DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
Reading edition
Professor H. N. Cummings
Assoc. Prof. W. S. La Londe
Asst. Prof. O. P. L. Albert
Asst. Prof. J. M. Robbins
Asst. Prof. R. W. Van Houten
Mr. F. A. Busse
Mr. D. C. Frost
Mr. W. J. Hoffman
The Civil Engineering course is planned to prepare young men for municipal engineering work, highway work, construction work, or work in the general field of scientific management. Because of the temporary slowing down of work in the civil engineering field, during recent years, streets, highways, water supply and sewage disposal systems, bridges, etc. have become seriously run-down or inadequate. Trained young men will be needed in the near future to take part in the repair, replacement, or enlargement of these necessities. The trend toward large sectional projects, sponsored by the federal government, indicates another field of opportunity for young men trained in civil engineering.
To give students training in the fundamentals of civil engineering, so that they may qualify for employment in any of the lines of work above mentioned, a problem in municipal engineering is used, providing much of the instruction of Junior and Senior years. A topographical survey and map are made of a tract of land containing about a hundred acres. This tract is then subdivided into streets and lots as in a suburban community. The water supply and sewage disposal systems for this tract are designed in connection with the sanitation course. Streets and roads are located and designed as a problem in the highway course. Bridges, culverts, retaining-walls, etc., such as would be required in municipal, or highway work, are designed as part of the work of the senior course in structures.
Active membership in the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers is expected of students in this department.
Field Equipment in Civil Engineering
The department has complete and up-to-date equipment for conducting plane, topographic and hydrographic surveys. The equipment includes plane and engineer’s transits, levels, plane tables, current meter, sextants, tapes, level and stadia rods, range poles and all other necessary surveying accessories.
Surveying Summer Camp
The complete facilities of the Summer Camp of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at East Machias, Maine, are available to a limited number of students who are selected on the basis of proficiency in Surveying and general excellence in scholarship. Applicants will be chosen from the group invited to participate in the Honors Option, and will be given the summer camp assignment in place of the industrial assignment given to the other members of the group. The Newark College of Engineering will give to students receiving this assignment scholarships covering a portion of the camp fee.
The M. I. T. Summer Camp is located in a region particularly well suited to instruction in large scale surveying projects, such as geodetic triangulation, mapping of large areas, reconnaissance for highway or railroad location, hydrographic surveying, stream gaging, etc. The camp itself is equipped with modern buildings, sanitary water supply and sewage disposal, fire hydrants and fire-fighting apparatus, and an emergency hospital. The staff includes a practising physician. Students and faculty live in dormitories (known at the camp as barracks) and eat in the camp dining room. The camp is within a few minutes, by automobile, from the East Machias railroad station. Students attending in 1939 will report during the last week of July and remain at the camp seven weeks.