566 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



as the inventor of a cut-off, used principally on ocean steamers having en- 

 gines, in which steam is used expansively. 



Jordan L. Mott was born at Hempstead, L. I., in 1798. He is identified 

 with the early use of very small hard coal (formerly thrown away) as fuel 

 in cooking stoves, and has taken out many patents, chiefly for improve- 

 ments in the forms of stoves. He is the founder of the village of Mott Haven, 

 adjoining the city of New York on the north. 



Henry Burden and John Ericsson are the only two in this collection of 

 inventors who were not born in this country. They are both, however, 

 thoroughly identified with the progress of American mechanism. Mr. Bur- 

 den was born in Scotland in 1791, and has resided in America since 1819. 

 His most important inventions are the machine for making horseshoes; the 

 railway spike machine, and the eccentric squeezer for making iron blooms. 



Mr. Ericsson was born in Sweden in 1803. His most noted novelties are 

 his locomotive, made in England in 1829; his modifications of the screw 

 propeller and the caloric engine; and various improvements in iron-clad 

 vessels of war known as the monitor class. 



This engraving does not embrace all our great inventors of the present 

 day. It is hoped that similar works of art will follow, making familiar 

 the faces of those whose genius and perseverance have provided us with 

 labor-saving, time-saving and matter-saving machines, and who, by aug- 

 menting material improvements, have contributed vastly lo the advance- 

 ment of civilization. 



The Chairman then presented the following interesting scientific memo- 

 randa: 



Action of Compressed Oxygen Gas upon Iron. 



Dr. Frankland described before the London Chemical Society, Dec. Itth, 

 an accident arising while compressing oxygen gas with Natterer's appa- 

 ratus, which consists of a powerful force pump worked by a crank and fly- 

 wheel, an iron receiver fitted with a conical screw plug, and other joints 

 and connections of steel. The action of the pump had been maintained 

 until twenty-five atmospheres of oxygen had been accumulated within the 

 receiver, when it exploded, amid a shower of sparks such as aji-e seen when 

 iron or steel is burned in oxygen gas. On examining the fragments, which 

 fortunately did no personal injury, it was apparent that the whole interior 

 surface of the receiver had been blistered and coated with fused globules 

 of magnetic oxide of iron. The small tubular appertures tlnough the 

 screw-plug were widened four-fold, and half an inch of steel was burnt off 

 the massive head of the apparatus. It was estimated that the heat, de- 

 veloped by half of the' contained oxygen, uniting with the iron, would have 

 been sufficient to melt the cylinder, which would have been exploded by 

 the remaining pressure of the other half of the gas. It was evident that 

 the fine spray of the lubricating oil was very inflammable in an atmosphere 

 of compressed oxygen, which acted like tinder in causing the combustion 

 of the iron. 



A Prize Offered for 1866. 



The French academy has offered a prize of 20,000 francs for the be«t 

 treatise " On tha Reproduction of Bone," to be awarded in 1866. 



