814 TitAysACTioxs of the American Institute. 



Mr. Emery stated that he had seen the experiment tried of melting 

 snow by throwing a jet of steam into a snow bank, the efiect was 

 trifling; hot water was then used, Avhich showed a marked difference 

 in favor of the water. 



Improved Money Deawer for Stores. 



Mr. . Zwahlen exhibited his improvement in desk and money 



drawers, the main feature of which was having the elects that the 

 draw slides on, placed on the inside of the drawer. So that the 

 drawer cannot be taken off by unscrewing the elects, as is sometimes 

 done. A number of secret springs were attached to this drawer, 

 which prevented it being opened except by those knowing their 

 location. 



New Artificial Stone. 



Mr. II. G. Hubert presented a number of specimens of Mr. F. 

 Coign it's method of monolithic concreting, and read a paper written 

 by Mr. Coignit, descriptive of certain new methods of preparing the 

 variety of concrete known as beto7i aggloinere, and recently intro- 

 duced in this country from France. Of this paper we make a short 

 abstract or condensation as follows : 



A company has been formed in France to work the invention, and 

 has a large establishment, covering about twenty acres of ground, at 

 St. Denis, near Paris. Here are manufactured from the heto7i?dl the 

 various forms of stony material required in architecture, engineering, 

 the decorative arts, etc. As specimens of the capabilities of the 

 material, the company have constructed on their grounds a mono- 

 lithic arch, having an opening of two hundred feet, with only about 

 one yard of transverse section ; also a five story building ; also a 

 monolith. It has been very extensively adopted in various public 

 works in France ; among others, in the monumental abutment walls 

 of some of the boulevards ; in the great collecting sewer of Paris, 

 Avhich is simply a huge pipe 1,800 feet in length, and nine feet 

 by twelve internal dimensions ; also, the branch sewers, having 

 an aggregate length of ten miles ; in the aqueduct of La Yaune, 

 requiring upward of 5,000 yards of arches, 18,000 yards of tunnel- 

 ing, bridges of 100 feet span, and similar engineering works, the 

 whole of which, when completed, will constitute a continuous and 

 unbroken structure, thirty-eight miles long, of the heton agglomere — 

 the latter having been substituted in the construction of some of the 

 bridges for iron, the material originally proposed for them by the 



