PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 655 



A New Voltaic Pile. 



The peculiarity of this new invention of Maistre Fils is the employment 

 of iron instead of zinc, and in the arrangement of the charcoal or copper 

 discs, which are circular, and placed on a spindle, as they revolve, one-third 

 of their surface is covered with the liquid in the cups. The exciting liquid, 

 is water containing one per cent, of nitric acid. 



New Plan for Illumination. 



M. Soubra has applied the principle of downward draft to a light by 

 which the flame is inverted. This is accomplished by means of a glass 

 syphon having its open ends turned npward. The longer branch is at first 

 heated, and the flame, which has its base at the top of the shorter branch, 

 is drawn downward, the gases of combustion pass around the curve and 

 upward through the longer branch, which is consequently kept hot, and the 

 draft is thus maintained. The only advantage of this arrangement is in 

 having all the attachments above the flame, so as not to cast a shadow 

 below. 



Paper Boilers. 



M. Terreil has reported to the Paris Chemical Society curious facts re- 

 garding paper subjected to a very high heat upon one side when water 

 is placed on the other. Paper being a slow conductor of heat, there is in 

 reality an osmotic process carried on, by which water, containing metaUix} 

 salts, is passed through, and the salts are reduced by the flame. 



In relation to the item on the manufacture of sulphur, Mr. Enos Stevens 

 stated that Italy was the source of most of the sulphur used in this country. 

 It was imported from Sicily as ballast in vessels laden with oranges. 



■ Mr. L. B. Page expressed the opinion that Canada petroleum would be 

 the source of considerable sulphur. He had obtained half a barrel of sul- 

 phur from 130 barrels of Canada rock oil. 



The selected subject for discussion was then taken up. 



The use of the Vapor of Water with Fuel. 



Mr. T. D. Stetson opened the debate by saying the subject had already 

 called forth considerable speculation. We have instances of the practical 

 value of burning water with other materials, in the case of burning wet 

 sugar cane or bagasse, and wet tan bark and wet saw dust, in a furnace 

 especially adapted to that purpose. In these cases the water performs the 

 simple function of changing the mechanical character of the fuel. So also 

 in the case of burning wet ashes. Now these are the cases of the burning 

 of water sufficient to establish the fact, and the utility arising from this 

 mode he considered, was mainly due to the mechanical effect produced by 

 the water in the stirring and mixing of the gases. 



We now come to the subject of decomposing water. When water is 

 boiled we make steam, and if the steam is again and farther heated, we 

 have "super-heated steam;" but simply heating the water does not decom- 

 pose it into its original elements. This can, however, be done by passing 

 steam through a red hot iron pipe, when the oxygen of the water will unite 



