Transactions of the American Institute. 



June 6, 1867. 



Prof. S. D. TiLLMAX in the chair; J. Wyatt Reid, Esq., Secretary 



The Chairman presented the followmg notes on new discoveries 

 and inventions: 



THE PROGRESS OF APPUED SCIENCE. 



Industrial exhibitions may be taken as the index of the extent 

 of the practical application of scientific principles. The Interna- 

 tional Fair at the Crystal Palace, London, 1851, displayed the pro- 

 ducts of not quite 14,000 exhibitors. That at Paris in 1855, 

 embraced 24,000 exhibitors. That at London in 1862, contained 

 29,000. At the present Exposition at Paris, there are no less than 

 45,000 exhibitors. 



INDIUM. 



Richter of Friburg, exhibits in the Paris Exposition, two per- 

 fectly pure ingots of the newly extracted metal indium, weighing 

 about five hundred grammes, and worth about 18,000 francs. 

 Indium is said to resemble cadmium in its chemical qualities; the 

 only marked difierence is, that the oxide of indium {indamat) is 

 insoluble in ammonia {thilan). Richter having no rival claimant — 

 he and Dr.' Reich being the discoverers of the metal — will receive a 

 gold medal for the exhibition of a new metal. 



DECOMPOSITION BY GASEOUS CURRENTS. 



M. Grennet, of France, has made the remarkable discovery that 

 certain bodies are decomposed by the simple passage of a current 

 of inert gas. For example, when a current of nitrogen, hydrogen, 

 or common air is sent through a solution of the carbonate of lime, 

 of baryta or of potash (calcmani, barmarit or kalema7ni), carbonic 

 acid^ff aret) is set free, while lime, or baryta, or potash is precipi- 

 tated. The gases will disengage sulphuretted hydrogen from the 

 sulphidrates of the alkaline sulphides. In like manner, sulphurous 

 acid gas may be disengaged from sulphide solutions, and acetic 

 acid from acetates. Oxides of nitrogen are eliminated from nitrates 

 at a temperature much lower than the temperature of decomposi- 

 tion. These salts emit acids very slowly in the same atmosphere, 

 and a rapid current is supposed to simply increase this tendency to 

 dissociation. 



PRODUCTION OF OXYGEN. 



M. Mallet has discovered that proto-chloride of copper {ciqM- 

 mad), has the power of absorbing from the air an atom of oxygen, 



