550 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



summer. On the Tenth Avenue railroad, the contractor for draw- 

 ing the cars owns the horses, and he has discovered that the loss 

 in horses more than counterbalances the economy resulting from 

 the use of salt ; and after thorough trial, he has adopted the plan 

 of clearing the track by having the snow shoveled off at his own 

 expense. [The speaker then read an affidavit of this man, stat- 

 ing that when he used salt on the road, he lost quite a number 

 of horses, and had others become lame, and that since he aban- 

 doned the practice, none of the horses' feet were injured by the 

 cold.] If salt slush is thus injurious to the feet of horses, why 

 should it not be to your or my more sensitive feet ? It is. I 

 had one case in my own practice, that is worth all the theories 

 in the world. A man whose name is known to a large portion of 

 the inhabitants of this city — Captain Reed, of the privateer Arm- 

 strongs an old gentleman — in stepping from one car to another, 

 wet both of his feet, in the salt slush, above his ankles. He rode 

 some distance up town to his house, and when he got there both 

 of his feet were frozen. He died from the effects. 



On motion of Prof. Seely, the same subject was continued for 

 discussion a fortnight hence. 



Naval warfare was made the subject for the next naeeting* 



Adjourned. 



American Institute, Polytechnic Association, ? 



April 10, 1862. i 

 Prof. Chas. A. Joy in the chair. 



MANUFACTURE OF PUDDLED WROUGHT IRON DIRECT FROM THE ORE. 



Dr. Stevens exhibited a model of the apparatus invented by 

 Mr. Isaac Rogers, of Newark, N. J., and explained its operation. 



It consists in first roasting granulated iron ore mixed with 

 coal, for several hours in a close revolving cylinder to deoxidize 

 it, then conveying it directly to a puddling furnace, in which it 

 is converted in a short period of time into balls of wrought iron. 

 In Mr. Rogers' works two roasting cylinders and two puddling 

 furnaces are in operation, and the manufactui-e of wrought iron 

 blooms direct from the ore goes on continuously. One cylinder is 

 sixteen feet long, the other tw^enty, and both six feet in diameter. 

 A description of one will suffice for both. The huge cylinder is 

 hung horizontally in the loft above the puddling furnace. This 



