588 transactions of the 



Polytechnic Association of the American Instttttte, 



March 2^th, 1860. 



Professor Mason, Chairman. No secretary. 



During the miscellaneous business hour, Mr. Merchant, of Boston, 

 exhibited a filter formed of unoxydizable wire, corrugated and packed 

 tight, so as to allow no solid particle to pass through. Messrs. Haskell 

 and Garvey were appointed a committee to examine it. 



Mr. Bogart, of the Metropolitan Gas-burner and Register Co., 592 

 Broadway, exhibited their patent burner for regulating the pressure and 

 consumption of gas, at the very outlet. He performed quite a number of 

 experiments, in which the value of this burner was contrasted with that 

 of other ones. 



Messrs. Seeley, Hedrick, and Garvey were appointed to examine the 

 burner at leisure, and make a full report for publication. 



Mr. W. J. Demarest exhibited some journal boxes, with a new style of 

 friction rollers, which, he claims, give a great result in lessening friction. 

 Major Serrell and Mr. Dibbin were appointed a committee to examine 

 them. 



The Chairman then introduced the subject of the evening, by stating 

 that speakers must confine themselves directly to the " Carrying of freight 

 and passengers to and from New York," because the great interest elicited 

 by Mr. Bogart's experiments had led to devoting more than twice the 

 usual time to miscellaneous business. He then read the following paper : 



The growth of New York has always been measured by the extent of 

 the interior for which it furnished a market. While this market was 

 reached only by sails on the rivers, and the rivers received their freight 

 only over common roads, the city was two hundred years in gaining a 

 population of about sixty thousand. 



The city received its first impulse of prosperity when steamboats appeared 

 in the rivers, in 1808 ; but this was very small when compared with the 

 second impulse received from the opening of the canals, in 1824. 



The lands, bordering on the canals and lakes, were brought suddenly 

 into fair comparison with the lands along the rivers, and as suddenly 

 covered by a dense population. And this growth was, at all times, a 

 measure of the growth of New York. The canals raised New York to the 

 position of the Empire City of the Empire State. 



As compared with the other cities of the sea-board, this city held a pre- 

 eminence, during the period of exclusive canal movement, which she ia 

 not likely to maintain under the movement by railroads. The borders of 

 the canals and lakes were all our own. But, in comparison with her for- 

 mer self, our city has been made incomparably more prosperous by the 

 conveyance of persons and property on raih-oads. 



That the railroad is our best mode of conveyance, for persons and pro- 

 perty, to the city of New York, is conceded, except as to the gross and 

 cheap products of the forest, the quarry and the mine. If the question, 

 concerning the carriage of farm products, is still an open question as 



