402 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



The Corresponding Secretary read letters from the Rum- 

 ford Historical Association of Woburn, acknowledging the 

 receipt of the bronze copy of the Rumford Medal presented 

 by the Academy ; from E. S. Dana and S. L. Penfield, ac- 

 knowledging election as Associate Fellows ; from the Anthro- 

 pological Society of Washington, announcing the conditions 

 of competition for its citizenship prizes ; from the Natural 

 History and Medical Society of Bonn, inviting the Academy 

 to participate in its seventy-fifth anniversary festival ; and 

 from the Belgian Chemical Association, announcing an In- 

 ternational Congress of Applied Chemistry, and inviting the 

 Academ} 7 to send delegates. 



The chairman of the C. M. Warren Committee made a brief 

 report, recommending the appropriation of three hundred 

 dollars to Charles F. Mabery for investigations on the Amer- 

 ican sulphur petroleums. This appropriation was voted by 

 the Academy. 



The President appointed a Committee on Methods of Elect- 

 ing Officers, consisting of the following gentlemen : Augustus 

 Lowell, Chairman, F. H. Storer, Barrett Wendell, W. G. 

 Farlow, and W. R. Livermore. 



The Recording Secretary gave a brief account of the 

 circumstances attending the award of the Massachusetts 

 Charitable Mechanic Association's Grand Gold Medal at the 

 exhibition in 1881 to Albert H. Emery. This medal, "for 

 the exhibit most conducive to human welfare," was, at the 

 request of the Association, bestowed by a committee of the 

 Academy acting as judges. 



Gaetano Lanza then explained and exhibited the Emery 

 testing machine of 300,000 pounds' capacity, recently acquired 

 by the Institute. This machine contains all the essential 

 features of the 800,000 pounds testing machine built by 

 Albert H. Emery, and now at the Watertown Arsenal. 



The operation of this machine consisted in testing the compressive 

 strength of a Virginia white-oak beam 13| inches X 8£ inch X 15 

 feet, which failed when a load of 176,000 pounds was applied. 



Cross Breaking. — The next experiment consisted in breaking a 

 yellow-pine beam 17 feet 6 inches between the supports, weighing 617 



