MINUTES Ol- MKKTINOS. 131 



February 6, 190.S. — Regular Monthly Meeting. Reports 

 of committees and curators and routine business. A motion 

 was passed directing the curators to take up the matter of 

 providing the hall with fire escapes that would comply with 

 the requirements of the law. The following additions to the 

 Library were announced : " Report of Smithsonian Institution 

 for 1907," " Smithsonian Quarterly Miscellaneous Collec- 

 tions." Sanford Omensetter presented to the Institute two 

 salamanders that had been caught in the cellar of the hall. 

 The subject of the occurrence of coal clinkers in stoves and 

 the conditions governing their formation was discussed by 

 Robinson Tyndale, T. Chalkley Palmer, James G. Vail and 

 others. The question of the resistance of the air to flying 

 bodies, such as rifle balls, was discussed, and attention called 

 to the wave of compressed air preceding the projectile in its 

 flight. Report was made of a recent explosion of powder 

 mills at Gibbstown, New Jersey, and T. Chalkley Palmer 

 and others discussed the question of high explosives and their 

 peculiarities. C. M. Broomall called attention to a peculiar 

 rustling sound that followed the first shock in the case of the 

 Gibbstown explosion, which, it was thought, might be in 

 some way due to the summation of little echoes as the great 

 sound wave rushed across country. Sanford Omensetter called 

 attention to a recent motor, which, its exploiters claimed, was 

 operated by carbon dioxide. 



February 13, 190S. — Adjourned Meeting. Illustrated 

 lecture, "Sicily," by Dr. Alice Rogers Easby. 



February 20, 1908. — Adjourned Meeting. Lecture on 

 " Esperanto, the International Language," by Prof. A. M. 

 Grillon, of the Central M. T. High School, Philadelphia. 



February 27th, 1908. — Adjourned Meeting. Lecture, 

 "A Study in English," by Prof. L. H. Watters, Principal of 

 the Media Public Schools. 



