272 The Microscope. 



once led the party up to the colossal iron furnaces, from which the 

 slag was just being drawn off, and torrents of fire poured down 

 through the sand like streams of lava on the sides of a volcano. The 

 seven different furnaces were then visited and finally the steel con- 

 verting department. Here there was also a great surprise in store 

 for the micoscropists in witnessing the ease with which great masses 

 of fiery steel were handled with the hydraulic machinery. From 

 the converting mill the party next went down and watched the ingots 

 pass through the three high rolls and come out in the shape of steel 

 rails, at the rate of over a thousand tons a day. Several hours were 

 spent in going through the different departments of the works and 

 the party saw the entire phenomena of making a steel rail from the 

 time that the ore was unloaded from the car, mixed, passed through 

 the iron furnaces, the rolls, and ultimately came out ready to be laid 

 on one of the great thoroughfares of the world. 



At 5 o'clock the party returned to the boat and the journey 

 homeward began. Soon after the steamer was headed down stream, 

 President Mellor, of the Iron City Society, announced that a working 

 session would be at once inaugurated on the main deck with some 

 excellent specimens for examination. Upon going downstairs an 

 excellent lunch was discovered, and the party fell to with an appetite 

 that required no stimulation from microscopic apparatus. The trip 

 down the river was a most enjoyable one, and the day was spent 

 most pleasantly in reviewing the incidents of the trip and comparing 

 notes. It was 7 o'clock when the boat reached the Water street 

 wharf. Later in the evening an informal reception was held at the 

 Monongahela House, the headquarters of the society. In one of the 

 parlors Dr. Mcintosh, of Chicago, showed the working of his lantern 

 by projecting microscopic plants on to a screen. Other members 

 engaged in inspecting lenses and resolving amplipleura fustules, or 

 exchanged notes on microscopical methods. 



Thursday, Sept. 1st. In the morning the papers read were: 

 Some easy methods of testing photographic lenses, by Heniy B. 

 Turner; the Comparative size of blood corpuscles of man and 

 domestic animals, by Miss Freda Detmer, read by Dr. Detmer. A 

 microscopical slide cabinet, by R. H. Ward; the Tape- worm, methods 

 of preparation for the museum and the microscope, by J. M. Stead- 

 man, read by Mr. Sargent; a description of Ergasilus Chautauqua- 

 ensis, and a list of other entomastraca found at Chautauqua Lake in 

 August, 1886, by C. S. Fellows, read by Prof. Lester Curtis. In 

 the afternoon, 



