Reports of Co^lmittees. W 



MANUFACTURES AND MACHINERY. 



• The committee on manufactures and machinery beg leave to 

 report: 



That the division of labor resulting from the formation, under the 

 new by-laws, of several committees to take the place of the com- 

 mittee on " Manufactures, Arts and Sciences," has greatly lessened 

 the duties of members of standing committees. But few new inven- 

 tions, belonging to the class of manufactures and machinery, have 

 been referred to your committee for examination during the past 

 year. The small number of articles referred to it does not result 

 from any diminution in the number of new inventions, but from the 

 fact that inventors can more readily obtain action on their produc- 

 tions by bringing them before the Polj^technic Association, or by 

 placing them in the annual exhibitions of the Institute, side by 

 side with others of the same class, where their comparative merits 

 will be passed upon by disinterested judges. 



The Polytechnic Association, placed under the supervision of 

 your committee, was organized for the year by the reappointment 

 of Prof. S. D. Tillman, as chairman, and J. Wyatt Keid, as secre- 

 tary. The duties of the chair have been faithfully and satisfiic- 

 torily performed. No other business or engagement has, in a single 

 instance, prevented the chairman from attending its meetings. " He 

 has aimed to furnish at every session a summary of the progress 

 of invention and discovery, particularly in foreign countries. One 

 of the most important oljjects of the Polytechnic branch of the 

 Institute is to give every inventor, whether he is a member of 

 the Institute or not, the opportunity of bringing his device before 

 a body competent to point out all its merits and defects, and thus 

 to be a real service to the inventor, as well as to that portion of 

 the public who are interested in labor-savmg machines. A large 

 number of new and useful articles, and improved processes of manu- 

 facture, have been presented and explained before the Association 

 during the past year; and many of their proprietors have acknow- 

 ledged the benefits which they have derived from the criticisms 

 which have been elicited by such presentations. The free inter- 

 change of ideg^s at these meetings is the strongest argument in favor 

 of allowing strangers to participate in the debates. In some 

 instances, the dignity of the discussion may fall below the standard 

 of scientists, but the utterance of one new thought or suggestion, 

 couched in the homliest phrase, is of far more value than the 



