386 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Ninth. The Polytechnic Association shall select, in advance, a subject 

 for discussion at each of its meetings, which subject shall be announced in 

 the call of meetings. 



Tenth. Written communications to the Association are to be read by the 

 secretary, unless objection is made; and if objected to, ■will be read, if it be 

 ordered by a majority of the members present. 



Eleventh. The Polytechnic Association will recommend what papers read 

 before them, or what part of other transactions they judge worthy of pub- 

 lication, to the committee of arts and sciences, by which the publication 

 may be ordered in its discretion. 



TiveJflh. No person attending the meetings of the Association shall speak 

 more than once on any one subject, nor shall occupy, in siich speech, more 

 than fifteen minutes, except by permission of the Association. 



Thirteenth. The chairman may invite any person to address the meeting 

 or to participate in the deliberations, but such person, not a member, shall 

 be announced as a visitor. 



Fourteenth. Topics presented for consideration, or the announcement of 

 a discovery or invention, improvement or novelty, or the exhibition of any 

 machine or part thereof, or any manufactnre or article, must be preceded 

 by a statement setting forth the point, in writing, to be deliberated upon. 



Fifteenth. Any person desiring to put on record any supposed or real 

 discovery in science, manufacture or arts, may address a communication to 

 the chairman of the Association, under seal and properlj' endorsed, which 

 shall be preserved in the archives of the American Institute as evidence 

 for the party depositing the same. 



Sixteenth. In all cases not provided for by the rules, Jefferson's Manual 

 shall be taken as a standard. 



Seventeenth. The otficial reports of the meetings of the Association shall 

 lie upon the desk of the recording secretary until 11 o'clock of the day 

 following the meetings, for the inspection of members, and such corrections 

 as are necessary before going to the public press. 



Eighteenth. The minutes of the previous meeting shall be read at the 

 opening in order for correction, unless otherwise dkected by the meeting. 



Nineteenth. No argument is allowed between members. Facts alone are 

 to be stated. 



Twentieth. All questions of order are decided, without appeal, by the 

 presiding oflBcer. 



American Institute Polytechnic Association, ) 

 May 1th, 1863. ) 



Chairman, S. D. Tillman, Esq. ; Secretary, John W. Chambers. 



Fires from Spontaneous Combustion. 



The Cliairman. — During the past week three fires have occurred, destroy- 

 ing property to the value of $175,000. The first was in the Herald oflBce, 

 which was speedily extinguished ; the second was Hay's Candle Factory, 

 and the third was the Erie Railroad Depot at Jersey City, These thi-ee 

 fires appear to have originated from the same cause. The one in the Herald 

 office was attributed to the oil rags in the oil room ; that in Hay's Candle 

 Factory to grease and wick, and that in the Erie Railroad Depot to the 

 waste used in cleaning the machinery becoming saturated with the oil. The 

 slow combining of the oxygen of the air with oil or fat was no doubt the 

 cause of these fires ; in other words, they resulted from spontaneous com- 

 bustion. Different substances vary in the temperature at which they com- 

 ■bine with oxygen ; some at the temperature of the air, others at a slight 



