576 Transactions of the American Institute. 



LIFE-SA VING RAFT. 

 Mr. John Wright exhibited a model of his apparatus for saving 

 life in ease of shipwreck. Its peculiarity consists in its adapta- 

 bility to being put in a small space on shipboard. The buoys can 

 be made of cork, covered with canvas, around which is placed the 

 folding deck. Eight of these folding decks can be placed in the 

 space of an ordinary ship's boat. It is also very cheap. It can be 

 built for about one hundred and fifty dollars. The lowest price 

 of an ordinary life-raft is $550, and even this kind cannot be 

 stowed away when not in use. Life-rafts, to accommodate an emi- 

 grant ship of twelve hundred passengers, would cover the whole 

 deck, for at least forty of them would be necessary; whereas, this 

 folding-deck can be rolled into a small compass, and the buoys 

 stowed in the most convenient places. 



NEW METHOD OF MAKING OVAL FRAMES. 



Dr. Warren Rowell exhibited specimens of Mr. John Sperry's 

 oval picture frames, and explained their mode of construction. 

 The wood is sliced up in veneers and glued together, and shaped 

 in an iron mould. The ends are sawed off, and each layer meeting 

 in the center of the other, thus lapping over the jointed part. The 

 economy by this method is that the lumber to make these frames 

 would, by the old process, cost ten dollars, while by this method it 

 would be only four, and the same quantity of lumber will make twice 

 the number of frames. The lumber is shaved off from the jjreen 

 log, and thus seasoned in three or four days, and put into the frames. 



Mr. Dudley Blauchard stated that there was a waste of nearly 

 twenty-five per cent in the usual way of sawing a log into one-inch 

 boards, and these boards into shorter lengths, required in small 

 work like picture frames. 



GYPSUM OF NOVA SCOTIA. 

 Dr. L. Feuchtwanger exhibited specimens of gypsum from Nova 

 Scotia, and made some general remarks on this mineral and its 

 geological position. According to Sir W. E. Logan, it is found 

 extensively in Canada, especially in the Onondaga formation, 

 which is the upper silurian. It is interstratified with dolomite 

 and dolomitic marls. The gj^psum formations extend along North- 

 western New York, and from Niagara to Lake Huron, the most 

 extensive beds being on Grand river, in Michigan, below the village 

 of Cayuga. Large beds exist at Cayuga, in the State of New 



