AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 513 



grand balloon carriage, consisting of a gas receiver, two hundred and sev- 

 enty-three feet long, and twenty-eight in diameter in the centre, resembling 

 an immense cigar in its general form, and calculated to have an ascending 

 power equal to about fifteen tons. To this was suspended a car, sixty feet 

 long, to which was attached a steering apparatus, a pair of screw propellers, 

 revolving on either side near the centre of the car, and by means of a pair 

 of oscillating engines of twelve horse power. This machine was very nearly 

 completed and ready for inflation when the means of the enterprising inven- 

 tor gave out, and he was obliged to suspend operations, and fence in and 

 house hi-s balloon on the site upon which it was erected, where it remained 

 for more than a year, when a movement was made by H. L. Stewart and 

 others to get it into operation, and a plan was devised to secure the rental- 

 of the ferries between New York and Hoboken, with a view of raising, from 

 the increased travel during a number of days, a fund to carry the experi- 

 ment into complete efi"ect. On examination, the cigar-shaped balloon was 

 found to be seriously damaged by mildew, and entirely incapable of retain- 

 ing the gas — and the machine was dismantled and the enterprise abandoned. 

 The engines may be seen at Cornell's Iron Works, on Centre street, where 

 they, with a considerable portion of the machinery, are at present stored 

 and for sale. 



The veteran aeronaut of the present day is John Wise, whose celebrated 

 voyage with La Mountain in the balloon Atlantic, from St. Louis, twelve 

 hundred miles eastward, landing near Watertown, Jeiferson Co., N. Y,, is too 

 recent to need further mention. The widely-heralded enterprise of Mr. 

 Lowe, promising a voyage across the Atlantic in his monster balloon, or 

 air-ship, as his friends choose to term it, the City of New York, has not 

 yet been brought to a test, and some think, though I do not, that it was 

 never intended to be. 



Some unimportant debate followed the reading of Mr. Stewart's paper, 

 after which the Association adjourned to the following Thursday, having 

 selected " Clothing," in addition to " Head coverings," as the next regular 

 subject. 



Polytechnic Association of the American Institute, 



December 15, 1859. 



President Mason in the chair. Mr. John Johnson, Secretary pro tem. 



The minutes of last meeting having been read and approved, the com- 

 mittees appointed last evening were called upon to report, when Mr. John- 

 son handed in a report on " Steam Wagons." 



The subject of " Clothing" was then taken up, when the President made 

 some interesting remarks upon the various forms of clothing used for the 

 neck at different times. The Greeks and Romans appear to have left the 

 neck uncovered ; they appeared in the forum and on state occasions without 

 anything like our cravat or stock. This seems to have originated with the 

 Boldier, and it would be an interesting thing, to trace its rise, and thecause 

 [Am. Inst.] 33 



