THE BATTALION.
53
are arranged in book form and contain
over 250 pages devoted to a complete and
accurate history of the congress, with the
various papers and discussions which held
the attention of the assembly.
The object of the department is to ad
vance agricultural interests all over the
State, and the farmers’ congress is a
splendid way of accomplishing this ob
ject.
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.
The “boys in overalls” or “Bradies,”
are glad to hear that Professor Whitlock
has received a letter stating that the
castings for the motor are being made
and will soon be here. This will be some
what of a novelty, and we are all anx
ious to get to work and make a record,
as well as a motor.
There’s an old saying that writing on
marble and carving on iron would be
effaced by time. We (scrapers on per
fect surfaces) don’t believe in carving on
iron, for a hair’s breadth of iron is an
age of scraping. “But it’s coming.”
The “straight line” engine was tested
the other day. A “pony brake” was used
to create the load and some very inter
esting cards were taken. I regret to say
that the senior M. E.’s were not present
to see the experiment, which no doubt
would have been of interest andl instruc
tion to us.
The senior M. E.’s are anticipating an
examination in machine design for Tues
day, November 13th. Of course the
editor has stores of interesting matter on
this subject; he can give you the for
mulae for the strength of a beam bent at
right angles around a curve, or how to
extract the square root of a circle, the
functions of “theta,” “gamma,” etc., as
relative to zero degrees.
A number of artistic drawings could
be shown, but he is more inclined to ex
hibit these works of art and expound his
math, to a more appreciative audience,
namely, the professor. Begging pardon
for those who feel the least insulted by
not having given them this interesting(?)
matter.
Nevertheless, boys, don’t be discour-
a.o-ed. for
“The heights by great men won and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept.
Were toiling upward in the night.”
Icon, ’01.
In the recent examination of the first
class in machine design, the honor sys
tem was tried. Although it is generally
taken for granted that these A. and M.
boys are the slickest “poneyers” that
ever saw a set of questions, there is
more honor in them than in a dozen
“goody-goody” hypocrites.
The bare truth of the matter is just as
a student once answered a professor on
being asked why he cheated on examina
tions, knowing it was wrong: “Because
when we come in here to stand an ex
amination, we know we are going to be
watched, and that you are trying to
catch us poneying, so we just hate to
disappoint you by not doing it.” If there
is any honor and self respect in a boy
it is in him now, and if he is never al
lowed to show it by being put on his
honor it will weaken with time.
When those men filed out of the exam
ination room last Tuesday (November
13th) every boy had a proud and manly
look on his face which said, “I have
stood on my honor, and may have failed
on my honor.”