MECHANICS AND ASTRONOMY. 1x1 



is certainly not contemptible, and the work of our pupils in this, the first year, 

 need not be ashamed to be compared with any I saw in the older institutions. 

 During my trip I took the opportunity of visiting the observatories and labora- 

 tories of Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins. 



During the spring term I taught the freshmen mechanical students element- 

 ary physics, dividing the class during the latter half of the term into four sections, 

 and giving them a course of experimentation at the tables in my laboratory. 

 They also assisted in devising and making several pieces of apparatus, — one, 

 for instance, for determining the coefficient of gravity, and one for illustrating 

 the laws of falling bodies. 



Durnig this term I also taught two sections of the sophomore class the sub- 

 ject of trigonometry. During the summer term I taught the sophomore class 

 mechanics and the senior class astronomy. During this term also, by vote of 

 the faculty, I prepared the annual catalogue and attended to its printing. 

 During the year Professor Carpenter and I prepared the full four year course 

 of study for the department of mechanic arts. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



I join my voice with Professor Carpenter's in recommending that the Board 

 ask of the Legislature an appropriation for the addition to our shops which he 

 urges in his report. Without some relief of this kind at tbe beginning of the 

 next year, when our third class enters, we shall be greatly embarrassed to find 

 room for all our students, and when the fourth class enters in the fall of 1888- 

 we shall be totally unable to provide for them. 



I would also emphasize and urge his recommendation that the main part of 

 the mechanical building be enlarged by a two story addition at the northeast 

 corner. This addition is greatly needed, — the basement and first floor for a 

 mechanical lecture room and apparatus rooms, the second floor for lecture 

 room for the professor of engineering and a tower furnished for a computing 

 room and observatory for astronomical purposes. The present little observa- 

 tory is inaccessible in position, too small and unfit often by reason of damp- 

 ness for the preservation of our telescope. 



If this addition is built my present lecture room and laboratory would be 

 converted into a much needed laboratory for experiments in mechanics. 



I also beg leave to recommend in the interest of the new department of me- 

 chanic arts the appointment of a teacher of drawing for next year and there- 

 after. The classes in drawing are becoming so numerous as very soon to re- 

 quire the entire time of one instructor. I would also urge that the services of 

 a shop superintendent be secured for the year beginning in the fall of 1888- 

 and thereafter. It is possible that a detail might be secured from the U. S. 

 government of a suitable graduate from the naval academy for this service. 

 So many new classes are created by the new course that Professor Carpenter 

 and his assistants cannot possibly attend to these duties in addition to his own 

 proper work in mathematics and engineering. 



I also ask that provision be made for an assistant in my own department for 

 next year and thereafter. Competent young men can be found willing ta 

 serve as assistants at from 1300 to 1500 per year. I shall be obliged to provide 

 for the instruction of from three to five classes a day after the beginning of 

 next sj)ring term ; and if the work is to be done by the laboratory method, as 

 most certainly it must be, these classes will need to be divided into a number 

 of sections of suitable size for supervision. 



