ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION 269

In the Materials Testing Laboratory, experiments have been conducted
for several years on various features of reinforced concrete design. At the
present time further tests are being made on the permeability, durability,
and other properties of concrete. Tests are in progress in friction in line
shaft bearings, on temperature stresses in reinforced concrete chimneys, on
steel columns under eccentric loads, on flat plates and cylindrical tanks, on
fatigue of brasses, steel and cast iron, and on steels subjected to prolonged
constant strain. The laboratory is cooperating with the Materials Depart-
ment. of the State Highway Commission; also with National Engineering
societies in studies of materials of construction.

The Steam and Gas Department of Mechanical Engineering has pub-
lished information relating to the heat insulating properties of commercial
pipe coverings, the economical combusion of soft coal, the Pitot tube as an
instrument for measuring the flow of gases; besides a number of bulletins
covering heating and ventilating subjects. These papers cover the study
of recirculation of washed air for ventilating purposes, the direct transmis-
sion of heat from steam to hot water for heating purposes, complete engi-
neering service data for a large hospital, and the infiltration of air into
buildings through windows and through various types of wall construction.
The infiltration work is being carried on in cooperation with the American
Society of Heating and Ventilating. Engineers.

In the Department of Electrical Engineering studies and experimental
investigations have been made pertaining to the flow of heat through cable
insulation, electrical recorders for mechanical stresses, electrical methods of
geophysical exploration, the radiating and receiving properties of radio an-
tennas, the measurement of the constants of radio apparatus and receiving
sets, inductive effects between power and telephone circuits, the nature of
failure in insulating materials, speed variation and power factor correction
in induction motors, and the theory of transient phenomena in electric net-
works.

A Standards Laboratory is operated in connection with the work of the
Wisconsin Railroad Commission and the state at large, testing and stand-
ardizing electrical metering devices of all kinds. Through this laboratory,
the facilities of the Electrical Laboratory have been made available to the
industries of the state for tests and investigations which require the use of
instruments not ordinarily pessessed by the industries. The following tests
indicate the nature of the work conducted for the industries: oscillograph
tests of magnetos, ignition coils and circuit breakers, acceptance test of
transformers for ratio, regulation and efficiency, certification of ratio and
phase angle of current transformers, tests on insulators, insulating mate-
rials, and cables, tests of lamps and magnetic materials.

The researches in the Chemical Engineering Department include: the
measurement of the temperature of hot flowing gas, the aeration of indus-
trial gas burners, the liberation of ammonia from solutions by various
commercial limes, the transfer of heat in tubular gas condensers, the case
hardening of steel with manufactured gas, the methods of analysis of cook-
ing liquor for Kraft pulp, the electroplating of chromium, and the mechan-
ism of extraction or solution of soluble salts by water.

Research is being carried on in the field of Mining and Metallurgy by
that department. The treatment of zinc ores by flotation concentration
methods and electrolytic recovery methods, developed in our laboratories,
offers considerable economic possibilities in the treatment of low grade ores