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Proceedings of the Society of Art s^ 1840-41. 



The Annual General Meeting of the Society for Promoting 

 the Useful Arts in Scotland was held in the Royal Institu- 

 tion on Monday, the 9th November 1840. — Sir John Graham 

 Dalyell, President, in the chair. 



Sir John, in opening this the Twentieth Session, congra- 

 tulated the Society on the numerous attendance. Members 

 should be grateful they had been spared by the benignity of 

 Providence, seeing that, in the interval of this long recess, so 

 many had been called away. The retirement of such a recess 

 enabled them to mature their reflections on what they had 

 seen, and to meditate on future projects for public utility. 



The modern state of science admitted and encouraged in- 

 ventions and improvements which could not be contemplated 

 by our progenitors. But the Society must beware of receiv- 

 ing as novelties all that was offered as new. Sometimes ex- 

 pedients familiar of old were only reproduced under some 

 different name and character. Entire volumes of earlier date 

 might be quoted to prove the fact ; and here he should refer to 

 the works — " Pancirollus, rerum deperditarum noviter inven- 

 tarum'' — "Dutens, des decouvertes attribuees aux modernes,'* 

 besides those of Polydore Virgil and Beckmann. Who would 

 credit, that, from time immemorial, the inhabitants of some 

 distant regions carried on their nocturnal manufactures by 

 means of natural gas, obtained through a hollow reed thrust 

 into the earth I Arriving at modern times, navigation by the 

 Archimedes screw as a propeller, through the means of steam, 

 had attracted the Society's notice in 1840. But, above twenty 

 years ago, an experiment with similar screws, adapted to a 

 boat, on the neighbouring lake, Lochend, by Mr Whytock, a 

 member of the Society, proved its efficiency, though on a 

 smaller scale. Sir John proceeded to shew that sometimes 

 amidst very speculative views, the progress of science and the 

 arts in this country had advanced chiefly since the year 1700 

 or 1720, — that agriculture promoted certain branches of me- 

 chanics. An Agricultural Society had been estj\bli:>hed in 



