412 Proceedings of the Society of Arts, 



son, Esq., civil and mining engineer, Edinburgh, late in the service of 

 the Shah of Persia. A Drawing was exhibited, illustrating the construc- 

 tion of the furnaces for burning the previously sun-dried bricks. Mr 

 Bobertson gave a very graphic detail of the process of manufacture — the 

 patient labour of the Persian brick-maker beneath a broiling sun — his ab- 

 stemious life — and the amount and value of his labours. (759.) Thanks 

 voted. 



Mr Gavin Kay's Model and Description of Apparatus for saving the life 

 of persons falling into any loch or standing water, on the ice giving way, 

 were postponed, owing to the lateness of the hour. 



Donations were presented (1.) of a piece of wood, announced by the 

 Donor as a piece of one of the Original Timbers of i\\Q fii-st Steam-boat 

 built at Carron about the year 1794 ; presented by Mr W. Grosart, Falkirk 

 (746.) ; in reference to which the subjoined letter from Sir John Robison 

 was read to the Society : — 



" 14?^ December 1840. 



"Dear Sir, — As an engagement will prevent me from being present at 

 the meeting this evening, I beg to call your attention to a mistake in one 

 of the announcements in the billet, which should not pass unnoticed, lest 

 it should be quoted and lead to error. It is in article 5th. 



" There was no steam-boat built at Carron ' about 1794.' 



"The first steam-boat was tried on Dalswinton Lake, in October 1788. 



" The second was tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal, in November 

 1789 ; the machinery of this vessel was prepared at Carron. 



'• The third was constructed and tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal 

 in 1801. 



" The piece of wood presented to the Society is probably a part of this 

 latter vessel, which has remained about Grangemouth ever since the trials, 

 until about a year ago, when it was broken up and buried in some new 

 works lately constructed in the harbour there. Previous to its disappear- 

 ance, I requested Mr AVilson, the Canal Company's Superintendent, to 

 take out some portions of the timbers to be preserved as relics, and it is 

 probably from this source that the donation has been procured. 



" This last-mentioned vessel is remarkable, from the circumstance that 

 it was during its preparation at Falkirk by Mr Symington, that Mr Fulton, 

 the American engineer, was brought by Mr Henry Bell to observe its pro- 

 gress, and that what he then saw led him to apply to Messrs Boulton and 

 "Watt to make the machinery which was used in the first American steam- 

 boat some years afterwards. I am, dear Sir, very truly yours, 



" John EoBi SON." 

 " James Tod. Esq., W. S., 



Sec. Soc. of Arts." 

 (2.) Report on Plans for preventing Accidents on board of Steam-vessels 

 (arising from the bursting of the Boilers) ; with numerous Plates. Glas- 

 gow, 1839. Presented by the Trustees on the River Clyde. The Secre- 

 tary stated, that, in consequence of the number of disasters from the burst- 



