EPSILON CHAPTER ISSUE

The societies within the various individual engineering departments constitute a very intricate and important rela­tionship to the engineering division as a whole. The presiding officers of these organizations include such names as John Sutherland, Wendell Pfeffer, Edward Hayes, John Pennington, Richard Christy, Arthur Thompson, and Harold Brown, all members of Epsilon Chapter. On the staff of The Kansas State Engineer appear such Sigma Tau names as Leslie Doane, James Stout, Dick Wherry, Robert Lake, Joe Redmond, Wilson Blackburn, Robert Sieg, and Richard Christy. In connection with Big Six basketball, football, and swimming are the names of Homer Wesche, Glenn Boes, Edward Hayes, and Harold Brown. It is interesting to note that all the officers of Steel Ring, another honorary engineering fraternity, are Walter Hanson, Leland Moss, W. L. Park, and Arthur Thompson, whose names appear on the Epsilon Chapter’s roll book. The same is true of Mortar and Ball, national honorary military fraternity, with Leslie Doane as the National Colonel, J. W. McKinley, W. B. Sigley, J. L. Mitcha, and Garrett Gardner. William Keogh has been active in intracollegiate debating and is a member of Pi Kappa Delta, national honorary forensic fra­ternity. Along with the great number which could be listed as prominent officers in the local R. O. T. C., there should be in­cluded first of all Woodrow Sigley, as Cadet Lieutenant Colonel, and W. L. Park and J. W. McKinley as Cadet Majors. Dick Wherry, managing editor of this issue of THE PYRAMID, is the efficient president of the Student Governing Association, and has appeared in some of the Manhattan Theatre productions.

Open House, the annual exposition of Kansas State’s engineer­ing activity, is the climax of the winter’s work of each student. The purpose of this exposition is to publicize and advertise the Division of Engineering and Architecture. The leaders in making the displays of the various departments a success are chiefly Sigma Tau members. The St. Pat’s Prom, which always concludes the annual exhibition, is managed and rests under the sole super­vision of Sigma Tau. It is not only an engineers’ affair, but rather an all-school dance, and considered the largest and most elaborate ball of the year.

The various projects undertaken by Sigma Tau not only benefit the organization alone, but work toward progress and the better­ment of the entire school of engineering and the college as a whole. This year, the project which has been selected is the repair of the two large concrete letters, K. S., that are 60 by 80 feet in dimension. The letters stand out rather vividly from the side of a hill, when entering Manhattan, Kansas, from the west, and produce a favorable advertisement of the college to tourists and persons not familiar with Kansas. We feel that in these projects constructive influences are exercised by our chapter, a great service is rendered our school, and we sincerely attempt to advance the interests of Sigma Tau as an outstanding organization.

This method is also being developed for use in comparing the compositional characteristics of materials other than concrete, notably steel. Recently a paper by Dr. F. Forster and Prof. W. Koster dealing with the modulus of elasticity and damping in relation to the state of the material was presented before a sym­posium on non-destructive material testing held in London, England. In this paper it was stated that faults of any kind in a material combine to raise the damping so that cavities, cracks, pipes, pores, and other faults are easily discovered. An example was cited of ingots for forging, weighing some 100 kilograms, in which damping increased over 500 percent when cracks were present. This method also seemed to be ideal for studying inter­crystalline corrosion. For example, it was known that a certain steel known as V2A, when quenched from 1,050° C. and subse­quently tempered at 600° C., was liable to intercrystalline corro­sion by an acid solution of copper sulphate. After attack for 30 minutes, damping increased by over 100 percent, and tensile strength decreased 9 percent; but the same steel when not tem­pered after quenching, continued to show constant damping after several hundred hours of attack by the copper sulphate.

This method of testing material is in the early stages of de­velopment, but it appears to be capable of yielding quantitative results in appropriate cases. For the time being, however, it seems to be a laboratory method applicable only to prepared specimens. But to quote from the March issue of Mechanical Engineering, “with further development it ought to become available for testing full-scale jobs under field conditions.”

A remarkable thing about this test is the fine example it pro­vides of the integration of work done and information gathered in the fields of physics, mathematics, and electricity by the re­search engineers in applied mechanics into a thing of practical value—a step in the direction of better engineering.

For demonstration to the public of what may be expected from television, a second home receiver has been constructed using the same type of receiving cathode ray tube as the studio control unit. The receiver is housed in a beautiful cabinet about the same size as a modern broad cast receiver. It has a mirror so that the image can be viewed from a comfortable sitting position. Since the control panel in the studio assumes the responsibility of getting the picture ready to put on the air, this home receiver is relatively simple. Operations may be carried on by the ma­nipulation of only four knobs as compared to the 96 separate operations on the control panel.

The studios of W9XAK are located on the ground floor of the engineering building and consist of two rooms, one a studio for transmission and the other, separated from the first by a glass windowed wall, for reception. The scene in the television studio may be watched through the windows and also may be seen through the electric eye of the television camera.

On February 1st, the college authorities announced the resig­nation of M. W. Horrell, who has accepted a position with the Croslev Radio Corporation of Cincinnati. He will be in charge of building the studio control apparatus for the new television station to be erected by the same corporation that now operates WLW. His work here at Kansas State will be carried on by Dr. Hamer Selvidge, and the final developments on the new high-definition television station at Kansas State College will be completed.

Different countries have different ideas as to how to train their engineers. So manifold are the methods used in different parts of the world that it would seem that the products of those educa­tional processes would have little in common. And yet, I am confident that a German engineer and an American engineer could “talk shop” in no time at all. It is the application of the theories in engineering that equalizes all the differences that might have existed in their different college educations. In this article, however, I would like to turn my attention to that phase of engineering that is much different from the American way—namely, the university training of the future engineer as it is practiced in European schools, German ones in particular.

I have been studying engineering for three years now, half of which time I spent in a German college of engineering, the “Technisclie Hochschule” at Hanover, and the other half in the Univer­sity of Nebraska where I am now enrolled as a junior in the Department of Civil Engineering.

It did not take me long to find out how much different the study of engineering is in the United States, for on the very first day of my attendance of this university l found myself in the chemistry laboratory, virtually unable to handle a test tube and yet supposed to make an experiment on proton activity! The following day, a similar scene occurred in the physics laboratory. Needless to say, but all the theoretical knowledge, slowly accumu­lated throughout the years, did not do much towards enabling me to produce satisfactory results in my work. I had to step down from a region of lofty theories in which I had lived till then to experiments and laboratory work. And—it did not work. At least for quite a while it did not. These sobering experiences of mine indicate well that one does not have to look far for radical differences in the method of training between Germany and America.

German engineering schools are all maintained by the govern­ment. There are eleven of them in the country with an average enrollment of 1200 students. They are purely engineering and science schools and are in no way connected with a university. In that respect they resemble closely schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The severance from the universities with which they were originally affiliated occurred in the ’70’s, at which time the engineering sciences were believed to have leached such an advanced stage of development as to warrant the formation oi universities of their own. Since then, German engineering schools have led a separate existence. This state of affairs makes the German school appear quite different from the engineering college in one of the American state universities where the engineers are in constant contact with the other colleges and branches of higher learning. Necessarily, the German schools adopt a strictly professional aspect on account of this, and they are much more of a self-contained unit than the American college of engineering.

But not only is the school as such, the students also are different. It is true that human nature is pretty much alike all over the world, and this, of course, holds true also in this instance. It would be hard to deny that German students like to have fun as much as any American student—and yet things are not quite the same on the other side of the big pond. The very age of the students plays an important part. The average age of the fresh­man class in a German engineering school is 20 to 21 years, and, of necessity, most of them are more mature than their American fellow student-engineers. They know that they go to school for the very definite purpose of learning a profession with which they will later have to make a living. I realize very well that by far the majority of the American students in the upper classes of engineering schools have much the same outlook, and it is rather in such colleges as the Arts and Science college that stu­dents are found who do represent an amazing contrast to the average student in an engineering school. Students in German engineering schools know that their studies are a good bit harder than those of other college students, and only those enter who are sure that they can live up to the expectations. Consequently, the number of students who “flunk” out is surprisingly small, and a vast percentage of every class finally graduates after the comple­tion of the four-year course. The students are occupied through­out their four-year course with strictly technical subjects only, and no courses are offered to provide what may be called “dis­traction” for the mind. There is only a ridiculously small number of courses offered that do not pertain directly to engineering. The apparent danger of making the engineers too narrow-minded is eliminated by the fact that graduation from high school—where all subjects are compulsory-does not occur till about the age of 19. By that time, it is assumed, a student has absorbed enough general knowledge to allow him to concentrate from there on on one particular field. Therefore, German engineering schools con­fine themselves to strictly engineering subjects.

Another angle of the relationship student-alma mater may be worthwhile looking into. No better can this point be brought out than by comparing the cheering during an American football game with the anemic clapping during a college sports event in Germany. True, the German student does have feelings for his alma mater, but it is well-nigh unimaginable that he could ever be whipped into such a frenzy of enthusiasm as the American college student. On the whole, the sentimental bond between the student and his college is much cooler and “rational'', I am tempted to say. The German student looks upon his college as an institution maintained by the government for his instruction with a staff of professors who, at certain semesters, teach certain courses and who, once or twice a year, give examinations to those who feel prepared enough to take them. On the other hand, the college in Germany considers the student as an adult person in every sense of the word and does not exercise any supervision over him at all. He is at liberty to attend classes whenever he wishes, he can live wherever he wishes, he can choose his courses in anyway he desires, he can transfer from one engineering school to the other without tedious red tape to go through, and he can put off examinations for as long as he wishes if he does not feel prepared. Nothing matters to the school except that he passes the examina­tions which are required for a degree.

There are only two of those examinations during the entire four years-one after the first two years, the final one after the first two. They are largely oral and cover periods from two to three weeks each.

The difference in the method of instruction deserves mention­ing. The outstanding point is that by far the greatest emphasis is thrown upon the theory in engineering. This was borne out also by the remarks I made in the beginning of this article, and it is probably the most far-reaching difference between the training of German and American engineers. At least 75% of all the hours spent at school are devoted to lectures covering the theo­retical background of engineering with little time being devoted to the application of the theory and less time yet to work in laboratories or in the field. Just one example: The minimum time of field work in surveying required by this university tor a degree in civil engineering is eight weeks out in the country German engineering schools are satisfied with five days. On the other hand, I remember having been taught a great amount of theory, including the method of the least squares, for mathe­matically treating the distribution of errors in geodetic measure­ments while I was taking courses in surveying in Germany. (Maybe I should not admit it, but I remember next-to-nothing about those theories. I have kept my notes, however, to be on the safe side.) This shall serve as just an example of the differ­ence in the lay-out of engineering study in this country and Ger­many. Engineering study in Germany will certainly appeal very much to the highly mathematically minded student. This theoretical aspect of the study of engineering makes the studies over there so hard because not a few good engineers are not theorists at all. From the conversations I had with German professors of engineering I have gathered the impression that the basic idea underlying such a theoretical system is the following: If our students are taught all the theory in school, then they will find it easy to pick up the practical side to engineering in actual life. If we should spend, however, part of our time on laboratory or field work—more than we do now—then we risk that the graduates find themselves deficient in some scientific aspect, and that is a much harder thing to acquire after you are out of school than a sense of practicality. Whether that point of view is right or not, I cannot judge.

If at the end of four years a degree is conferred upon a German engineering student, say in mechanical engineering, then he will not have studied for the last three semesters or so of his college days mechanical engineering but merely a part of it, such as turbine construction, combustion engines, etc. Not only does the student take his choice between civil, mechanical, electrical and other main branches of engineering, but within those fields he has to specialize again. The process of specialization has celebrated great triumphs in German engineering schools. Conse­quently, there are separate chairs for such closely allied fields as building construction and timber construction, steel construction, concrete and masonry construction. In the school I attended there was a full professorial chair for each of the three above named subjects! Each one of the chairs had one or two graduate full-time assistants and a number of part-time undergraduate assistants. Naturally, with such large teaching staffs specializa­tion is easily accomplished and is being carried out to an ever-greater degree now. Whether this is a development to be wel­comed is not for me to say; evidently it depends much upon the necessities of the moment, and Germany at the present time lacks college-trained specialists in technical lines. In a highly industrialized society, a specialist has his place and justification. Under other circumstances the man who has been trained in the more general American fashion will be desirable and preferable.

The number of differences between German and American schools is legion. I have pointed out only a few of the outstanding ones in these lines: Those which were so obvious to me that they have made me realize the differences between German and Amer­ican schools from the very beginning.

The Sigma Tau Fellowship Committee awarded the 1939-40 Graduate Fellowship to John B. Tepe, a member of Omicron Chapter at the University of Louisville. Brother Tepe has been a student in the Chemical Engineering Department since enter­ing the university in 1935, and will be graduated at the close of the present semester. He plans to con­tinue his present work at the University of Louisville, with a Master’s de­gree his objective in 1940 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Minne­sota at a later date.

His high school training was received from the Louisville Male High School, where he was a member of the R.O.T.C. Band and Rifle team. He stood fifth in a class of 220, his average being approximately 95 percent.

He entered the University of Louisville with a working scholarship which continued during his four years of college work. He has been a member of the Louisville Civic Symphony Orchestra and played in the school band and orchestra. Serving as circulation manager of the school newspaper and magazine during his sophomore year, he was later elected to serve on the Board of Student Publication, Chairman of Engineers Day and president of the local chapter of A. I. Ch. E.

He was elected to membership in Sigma Tau and Kappa Alpha, a social fraternity, during his junior year, and later became Presi­dent of Omicron Chapter. He represented his chapter at the recent Sigma Tau Conclave and has furnished splendid leader­ship not only for the local chapter, but the engineering student body as well. He has maintained a splendid scholastic record during the past four years and has been a self-supporting student.

“Art In Our Time”, an exhibit with which the Museum of Modern Art will open its new building in New York City, will include a section of photography. In this display of work by post-war photographers will be six by Dr. Edgerton, Alpha ’25. While on the teaching staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Edgerton developed ultra-high-speed photogra­phy as a scientific tool for the critical observation of rapidly moving machine parts. The following of his pictures were selected: Interior of a shot tower; a splash of a drop of milk; an ancient revolver in action; a pelt on water wheel; golfer and tennis player.

Secretary Ickes announced from Washington, D. C., on May 4th the appointment of Frank Banks (Eta Hon.), federal con­struction engineer at Grand Coulee Dam since 1933, as acting administrator of the Bonneville Power project in the Pacific Northwest.

Banks succeeds the late J. D. Ross as head of the government’s big power project on the Columbia River.

C. H. Scholer is Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mechanics of Kansas State College. In addition, part of his time is devoted to his duties as Engineer of Tests of the Road Materials Laboratory located at the college, which is operated for the joint benefit of the Kansas Highway Commission and the school. His work in the various phases of testing materials for mulation of standard specifications for the con­stituent materials of concrete and concrete itself has won recog­nition for him as an eminent authority in these fields.

Professor Scholer attended Kansas State College and was graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1914. Upon graduation, he was employed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by the United States General Land Office as chairman of the general land office surveys and resurveys. From New Mexico, he came to Topeka, Kansas, where he was connected with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company before coming back to Kansas State College as Assistant Extension Engineer. During his brief stay in Topeka, and later as Assistant Bridge Engineer for the Kansas Highway Commission, he gained a vast amount of practical experience which was later to proven invaluable to him in his chosen field. Before taking over his re­sponsibilities as an instructor in the applied mechanics depart­ment of Kansas State College in 1919, he served in the Ordnance Department of the United States Army, as an engineer designer of artillery ammunition and its component parts. In his present position as Head of the Department of Applied Mechanics, he has carried on a vast amount of research work which has re­sulted in better concrete roads and more durable supplementary structures.

Recently Professor Scholer was granted a year's leave of absence from his departmental and teaching duties to head a research group under the sponsorship of the Portland Cement Association. In his new position, he will be known as the “Coordinator of Research,” and will direct the efforts of 12 or 15 men who will assist in the work. The research will be carried on in New York, Pennsylvania, and adjoining states, and will require considerable time for completion. The group of engineers will visit the various projects of importance to observe methods of construction and to inspect materials. Samples of concrete will be obtained to be tested by the Chicago laboratory of the Portland Cement Asso­ciation. When the research is completed, and the data compiled and interpreted, the results will be published in the form of a code for future concrete work, making for better structures and road surfaces.

Professor Scholer also serves as consultant for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and as chairman of the committee on materials and construction for the Highway Research Board. In addition, he is a member of some eight or nine other committees of the American Society for Testing Materials.

Written by Wilfred Parke, E.E. (Epsilon '39)

Harold E. Trekell is employed as a design engineer in the Meter Department of the West Lynn Works of the General Electric Company, West Lynn, Massachusetts. His skill in de­sign has gained for him a place of prominence in the practice of engineering. In 1937, he was the recipient of a Coffin Award of Merit, presented by the Charles A. Coffin Foundation. The foundation was established in 1922, in memory of Mr. Coffin, former Lynn, Massachusetts, shoe manufacturer who became the first presi­dent of the General Electric Company. Every employee is a potential candidate for the honor, and the foundation seeks to pro­vide annual recognition to those selected employees whose qualities and accomplish­ments best reflect the initiative, persever­ance, courage and foresight of Mr. Coffin. The award to Mr. Trekell was in recogni­tion of his diligent application and skill in designing a superior induction meter com­bining improved accuracy and an extra­ordinarily long range of performance. He was co-author of a paper on the fundamental analysis and design of this meter which was published in the January, 1937, issue of Electrical Engineering. In a similar capacity, he contributed to the design of the General Electric “V-2” two-element, single­-disk meter which was placed on the market about three years ago.

Mr. Trekell attended Kansas State College and was graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1931. He was very popular among his fellow students while in college, and participated in a wide and varied number of activities. He was a member of Sigma Tau, Mortar and Ball, Hamilton Literary Society, and Dynamis. He ranked high in scholarship, which is evidenced by his election to Phi Kappa Phi, a national honorary scholarship society.

Upon graduation from college, he was employed by the General Electric Company, where he completed the customary Test Course. Following this, he enrolled in the three-year Advanced Course in Engineering given by the company, from which he was later graduated. His active interest in engineering as a profession is further manifested by his participation in the various activities of the local engineers’ club and the American Institute of Electri­cal Engineers, both of which he is a member.

H. K. Howell is a Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army, stationed at Fort Logan, Colorado. At the present time, he is attached to the Headquarters and Service Company of the Second Regiment of Engineers. In addition to his regular army duties, he has supervision of W.P.A. con­struction and the planning of future projects in that vicinity.

Lieutenant Howell was graduated from Kansas State College with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1938. Throughout his college career, he was admired by his fellow stu­dents and instructors alike for his practicality and his thorough knowledge of problems most likely to be encountered in the field. His practical knowledge may be attributed in part to the fact that, previous to his enrollment in the school of engineering, he had spent several years in the employment of the Bureau of Reclama­tion in connection with the construction of Boulder Dam. The technical installation and reading of instruments placed in this seven-million-ton mass of concrete to record temperature and stresses during its erection comprised his principal duties. His spare time in college was spent doing research work under Prof. C. H. Scholer in accord with the concrete research program being carried on by the applied mechanics department of Kansas State College. During the summers of the three years spent in obtaining his degree, Lieutenant Howell did individual research in reference to major concrete structures and their foundations on the following projects: Boulder Dam, the Grand Coulee Dam, the Arrowrock Dam, the Norris Dam, and the Chickamauga Dam. 

Apart from his studies and research work, while in college Lieutenant Howell was very active in the various campus organ­izations and was always eager and ready to take part in any student project undertaking. Motion picture photography was his chief hobby, which proved a constant source of pleasure to both him and his classmates. Films of the various dams upon which he had worked were shown in engineering seminars and smokers for their educational as well as entertainment value. He was an outstanding cadet officer in the Coast Artillery Corps of the Kansas State College R. O. T. C. unit, which, doubtless, was an important factor in his appointment as a Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army in July, 1938.

• Kenneth D. Grimes, Epsilon ’31, is manager of the Public Affairs Division of the Peoria Association of Commerce, Peoria, 111.

• Martin O. Pattison, Epsilon "38, reports that he has secured em­ployment with the Kansas Highway Commission.

• Walter T. Rolfe, Epsilon ’22, is head of the Department of Archi­tecture, University of Texas, located at Austin, Tex.

• Maurice W. Horrell, Epsilon ’35, is in charge of building studio control apparatus for the new television station of the Crosley Radio Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Horrell was formerly a member of the Department of Electrical Engineering faculty at Kansas State College, where he had charge of the television research work being carried on there.

• Robert F. Adams, Epsilon '36, is employed in the testing depart­ment of the Lehigh Portland Cement Association, Allentown, Pa.

• Charles H. Kent, Epsilon ’38, reports that he is employed by the J. I. Case Company in Kansas City, Mo.

• Charles F. Sardou, Epsilon ’29, is employed by the Airplane De­velopment Corporation, Grand Central Airport, Glendale, Calif, His work consists chiefly of shop work, laison, and drafting.

• Marion H. Banks, Epsilon ’22, is employed by the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company in Colombo, Ceylon.

• C. M. Scott, Epsilon '12, is chief engineer of the Stanolind Pipe Lines Company. In this position he has charge of ail pipe lines operated by the Standard Oil Company' of Indiana. His heme is in Tulsa, Okla.

• Perry C. Arnold, Epsilon ’38, is working for the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company at Toledo, Ohio.

• Delber L. Blackwell, Epsilon ’38, is located at Kansas City, Mo., where he is employed by Black & Veatch, Consulting Engineers.

• Ralph D. Walker, Epsilon ’27, may be addressed at Florida and Hockberry Road, Wilkinsburg, Pa. He is employed by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., and is in charge of orders for the navy, army, and special marine applications.

• E. V. Farrar, Epsilon ’26, is test engineer for the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, Paterson, N. J. He carries on the testing of aviation engines with special attention to supercharger design.

• Vorras A. Elliott, Epsilon ’34, is employed in connection with the research work on mercury turbines being carried on by the General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y. He works directly under Mr. Emmett, who is in charge of the promotion of this type of plant.

• Norman J. Sollenberger, Epsilon ’35, is an instructor in the Civil Engineering Department of Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

• Louis C. Aicher, Epsilon ’35, is employed by the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. as transformer design engineer, Milwaukee, Wis.

• Lawrence I. Haller, Epsilon ’38, formerly with the Kansas Power & Light Company, Manhattan, Kan., is now employed by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.

• B. A. Rose, Epsilon 26, is connected with the Westinghouse Elec­tric & Manufacturing Company, New York City, Sales Division. His work is in connection with transportation, marine, and central station engineering applications, and field trouble problems.

• Fred J. Benson, Epsilon '35, is an instructor in civil engineering at Texas A. and M., College Station, Texas.