382 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Fl-re hundred and sixtb meeting, 



April 8, 1862. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read letters relative to the 

 exchanges of the Academy. Also a letter from the Rev. James 

 M. Peirce, of Cambridge, in acknowledgment of his election 

 as a Fellow. 



Professor Rogers exhibited Plateau's experiments on thin 

 viscid films and bubbles, with some original ones. 



Professor Levering, in behalf of the majority of the Rumford 

 Committee, presented the following Report. 



The Rumford Committee, having examined the subject of Hot-air 

 Engines, and the recent improvements in their construction made in 

 America, ask leave to report as follows : — 



The Rumford Committee does not recommend that the Academy 

 should award the Rumford Premium for the alleged recent improve- 

 ments of Mr, Ericsson in the Hot-air Engine, nor for his engine as at 



present constructed. 



Morrill Wtman, 



Joseph Lovering, 



Cambridge, April 8, 1862. Joseph Winlock. 



Professor Horsford presented the following Report from the 

 minority of the Committee. 



The minority of the Rumford Committee report : — 

 That they dissent from the opinion of the majority, in that they be- 

 lieve the improvements in the caloric engine of Mr. Ericsson, which 

 he brought out in 1858, are such as to entitle him to the Rumford 

 Medal. 



They see in them evidences of high inventive talent, of patient 

 thought and prolonged and persevering experimental research, in the 

 practical solution, on a large scale, of the various problems underlying 

 the hot-air engine; — especially in the compact arrangement of the 

 supply and working pistons, the telescopic tube, the fire-pot, and the 

 regenerator in a single cylinder, thereby economizing heat and space ; 

 in the device for protecting the lubricating material of the packing of 



