AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 499 



tileseinption, at prices much below tliosc current in Europe and America, and 

 their steel is invariably uniform. You are all awaru that twenty days were 

 trequircd by the old process to convert iron into steel. By the new New 

 York process the iron is thoroughly refined into cast steel by a single ope- 

 ration, v/hich far surpasses the expensive and tedious process by cementa- 

 tion, and the quality of the steel can be foretold to a certainty before the 

 crucible is placed in the furnace ; whereas, by the old plan the end of the 

 ingot was broken ofiF and the quality guessed at. Cyanogen and sal ammo- 

 niac are the chief materials used in the new mode, and if all is attained 

 that has been promised, a revolution in the steel trade is near at hand. 



Messrs. Bessemer & Co., of Sheffield, have been successful in converting 

 pig iron into steel in a few minutes, without additional fuel, by the infusion 

 of an air blast, and hundreds of large ingots of cast steel are made in 

 quick succession, without a failure, either soft, medium or hard, at pleasure. 

 Steel thus quickly and cheaply made has been manufactured into first qua- 

 lity cutlery an<l boiler plates of very large dimensions. In Sweden, Bes- 

 «emer's invention has been carrie<J <©ut to the fullest extent, and ingots of 

 cast steel of admirable quality have been produced from molten crude iron 

 in ten minutes after leaving the blast furnace, without manipulation. By 

 this process one thousand tons of cast steel can be produced with the same 

 quantity of fuel now consumed in the production of five hundred tons of 

 bar iron. 



With these facts before me, I prophecy, without hesitation, that in less 

 than ten years steel will supersede iron in the construction of boilers, steam 

 engines, and the hulls of vessels, because equal strength is obtained with 

 less than half the weight. 



Subject for next meeting, '^ Dentistry." 



Adjourned, H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



April 13, 1359. 



Present— Messrs. Robert L. Pell, Prof. Cyrus Mason, Stetson, Prof. 

 Hederick, Tillman, Seeley, Glarbanati, Y'eeder, Godwin, A. Nash, Has- 

 kell, Br. Levi Reuben, Butler, Breisach, John Johnson, Bruce, John W. 

 Chambers, <fec. — 30 members. 



Prof. Mason in the chair, Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



The Secretary stated the donation by the Hon. Charles F. Loosey, Con- 

 sul General of Austria, of additional numbers of the " Zeitschrift Des Qlls- 

 terreichischen Ingenieur-Veveines X Jahrgang," containing notices of Ame- 

 rican patents, &c., and the last Transactions of the Societe Imperiale et 

 Centrale D'Horticulture, Napoleon III, Protecteur. The Society com- 

 posed of eminent persons, nobles and others, with 11.2 corresponding socie- 

 ties, of which two are in the Americas, viz: "The American Institute," 

 and the " Smithsonian Institution." 



Mr. Lawrenson exhibited his patent for broadcasting seeds, by fans blow- 

 ing the seeds some thirty feet in all directions. 



