126 Me. W. Keddie on the Early Hislori/ and Proceedings of tlie Society. 



portion pointed out by Mr. Faraday of the Royal Institution, London, 

 and found that the steel was not improved by the silver. 



There is a notice of a method of raising ships by wind bags, which 

 had been sent in by David Masterman, an operative mechanic. Mr. 

 Hugh Wilson exhibited lithographic prints, executed with ink made 

 from coal tar, by a process conducted by Mr. Thomas Clark, the 

 chemist, in the manufactory of Messrs. Macintosh & Co. 



Steam-boats for canals were proposed by Mr. Thomson, the chemist, 

 who stated that the Forth and Clyde Canal banks could be lined with 

 whinstones for fourpence a square yard. Mr. M'Call thought that a 

 better way would be to have a rack fixed on logs floating the whole length 

 of the canal, and each vessel to have a wheel to work on the said rack. 

 Mr. Boaz suggested the plan of a chain being laid at the bottom the whole 

 length of the canal, and a barrel or windlass in the boat, to operate upon 

 the chain. Mr. John Hart proposed to run a locomotive engine on the 

 bank, and pull the boat — a plan which was actually tried at Lock 16. 



The reading of essays having become irregular, the Society enter- 

 tained the idea of reviving the flagging industry of the members by one 

 of two ways — either by imposing a fine of five shiUiugs upon defaulters, 

 or by holding out a premium of five shillings for doing their duty, in the 

 form of a deduction to that extent from the annual payment. The 

 choice of the Society was deferred. 



The rattle of the rattlesnake was shown by Mr. Robert Rankine, a 

 gentleman who was afterwards drowned while bathing, in a foreign 

 country. Artesian wells also engaged attention. Mr. R. Wallace 

 exhibited and described a drilling macliine for piercing plates of metal, 

 and which has since come into general use. Mr. Freeland raised 

 the question, whether water freezes sooner than otherwise under 

 pressure, in consequence of Captain Ross having brought water and 

 mud from a depth of 800 fathoms, at 25° or 26° Fahrenheit. This 

 gentleman also gave the Society an account of a voyage he had per- 

 formed to America, describing particularly the dolphins, porpoises, and 

 flying fish he had witnessed in the Atlantic. 



Plants were exhibited, the collection of a medical officer in Captain 

 Parry's expedition. 



In the absence of a formal essay, the members engaged in what is 

 described as a desultory conversation, on apparitions, witches, and tradi- 

 tions of this and other kinds, and as to then* being real or imaginary. 



A recommendation was brought before the Society in favour of plant- 

 ing oysters in the Frith of Clyde, similar to the mussel-beds there. A 

 question as to the possibility of working a steam-boat by the water-press, 

 is minuted as "quite piTpostcrous." 



