PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 427 



American Institute Polyteciixic Association, ) 

 June ISth, 1863. } 



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

 Mr. J. K. Fisher read an extract from an English journal, giving an 

 account of the trial of a new traction engine built in England. The 

 engine weighed eight tons, and ran on a common road at the rate of eight 

 miles an hour, carrying twenty-two tons altogether, including the weight 

 of the engine. 



Street Sweeping Machine. 



Dr. J. B. Rich read a description of Middleton's new street cleaning 

 machine, which was tried on Broadway. It consists of a cylinder ten feet 

 in length, upon which are securely fastened seventy-four brush brooms, 

 each three feet in length, which run transversely under the body of the 

 machine, which is simply a slight frame work resting upon four wheels. 

 The brooms are attached to the cylinder at an angle of forty-five degrees, 

 so that as it revolves a clean sweep of nine feet is made at one movement, 

 and the dirt is thrown up in a winrow at the side of the street. The 

 motive power is conveyed from tlie axletrec to the cylinder by two cog 

 wheels. By a simple arrangement of a lever and two screws at the top of 

 the machine, the brooms are raised or depressed almost in an instant, and 

 the machins works itself in and out of gear. It is, estimated that one of 

 these machines will do the work of 300 men, and do it better than by 

 hand. 



Fast Steamboat. 



Dr. Rich also read a statement of the fastest steamboat time on record, 

 giving an account of the speed of the Hudson River steamboat Mary 

 Powell, having made the run between this city and Poughkeepsie, on Fri- 

 day, June 12, in three hours and forty-two minutes. Leaving here at half- 

 past three o'clock p. >i., she reached Poughkeepsie at twelve minutes past 

 seven, deducting thirty-five minutes consumed at landings and five minutes 

 lost in getting into the stream on starting, and the actual running time for 

 the seventy-five miles is three hours and two minutes, a feat unprecedented 

 in the annals of Hudson River steamboating, which has always far 

 exceeded any time made on the waters of the old world. 



Mr. Dibben. — The Mary Powell was built the year before last, and her 

 engines were made by Fletcher & Harrison. There is nothing peculiar 

 about her, except that her engines are well made and her machinery through- 

 out has been carefully constructed. I have been with her two or three 

 trips, and there is no doubt but she is a fast boat. But twenty-four miles 

 and some fractions of a mile an hour, have been made by some two or 

 three boats on the Hudson river. There is no mention, in the case of the 

 Mary Powell, whether the wind and tide were in her favor, which would 

 make a difference of some two knots an hour in her speed. 



Experiments with Steam. 



Dr. "Warren Rowell. — As one of the committee appointed a few evenings 

 ago, to consult with the commissioners appointed by the Navy Department 

 to conduct a set of experiments in relation to the utility of using steam 



