604 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Mr. Tillman remarked upon the article read this evening on 

 aluminum, that he believed that silicon bore the same relation to 

 aluminum, that carbon does to iron. 



The chairman announced the question for the next meeting to 

 be, " The best method of conducting steam from the boiler to the 

 piston." 



The club adjourned. H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



Jlf or c/i 11,1857. 

 Present — Messrs. Fisher, Montgomery, Tillman, Creamer, 

 Hedger, Butler, Storms, Dr. Turner, W. S. Salter, Godwin, and 

 others, twenty-eight in all. 



The regular Chairman, Alderman Haswell, being absent on 

 duty at the City Hall, Mr. Tillman was elected pro tern. 



Mr. Meigs, the Secretary, read the following article taken from 

 the London Artizan of February 1, 1857, viz : 



GAS. 



" Gas in many American towns, costs |15 a head of the popu- 

 lation; very few^ less than $10. A sum greatly beyond the cost in 

 England. Of thirty-six gas ivorks in America, the cost to the 

 consumer ranges from two dollars to seven dollars per 1,000 cubic 

 feet. The lowest charges are in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, 

 the highest in Auburn, in New- York. The Philadelphia works 

 are the largest in America, the length of main being 120 miles 

 and the annual gas 250 millions of cubic feet. The Manhattan 

 Gas Company in the city of New- York, have 170 miles of mains 

 and make 300 millions of cubic feet per annum. Boston fifty 

 miles of main and 135,000,000 of gas per annum. Most of the 

 American gas works charge from three dollars to nearly five dol- 

 lars a 1,000 feet. The prices of labor in their gas works is exces- 

 sive as well as the materials. A ton of coal yields about fifty- 

 tw^o bushels of coke, and requires twenty-seven bushels to car- 

 bonise it. A great contrast to tlie London works, where a ton of 

 coal produces thirty-six bushels of coke, and requires but twelve 

 bushels to carbonise it. The commonest labor in the retort house 

 is about $1,25 per day. The cost, in America, of a public lamp 

 is from about $16 to $30 per annum. In London, from $10 to 

 $23. In Auburn, New- York, they make their gas from rosin. 

 Labor in America costs about twenty-seven cents per thousand 

 cubic feet of gas. In London from eleven to fifteen cents. 



Mr. Newell of Boston, exhibited his new patent safety 

 lamp for burning fluids, etc., made on the plan of Sir Hum- 



