ing, and are connected with the latter by a continuation
of the original cloister. The buildings are constructed of
brick and marble, corresponding in design to the style as
defined in the administration building, but of a simpler
character expr/Cssing their purpose as laboratories. The
C 103 3
THE RICE INSTITUTE
physics laboratory proper is a two-story building 275 x
56 feet, connected with a large lecture amphitheater
121x72 feet. The main building contains four large
students' laboratories, two lecture rooms equipped for
giving illustrated lectures, two class rooms, two dark
rooms, a library, and administrative offices. The prin-
cipal room of the amphitheater wing is a large lecture
hall with seating capacity for about four hundred audi-
tors. The room is fully equipped for giving illustrated
lectures and is arranged with seats properly elevated to
command a 28-foot lecture table which is supplied with
gas, hot and cold water, compressed air, vacuum, and
direct and alternating electric currents. In this wing also
are six rooms fitted for research work in physics, a bat-
tery room in which a battery of 60 Edison storage cells
of 300 ampere-hours' capacity has been installed with
space provided for another equal battery., a switchboard
room where the wires from the battery can be connected
in any desired manner for use in the laboratories, motor
generators for charging the batteries and supplying direct
current to the lecture rooms and laboratories, a vacuum
pump, liquid air plant, constant temperature rooms, a
preparation room, a large dark room, and a fully equipped
workshop. The floor of the workshop is supported free
from contact with the surrounding walls so that vibration
from the machines does not affect the building. Eleva-
tors for moving heavy apparatus are provided, and all
laboratories, lecture rooms, and research rooms are
equipped with individual service, for the students, of gas,
water, steam, compressed air, vacuum, and both direct
and alternating currents of electricity. The laboratory
ANNOUNCEMENTS
now contains a fine collection of modern apparatus suit-
able for teaching and research work in all branches of
physics. This collection includes about seventy ammeters
and voltmeters of all types, including a Kelvin gauge
reading up to 30,000 volts and standard Weston instru-
ments. About forty resistance boxes of all kinds are also
provided, and numerous galvanometers, electrometers,
and electroscopes of various types. High potential bat-
teries and generators are available for research work. A
large Weiss electromagnet, a Leeds and Northrup poten-
tiometer, and complete equipment for the accurate meas-
urement of the conductivity of solutions, a precision
electric wave meter and precision air condenser, may
be specially mentioned among the other electrical instru-
ments. The optical instruments include a Hilger's wave
length spectrometer, monochromatic illuminator, spectro-
photometer, and quartz spectrograph; also a set of inter-
ferometers of various types. For work in heat, electrical
furnaces, various types of radiation pyrometers, resist-
ance thermometers, and standard thermocouples are avail-
able. The apparatus for general work includes several
Gaede and diffusion pumps; also standards of weight,
length, etc. The collection of apparatus for illustrating
lectures is exceptionally complete. An instrument maker
and a glass blower are employed in the construction of
special apparatus for research work.
The laboratories for chemistry are housed in a three-
story building of maximum rectangular dimensions of
307 and 181 feet, with ample attic and basement ac-
commodations, built around several open courts, facing
n 105 2
THE RICE INSTITUTE
the South. Of brick and stone, steel and concrete con-
struction, the building embodies the prevailing architec-
tural beauty and simplicity of technical plan exhibited in
the earlier science laboratories of Rice. Provision is
made for adequately equipped, separate laboratories both
for research and instruction in the half dozen major
branches of chemistry, with an even larger number of
smaller laboratories for corresponding work in the more
highly specialized subjects of the science. In all the
laboratories there will be an abundance of natural light,
while an elaborate system of artificial ventilation promises
to remove all fumes through a central draft tower, so
designed as to constitute of itself one of the architectural
features of the building. Careful consideration has been
given both to the anticipated growth of the institution
and the normal development of the department. The
plans thus studiously prepared may bear comparison with
those of extensive establishments erected recently at other
universities and scientific centres of the country. The de-
partment is well equipped with modern apparatus and
materials for research and for lecture room and labora-
tory work in inorganic, organic, analytical, physical,
electro-, and industrial chemistry. Each laboratory room
is equipped with the necessary conveniences, such as
water, gas, alternating and direct current, air blast, hoods,
suction pumps, etc. The lecture rooms are suitably ar-
ranged for the illustration of lectures by experiment and
lantern projection. In the department library will be
found the more important journals, works of reference,
and standard text-books on the different branches of
chemistry. These books and periodicals are accessible to
all students.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The department of biology is for the present situated
in the west end of the main wing of the physics labora-
tories. It has laboratories capable of seating one hundred
and fifty students; lecture rooms with lantern for micro-
scopic and other forms of projection; research rooms, pre-
parators' room, store rooms, etc. The undergraduate
courses are cultural in their aim. Laboratory work is
given in all; microscopes of the most modern type are
provided for the students. The department is equipped
with an extensive series of specimens, casts, and charts
for the study of zoology. Binocular microscopes, micro-
tomes of various kinds, thermostats, embedding baths,
and considerable accessory equipment, including physiologi-
cal apparatus, are available for research work. Most of
the important current zoological periodicals are to be
found in the library.
The department of architecture is located on the second
floor of the chemistry laboratory, and is equipped with
large general drafting rooms modern in all their appoint-
ments, and a large studio for freehand drawing and water
color. A working library of architecture adjoins the
drafting room and is equipped with the standard architec-
tural publications; current files of architectural periodicals;
plates, photographs, and lantern slides. The freehand
studio is well equipped with plaster casts from the antique,
and of historic ornament. The department also possesses
models for elementary instruction in the orders, and
models for the teaching of construction.
The drafting rooms for instruction in engineering drawing
are located in the mechanical laboratory building. These
C1073
THE RICE INSTITUTE
rooms are equipped with drawing tables, lockers, and
racks in suclr number that all students may work inde-
pendently. Special equipment includes blue printing
machines, universal drafting machines, parrallel attach-
ments, folding and rolling parallel rules, ellipsographs,
beam compasses, section liners, and an elaborate set of
Olivier models including the war mast, hyperbolic para-
boloid, elliptical, and conchoidal hyperboloid, conoid,
groined, and cloistered arch, intersecting cylinders, rac-
cording warped surface and corne de vache.
The civil engineering laboratory is fully equipped with
the usual surveying instruments, transits, levels, com-
passes, traverse tables and plane-tables, all of standard
American makes. These include C. L. Berger and Sons,
Buff and Buff, W. and L. E. Gurley, Bausch and Lomb,
Keuffel and Esser, Eugene DIetzgen and Company, Wil-
liam Ainsworth and Sons. There is also a large assort-
ment of the necessary auxiliary equipment such as tapes,
rods, range poles, etc. The drafting room is fully equipped
with instruments not required by each individual stu-
dent, such as planlmeters, protractors, special slide rules,
military sketching boards, railroad curves and irregular
curves consisting of splines and weights. The materials
testing laboratory of this department is equipped with
one 50,000 pound Riehle universal machine; one 100,000
pound Olsen machine; and one 60,000 inch-pound Riehle
torsion machine; also a Fairbanks 2000 pound cement
testing machine and the necessary auxiliary apparatus
for making the usual tests. All these machines except
the cement testing machine are operated by 220 volt,
ANNOUNCEMENTS
3 phase, 60 cycle motors, directly connected so as to
avoid all shafting and belting. It is planned to have a
road materials testing laboratory and also a sanitary
engineering laboratory for advanced students and research.
The electrical engineering laboratory is on the first floor
of the engineering building. The laboratory power sup-
ply, arranged to be independent of the general Institute
lighting and power system by running from a separate
generator in the power house, is 220 and no volts, 3
phase, 60 cycles. From a central switchboard, the dis-
tribution of power is accomplished by open overhead
busses to small switchboards conveniently located about
the laboratory. The circuit breakers on these distribution
boards are of varied make, representing the practice of the
chief manufacturers of this class of apparatus. The
laboratory equipment is ample for a thorough study of
both direct and alternating current circuits and machinery.
Direct current for laboratory use is obtained from a Gen-
eral Electric three wire generator, of 35 kilowatts capacity,
125 and 250 volts, driven from the alternating current
source by a direct connected induction motor. The
direct current equipment includes a 50 kilowatt 250
volt General Electric generator; two similar 5 kilowatt
125 volt Western Electric generators with commutating
poles, either flat or over-compounded, for parallel opera-
tion; a 5 kilowatt no volt Commercial shunt generator;
a 3^ kilowatt 125 volt WestinghoUse flat compounded
generator; a i kilowatt 500 volt Commercial generator;
a 4^ kilowatt Westinghouse generator with interpoles
flat compounded for 125 volts; a 5 kilowatt no volt
C 109]
THE RICE INSTITUTE
Commercial shunt generator; a 5 horse-power 500 volt
Crocker-Wheeler generator; and a 6 volt General Electric
generator with Tirrill voltage regulator capable of deliv-
ering 500 amperes, driven by a direct connected induction
motor; a lyi kilowatt generator, 2000/1200/800 volts,
of the Electric Manufacturing Company, driven by a
direct connected induction motor; a Holtzer-Cabot set
consisting of three direct connected machines, 90/150
volts direct current, 20/25 volts direct current, 90/110
volts alternating current, three phase, 170/250 cycles; a
7^ horse-power Western Electric motor and a 2 horse-
power Roth motor, both shunt wound for 220 volts; a
3 horse-power 230 volt General Electric variable speed
shunt motor with commutating poles; a 10 horse-power
Robbins and Myers motor, and two similar 13 horse-
power Crocker-Wheeler motors, all three shunt wound
for 230 volts; and a 4 horse-power 220 volt Sprague series
motor. The equipment of alternating current machinery
includes : two similar 7>^ kilowatt 220 volt General Electric
1-2-3-6 phase synchronous generators which may be
direct connected as a frequency-changer set, or, by means
of shifting stators, as a phase-displacement set, or used
without mechanical connection for parallel and other
operation; a 5 kilowatt 220 volt General Electric 3 phase
synchronous generator with distributed field (round
rotor); a 7>^ horse-power 220 volt Fairbanks-Morse
3 phase squirrel cage induction motor; a 5 horse-power 220
volt Westinghouse 3 phase slip-ring induction motor;
a 10 horse-power 220 volt General Electric 3 phase in-
duction motor with internal starting resistance; a 7J^
horse-power 220 volt Wagner unity power factor single-
ANNOUNCEMENTS
phase motor. Among the rather special alternating cur-
rent machines may be mentioned, a dynamo tor which
when operating from a no volt direct current supply
line is capable of delivering up to i8 amperes at no volts
at a frequency of 500 cylces; an 8 kilowatt no volt Gen-
eral Electric 2-3-6 phase synchronous converter of the
split or regulating pole type which may be driven by the
direct current winding or by belt from an external source;
a set consisting of two direct connected Lincoln induction
motors, one 10 horse-power, 1200 r.p.m., wound rotor,
the other 5/10 horse-power, 600/1200 r, p. n,, squirrel
cage, for cascade operation at several speeds; and a 10
kilovolt-ampere General Electric 220 volt 3 phase induc-
tion regulator for raising or lowering voltage 100%.
Other equipment includes: three 2 kilovolt-ampere Kuhl-
man 110/220: 110/220 volt transformers; three 5 kilo-
volt-ampere General Electric transformers with taps for
Scott and other connections; six 3 kilovolt-ampere West-
ern Electric 110/220: 110/220 volt transformers, react-
ances, both air and iron core; condensers; rheostats; and
starting devices. Loads for testing purposes may be
obtained by lamp banks, rheostats, or by three large iron
water-boxes. The supply of meters consists of volt-
meters (a.-c. and d.-c), ammeters (a.-c. and d.-c), watt-
meters (single phase and polyphase), current and voltage
transformers, power-factor meters, frequency meters,
watt-hour meters, tachometers, synchronoscope. For
checking and calibrating these instruments, there is a com-
plete assortment of precision instruments, including a
potentiometer and laboratory standards. An oscillograph
is completely equipped for taking and developing both
THE RICE INSTITUTE
rectangular and circular records. Through a gift of the
late Mr, Howard E. Hughes, of Houston, Texas, to the
Institute, the electrical engineering department has a com-
pletely equipped radio communicating set. The gift of
this apparatus promptly stimulated the organization, on
the initiative of students of this deaprtment, of an inter-
collegiate radio association for the dissemination of news
among the several colleges of this section. To the original
set numerous additions have been made, the most recent
of which is a 200-watt radio telephone and telegraph set.
The mechanical engineering laboratory equipment falls
into six general classes: steam, internal combustion, hy-
draulic, air, refrigeration, fuel and lubricants testing
machinery. The first class contains an 8x18 Murray-
Corliss engine equipped with rope brake; a 7 X 7 vertical
Wachs slide-valve engine with Stephenson reversing gear,
and a 7 X 10 horizontal slide-valve engine, both with
Prony brakes; a 6X4X6 duplex boiler feed pump; a
20 kilowatt direct current De Laval turbo-generator set,
nozzled for condensing and non-condensing operation and
fitted with a brake-pulley which may be substituted for the
generator; a 16 horse-power Lee impulse turbine driving a
centrifugal pump; a steam turbine nozzle arranged for ex-
perimental work; a similar equipment for calibration of
steam orifices; a Westinghouse locomotive type air-
compressor arranged for economy test; a demonstration
set-up of standard air-brake equipment; an air-lift pump
model; a 205 cubic foot Ingersoll-Rand 2 stage steam
driven air compressor; and a 6 X 10 x 6 vertical com-
pound Sturtevant engine. The machines are piped to
ANNOUNCEMENTS
exhaust either into the power-house stack or into three
Wheeler surface condensers served by circulating and wet
vacuum pumps. Internal combustion engines are repre-
sented by a 20 horse-power fuel oil engine (Chicago Pneu-
matic Tool Co.) ; a 15 horse- power Foos oil engine equipped
with two types of governors giving opportunity for engine
tests using either kerosene or gasoline as fuel; a 3 horse-
power Mietz and Weiss two-stroke cycle unit; a 100
horse-power Hall-Scott aeroplane engine; Maxwell and
Willys-Knight automobile engines; and a Ford automobile
engine with water-brake load. High-speed automobile
and aeroplane engines are tested with a 100 horse-power
Sprague cradle dynamometer equipped with slotted bed-
plate, gasoline metering device, and adjustable engine sup-
ports. A Hopkinson optical indicator with photographic
attachment is also provided. The refrigerating equip-
ment includes a motor-driven 3-ton York compression
machine with double-tube condenser, shell brine-cooler,
brine-heater, and brine-pump. The hydraulic machinery
consists of a 3-inch centrifugal pump and a 4 X 6 triplex
pump, both driven by variable speed D. C. motor; an
Evinrude centrifugal pump direct-connected to a gasoline
engine; a steam turbine driven 200 g.p.m. centrifugal
boiler-feed pump; a calibrated overhead tank; a concrete
storage cistern; four Venturi meters; a single tube mano-
meter; a steam pulsometer; a hydraulic ram; two weir
boxes and notches; a Pelton-Doble water wheel with plate
glass sides; orifices, water meters, weighing tanks and
scales, gauges, and the usual small accessories. In a
separate fuel laboratory room is the equipment for testing
fuels and oils. It includes complete Atwater and Parr
nii3 3
THE RICE INSTITUTE
coal-calorimeter outfits; analytical balances; two types
of Orsat flue-gas apparatus; Scott and Saybolt viscosi-
meters; a Thurston coefficient of friction machine; Bureau
of Mines flashpoint tester; hydrometers and specific
gravity apparatus; a Junker type gas calorimeter; platinum
ware, drying oven, ball mill, etc. Boiler tests are made
on a 20 horse-power vertical fire-tube boiler equipped
with the necessary pumps and weighing equipment.
Tests of heat-treated steel may be made with the aid
of the electric and gas furnaces, pyrometers of electric,
expansion, optical, and gas pressure types, scleroscope,
and Brinnel ball machine. In addition, the laboratories
contain a Sirocco blower driven by calibrated motor, a
plate blower, Pitot tubes, air Venturi meter, large and
small gas meters, anemometer, injectors, dead weight
pressure gauge tester, thermometer calibration apparatus,
hoists, tachometers, steam calorimeters, the most popular
gas and steam engine indicators, planimeters, standard
gauges and thermometers. For class-room demonstrations,
a Cussons valve-setting model, an automobile engine,
several dozen sectioned models of intricate machines, and a
collection of lantern slides, blue-prints, and curves are
available.
A standard moving picture machine permits the exhibi-
tion of the many films now loaned by manufacturers of
engineering equipment.
The machine shop contains machine tools of quite
varied character, each selected for its peculiar fitness to
illustrate the principles and common details of modern
shop tools and methods. The lathe equipment consists of
ANNOUNCEMENTS
eleven machines: one 14 X 8 Le Blond cone-head lathe
with taper attachment and double back gears; one 14 x 6
Hendey cone-head quick-change lathe; one 14 X 8 stand-
ard lathe; one 14 X 7 Prentice geared head quick-change
lathe; one Prentice motor-driven 15 X 6 lathe; one
Flather motor-driven 14 X 5 lathe; one 14 X 6 geared
head quick-change Lodge and Shipley lathe; one 14 X 6
motor-driven Lodge and Shipley selective head lathe; a
Rivett bench lathe; and two individual drive 14 X 6
American high duty geared head engine lathes, one of
these with turret attachment. The planer type of machine
is represented by a 16 inch back-geared Rockford shaper
with compound head, and a 22 x 22 X 8 foot Gray
planer. All kinds of plane surfaces can also be cut upon
two Kempsmith and one Cincinnati universal milling
machines, which are fitted with dividing heads for gear
cutting, differential indexing, spiral grooving, etc., as
well as a good variety of cutters. A No. 12 Brown and
Sharp motor-driven cutter and universal grinder serves as
a practical example of a high-class precision machine tool.
A graphical wattmeter permits tests of tool shapes and
machinery conditions. A tilting brass-furnace, moulders'
benches, wood lathes, band saw, jointer, and the necessary
small tools provide for simple pattern and foundry work.
In addition to the metallurgical equipment listed with the
mechanical laboratory apparatus, the shop contains a
microscope with camera, specimen grinder, and the neces-
sary accessories. For miscellaneous work, a double-disc
motor-driven disc grinder, a power oil-stone, work benches
and vises, two hand-tool grinders, a power hack-saw, down-
draft forges, a 20-inch drillpress, a sensitive drill, an
THE RICE INSTITUTE
arbor press, an air hammer, air and electric drills, portable
electric grinders, and two complete oxyacetylene welding
outfits are available. A sufficient supply of small hand
and machine tools, lathe sets, reference standards and
precision measuring instruments is issued on checks from
a separate tool-room. About half the machine tools have
individual motor drive. The others are grouped about a
line-shaft and a 15 horse-power motor.
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
In the residential halls for men, students and instructors
are already living in a common society a common life
under conditions the most democratic. They sit at a
common table; they lounge in common club-rooms; they
frequent the same cloisters; in games they meet again
upon the same playing fields. The quadrangle is self-
governed, with no other machinery of government than
is necessary to conduct a gentleman's club. To the
quadrangle, as to the college, the only possible passports
are intellect and character. In the quadrangle, as on the
campus, the business of life is regulated by no other code
than the common understanding by which gentle folk de-
termine their conduct of life, constantly under the good
taste, the good manners, the enduring patience of gentle
minds, among strong men who believe that he lives most
who works most, labors longest, worries least.
From the very opening days of the new institution
the students of the Rice Institute, irrevocably committed
to canons of clean sport, have participated in the several
forms of intercollegiate athletic contests. The first
society of students to be organized at the new University
Cue]
ANNOUNCEMENTS
was the Young Men's Christian Association. This step
on the part of the young men was speedily followed by a
similar step on the part of the young women in the or-
ganization of their branch of the college Young Women's
Christian Association. The founding of these religious
societies, both of which have contributed to the social life
and the religious spirit of the new University, has been
followed in the course of the early years by the forming
of some four or five literary societies: two by the young
women, the older society bearing the name of Elizabeth
Baldwin, wife of the founder of the Institute, and a later
organization known as the "Pallas Athene Literary So-
ciety," and three by the young men, known respectively
as "The Owl Literary Society" and the "Riceonian Liter-
ary and Debating Society," and a later organization,
"The Congressional Club," organized after the order of the
House of Representatives and considering in debate
the leading public issues as they arise before Congress.
Under the auspices of the first societies mentioned was
formed the first of the undergraduate periodical publi-
cations, namely, "The Thresher," which appeared fort-
nightly from its initial number in January, 1916, to June,
1 91 8, since which time it has been published weekly.
Previous to the organization of the staff of "The Thresher, "
the Class of 1916 made arrangements for the publication
of the first class annual of the Institute, "The Campanile, "
which appeared in the spring of 1916. The second and third
volumes were issued by the classes of 191 7 and 191 8
respectively, and subsequent annual editions have been
published by the representatives of the student body
as a whole. In addition to the student organizations
THE RICE INSTITUTE
mentioned above, various departmental clubs and scientific
societies ha\^e been contributing to the intellectual life
of the Institute. The student body is organized into a
Student Association which includes all students of the
Institute and serves as the official organ for the expression
of their vipws nnd for the promotion of Student enter-