Proceedings of the Polttecenic Association. 815 



government. Many other instances of the use of the heton on a lare^e 

 scale were cited ; as, for instance, the sewerage systems of Melonge 

 and Odessa, the h'ghthouse at Port Said, and others. 



The material is made of the usual ingredients, lime, sand and 

 hydraulic cement ; tlie novelty of the invention consisting in the 

 mode of mixing and combining the constituents. This is done by 

 grinding them together in a mill of peculiar construction, and with a 

 much less proportion of water than is used in the preparation of ordi- 

 nary concrete ; also, in the mode of forming the monoliths by ramming 

 the material at intervals in such manner that it is thoroughly com- 

 pacted or agglomerated, and its strength very much increased. Speci- 

 mens of the material eighteen months old, and com.posed of four 

 parts sand, one part lime, and three-fourths of one part hydraulic 

 cement, were found to possess a crushing strength of upward of 520 

 kilogrammes per centimetre, or about 8,000 pounds per square inch. 

 It is proposed to use the new concrete not only for monolithic struc- 

 tures, and for pavements, ornamental and other portions of buildings, 

 etc., but also for railway sleepers and various similar purposes. 



The new process drew forth considerable discussion, and on account 

 of tiie cheapness of the materials employed, it was thought it might 

 be of great use in some parts of our country. 



Mr. Charles B. Boyle, of New York, read the following paper 



ON LUNAR FORMATIONS. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. — In presenting for your 

 consideration the Claims of a kindred world, I shall call your atten- 

 tion to facts and peculiarities in the structure of the moon's surface, 

 which appear to me to require a very different interpretation from 

 that hitherto placed upon them. I shall endeavor to show that the 

 lunar formations are but the mechanical results of forces developed 

 by the action of a fluid^'as- mobile as water. 



The facts I shall sustain by reference to the photographs of the 

 moon itself, as well as by the model, which, when compared with the 

 photographs, will be found to be a faithful transcript ; for, in no case 

 have I modeled my own observations unless they were amply sus- 

 tained by one or more of the various photographs in my posses- 

 sion. 



In preparing the model, I have availed m^^self of all the intelli- 

 gence which I could collect for a number of years past, amongst 

 which will be found the labors of all the most distinojuished obser- 



