576 TRANSACTIONS Or THE 



brandy. One gallon will make two of brandy, by adding to it a gallon of 

 water, with a little tincture of kino to give flavor, fusel oil for aroma and 

 burnt sugar for color. This will be as good as real brandy, or a little 

 better. 



There are two ways to correct the evil of adulteration — by having 

 inspectors and by informing the public. This club can oe of much influ- 

 ence. In visiting a saleratus factory recently, I found the people to under- 

 stand saleratus to be supercarbonate of soda. It formerly was supercar- 

 bonate of potash. The men lived and worked in a cloud of saleratus dust, 

 but yet enjoyed excellent health. I concluded that the action of the soda 

 was difi'erent from that of the potash. Alkalies are generally injurious, 

 preventing the action of the blood upon the fibrin of the muscles. Salera- 

 tus is used with cream of tartar, to make bread. lu England tliey use 

 tartaric acid with it. These leave tartrate of soda and potash in the bread. 

 Saleratus is not genuine, and yet the manufacturers are innocent. They 

 sell salsoda or carbonate of soda in its place, and this gives only half as 

 much carbonic acid, which is the valuable ingredient, and it takes up six- 

 ty-two per cent, of water. 



Mr. Smith called attention to Blanchard's mill and his theory of working 

 flour. 



Mr. Fisher gave an account of a method of making bread, which he saw 

 at the Jersey City Locomotive Works. Common soda water was forced, 

 under pressure, into the flour, and the whole was worked into a dough by a 

 screw propeller and was ultimately discharged through a hole where it 

 expanded as the cylinder came out. This was cut into lengths suitable to 

 form loaves, which were then baked in the usual way. The bread was light 

 and apparently good. 



The Association agljourned, after appointing the same subject for the 

 next evening's discussion. 



Polytechnic Association op the American Institute, ) 



March Ibth, 1860. ( 



Prof. Mason in the chair. Mr. John Johnson, Secretary. 



On calling the meeting to order, Professor Mason invited Mr, L. M. 

 Hills to come forward and read a paper explanatory of the system of warm- 

 ing and ventilation by means of low pressure steam, practised by the New 

 York Steam Heating Company, of No. 442 Broadway. The scope of the 

 paper seemed to be, first, to demonstrate the entire sufiiciency of low pres- 

 sure steam to warm, in an agreeable, safe and economical manner, buildings 

 of all kinds ; second, to prove that the form of apparatus employed by the 

 Steam Heating Company is the best form yet devised; third, to contrast 

 steam heating with hot air heating, on sanitary grounds. The positions 

 taken by Mr, Hills were well sustained. 



