The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, March 01, 1893, Image 17

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    of the building committee turned the new build
ing over to the trustees with a short and forcible
address which we regret we are prevented from
publishing by lack of space. Dr. Atherton, in
the absence of Col. Francis Jordan, president of
the Board of Trustees accepted the building. Gov
ernor Pattison followed with an eloquent speech
on "The State and Higher Education." He
praised in the highest terms the work of the col
lege and spoke at length of the history of educa
tion in Pennsylvania. Next came Gen. Francis
A. Walker, president of the Mass. Institute of
Technology, who delivered a highly interesting
and able address on "The Benefits of Scientific and
Technical Education." Hon. John W. Noble's able
and forcible discourse on "Education in its Rela
tions to our Government" completed the program of
the afternoon. From 4to 6 o'clock the different
departments were thrown open for inspection. •
DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGINEERING BUILDING
The new engineering building is prominently lo
cated near the south west entrance to the campus ,
a short distance east of the railroad station, and
faces on one side the college avenue and on the
other the main street of the village. It is built
of red pressed brick with brown stone trim.
mings. Its massive, substantial appearance
indicates that is well adapted to it uses, which is
the first requirement in good design for any pur
pose. Its only pretention to ornamentation is the
use of brown sandstone to accentuate certain feat
ures and the finials and crockets of terracotta.
The most striking feature of the front is the great
stone arched entrance, supported on short cylin
drical columns on either side and extended above
into a projection from the rooms of the different
floors. The building is three stories high, with
basement under the whole, having, in the rear a
wing of one story and attic. It faces the roadway
a total length of 266 feet and extends 208 feet to
the rear, making a total of 50,824 square feet or
about one and one•fifth acres. Inside it, one may
tread over two and one-third acres of floor space,
THE FREE LANCE.
and pass through 57 rooms. Passing up the broad
stone steps and under the massive stone arch, one
enters the main hallway from which stairways lead
to the basement and upper floors. By descending
the left hand stairway in the basement, one reach
es the hydraulic laboratory which will be thorough
ly equipped with apparatus for experiments in
weir work, gauging the flow of streams, and work
on injectors and calorimeters. In the next room
stands a 150 horse power triple compound engine
so constructed as to run in all different ways, sim
ple, compound, etc. It will furnish practical
work for the students. At one side are the testing
machines for strength of different materials and
three engines of different types for student prac
tice. In an adjoining room, all kinds of lubri
cant, combustion and cement testing will be car
ried on. The next room toward the north is oc
cupied by the ventilating apparatus, which changes
the air in each room every ten minutes, thus
making it possible to have perfect ventilation at
any temperature. The steam coils are supplied
from the exhaust of the many engines throughout
the basement, making the heating very economic
al. The farthest room, built without means of
natural light, is used for testing the different in
struments used in Civil Engineering.
Returning to the stairway at.the south end, the
room beyond is the dynamo room. Here are the
dynamos which furnish the bOOO incandescent
lights to the different buildings and the campus.
The dynamos are turned by two engines, all be
ing interchangeable so that in case Of accident to
one, the light can be supplied by another.
On the right is the boiler room, 45x90 feet, in
which are located 6 boilers of 90 horSepower each.
Beyond the engine room, is the coal rcom, sup
plied directly from the cars. which the Bellefonte
Central road runs overhead into the building.
The entire basement is laid with granolithic
pavement, under which the heat ducts pass to the
flues in the wall.
On the first floor of the main building are the