112 Mb. W. Keddie on the Early History and Proceedings oftlie Society. 



cal Wednesday of tlie West," so humorously and graphically celebrated 

 by Dr. Strang in the Glasgow " Clubs." On the 2ith of the same 

 month, the Society again had a blank night, when the members behoved 

 to show their loyalty by observing the king's birth-day. 



Among the members entered this year are the names of Mr. Robert 

 Napier, smith and bell-hanger ; Mr. Neilson of the Gas-Light Company ; 

 and Mr. Duncan of Mosesfield, a bookseller. The Society now removed 

 to rooms in Pratt's Court, Ai'gyle Street, opposite the foot of Queen 

 Street, belonging to the Annuity Association. 



" Mr. Lumsden's young man, Mr. Hugh Wilson," is noted as exhi- 

 biting to the Society the model of an improved printing press, with 

 self-inking rollers, and describing a method of equalizing the pressure 

 upon stereotype plates. 



Drs. Watt and Nimmo were engaged in investigating the subject of 

 contagion, this being the period when typhus fever established itself in 

 Glasgow. 



jNIt. R. Hai't exhibited a petrified shell from a quarry in Mull. 

 It is described as resembling " an antique Grecian lamp " — a description 

 in which there is now no difficulty in recognizing that of the Gryphxiea 

 incurva, a characteristic shell of the Lias. 



Mr. William Norval, bnishmaker, who this year became a member, 

 was the projector and part proprietor of a steam-boat named the " Ar^yle," 

 which was purchased as a pattern for the steamers on the Thames, by 

 the name of which river it was for long distinguished. 



The first " life preserver" was brought down from London in 1820, 

 by Mr. R. Hastie. It was exhibited to the Society, and described 

 " as a boddice of oiled cloth worn round the waist." Its buoyant pro- 

 perty was tested by Mr. Robert Hart at the Dominie's Hole, and foimd 

 to be capable of keeping five persons afloat. 



Mr. Robert Hall, proprietor of the paper works near Cathcart, at a 

 place since known by the name of the Paper-mill Fai-m, this year became 

 a member. He was a descendant of Nicholas Dechand, a French refu- 

 gee, one of the earliest paper-makers in Scotland, and who occupied the 

 works near Cathcart. 



Mr. John Thomson, a chemist, and originally an engraver, brought 

 under the notice of the Society a correspondence he had had with the 

 Bank of England, with a view to prevent the forgery of their notes. He 

 proposed several ingenious devices, one of which was a method of print- 

 ing the letters of the notes in two colours. This being submitted by 

 Thomson to Congreve, at the suggestion of the Bank, was afterwards 

 discreditably patented in Congreve's name. 



Mr. Murdoch, of the firm of Messrs. Murdoch and Aitken, exhibited 



