X Proceedings. [November 26th, igoy. 



On heating a small piece of calcium on charcoal before the 

 blowpipe, the metal readily took fire, and, after burning with a 

 brilliant orange flame for about two seconds, sank into the mass 

 of the charcoal. After the latter had been allowed to cool, it 

 was broken up, when a hard lump was found which yielded 

 acetylene on treatment with water. 



Mr. Julius Hubner, M.Sc.Tech., F.I.C, read a paper 

 entitled, "New Reactions for the Characterisation 

 of Mercerised Cotton." 



Mr. H. F. Coward, M.Sc, read a paper, entitled "The 

 Direct Combination of Carbon and Hydrogen." Doubt 

 had recently been cast, he said, on the validity of Bone and 

 Jerdan's synthesis of methane by direct union of carbon and 

 hydrogen, by Berthelot, Pring and Hutton, and by Mayer 

 and Altmayer. 



The author, however, in recent experiments, made with 

 small quantities of highly purified carbon, had obtained from 

 o'l gram of carbon containing a maximum of 09 cc. of 

 hydrogen, 100 to ]2occ. of methane by direct union with 

 hydrogen. 



Ordinary Meeting, December loth, 1907. 

 Professor H. B. Dixon, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



The President presented to the Society's Library copies of 

 first editions of the following works of Hon. Robert Boyle, 

 formerly in the possession of the Library of the old " Salford 

 Academy " : — 



" Hydrostatical Paradoxes." 1666. 



" New Experiments touching the Relation betwixt Flame 

 and Air." London, 1672. 



