AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 567 



Chairman — But it is best to have more water, for on an ave- 

 rage more steam and more uniformity in its heat are derived from 

 a full supply of water, because it becomes necessary to put in 

 cool water at frequent intervals where the first supply is small. 



Mr. Fisher had experimented on the foaming in boilers. 



All'. Creamer thougfit that great attention should be paid to the 

 safety valves which seldom are properly proportioned in rise and 

 efficiency to their bjilers. 



The club ordered the subject of " Steam Boilers '' continued at 

 the next meeting. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



January 14, 1857. 



Present — Messrs. Haswell, Prest. Pell, Leonard, Tillman, Dr. 

 Smith, Butler, Godwin and others — 24 in all. 



Mr. Haswell, the Chairman, presided. 



Mr. Meigs the Secretary remarked that our rules admit miscel- 

 laneous matter for the first hour, but the members may at any 

 time take up the regular subject or any other appropriate to the 

 club. That our plan is to bring before our clubs all that is new 

 and interesting in the world of knowledge. By steamers we 

 receive immediately all European and oriental discoveries. We 

 take now some lessons on iron ores. Thej^ have cost great labor. 

 We will lay them before us in our searches after iron in our great 

 country. 



IRON. 



It is desirable that all that is known of this noblest metal of 

 all given us and in profusion, by our Creator, should be made 

 known, if possible, to all men. As an aid to engineers, we have 

 thought fit to put into a narrow comprehensive space the various 

 ores of it, viz : 



1. Meteoric Iron. — Prof. Pallas mentions a mass which fell in 

 Siberia weighing 1,600 pounds. A mass fell in the Punjaub, India, 

 and was found red hot. It was by order of the Emperor forged 

 into a sabre, a dagger and a knife. The workmen found it too 

 little and added one- third part of common iron to it before it 

 would work well. Nickel is always a constituent of the meteoric 

 iron in small proportions. 



Bousingault analysed some masses at Santa Rosa, on the road 

 from Pamplona to Bogota, S. America. One mass of this meteoric 

 iron was found on the hill of Tocavita, about a quarter of a 



