The Engineering Library & Technology Commons is now showcasing Texts & Tools: A History of Engineering. This display features five historical engineering books from Special Collections & Rare Books and four tools from the Mizzou Museum of Engineering (ZOUME) used by engineers in the early 1900s.
Exhibit Highlights:
Theater of Machines by Heinrich Zeising, 1621
The oldest text on display is Theatri Machinarum Erster Theill or Theater of Machines by Heinrich Zeising. This book is believed to have been published in 1621. It features designs for over 150 machines invented or refined by Ziesing, from cranes to watermills, to portable expanding bridges.
Polar Planimeter by Keuffel & Esser Co.,1915
Another item on display is an American made polar planimeter from 1915. Polar planimeters are mechanical devices used to accurately measure the area of any plane figure, regardless of its shape or irregularity, without calculation. Keuffel & Esser Co. produced this particular model between 1901 and 1927. A book published by the company described the planimeter as “one of the most valuable of the Engineer’s mechanical assistants” (Wheatley, 1903).
We kept track of our interactions with Engineering students and faculty and their use of our services throughout the year. The numbers we collected make up the Engineering Library & Technology Commons usage statistics for Fiscal Year 2017 (from July 2016 to June 2017).
Check out our infographic below to see how well we did:
Thank you for making the Engineering Library a great place to be!
Alright, that 29 seconds might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the Engineering Library does get a lot of USB drives turned in at the circulation desk! Please remember to take your USB drive out of the slot before you leave. We don't want you to lose your assignments!
Some tips:
Add a contact folder to your USB drive which contains your name and email so we know it belongs to you. We try our best to reconnect USB drives with their owners and it makes it much easier when we have a contact information.
Encrypt the most important files on your drive so nobody can steal your information if you do lose it.
Add a keychain to your drive so it is easier to see and remember.
Consider keeping backups of your files in a cloud service. Humans are not perfect so the odds of losing a small USB drive can be high. It is good practice to keep backups of your most important work elsewhere in case your USB drive cannot be recovered.
Public Service Announcement brought to you by the Engineering Library & Technology Commons
