THE ANALYTICAL LABORATORY1 G. G. MARVIN Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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PROBLEM of the Chemistry Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concerning chemical laboratories in general, and more particularly the analytical laboratories for second-year instruction, was fourfold in nature; namely: (1) To modernize or rebuild laboratories, which had sewed for 30 years, into up-to-date units able to meet the demands of present-day chemical 'instruction. (2) To increase the facilities for undergraduate instruction as much as possible in order that the large number of postwar students might be accommodated. (3) uDon constmc, , To meet the restrictions im~osed tion of new buildings during the immediate postwar era, it k a m e im~eratiwthat snnw in exirtinc buildinm be used. This meant .that a hreat many more students would have to be accommodated in a space formerly used for fewer students. (4) To conform to new building laws and codes which had been passed in the last 30 years. This made it necessary to plan the layout of the laboratory with considerable care. In the case of the analytical laboratories i t was decided that three existing udits were to be completely rebuilt. This meant the entire removal of all former desks, hoods, lighting, piping, drains, most of the wiring, and all other accessories in the old laboratories. This was accomplished and left the original bare rooms ready to be rebuilt into new laboratory units. The one di5culty imposed by such remodelling was the necessity of fitting equipment into a given space rather than the better plan of constructing a new building, planned to accommodate certain types and styles of equipment. The three units mentioned in this particular instance had formerly accommodated approximately 300 students, and one of the objectives of the rebui!ding program was to design new units which would accommcdate approximately 450 to 500 students in the same space. This was accomplished by (1) laying out a laboratory in an unconventional manner but one economical of space, (2) giving each student a smaller desk, and (3) using a stagger system for attendance in the laboratory. The one analytical laboratory unit to be described here was approximately 75 feet long by 26 feet wide and 16 feet hi'gh, the length of the laboratory extending from east to west, with a corridor wall on the north side and full length windows on the south side. The general layout of the laboratory was planned so that the ~~
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rows of desks run parallel to the,length of the laboratory and the windows, rather than a t right angles to the windows, which is usually the case. This plan saved considerable space, expecially since new building laws required a 42-inch passageway inside the corridor wall and immediately adjacent to it. The more conventional system of having the rows of desks run a t right angles to the plan of the building would have caused a sacrifice of space by a passageway adjacent to the windows in addition to the one next to the corridor walls, thus leaving extremely short rows of desks (Figure 1).
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