Engineering School’s Big Equipment Order

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28421, 30 October 1957, Page 14

Engineering School’s Big Equipment Order

Two important steps towards the removal of the University of Canterbury to Riccarton were taken by the college council at its meeting yesterday. These were to approve a £226.000 list of new equipment for the School of Engineering, and the draft schedule of space required by science departments at Riccarton.

Without space for general' facilities cloakrooms, washrooms and corridors —the science faculty, with an estimated 1000 students, is expected to need 213.330 sq. ft. Now that it knows what space is wanted the council will seek the authority of the university grants committee, which will meet on November 6, to plan a science block at Riccarton. Present plans are to convert the old Engineering School for use by the science departments. But both the Chancellor (Mr D. W. Bain) and the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. F. J. Llewellyn) foresaw the saving of this conversion if work began early on the new science buildings at Ham. “The target we should fix is 1963.” said Dr. Llewellyn of the completion for the science block. “I would like to see it earlier than that. The saving will be that we do not have to convert the old engineering school for science.” Instead, it could be used .for the staff and badlyneeded additional lecture theatres.

He presented a schedule of equipment estimated to cost £286.000 for the new School of Engineering at Ham. The Cabinet gave its authority for the acceptance of a tender for the new school last Friday. The council decided to ask the university grants committee to seek authority to order the equipment so that it would be available by 1960. This would mean that the school could open for the 1961 session. Target Date Some of the gear, including structural testing equipment worth £70,000 for the civil engineering laboratory, will take two to three years to obtain. It is hoped that the building target date of June, 1960, will be met so that the rest of the year will be available for the transfer of apparatus from the present school and the installation of new equipment.

Presenting the schedule to the council yesterday. Dr. Llewellyn said that the transfer work would cost £21,000. This involves the removal of much heavy gear, the packing of instruments and the microfilming of records. The new apparatus and equipment is estimated to cost

| £226.000. Dr. Llewellyn ex- ■ plained that over the years the i Engineering School had made application for pieces of equipment. but these had been deferred by the grants committee or the Government pending the building of the new school. Many had been approved already by the grants committee and these had been included in the schedule. Therefore, it was larger than it would have been had normal development gone on in recent years.

The new plant includes nuclear engineering research equipment worth £5OOO in the chemical engineering department and another £5OOO has been allotted to initial development of nuclear engineering.

There is no central workshop at the present school and the college’s Industrial Development Department has assisted with work for the school. The schedule estimates that £38,800 will be needed to equip a workshop. £50,000 Machinery

The most expensive item in the schedule is a testing machine worth £50.000. Other machines will bring the cost of new gear for the structural testing laboratory to £70,500.

Departmental allotments are: chemical engineering, £11,000; civil engineering, £114,000; electrical engineering, £35,000; mechanical engineering, £61,000. The council approved the schedule and agreed that it should be passed to the grants committee for approval. A list of furniture and fittings for the school is already in the hands of the Education Department for decision on how to provide them. Time Important

The Pro-Chancellor (Mr C. H. Perkins) said that the time for the completion of the Engineering School was most important. His motion that the council ask for a schedule for the stages of the job so that its progress could be judged, was carried. The Chancellor said that the council was grateful to the Government architect, the Ministry of Works, the Government and the Cabinet for the work in granting authority for the acceptance of the engineering school tender.