3Y0 • TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



SAWING SHIP ^TIMBER. 



Mr. H. S. Vrooman exhibited and explained drawings of ma- 

 chinery for sawing ship-timber. The principle of the machinery 

 is, that the timber is secured in the ways, permanently, and 

 moves as for straight work, while the saw is moved automatically 

 so as to produce the required result. There are two adjustable 

 guides, and after these have been regulated to produce' any 

 desired pattern, the sawing proceeds as readily as for straight 

 work. 



Mr. Stetson said that in most vessels, every stick of timber has 

 a separate and distinct shape, and a separate name. The ribs, for 

 instance, vary with the curve of the vessel ; but the variation 

 between two adjoining ribs is small. This machinery afibrds pe- 

 culiar facility in this case, because the adjustment rei^uired is so 

 slight in passing from each rib to the next. Whether this, which 

 is the theory, can be accomplished in practice can best be ascer- 

 tained by inspection. lie would, therefore, in behalf of the in- 

 ventor, move a committee to examine his working model. 



The -following committee Avas appointed, viz : Messrs. Haskell, 

 Johnson and Fisher. 



CLIMATE vs. INVENTION. 



Prof. Mason concluded his remarks upon this subject. He said : 

 In speaking a fortnight ago upon "the effects of climate on in- 

 vention," the general doctrine I laid down was that invention has 

 always been substantially limited to the temperate zone. The 

 question was raised whether domestic and governmental institu- 

 tions might not very essentially influence invention, whether by 

 unfavorable institutions there might not be a very great restraint 

 upon invention, even in those climates where invention would 

 otherwise take place. I have no doubt it is so. The regions of 

 Virginia and Tennessee are not so far south as to check inven- 

 tion, and if deprived of their slave labor, those climates would 

 have necessities that would naturally lead their inhabitants to 

 be inventors. I should say therefore that the line of invention 

 has been crowded northward by the presence of that institution. 

 Yet that does not falsify the general doctrine that in warm cli- 

 mates where inventions are not called for, they do not naturally 

 occur. If men were not migratory, they would remain in a semi- 

 barbarous condition in all the warm climates upon the earth. It 

 appears to me obvious that nothing like what we call civilization 



