14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



experiment, which are often found worthy of a place in the an- 

 nual volume of Transactions. ' 



The usual practice of giving at each meeting a condensed account 

 of the progress of Invention, Discovery, and improvement in the 

 useful arts throughout the world, is continued by the chairman. 

 This scientific summary forms a prominent feature in our annual 

 report, and makes it more valuable as a book of reference. Dur- 

 ing the past year, the Polytechnic has departed somewhat from its 

 usual course in entertaining some questions of a purely theoretical 

 and speculative character relating chiefly to Cosmogany. Some 

 able papers have been read on abstract themes, which seem to 

 have drawn larger audiences than discussions of a more practical 

 bearing. > 



The large and increasing attendance at these meetings, where 

 many are often unable to procure seats, prompt your committee to 

 suggest that they should be held in a larger, more convenient, and 

 better ventilated room. The occasional occupation of a place 

 which is used at other times for meetings of a very difierent char- 

 acter, and which belongs to and is controlled by another institu- 

 tion, tends to lessen the influence which the Polytechnic as well as 

 the Farmers' Club would otherwise exert. If the American Insti- 

 tute is not yet in a condition to erect such a magnificent structure 

 as will be commensurate with all its wants, it certainly has the 

 means for providing one commodious hall to be devoted exclu- 

 sively to its own use, and that of its several branches. 

 All of which is respectfully submitted, 



JOHN D. WARD, 

 JAS. DIXON, 

 SAMUEL D. TILLMAX. 

 New York, February 7, 1867. 



Dr. Howell's Valve for Steam Engines. 



The Committee on Manufactures, Science and Art, to whom was 

 referred W. Rowell's valve for steam engines, respectfully report: 



A wood and glass model of this valve was shown to your com- 

 mittee. It is not a balanced valve according to the common 

 acceptation of that term, but is called by the inventor a pressure- 

 less valve. Its novelty consists in arranging two similar rectangu- 

 lar slide-valves on the perpendicular opposite sides of a double 



