14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Report of the Committee on J. Wyatt Reid's Plans and 

 Models, illustrating his Mode of Constructing Forts and 

 Stationary Defences. 



The plans and models exhibited to your committee by Mr. J. 

 "Wyatt Reid, illustrate his mode of constructing forts and station- 

 ary defences, which consists essentially in the substitution of cast 

 iron blocks for stone and brick. The model blocks of vv^ood shown 

 to your committee are about the size intended to be used. They are 

 cubes of nearly two feet, and, if made of iron, would weigh about 

 one ton each. The blocks have corresponding elevations and depres- 

 sions of their surfaces, so that the elevations of one block will fit 

 into the depressions of another. "When laid in place they overlap 

 each other, so that one block has a bearing on several others. It is 

 intended to make the surfaces compact by the use of bitumen. 



Walls constructed on the plan of Mr. Reid would be vastly 

 stronger than those of brick or stone, but the brittleness of cast iron 

 is such, that repeated blows would chip off the corners and edges 

 of these blocks ; where this action would be arrested must be decided 

 by experiment. 



A correct estimate of the power of resistance in these blocks, can 

 only be made by repeated trials on an extended scale. 



Your committee cannot, therefore, form an opinion as to the value 

 of the alleged improvement, but they would not hesitate to recom- 

 mend that targets be constructed of blocks as proposed by Mr. Reid, 

 and tested by the General Government. 



Respectfully submitted. JOHN D. WARD, 



JOSEPH DIXON, 

 SAM'L D. TILLMAN, 

 JAMES L. JACKSON, 



New York, January 7, 1863. Committee. 



Report of the Co:mmittee on Warren Rowell's Improvement 

 ON THE Reciprocating Piston Steam Engine. 



The mechanical arrangement shown to your committee by Mr. 

 Warren Rowell, is claimed to be an improvement in the reciprocating 

 piston steam engine. Mr. Rowell assumes that there is a loss of 

 power in the application of steam to the piston during the first quar- 

 ter of the stroke. To obviate this, he has constructed a cylinder 

 with double heads ; the inner two are movable, and each is so 

 arranged as to move with the piston through about one-quarter of 

 the stroke, when it stops, and the steam then enters between it and 

 the piston, by which means the steam required to fill that portion of 



