OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 3S 



former in the section of Chemistry, the latter in the section 

 of Pliilosophy and Jurisprudence. 



Three hundred and seventy-sixth meeting. 



March 1, 1853. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary announced that he had re- 

 ceived a letter from Professor Parker accepting membership 

 of the Academy, Professor Cooke took his seat as a Fellow. 



Professor Treadwell observed, that the speed of the Erics- 

 son in her trip to Washington was about six geographi- 

 cal miles an hour. He mentioned that hundred-gun ships, 

 of a model far inferior to that of the Ericsson, had made 

 nearly twelve miles an hour in trial trips in England, with 

 steam-engines of 350 and 400 horse-power ; as this was 

 twice the velocity of the Ericsson, the power required would 

 be eight times that of the Ericsson, which was far from the 

 power used. The Ericsson consumed five tons and a frac- 

 tion of coal a day ; to get double the velocity, as in the 

 English vessels, supposing the resistance the same (which it 

 is not, on account of the vastly superior model of the Erics- 

 son), about forty-five tons would be consumed, which is more 

 than was consumed by the steam-vessels above mentioned. 

 So that the experiment, after all, does not promise much in 

 favor of' the caloric engine. 



Dr. W. F. Channing observed, that it is admitted that there 

 is a saving of about one third of fuel in the caloric engine ; 

 that it must be an important improvement for stationary en- 

 gines, even if it should not be found compact enough for sea- 

 going vessels. An article in the Scientific American gives to 

 the Ericsson 250 horse-power. 



Professor Treadwell remarked, that very nearly as much 

 power could be obtained from the amount of coal used by 

 the Ericsson, if employed in the generation of steam, on ac- 

 count of the far greater expansive power of the latter. 



VOL. in. 5 



