PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 775 



fifteen pounds ; and yet we are not encumbered, because the 

 pressure is equal on all parts. As a bird, on overcoming gravita- 

 tion, soars on high, so will atoms of steam. When separated from 

 the water, it will easily rise into its own element in the steam 

 space, no matter what the pressure. If an atom of steam, under 

 only ten pounds pressure, is carried into the steam room where 

 the pressure is 100 pounds, that atom is simply compressed into 

 a smaller bulk ; but being surrounded on all sides by the same 

 pressure, it will certainly retain its place, and by this very act of 

 compression its temperature is increased. That such is really the 

 case is shown by the fact that temperature and pressure, in steam 

 as well as all other vapors, are synonymous terms. 



The manner in which I accomplish this is shown in plates I have 

 exhibited before, representing a cylinder boiler, a cylindrical flue 

 boiler, an upright tubular boiler, and " the American steam boiler," 

 all of which are constructed on the principal that every atom of 

 steam once formed in the water must be carried into the steam 

 room directly, without passing through the dense medium of the 

 superincumbent water. The result is evident. Steam is made 

 rapidly, and the boiler contains, first, water free from steam, and 

 second, steam free from water. In such boilers we have two 

 agents completely separated, and even if a rupture of the boiler 

 takes place, the result is a simple relief of pressure rapidly or 

 slowly, according to the dimensions of the rupture, and its efiect 

 is no more disastrous than the giving way of a steam pipe, con- 

 nected with and at some distance from the ordinary boiler. 



That our present system or want of system in boiler construc- 

 tion is wroug, is plainly shown by the lamentable loss of lives 

 caused by boiler explosions. To carefully examine all facts bear- 

 ing on boilers, and lay down plain and positive rules for their con- 

 struction and management, is, I hold, one of the highest duties of 

 the Polytechnic Association. That such rules can be applied for 

 our common safety, is as certain as that all things are, have been, 

 and ever shall be governtd by positive laws, and shall move on, 

 now and forever, in the paths laid down for them by the Great 

 Architect of the Universe. 



Beet Sugar. 



The discussion of this subject having been resumed this evening, 

 Dr. Feuchtwanger stated that from beet ten per cent of sugar is 

 obtained and only eight per cent from cane. 



M/. J. Wyatt Reid said he believed a more correct statement 



