216 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The preparations of milk that have heretofore and now are 

 made, have all (with the exception of the article under notice,) 

 been subject to one radical defect, viz : That they will not 

 keep sweet a single day, unless hermetically sealed from the air, 

 a condition difficult and expensive to* obtain, and inconvenient, 

 inasmuch as when the can is opened it must be used immediately, 

 otherwise it will spoil as quick or quicker than ordinary milk. 

 Even Gale Borden, the veteran preserver of beef, after long ex- 

 periment, has only been able to produce a pasty substance in 

 which the work of decomposition commences the moment the air 

 reaches it; whereas the " dry solidified milk" will keej? perfectly 

 sweet for any length of time, in any climate, and under any cir- 

 cumstances where refined sugar will keep. 



[A bronze medal awarded. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MANUFACTURES, 

 SCIENCE AND ARTS, OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Report on Sherwood's Self-Acting Feeding Apparatus, to he used 

 2ipon Machines for making Cut-J\^ails. 



First. That the apparatus exhibited was invented by Mr. J. P. 

 Sherwood, of Fort Edward, in Washington county, N. Y.j and is 

 the first and only specimen of it which has yet been made. 



Second. It is applied to a iiachine originally built to be fed by 

 hand, and of a form which is in common use in nail manufacto- 

 ries. One of the characteristics of the apparatus being, that it is 

 applicable to any kind of nail machine, without changing its form 

 or mode of operation; simply taking the place of the man or boy 

 hitherto required to perform the same work in a less perfect 

 manner. 



Third. It is claimed, that with this apparatus attached, the 

 machines may be worked faster than they can be when fed by 

 hand, and the quantity of nails made by each machine increased 

 in the proportion of nine to seven. 



Fourth. It is also claimed, that with this apparatus attached, 

 one person can attend several machines, instead of being confined 

 to a single one, as is the case in the present practice of hand feed- 



