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reported upon. The results of this survey are being published in a series of volumes which have already taken a high rank in the geological literature of the country.In the quality of the work done here and in the facilities offered to the student of Geology the Kansas State University ranks well with the best eastern Universities.
In regard to the work done in Chemistry we are limited by the necessities of space to the consideration of a single point. The most noteworthy achievement in chemistry in recent years has been the discovery by Lord Rayleigh and Prof. Ramsey of two new elements, argon and helium. The presence of argon in the atmosphere had not been discovered sooner because the methods and instruments of chemists were too crude to detect it. The isolation of argon is a remarkably delicate piece of work requiring the most skillful manipulation. Few and far between are the chemical laboratories in this country where Rayleigh's and Ramsey's discoveries have been successfully repeated and verified. Nowhere has this work been more skillfully done than by Prof. Franklin in the laboratories at Lawrence.
In the great science of pure Mathematics but little material equipment is necessary in order to prosecute vigorous research. It requires only a supply of reference books and a corps of instructors able and willing to guide the student through the well-ordered, cultivated fields of mathematical knowledge to the borders of the unknown and there point out to him green fields and still waters 'whose rim no foot has trod'. The mathematical instructors in Kansas University have especially cultivated the field of geometry. In this branch at least the work done by them and the courses offered are equal in comprehensiveness, in breadth and modernness of view to those of any other University east or west. The first degree of Doctor of Philosophy given by the University was bestowed upon Dr. Emch for a Dissertation prepared under the direction of Prof. Newson; this thesis has just been issued from the press and no verdict has yet been pronounced.
In this comparison of east and west the applied as well as the pure sciences must be included. The school of technology in the Kansas University is by no means complete; as yet only certain lines of work have been developed. We select two points for comparison; practical surveying and electrical engineering.
The facilities for acquiring a practical knowledge of all kinds of surveying are to be found at Lawrence. All the theories from that of simple land surveying to the higher problems of geodesy are taught by competent and experienced instructors. The student is taught the use of delicate instruments of the latest and most approved patterns. He goes into the field in the summer months and there acquires by actual work on real problems a practical mastery of land, railroad, topographical surveying, leveling, etc. The tree is best known by its fruits. Men who have studied their profession with Prof. Marvin in the Kansas State University are to be found in the railway-construction and government surveying camps all over the west.
The latest building erected on the grounds of the Kansas University is a large stone structure with a handsome interior finish; this building is for the use of the students and instructors in electrical engineering. It is well designed for its purpose and contains commodious offices, lecture rooms, laboratories, research rooms, etc. all well supplied with apparatus of the latest designs. These facilities are utilized for the study of the practical applications of electricity. In the adjacent workshops the student acquires the manual skill so essential to an electrician. He learns to handle electrical machinery and actually constructs for himself dynamos, motors, transformers. He becomes able to wire a building, to establish and run an electric light plant, to construct an electric railroad. These fine facilities furnished by the state of Kansas enable Prof. Blake and his very able assistants to give instruction in applied electricity not inferior to that given in more renowned schools in the east.
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