532 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



hy the first connection. The same experiments were tried on cattle, liogs, 

 &c., and the result was the same. It was also found, as far as my obter- 

 vation went, that the male first predominated in the ofispring. It was 

 accident that first brought these facts to the attention of those connected 

 with horses, after which these experiments were tried. 



Solar Rays. 



Volpicelli states in the Cosmos that lie caused solar rays to traverse an 

 oxy-h} drogen flame, the primitive atmosphere being dry, without augment- 

 ing in number or intensity of the telluric rays in the spectrum, and, there- 

 fore, he concludes these rays are not caused by the vapor of water. 



Steam Boilers. 



Mr. J. K. Fisher, as chairman of the committee to whom was referred the 

 subject of steam boilers, which are claimed to be nearly harmless in case 

 of bursting, with a view' to their adoption on passenger vessels, reports 

 that in their opinion there are several worthy of trial, two of which they 

 will name. The first in merit is that patented by Dance & Field. It is a 

 modification of the boiler of Goldsworthy Gurney. It was tried on a 

 steam-carriage in 1833. Gordon, in his Elemental Locomotion, says it 

 appeared not to make dry steam. But this probably was a fault of pro- 

 portion. The largest number was but two inches in diameter — a size now 

 known to be too small to separate the steam from the water. Had the 

 principal tubes been four or five inches, it is likely that the steam would 

 have been dry, and the power contained in each part would still have been 

 incapable of doing much harm. The plan consists of a group of boilers, 

 perhaps a hundred, each consisting of an upright two-inch tube about 

 three feet high, from which there is a return bend about three feet long of 

 one-inch tubing. These boilers are so arranged that the return bends inter- 

 lock, and form the fire-grate and fire-box roof, and the uprights form the 

 sides of the fire-box. Other uprights, without bends, form the front and 

 back of the fire-box. The pipes which connect these boilers to the main 

 steam and water pipes have orifices so small that, if a rupture occurs in 

 one, the power in tliat one is all that is instantl}' set free; and the power 

 from the others blows through two small holes, which act as safety valves, 

 and slowly liberate the power from the other parts. If the connections be 

 properly proportioned, the steam would' not blow open the furnace door and 

 throw out fire, as was done in the Isaac Newton, but would escape up the 

 chimney as fast as it issued from the boiler. 



The second plan is that of Mr. Francis Maceroni. It is said to have 

 worked efiSciently, and made dry steam on his steam-carriage. But from 

 the great extent of heating surface, and the speed of the carriage — although 

 great — it is doubtful whether it made steam as rapidlj as boilers invented 

 since that time. It consisted of eighty-one boilers, each four inches diame- 

 ter and three feet high, connected by small pipes to a steam-drum. The 

 outer rows are four feet long, the lower ends forming the walls of the fire- 

 box. The rest are placed vertically over the fire, the flame ascending 

 between them. It appears that the flame ascending between upright tubes 

 does not act so effectively as flame ascending within the tubes of the com 



