Y, ' $ ! li i! ~ASSACHUSIgI'TS INSTI'flYI'E OF TF~HNOL~Y. : 2: ?1t PRESIDENT'S REPORT ~i~ ~{~i POR THE ~i ,/~ i ~ !!iil ~ z i~!~! Year ending Sept. 30, 1876. !i :i~!ii! i,!: i ~ BOBTON: PaEas oir x. A. I~lb1OM~N. 1877. ii.:. ~..... k. ? ; "t MASSACHUSEttS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR THE Year ending Sept. 30~ 1876. '}!, BOSTON : PRESS OF A. A. KINGMAN. 1877. L ...... Extracts from Acts of the General Court of Massachusetts, in relation to the l~Iassachusetts Institute of Technology. Act of Incorporation. "William B. Rogers [and others named], their associates and successors, are hereby made a body corporate, by the name of the MASSACHU- S~X'TS I~STITUT~ OF TECH~OLOOY, for the purpose of instituting and maintaining a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School of Industrial Science, and a,ding generally, by suitable means, the advancement, development, and practical application of sciences in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce." Chapter 183, Acts and Resolves of 1861. Grant of P~lic Lands. "When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shall have been duly organized, located, and established, ...... there shall be appropriated and ~paid to its treasurer, each year, on the warrant of the Governor, for its endowment, support, and maintenance, one third part of the annual interest or income which may be received from the fund created under and by virtue of the 13Oth chapter of the Acts of the 87th Congress, at the second session thereof, approved July 2, 1862 [giving Public Lands to the States in aid of instrut~tion in Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, and Military Science and Tactics] ...... Said Institute of Technology, in addition to the objects set forth in its Act of Incorporation [as above. quoted], shall provide for instruction in military tactics." Chapter 186, Acts and Resolves of 1868. Power to confer Degrees. "The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is hereby authorized and empowered to award and confer degrees appropriate to the several courses of study pursued in said Institution, on such conditions as are usually pre- scribed in universities and colleges in the United States, and according to such tests of proficiency as shall best promote the interests of suund education in this Common- wealth." Chapter 247, Acts and Re~lves of 1868. CONTENTS. President's Report . i-uiv Secretary's Report of Society of Arts 1-25 Spirit Compass . 1 Extinguishing of Fires on Shipboard 3 The Liquid Compass. 4 Metric System of Weights and Measures. 5 New Method of Topographical Surveying 7 New Wind Vane 8 Instrument for Drawing Curves 9 Differential Compass. 9 New System of Rifling Cannon. 10 ~I~~' Developments in Steam Engineering 12 Blood Globules of Man and Animals compared 14 Electric Railway Signals . 15 Mining Laboratory of the Institute 16 i! Experiments on Sound 16 New form of Plane Table. 17 Telegraphing Musical Sounds . 18 School of Industrial Science, Attendance 22 Lowell Free Courses. 22 Meetings of the Corporation 23 Department of Physics . 26 Department of Philosophy 4O Department of Modern Languages 50 Lowell Free Courses 58 Light Prof. Cross's Report o 58 Kant's Critiqt~e of Pure Reason. Prof. Howison's Report 60 Physiology and the Laws of Health Prof. Kneeland's Report 61 General Chemistry and Qualitative Analysis. Prof. Nichols's Report Heat and its Applications Prof. Ordway's Report. 62 Elementary German. Prof. Otis's Report 64 Elements of Perspective. Prof. Ware's Report 87 Abstracts of Theses by Graduates of 1875-76 69 Providence Water Works~ by Thomas Aspinwall, Jr. 69 Merrimac River Bridge at Nashua, N. H., by F. W. Baldwin ~0 7 iv West Chester Park Bridge in Boston, by d. B. F. Breed . 70 The Buffalo Water Supply, by H. T. Buttolph. 71 The Bridge over Front St., Worcester, Mass., by F. K. Copeland . 73 The Broadway Draw Bridge, Boston, Mass., by John R. Freeman . 74 The Albany St. Bridge in Boston, by F. W. Hodgdon 74 Iron Bridge over the Merrimac River at Tyngsboro. Mass., by A. L. Mills 75 Design for a Double Track Wrought h'on Post Truss, by Henry Raeder. 76 West Boston Draw, by C. L. Rich . 77 Eastern Avenue Swing Bridge in Boston, by H. M. Waitt 79 Haverhill Highway Bridge, by H. B. Wood 80 A Mechanical Laboratory, by A. D. Blodgett . 82 Steam Boilers, by C. L. Dennett 83 Modern American Locomotive Engineering, by F. E. Galloupe 84 Paper Mills and Machinery, by S. Hollingsworth . 89 Pumping Etigines, by A. C. Kilham 90 Shafting and its Fittings, by C. T. Main . 93 The Screw Propeller, by C. F. Prichard . 95 The Port Henry Iron Industry, by C. F. Allen. 97 Treatment of an Argentiferous Galena from Burleigh Tunnel, Colorado, by S. James, Jr.. The Richmond Blast Furnace, by T, W. Robinson . Report on the Pomeroy Iron Works at West Stockbridge, Mass., by T. E. Schwarz. , o 100 Newburyport Silver Lead Mines, by J. H. Susmann and W. D. Townsend . 102 Action of Tungstie Acid upon Gelatin, by" W. P. Atwood . 10~ On Anthracene and Associated Hydrocarbons, by C. E. Fletcher . 104 Value of Tanning Materi~ls, by W. E. Nickerson . 105 Report on the Vershire Copper Mine and Ore, by R. H. Gould 106 Catalogue of the Alcidae in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, by W. B. Barrows .... 108 Geology of Eastern Massachusetts, by W. O. Crosby 109 On the Mean Specific Gravity of the Earth, by J. B. Henck, Jr. 112 The Atomic Theory as Applied to Gases, by S. W. Holman . 118 New Experiments in Sound, by W. W. Jacques 115 Australian Colonies of Great Britain, by C. A. Sawyer . 118 Concerning Kant's Transcendental iEsthetic, by D. W. Phipps 120 Historical and Logical Relations between Fichte and Kant, by R. C. Ware 123 The Russian System of Shop-Work Instruction . 124 Department of Military Science and Tactics . 154 Lowell Department of Industrial Design. 166 Department of Architecture . 168 Mining Expedition to Pennsylvania 171 Appendix. Centennial Catalogue . 175 Catalogue of Material collected at the Centennial Exhibition. 183 List of Members of the Society of Arts . 232 PRESIDENT'S REPORT. To the Corporation of the Institute :- I deeply regret the delay in the issue of this report, which has been caused by the desire to include all matters relating to the International Centennial" Exhibition held at Philadelphia during the year, and affecting the Institute. The particular cause of delay has been the time taken to prepare, in the midst of other absorbing duties, a full and accurate catalogue of the collections presented to us by exhibitors, which would have been practically useless without the systematic classification we have made, with the corresponding casing and catalogue. I shall touch upon some matters begun near the close of the year, which will be reported upon fully hereaRer. The various reports and matters herewith submitted will inform you of the condition of the several departments of the Institute for the year 1875-76. For information relating to departments not especially referred to, and in which no partic- ular changes have taken place during the year, you will please consult the report of last veal" i,:l !g The changes in the corps of Instruction during the year have !iiili:]ll been the reslgnatmns.... of Lmut. E. L. Zalinski, Professor of I!~: ]!i structor m Quantitative Anal sis Frank B Morse. s B ) tl Y " " - " ", i:i'ii ul E 'r l ii vi Instructor in Free Hand Drawing, Francis T. Sargent, S. B., and J. Austin Knapp, S. B., Assistants in Mechanical Engi- neering, and William E. Nickerson, Assistant in .General Chem- istry and Qualitative Analysis. Lieut. Henry W. Hubbell, Jr., U. S. Art'y, was appointed Prof. of Military Science and Tactics, Thomas W. Robinson, S. B., Assistant in Quantitative Analysis, James B. S~anwood, S. B., and Clarence L. Dennett, S. B., Assistants in Mechanical Engineering. Attendance. The aggregate number of students in attend- ance during the year was 299, an increase of ll over the pre- vious year. For classification and other items, see page 2"2 of the Secretary's report. Graduates. The number of graduates for the year was 44, two of whom completed the course in 1872-78, with the ex- ception of presenting a graduating thesis. This is the largest number ever graduated in one ~,ear. It will also be noticed that all but one of the ten departments are represen{ed. The following table gives the aggregates in years and departments. 1868 1869 1870 1871 1879. 1873 1874 1875 1876 Total. Civil :Engineering . 12 10110 14 69 ]Mechanical Engineer'g 1 41 7 8 28 Mining Engineering . 2 1 * 6 7 33 Architecture .... 1 1! 1 3 Chemistry .... 6 I1 19 Metallurgy .... 1 :Natural History . 2 Physics ~ 1 4 Science and Lit[ ~ i" 2 2 9 Philosophy .... t 2 Total .... 14 5 I0 17 II 23 I8 28 44 I70 Theses. Abstracts will be found on pp. 69-128. Mr. Gal- loupe's thesis has been published in full in tile Journal of the Franklin Institute, and also a portion of Mr. Kilham's; those of Mr. Holman and Mr. Jacques in the Proceedings of the ,a.merican Academy of Arts and Sciences ; those of Mr. Bar- rows and Mr. Crosby have been accepted for publication in the vii Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History; and those of Mr. Ware and Mr. Phipps, one published and the other accepted, by the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, St. Louis. These facts are the only commenta~ T I need make upon the general excellence of all the theses presented.