AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 467 



posed to wasli the surface of marbles with a silicate of lime, impenetrable 

 to moisture. Silicon and boron belong to the oldest formations. 



Prof. Mason. — Michael Angelo, the glorious architect of St. Peter's, of 

 Rome, selected good marble ! Time continues to praise his work ! 



Mr. Stetson was inclined to doubt many, so said improvements. The 

 proposed wash has failed in England, and here, in a government building ; 

 nor do I like the crystal shine of some of our new marble buildings — they 

 dazzle more than they please the eye. Silicate of potash is a glass. 



Mr. Everitt. — Tt has been- tried on wood. It is a failure on marble. 

 England uses the silicate of soda — it will not do. 



Prof. Mason disliked doughfaces in such questions, as much as in poli- 

 tics ! Does the gentleman dislike a fair lady becfiuse she sparkles with 

 brilliants ? Our city hall, in spite of dust, when cleaned, sparkles after 

 half a century of weather beating ! 



Mr. Everitt. — The Herald wag, sometime ago set an honest black white 

 washer to improve the city hall with his brush I He had spoiled some of 

 the marble face before he was stopped. 



Dr. Deck. — Soft marble may be saturated with the sulphate of alumina 

 and rendered as hard as granite, and leaves the marble white. 



Prof. Mason. — A neutral tint is desirable. The climate of Italy is more 

 favorable than ours for the preservation of buildings. Michael Angelo un- 

 derstood the art, as we learn from his great works. 



Mr. Dwight, of New Haven. — The trap rock of the east and west moun- 

 tains of that city, are good ; two churches have been built of it, and they 

 will endure. 



Mr. Tillman illustrated on the black-board the chemical combinations of 

 some materials, the oxygen and carbon, silicon. &c. 



Mr. Hoover. — Cast iron surpasses all other materials. 



Prof. Hedrick. — "We must have something more durable; the mountains 

 contain iron, and will last longer. 



Prof. Mason. — Two cast iron stores, in Boston, were failures. Unless 

 kept protected from the weather by paint, constantly renewed, it cannot 

 endure. Tenants complained of them much. Contraction and expansion, 

 by cold and by heat, will constantly keep joints more or less open. 



Mr. Garbanati. — Our common contract system is very bad for buildings. 

 The materials are good enough. Look at Dover castle, built by Julius 

 Csesar ! We have lost the mortar, and must learn to make it again ; we 

 require change in our houses. I would not build one that would last 1000- 

 years. The abbies, &c., of old, only remind us of the tyranny they repre- 

 sent — gloomy, chilly, damp monuments, that were never warm — very dan- 

 gerous to health — comfortless ! They record all that which had better 

 never existed ! No, sir ; not such for us I None of that for an enlightened 

 age like this ! We are now bound to use all our knowledge of the past and 

 of the present, to make the masses of mankind comfortable ! Already men 

 are clothed, fed and housed in a style of comfort never before known. Look 

 back to the hovels of the world, where letters never entered ! and where dry 



