The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-14

HERETOFORE GERMANY HAS TAKEN
LEAD IN THIS LINE.
Now an American Laboratory VIII At
tempt Great Things-Different
Methods Adopted.

engineering in the world has been going
UP in the Back Bay district of this city; a
wide. one-story brick structure. the inter-
est of which does not stop with the students
OF the Massachusetts, Institute Of Technol-
ogy, for whom it is primarily constructed.
but includes every person interested in the
opening OF the struggle between the United
States and Germany for the primacy OF
modern education.
This struggle. about which Americans are
likely to hear a great deal during the next
two years, when plans now being formu-
lated in various scientific centers are more
fully under way. starts with a generally
admitted German supremacy. In cleo
trical engineering. the German Empire,
with it's splendid laboratories at Carlsruhe.
Darmstadt and Charlottenburg, TO say
nothing of the great laboratory now being
planned at AK la Chapelle. is the worlds
center for exact. scientific work. Neither
France nor Great Britain has anything to
compare with these great German institu-
tions, and the Reichsanstalt, the Imperial
Physico-TechnicaI Institution at Chariot
tenburg. is the court of last resort for the
whole civilized world in all matters pertain
ing to the standards of measurement for
the various electrical processes. That an
tory equal and probably superior to any
Of its German rivals is therefore matter
Of no little moment.
The history of the new American Iabora-
tory Is typical of the difference between
American and German methods Germany
moves slowly toward any ultimate accom-
plishment The German, one might say,
smokes his cumbersome national pipe med
itates an achievement and builds the re-
suit, whether a laboratory or a system of
philosophy. so thoroughly that neither
stone nor sentence can easily be altered
under long period of years. The Amer
lean, on the other hand. smokes a short
briar and builds while he smokes and If
time and tide call for change is cheerfully
willing to rebuild the following year He
goes for inspiration to the actual work.
shop where the exigences of the worlds
work compel constant adoption of the
latest and most improved methods. Here
in Boston. therefore. the newest educa-
tional laboratory in the country is more
closely related to the big electrical testing
departments at Pittsburg and Schenectady
than to the ReichsanstaIt. But it will be
superior to these great industrial centers
in that it will add the two essential features
OF the German laboratory-a room devoted
TO the maintenance and investigation of
the ultimate standards of electrical meas
urement. and series of laboratories for
special research.
GERMANS ARE THEORISTS.
The German student is apt to know more
about the minute processes of special re-
search than the latest improvements in
practical electrical mechanism. On this side
of the water the institute has attempted to
encourage this closer acquaintance by visits
OF inspection to the important electrical
centers. an educational example Of Maho-
met going to the mountain. Now the new
laboratory provides a way for bringing
the mountain to Mahomet. Railroad trans
portation, big city drays, an electric crane
from the street door to a system of tracks
connecting with the lecture hall, and, above
all, the modern spirit of cooperation be-
tween the important technical school and
the great manufacturing establishment, are
combined to accomplish the miracle. 1t will
be possible to take new dynamo direct
from any given factory to the laboratory
or the institute, transport it by machinery
into the lecture hall. use it to illustrate
lecture, carry 1t back into the power house.
set 1t up on metal floor especially pro-
vided Tor such experiments, take it to
pieces and examine it in detail, and finally
put 1t together once more and send it back
TO the factory. The laboratory will thus
surmount what has been considered an in
surmountable obstacle-the fact that the
modern science of applied electricity grows
SO fast that no educational institution can
afford to purchase, often only Immediately
to discard, each new link in the chain of
progression.
The new laboratory is to be named the
Augustus Lowell Laboratory of Electrical
Engineering. in honor of the services which
the late Augustus Lowell rendered to the
institute. 1t is divided into five important
working parasitic power room and main
laboratory. closely akin to the big CONNER
cial institutions; the smaller research
rooms, based upon a study of the facili-
ties which the Germans place at the dis
posal of special research workers.; the
standardiZing room, which is intended to
equal or surpass the famous Reichsanstalt:
the lecture room, unquestionably the most
complete in the world, and finally the
workshop, where the mechanicians of the
institute will repair and indeed manufac-
ture great part of the laboratory appara-
tus. These rooms, grouped in single large
OF land and one story in height, are so
lighted by seventy skylights that each has
the steady. well diffused light of an artist $
studio. The architecture OF the building as
whole. except for the picturesque effect
OF Its community of skylights, is quite as
simple and practical that of the actual
workshops which have afforded so many
suggestions for its interior arrangements.
THE GREAT DYNAMOS.
The power room is naturally the heart
OF the laboratory. Here at one end of a
hall something over 800 feet in length. are
the six permanent dynamos, their accom-
panying engines aggregating over
1000 horse power. which will fur
nish current for light. motive pow
er. and experimental service These
permanent dynamos have their own place
at the far end of the power room where
the song of the piston still waiting to
be translated into English, will not dis
turb the routine OF experimental work to
which the rest OF the room is devoted The
actual experimental work-that Is to saw.
the testing of all kinds OF electrical an
paratus in all their infinite multiplicity OF
detail-will be conducted by means of a