PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION". 609 



inventor proposes to use the steam also to warm the cars. He 

 also adds a hook to the locomotive, so that the engineer can hook 

 on cars or release them at will. He asked for a committee 'to 

 investig-ate his inventions, 



Mr, Dibben said that a train moving at the rate of forty miles 

 an hour could not be stopped within sixty feet. The Creamer 

 brake, operating by a spring, was effective in stopping the train 

 as quickly as was compatible with safety. 



The President said that stopping a train moving forty miles 

 an hour within three hundred feet, was as much as could be 

 borne without the destruction of the train itself. This had been 

 ascertained by experiment upon the Hudson River Railroad, 



Mr, Dibben said that this corresponded with the experience of 

 other countries. 



Adjourned until Thursday evening March 14. 



American Institute, Polytechnic Association, ) 

 March 14, 1861. \ 



Professor Mason in the chair. 



PLOWING the prairies. 



Mr. Jesse Frye exhibited the model of a " steam horse of-all- 

 work," and a series of gang-plows, especially intended for plowing 

 the ■western prairies, which he exhibited at the meeting of the 

 Farmers' Club, upon the 11th inst. The principle of the plow is 

 intended to avoid both bottom and land-side pressures. The track 

 of the wheels is plowed up after they pass, leaving the whole sur- 

 face of the land perfectly light. By plowing from twenty to thirty- 

 four feet wide, the expense of plowing is to be very much reduced, 

 but three men being required to plow one hundred and sixty 

 acres per day. The subject was referred to a committee, con- 

 sisting of Messrs. Butler, Dibben and Johnson, 



RAILROAD AXLES, 



Mr. Sanderson exhibited a model of a bearing for machinery, 

 and especially for car-wheels, so formed that a single supply of 

 oil will last for an indefinite period. Cars may run thousands of 

 miles with one oiling. 



[Am. Inst.] MM 



