2i 8 A HISTORY OF 



On the 1 5th of May 1783, Abraham Wilkinson 

 was elected Secretary in the room of Michael Dally, 

 deceased. 



Two years later Sir William Gleadowe Newcomen l 

 was elected treasurer of the Society in the room of 

 Mr. Thomas St. George, deceased. At this period, 

 the meetings appear to have been very badly attended, 

 sometimes only five or six members being present, 

 and a vice-president rarely occupying the chair. 



The Society had before it on many occasions the 

 case of John Grahl, a native of Saxony, who claimed 

 some recognition of a process by which cut glass was 

 gilt, so as to resemble burnished gold ; and at length, 

 in 1785, he was granted 35 guineas. Mr. Grahl was 

 noted as having communicated to the committee all 

 the secrets he possessed in this art. Richard Hand 

 was granted 15 guineas, but declined to furnish the 

 recipe for making copal varnish, a necessary ingredient 

 in his mode of gilding ; which, however, he subse- 

 quently disclosed. 



The net sum of 2425, out of moneys granted 

 by Parliament during the session of 1785, was appro- 

 priated as follows : 



Irish Woollen Warehouse 

 Irish Silk Warehouse .... 

 Encouragement of Silk Manufacture . 

 Finishing Woollen Goods .... 

 Importation of Oak Bark .... 

 Encouragement of the Dyeing Business 

 Drawing Schools 



Lord Charlemont having laid before the Society an 

 account of a piece of mechanism whereby, it was 



1 Newcomen's bank, originally in Mary's Abbey, was removed 

 in 1781 to a new edifice in Castle street, planned by Thomas Ivory. 

 It is now used as offices by the corporation. 



