget Committee, and it is hoped that the Executive Committee may soon see its way clear to supply them. Moreover, if an amount of additional apparatus adequate to

the needs of the departments is provided, an increase of space will also be requisite.

In accordance with our usual custom, a considerable amount of investigation is always in progress, partly by means of the regular laboratory work, and partly by means of thesis work. As examples of investigations which have been carried on in whole or in part, during the last school year, and during the last summer, the following may be mentioned :—

1. Experimental investigations of the strength, and other resisting properties of full-sized re-enforced concrete beams, and of full-sized re-enforced concrete columns. This work formed the subject of two theses, and the results thus far obtained were published in the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers for 1903, Vol. 50, p. 483 et seq.

2. A forty-hour test of a 3700-horse-power unit of the Lincoln Wharf Power Station of the Boston Elevated Railroad was made as part of the regular laboratory work, the opportunity having been furnished through the kindness of the officials of the road. An opportunity for performing such laboratory work outside the Institute cannot always be obtained.

3. The following plant tests have been made as thesis work, viz.:

(a) A series of tests of the steam plant at the mills of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., at Manchester, N.H.

(b) A twenty-four hour test on the high duty pumping station at New Bedford.

(c) A twenty-four hour duty test on the Brookline high service pumping station.

(d) A test on the Westinghouse Parsons steam turbine at Hartford, Conn.

(e) A series of tests on a De Laval steam turbine.

4. Tests, partly as thesis work, and partly as regular laboratory work, on the quantity of air flowing through orifices of different sizes. Orifices have been calibrated thus far up to a diameter of two inches, and up to a pressure of three hundred and fifty pounds.