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Descriptive geometry

in their application in working drawings which furnish complete and accurate information in the desired form.

The modern methods of teaching descriptive geometry apply the theory of the subject to applications in problems taken from engineering practice. The introduction of practical applications adds interest to the subject and makes the theory more easily understood. The number of applications should be as great as possible without interfering with the development of the theory. Such a treatment of descriptive geometry, following a thorough course in elementary drawing, should make it possible to deal with abstract principles of projection with a few well-chosen applications.

Descriptive geometry aids materially in developing the power of visualization which is so essential to the training of the engineer. The graphical applications of the subject in the solution of engineering problems may be used as a means of testing the student's ability to visualize.

There is now very little discussion relative to the advantages and disadvantages of the first and third angle projection. Since the third angle is generally used in the elementary course as well as in engineering practice, it seems logical that it should be emphasized in descriptive geometry. Recent textbooks on this subject confirm the tendency toward the use of the third angle.

The use of the third angle presents new difficulties, such as that of locating the positions of magnitudes in space in relation to their projections. Magnitudes must be located behind or below the drawing surface. To obviate such difficulties, some instructors demonstrate principles by first angle constructions. Others invert surfaces which in the first angle have their bases in the horizontal plane. This undesirable device may be overcome by using a second horizontal plane in the third angle. Such means of demonstration may be avoided altogether by considering the space relations of magnitude to one another instead of relating them to the planes of projection. This method centers the attention of the student on the relation of magnitudes represented and develops visualization. It has been found to

give excellent results in both elementary drawing and descriptive geometry.

To bring the teaching of descriptive geometry into closer harmony with its application in practice, auxiliary views are frequently used instead of the method of rotations.

Briefly, then, it appears that the modern course in descriptive geometry should contain enough applications to hold the interest of the student and to test his power of visualization; that the third angle should be emphasized, and some use should be made of auxiliary views. Above all, the development of visualizing ability should be considered one of the chief aims of the course.

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In teaching drawing and descriptive geometry, lectures, Methods demonstrations, and individual instruction each have a place. tion in Principles can best be presented in the form of lectures. general The manual part of the work can be presented most effectively by means of demonstrations. The instructor should illustrate the proper use of instruments and materials by actually going through the process himself, calling attention to important points and explaining each step as he proceeds. Individual instruction given at the student's desk is a vital factor in teaching drawing, as it offers the best means of clearing up erroneous impressions and ministering to the needs of the individual student.

. Frequent recitations and quizzes serve the purpose of keeping the instructor informed as to the effectiveness of his instruction and as a means by which the student can measure his own progress and grasp upon the subject.

Those drawing courses which have for their primary object the teaching of technical subject matter make use of the drawings as an instrument to record facts and to test the student's knowledge of principles and methods.

In the technical courses it should be possible to assume a knowledge of the material given in the general courses. Some effort is usually necessary, however, to maintain the standards already established. The effort thus expended should result in improving technique and increased speed.

Methods tion in technical

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Conclusion

In an institution where drawing courses are given throughout the four years, much can be done by organization and coöperation to make the time spent by the student productive of the best results. More time than can usually be secured for the general courses is necessary to develop skill that will be comparable with that found in practice. The conditions in technical drawing courses approximate those in practice. They apply methods taught in the general courses. The limited time, frequently less than 300 clock hours, devoted to the general courses makes it desirable that advantage be taken in the technical courses for further development of technique and skill. In a number of institutions all work in drawing is so organized as to form a single drawing unit. This plan calls for coöperation on the part of all drawing teachers in the institution. The results obtained by this method seem amply to justify the effort put forth.

The final test in any course or group of drawing courses may be measured by the student's ability to solve problems met with in engineering practice. Measured upon this basis, the newer types of courses discussed herein, those founded upon the analytic method and developed largely as a progressive series of working drawings, seem to be meeting with better results than did those of the older type in which the synthetic method predominated and in which abstract problems were principally used.

While the college man is not fitting himself to become a draftsman, it is quite true that many start their engineering careers in the drafting office. Those who think well and are proficient in expressing their thoughts through the medium of drawing are most apt to attract attention which places them in line for higher positions.

Those who do not enter the engineering field through the drafting office will find the cultural and disciplinary training and the habits of precision and neatness instilled by a good course in drawing of great value.

University of Wisconsin

J. D. PHILLIPS AND H. D. ORTH

THE

XXVII

THE TEACHING OF JOURNALISM

HE education of the journalist or newspaper man has been brought into being by the evolution of the newspaper during the last half century. Addison's Spectator two centuries ago counted almost wholly on the original and individual expression of opinion. It had nothing beyond a few advertisements. The news sheet of the day was as wholly personal, a billboard of news and advertisements with contributed opinion in signed articles. A century ago, nearly half the space in a daily went to such communications. In the four-page and the eight-page newspaper of sixty to eighty years ago, taking all forms of opinions, leaders contributed, political correspondence from capitals, state and federal, and criticism,— about one fourth of the space went to utterance editorial in character. The news filled as much more, running to a larger or smaller share as advertisements varied. The news was little edited. The telegraph down to 1880 was taken, not as it came, but more nearly so than today. In an eight-page New York paper between 1865 and 1875, a news editor with one assistant and a city editor with one assistant easily handled city, telegraph, and other copy. None of it had the intensive treatment of today. It was not until 1875 that telegraph and news began to be sharply edited, the New York Sun and the Springfield Republican leading. Between 1875 and 1895, the daily paper doubled in size, and the Sunday paper quadrupled and quintupled. The relative share taken by editorial and critical matter remained about the same in amount, grew more varied in character, but dropped from 25 per cent of the total space in a four-page newspaper to 3 to 5 per cent in the dailies with sixteen to twenty pages, and the news required from three to five times as many persons to handle it. The circulation of individual papers in our large cities doubled and quadrupled, and the weekly

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expenditure of a New York paper rose from $10,000 a week to thrice that. These rough, general statements, varying with different newspapers as well as issue by issue in the same newspaper, represent a still greater change in the character of the subjects covered.

When the newspaper was issued in communities, of a simple organization, in production, transportation, and distribution, the newspaper had some advertising, some news, and personal expression of opinion — political-partisan for the most part, critical in small part. This opinion was chiefly, though even then not wholly, expressed by a single personality, sometimes dominant, able, unselfish, and in nature a social prophet, but in most instances weak, timeserving, and self-seeking, and partisan, with one eye on advertising, official preferred, and the other on profits, public office, and other contingent personal results.

In the complex society today, classified, stratified, organized, and differentiated, the newspaper is a complex representation of this life. The railroad is a far more important social agency than the stagecoach. It carries more people; it offers the community more; but the individual passenger counted for more in the eye of the traveling public in the stagecoach than today in the railroad train; but nobody would pretend to say that the railroad president was less important than the head of a stage line, Mr. A. J. Cassatt, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad and builder of its terminal, than John E. Reeside, the head of the express stage line from New York to Philadelphia, who beat all previous records in speed and stages.

The newspaper-complex, representing all society, still expressing the opinion of society, not merely on politics but on all the range of life, creating, developing, and modifying this opinion, publishes news which has been standardized by coöperative news-gathering associations, local, national, and international. In the daily of today "politics" is but a part and a decreasing part, and a world of new topics has come into pages which require technical skill, the wellequipped mind, a wide information, and knowledge of the

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