At the close of the course of instruction, as originally proposed, and as now carried out, the student prepares a "graduating thesis," in which he is expected to show good evidence that he has profited well by the opportunities which have been given him to secure a good professional education. These theses are papers of, usually, considerable extent, and are written upon subjects chosen by the student himself, either with or without consultation with the instructor. The most valuable of these productions are those which present the results of original investigations of problems arising in practice or scientific research in lines bearing upon the work of the engineer. In many cases, the work thus done has been found to be of very great value, supplying information greatly needed in certain departments, and which had previously been entirely wanting, or only partially and unsatisfactorily given by authorities. Other theses of great value present a systematic outline of existing knowledge of some subject which had never before been brought into useful form, or made in any way accessible to the practitioner. In nearly all cases, the student is led to make the investigation by the bent of his own mind, or by the desire to do work that may be of service to him in the practice of his profession. All theses are expected to be made complete and satisfactory to the head of department of Engineering before his signature is appended to the diploma which is finally issued to the graduating student. These preliminaries being completed, and the examinations having been reported as in all respects satisfactory, the degree of Mechanical Engineer is conferred upon the aspirant, and he is thus formally inducted into the ranks of the profession. COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. Robert H. Thurston--July, 1871. I. MATERIALS USED IN ENGINEERING.--Classification, Origin, and Preparation (where not given in course of Technical Chemistry), Uses, Cost. _Strength and Elasticity_.--Theory (with experimental illustrations), reviewed, and tensile, transverse and torsional resistance determined. _Forms_ of greatest strength determined. _Testing_ materials. _Applications_.--Foundations, Framing in wood and metal. FRICTION.--Discussion from Rational Mechanics, reviewed and extended. _Lubricants_ treated with materials above. Experimental determination of "coefficients of friction." II. TOOLS.--Forms for working wood and metals. Principles involved in their use. Principles of pattern making, moulding, smith and machinists' work so far as they modify design. Exercises in Workshops in mechanical manipulation. Estimates of _cost_ (stock and labor). MACHINERY AND MILL WORK.--Theory of machines. Construction. Kinematics applied. Stresses, calculated and traced. Work of machines. Selection of materials for the several parts. Determination of _proportions_ of details, and of _forms_ as modified by difficulties of construction.