824 Teansactions of the American Institute. 



Brick Machine. 



Specimens of brick were exhibited, made by tlie machine manu- 

 factured by Chambers & Co., of Philadelphia. A full description of 

 the machine Avas given, the prominent peculiarity of which is that a 

 continuous strip of clay of the exact width and depth of an ordinary 

 brick is pressed out and cut off in pieces eight inches by means of a 

 revolving knife. Over 50,000 bricks per day have been made with 

 one machine. A fine working model of this machine was exhibited 

 at the American Institute fair of 1865. 



The Chairman presented the following important scientific notes : 



The Bourbonze Lamp. 



In this new French burner a mixture of coal gas and air is forced 

 through a metallic plate containing minute perforations, and then 

 through a fine tissue of platinum wire. A great number of gaseous 

 jets are thus obtained which are lighted in the ordinary way. The 

 platinum Avire raised to a white heat gives out a light too intense for 

 the naked eye. The illumination thus produced is said to be equal to 

 the hydro-oxygen and lime light, while its cost, assuming that the 

 lamp is durable, is much less than that. 



MiNAEGENT. 



Tliis new alloy, which in color, tenacity, sound and specific gravity 

 resembles silver, is found by analysis to be composed of 1,000 parts of 

 copper, 700 of nickel, fifty of antimony, and ten of alimiinum. 



Starch in the Yolk of Eggs. 

 After the yolk has been treated with ether to separate the fjitty 

 matter, then with water, and finally with acetic acid, starch granules 

 appear under the microscope, which, on being subjected to chemical 

 testSy behave in the same manner vegetable starch does under the 

 same tests. 



Laa'A. 



M. Silvestri has analyzed lava from the last eruption of Vesuvius 

 and. finds the following constituents: Silica, 38.888; lime, 17.698; 

 almnina, 14:.127; soda, 10; potash, 1.19; protoxyd of iron, 12.696; 

 magnesia, 3.333; manganese, .01; .water, 2.065. The presence often 

 per cent of soda is quite remarkable. This lava, after being vitrified 

 by artificial fusion, has a specific gravity of 2.698 ; while that from the 

 last eruption of iEtna, which occurred in 1865, on being subjected to 



