696 Transactions of the American Institute. 



did he dream that •within the short interval of three and a half 

 centuries the New World that he had discovered would be able to 

 defy the Old; that upon the waves which rocked the frail canoes, 

 iron-clads would fly the stars and stripes; that a vast nation of 

 C'hristian men should spring from the new soil and people the 

 desolate wastes; that the wilderness should become a garden, and 

 the swamps luxuriant cotton fields; that great cities should arise 

 npon the margin of her rivers; that the slave should be rendered 

 free, and that the electric spark should speak in the profound 

 depths of the Atlantic, and hold communication each minute with 

 the West! — that weary, distant West, to which for weeks and 

 weeks he had struggled on toward unknown shores, lost on a 

 boundless ocean, but trusting in a Divine guide, who watched over 

 the human instrument that steered onward on the grand path to 

 civilization. In the short period of three hundred and eighty 

 years, a small practical portion of the interval assigned to the exist- 

 ence of man upon our earth, what vast changes have occurred, not 

 «»nly in geographical discovery, but by its results. America has 

 become a giant, an irresistible power upon her own soil, separated 

 Irom Europe by an ocean that renders her secure from hostile 

 aggression. With every variety of climate from the frigid to the 

 torrid zone, with fertile soil, boundless forests, navigable rivers of 

 prodigious extent, and commodious ports, the future of that won- 

 derful country may be prognosticated by a comparison with the 

 past. The first steps of a young colony are slow and full of diffi- 

 culty; but if, in three hundred and eighty years, America has 

 attained her present high position from an utterly savage state, 

 what part will that vast continent assume in the history of the 

 world?" 



MOODTS CLOTHES FRAME. 

 Mr. Dudley Blanchard explained this improvment. i'his frame 

 consists of a square upright, to each side of which anns are 

 pivoted with their outer ends pivoted to smaller uprights, in such 

 a manner that, when they are raised in a vertical direction, the 

 branch uprights and arms are folded together close to the main 

 upright, so that when not in use it occupies but little room. 



THE OERNER STEAM BOILER. 

 Mr. Gerner explained the construction of his boiler, the peculiar- 

 ity of which consists in having the steam chamber within the boiler 

 kself, which is connected with a small steam drum on the top, so that 



