266 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Edward C. Pickering, then in charge of the department of physics, 

 submitted a scheme to the government of the Institute entitled Tlan of 

 the Physical Laboratory.' This plan was adopted and carried out in 

 the autumn of 1869 and has been in use ever since. It is worthy of 

 remark that the original statement of Professor Eogers with reference 

 to laboratory instruction in physics contained no mention of electricity, 

 then a subordinate branch, but one whose development since has caused 

 it to occupy the leading place in any physical department. In 1882 

 the corporation established a course in electrical engineering, setting 

 an example which has since been followed by almost every large tech- 

 nical school, and founding a course destined in a few years to become 

 one of the largest in the Institute. 



At present the department of physics and electrical engineering, 

 under the head of Prof. Charles E. Cross, has an active teaching force 

 of one professor, four assistant professors, six instructors and three 

 assistants, a total of fourteen. In addition to these, there are twelve 

 lecturers on special topics, including many men eminent in their pro- 

 fession. The Eogers laboratories occupy sixteen rooms in the Walker 

 Building, including two lecture-rooms and ten laboratories. As in 

 the case of the chemical department, these laboratories are highly 

 specialized. There is a laboratory for general physics, one for electrical 

 measurements, two rooms devoted to a laboratory for electrical engineer- 

 ing, containing two distinct power plants driven by steam engines of 

 100 and 150 horse-power, with a large number of dynamo machines, 

 transformers and a great variety of other apparatus arranged for pur- 

 poses of instruction, the mere enumeration of which would occupy 

 several pages. Moreover, a lighting and power plant in the new 

 building on Trinity Place is available for experiments and instruction. 

 Besides these, there are rooms for photometry, for heat measurements, 

 for acoustics, for optics and for photography. In fact, probably no 

 department of the Institute is more fully equipped than this, the wealth 

 of apparatus being so great that the casual visitor is confused by the 

 network of wires and machinery which surround him. 



The interdependent and harmonious work of the various depart- 

 ments of the Institute is shown in the development of special lecture 

 and laboratory courses, and is in marked contrast to the policy of 

 departmental isolation sometimes practiced. Thus, in 1889, two new 

 courses of instruction were established by the physical department in 

 response to the demand of the department of mining; namely, the 

 course in heat measurements, including measurements of high tem- 

 peratures, the determination of the calorific power of fuels, etc., and a 

 course on the applications of electro-metallurgy to chemical analysis, 

 the reduction of ores and similar problems. The equipment of calori- 

 meters, pyrometers, etc., in the heat laboratory is said to be so large 



