ASSOCIATIONS Foil T1IK ADVANCEMENT OP S< , (AMERICA*.) 37 



| Ilium S. 'i ; hfl Cliemistn \ Some 



and "A ' 'onvcniciit ArraiiL'cineiit 



r Filter where Air I'lv^im is available," 



il A. v. Schweinit/. ; " Note.- on Pinitc." " Note 

 oil tin- Chemical Composition ,,( Muck Soil from 



u," mill " ComiMisitii.ii of Crystalline- Artiti.-iu! 

 Calcium Phosphate,' li\ llancv W. Wiley ;" Meal 



. ati\c-," !> .1. Thomas ln\ is ; " Hctcrmiiia- 



: Phosphoric Acid in Presence of Iron and 

 Alumina." l>\ William 11. KIIIL' ; " Continuous li > -d 

 Apparatu- for di-till'iin: Water." by \V. M. Stinc ; 

 "Tin- Atomic Tlii-on." by Chin-nrc I.. Bp 

 "Imitation Cotu-es," by Guilford I.. S|icii<-cr and 

 Knin K. Kwcll ; " The Composition of Floriditc." l>y 

 llarvi-y W. Wiley an.) William II. King; " Tri -nitr'o 

 Toluene, s Substitute for Musk," by William II. Bet 

 man. 



A report of the Committee oa the Spelling and 

 Pronunciation of Chemical Terms was presented 



l>cfolV till-- Sertioll. 



I). Mechanical Science and Engineering. 

 The presiding officer of this section was Prof. 

 Tin unas Gray, who fills the chair of Dynamic En- 



fineering in the Rose Polytechnic Institute in 

 erre Miiuti'. 1ml. His address was a carefully 

 prepared and valuable discourse on "Problems 

 in Mathematical Science." It was quite tech- 

 nical in character, and dealt with the teachings 

 of mat In-mat ics and physics in their application 

 to engineering. He di>cussed the instruction in 

 manual-training schools, trade schools, and tech- 

 nical schools, and the objects sought to be at- 

 tained by training in such schools. Good re- 

 stilts followed the adoption of manual training 

 for boys and girls, but the idea of teaching a 

 trade in a trade school was deprecated. It could 

 be far better done in a workshop, where the act- 

 ual practice could be had by the learner. The 

 old idea of apprenticeship is better in every way. 

 He spoke warmly of the good results that have 

 followed higher education of every sort in tech- 

 nological colleges, and outlined the great bene- 

 fits that will accrue to mechanical science from 

 this source. The teachings of a more practical 

 character, both in mathematics and theoretical 

 dynamics, were advocated as desirable for tech- 

 nical colleges and similar institutions. Some of 

 the directions in which technical research should 

 be pushed, especially in the technical schools, re- 

 ferring chiefly to the properties of steam and its 

 behavior in steam engines, were indicated. Great 

 results from the direct combustion of fuel in the 

 engine cylinder itself, after the manner in which 

 it is accomplished in the gas engine, were pre- 

 dicted by him. In closing, the very great devel- 

 opment of electrical engineering was referred to, 

 especially in its application to street and other 

 motors and to the distribution of power. 



The following papers were read before the 

 section : 



" Economy produced by the Use of Water injected 

 as a Fine Spray into Air Compressors," " On a M- 1 h 

 d of holding Samples of Wood and Brick for Deter- 

 mination <>f Tensile Strength," "Note on the Effi- 

 ciency of the Screw Propeller," and " Relative Econo- 

 my of Compound and Triple Kxpansion Kmrines." by 

 James E. Denton:"On Experimental Uesults oli 

 tained with a New Form of Direct-Action Propeller," 

 by David P. Todd ; "The Govemm.-nt Timber 

 ' by Bcrnhard E. Fernow ; " The United States 

 Tests of American Woods, made at the Washington 

 University Testing Laboratory," by .lolm 1?. .b.lm- 

 son ; "On the Crushing of Short Primi of Homoge- 

 neous Material," by Charles L. Bouton; " < >n K\pan- 



hion Steam Calorimeter*,'' " Ti-nl of Klcctric Km 1 way 



Plant." and " < Ml the Power almorhed in the Cutting 



of Metal-," l>\ Thomas Ci ray ; ".Maximum Krror dui: 

 cling the IJadiation Correction of a Barru* 

 ' 



I'lmcrsal ( 'alorimeter." and "Kclutite Kcon-.m\ of 

 Carbonic Acid as the Working Fluid of llefrigt-rat- 

 ing Machines." lv\ D. s. J in -ol> us ; "On tlie Knfcicn- 



cv of the Steam Jacket* fit' the PaWtUckct I'lllilpillg 



Engine," and "On the Op|irtunit\ lor Mechanical 



:ch at the World's Fuir," by WlUina Kent. 



K. (leology and <;> ni/rnnky. This section was 



G-csided over by Prof. JotU .1. Stevenson, of the 

 Diversity of the City of New York, who spoke- 

 on "The Relations of the ('helming and ('atskill 

 on the Eastern Side of the Appalachian Ha.-in." 



He prefaced his address with some historical 

 notes respecting early studies of these groups, 

 especially referring to the surveys of Virginia, 

 IVimsylvania, and New York, which were con- 

 ducted during the years 1837 to 1841. He traced 

 the groups along the eastern outcrop from Ten- 

 nessee into New York, across southern and west- 

 ern Pennsylvania and eastward through north- 

 ern Pennsylvania again into New York. In this 

 way the continuity of the section was shown, and 

 the insignificance of the variations was insisted 

 upon strongly. An area in southeastern New 

 York and northeastern Pennsylvania in which 

 the Chemung group is almost without trace of 

 animal or vegetable life through the greater 

 part of the thickness was described. The ab- 

 sence of life was thought to be due not to fresh 

 water, but to turbidity of the water in a shallow 

 basin near the land. The facts that the hori- 

 zons of fish remains are much lower in the col- 

 umn than had been suppesed, and that the plant 

 remains come in like manner from the home 

 group, were thought to be of especial interest 

 and importance. 



His conclusions were : 



1. That the series, from the beginning of the Port- 

 age to the end of the Catekill, form but one period, 

 the Chemung, which should be divided into three 

 epochs : the Portage, the Chemmiir, and the Catskill. 



2. That the disappearance of animal and vegetable 

 life on so great a part of this area toward the close of 

 the period was due 1 simply to gradual extension of 

 conditions existing, perhaps, as early as the Hamilton 

 period in southeastern New York. 



8. That the deposits were not made in a closed sea, 

 but that the influx of great rivers, with their load of 

 debris, made conditions in the shallow basin such 

 that animal life could not exist. 



4. That in the pre-cnt state of our knowledge we 

 are not justified in including the Chemung period in 

 the carboniferous age. 



The following-named papers were read before 

 the section : 



"Source of Sunplv to Lateral and Medial Mo- 

 raines," by John T. Campbell; "New Meteoric Iron 

 from Ari/'oiia containing Diamonds," by A. K. Fix.te: 

 " Po^t-glacial Anticlinal Kidges near Kipk-y and 

 Caledonia. New York." by (irove K. Gilbert ; " Pur- 

 poses of Mountain Building and their Kelation.-hip 

 to the Earth's Constnu'tion." by Warren Ipham: 

 Notes on an Kxtinct Volcano at Montreal. Canada." 

 by Hcnrv I.ampard- "On a New Horizon of 

 K'i-hcs."'and "On the Cranial Churaetcrs of Equus 

 Kxcelsus Lcidy," by Edward D. Com; M On Prob- 

 lematic Organisms and the Preservation of Alg as 

 Fossils," and "On the Age of the Mount PK-asnnt, 

 Ohio, BedVby Joseph F. -lames: "Preliminary Kc- 

 port of Observations at the Deep Well near Wheeling, 

 \V. Ya.." by William Hallock "The Eurvka Shale 

 of Northern Arkansas," by Thomas C. Hopkins; 



