REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND MECHANICS. 



To the Honorable Board of Trustees of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College: 



Gentlemen: — I beg leave to present the following report regard- 

 ing the apparatus and other facilities for instruction needed in the 

 department of Physics and Mechanics. 



During the past year about two thousand dollars have been 

 expended for apparatus relating to heat and light mainly, but care 

 has been taken to select instruments having as wide a range of 

 application as possible. The necessity for apparatus is so urgent 

 that I hope that this year a very much larger sum will be appro- 

 priated. 



This apparatus is needed — 



To enable the student to acquire knowledge that is beyond his 

 reach without it. 



To enable the student to make more rapid progress. 



And most important of all, perhaps, to train the student to experi- 

 ment and observe ; to inculcate those habits of thought that fit him 

 to discover new truth. This is one of the highest aims of the 

 " New Education," to send young men into the active pursuits of 

 life, prepared by their peculiar training to extend the boundaries of 

 human knowledge, as they can only be extended, by experiment and 

 observation. The study of science from text-books alone not only 

 fails to give such training, but engenders habits of thought incon- 

 sistent with it. Such teaching is a failure, and worse than a failure, 

 as regards the great object it is desirable to attain. 



To accomplish this important object, the best apparatus is neces- 

 sary. It must be capable of, and the student must be trained to 

 attain, the utmost precision. Some single instruments of this class 

 cost from $1,000 to $2,000, and the instruments must accompany 

 these to render them available for all the purposes for which they 



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