Polytechnic Association Proceedings. 9 51 



OSCILLATING STEAM ENGINE. 

 Mr. Francis Millward, of Cincinnati, exhibited a small oscillating 

 pivot steam engine. The cylinder was four inches diameter, and 

 the piston had four inches stroke. An improvement in the lap and 

 lead of the valve, and its great compactness, weighing only one 

 hundred and ninety-five pounds for a two-horse power, were its 

 chief merits. The cylinder vibrated the same as a pendulum. A 

 discussion on oscillating engines, and the vibrations of pendulums, 

 followed, in which Messrs. Emory, Fisher, and Drs. Bradley, Van- 

 derweyde and others took part. Adjourned. 



March 26, 1868, 



Prof. S. D. Tillman in the chair. 



The Chairman presented the following summary of scientific 

 news: 



CERIUM. 



This metal has lately been separated, by Wohler, from the double 

 chloride of cerium and potassium, by means of sodium. Formerly 

 it was prepared by subjecting pure protochloride of cerium to the 

 action either of potassium or sodium. Cerium is found in compa- 

 ratively rare minerals, and generally associated with the metals 

 lanthanum and didymium. Cerium tarnishes in air at ordinary 

 temperatures, and displaces hydrogen in boiling water. The pure 

 metal is therefore valueless, except as a reagent. It forms numer- 

 ojis oxides and salts, none of which have as yet been much used in 

 the arts. Cerium has a darker blue than lead, and is only about 

 one-half as heavy. 



PRESERVATION OF WINE. 



The discovery of Pasteur, of France, that wine heated to the 

 temperature of 60 degrees C. (140 degrees Fah.), will neither turn, 

 become diseased, nor deposit sediment, has been applied in prac- 

 tice at the Longworth Wine House, in Cincinnati, with decided suc- 

 cess. Major Anderson, the present proprietor of that establishment, 

 constr,ucted a heating chamber capable of holding 2,000 bottles of 

 wine. Some of the wine heated was afterward exposed to the sun 

 for four weeks, and only became more clear; while other wine of 

 the same kind, not heated by similar exposure, showed traces 



