AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 589 



Date lifting and falling of a vessel in dock, by tide, yield a power 

 of any worth. 



The Cliairman announced the regular subject, (viz :) " Steam," 

 and " the Construction of Steam Boilers." 



Mr. Wm. Mt. Slorm read the following paper : 

 THE CHEMISTRY OF STEAM. 



We must, to render the investigation of tliis subject of any 

 value or avail, first bring to a focus what light we may upon tlie 

 darkest points of our subject in our efforts to advance in the 

 knowledge of any general law or laws to be observed in the gen- 

 era/ construction of steam boilers; for, as to the rest, we need 

 little further enlightenment to enable us to draw clear and defi- 

 nite lines for the boundaries of our subject. 



Of practical every day facts and effects, w^e have a large capital; 

 while of the fundamental causes, which are the keys to unlock 

 the secret of the existence of many of those facts and effects, we 

 labor under a greater shade of ignorance in what most concerns 

 us than almost any other class of professionists. This, however 

 denied, is as true as it is mortifying. 



In direct return to our subject : we must bear in mind that it 

 is not in itself thdii the steam boiler interests us, for it is only an 

 instrument we employ, as a " necessary evil " in a sense, to ac- 

 complish the only end we have in view-, viz : the cheap and 

 rapid generation, and ready and safe control of steam as a motive 

 agent, — leaving out of consideration its importance as a chemical 

 agent to the artizan as contra-distinguished from the mechanic. 

 The apj)lication of steam relates to the steam engine, not properly 

 to the boiler, and Avould be merely incidental to the present 

 subject. 



The chemist w^ould scarcely be so bold, not to say absurd, as to 

 design an apparatus for forming a given neutral salt, without first 

 making himself master of the laws governing the affinity of the 

 alkali, and the acid that combined to form it, and had learned 

 the chemical equivalents of each; in other words, until he had 

 analyzed it. Let us then at least attempt to analyze steam be- 

 fore we assume to decide what should or should not be fixed 

 conditions in the general construction of steam boilers. 



Therefore, it is indispensable that we consider as preliminary 

 the question : what is steam? Strange as it may seem, it is a 

 question few engineers have asked themselves. Even the more 

 able minds in that field have devoted their attention too exclu- 

 siv^ely to its dynamics, ignoring or not appreciating, and not appre- 

 ciating because not suflS.ciently investigating, its chemistry. 



