AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 403 



Mr. Fisher. — Valuable goods receive much damage from steam. A 

 cleanly gas would do better if it could be applied — the carbonic acid gas 

 might be generated by acid or crushed marble, ready in the lower part of 

 the building. Water does great damage ! 



Mr. Seeley. — No person could enter the building while the gas was in it. 



Mr. Meigs. — Would the gas be generated fast enough to arrest the fire ? 



Mr. Butler. — Cotton mills have tried them — pipes from the boilers to 

 the picking rooms, especially — where the cotton is in a very inflammable 

 form. 



Mr. Stetson. — There is a patent for steam extinguishers. I examined 

 boats at the west which had pipes from the boilers leading through the 

 decks to the interior of the boat, to force in steam. I have not heard of 

 such a boat being burned. 



Mr. Reed. — I saw it succeed in a wood yard on fire — as far as the steam 

 could reach it. 



Mr. Butler. — Timber on fire and well charred extinguished by steam 

 arising from water on the floors making steam. As a fire extinguisher it 

 has been talked of some years ago. 



Mr. Sewall. — As an engineer, I have recommended it for ships — but the 

 owners will not adopt any plan of the sort. 



Mr. Fisher. — If those owners were prosecuted and damages recovered 

 for lost lives, means to prevent fires in ships would be immediately pro- 

 vided. Applause. 



The Chairman. — At sea the velocity of the ship through the water has 

 been made to serve as a power to force water through a tube by the side of 

 the ship above her deck, and a large and steady stream discharged upon 

 her deck ! A water ram may be used with eff'ect. 



Mr. Reed. — The steam apparatus is to be put into the new ship Karnak. 



Mr. Henry, of Flushing, exhibited his model of canal boat and Archi- 

 medean screw propeller. 



Mr. Fisher proposed as a subject for next meeting, "Steam fire engines." 

 Adopted by the club. 



Mr. Henry spoke of Paine's new hot air engine with its partial supply 

 of water, through the capillary attraction of cords of loose twisted cotton, 

 whose moisture united with the hot air, &c. 



Mr. Sewall. — Lord Stirling made a hot air engine twenty-five years ago ; 

 it worked for some two years and cracked. It first expanded the air and 

 then contracted it, using the diiference for power. 



At 10^ P. M., the Club adjourned. 



H. MEiaS, Secretary. 



January 12, 1858. 



Present — Messrs. S. D. Tillman, Rev. Mr. Adamson, Stetson, Seeley, 

 Manning, Eunson, Fisher, Cohen, Edgerly, Bruce, Witt, Johnson, Leon- 

 ard, and others — twenty-nine members in all. 



S. D. Tillman in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



