DEPARTMENT REPORTS. Ill 



At the beginning of the school year the work of instruction in Farm 

 Mechanics 1 and 2 (wood work and forge work) was transferred to 

 this department. 



During the year the department has received many favors from several 

 Lansing manufacturers, especially the Reo Motor Car Co., The Reliance 

 Engineering Co., Bates & Edmonds Motor Co., and others. 8ome com- 

 panies loaned us equipment and others gave us castings. 



Everyone connected with the department appreciates to the fullest 

 extent all that has been done during the past year, and in no way do 

 I wish to give voice to anything of a ditferent nature. So far as build- 

 ings are concerned the department is fully provided for, but when it 

 comes to equipment there is still a great deal to desire. I realize as 

 well as anyone that we cannot have all we desire now or in the near 

 future, and perhaps never. In the eleven years that I have been con- 

 nected with this department we have never had anywhere near what 

 was urgently needed along the line of equipment. 



Mechanical engineering is a profession that is built up by combining 

 theory and practice. These are so closely connected that nothing real 

 can be accomplished by either alone. In the final application of en- 

 gineering theory to any actual problem we find that every formula con- 

 tains one or more experimental or practical constants, which means that 

 not a single piece of apparatus or machine can be built unless j^ou have 

 secured experimental data. In the ordinary, everyday class of work 

 practically all necessary data have been secured and are easily available. 

 But we have by no means reached the end. New conditions, new material, 

 new designs are constantly being developed, hence the need for experi- 

 mental work continues. 



Great importance must therefore be attached to equipment necessary 

 in the mechanical engineering laboratory. 



In the hope that I may impress upon you the urgent necessity of 

 increasing our equipment at the very earliest time, I am submitting here- 

 with a general outline of our requirements : 



MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY. 



I. Two 35 or 40 H. P., cradle, electric dynamometers. I consider this 

 the most important item of all for the coming year. This testing set 

 can be used for testing all kinds of power transmission, as, for example, 

 belt testing, the testing of gear drives and friction drives, determining 

 the efficiency of universal couplings, and almost an unlimited amount 

 of transmission apparatus. 



II. Inasmuch as Michigan manufactures more automobiles than any 

 other state in the Union, I believe it our duty to oft'er instruction in 

 some phase of automobile engineering. The most important phase "of 

 automobile engineering would involve equipment for testing engines. 

 The same equipment could be used for testing aeroplane engines, marine 

 engines or high speed engines for any purpose. The trend of automobile 

 and aeroplane engines is to increase the speed and powder. The equip- 

 ment necessary for this work Avould be an automobile engine testing 

 outfit that would have a capacitj^ of at least 150 H. P. at 4,000 revolutions. 



III. The importance of oil engines need not be emphasized. Every- 

 body knows that gasoline engines and internal combustion engines in 

 general are playing a vei'y important part in the World War. Due to 



