Proceedings. 135 



Ordinary Aleetlng, March 20th, 1888. 



Professor OSBORNE REYNOLDS, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. PiCKSTONE, introduced by Mr.W. H. JOHNSON, B.Sc, 

 exhibited and explained the working of a portable pneumatic 

 tool of remarkable power, giving 5,000 to 20,000 strokes per 

 minute, and also a small steam compressed-air engine 

 working at 5,000 revolutions per minute. Mr. Pickstone 

 explained that one of the peculiarities of these inventions 

 was that the piston worked without packing other than the 

 air by which it was cushioned, and he dwelt upon the 

 various uses to which the principle of the inventions might 

 be applied. 



Ordinary Meeting, April 3rd, 1888. 



Mr. R. F. GWYTHER, M.A., in the Chair. 



Mr. Alfred Brothers, F.R.A.S., communicated a 

 paper entitled, " Note on a Nickel Arsenide," by H. E. 

 Brothers, A.I.C, F.C.S. Mr. Brothers said :— In a paper 

 " On the formation of some metallic Arsenides," {Comptes 

 Rendits, Vol. ^G) M. Descamps describes the production of a 

 new Arsenide of Nickel (NigAs or, Ni6As2) by fusing the 

 arsenate first with potassium cyanide and then in boric acid, 

 and also directly by heating nickel oxide at a high tempera- 

 ture with the cyanide in presence of an excess of metallic 

 arsenic. Knowing nothing further of this compound, its 



