PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 377 



^j-ears, and I think the society will earn some credit to itself by introducing 

 this lamp to the public. It is a little article, but of very wide application. 

 It will certainly be a convenient article in every household, and in many 

 manufacturing operations it will be useful. I think that I shall find it of 

 service in the laboratory. It will be useful, if we may employ the word 

 useful in this application, wherever spirits are dispensed. I think if it 

 was properly presented to the authorities it would be adopted at once in 

 every hospital in the army. 



Mr. Tillman. — The evaporation of water by passing a chimney or flue 

 through the vessel is very old, and I suppose that all there is new in this 

 is the adaptation of the principle to lamps. 



Mr. Churchill. — It seems to me that unless the cup is set over the top of 

 the chimney, as proposed in some cases by the inventor, a considerable 

 portion of the caloric will be lost. 



Fuel in the Arts. 



The Chairman having called the regular subject of the evening, "Fuel 

 in the Arts," the discussion of this was renewed. 



Dr. Stevens. — There has been no furnace yet constructed that will burn 

 properly all kinds of coal. On the Ohio river it is found that a furnace 

 suitable for burning the bituminous coal of one region is not adapted to 

 that which is found in other localities. An entirely different system is 

 required for burning anthracite, from that which is suited to bituminous 

 coal. Anthracite coal after it is once on fire should never be disturbed. 

 At my house after trying different plans I adopted the system of kindling 

 the fire in the fall and keeping it constantly burning till spring, making no 

 more disturbance of the fire than was necessarily incidental to replenishing 

 with coal and removing the ashes. Bituminous coal, on the other hand, 

 should be frequently stirred. 



Mr. Veeder. — I desire to see the inventive talent of the country directed 

 to some plan for burning the heavy rock oils, in their crude state, just as 

 they come from the ground. The refined kerosene oil, such as is burning 

 in this lamp, is worth about forty cents per gallon, but the crude oil has 

 been sold in this market at ten cents per gallon. I believe that if the 

 minds of inventors are directed to the matter we shall have some plan 

 devised for burning the crude oil so perfectly that the great expense of 

 refining will be dispensed with. 



Mr. Tillman. — From the minutes, I infer that this society indorsed, at the 

 last meeting, the furnace invented by Mr. Siemens, This furnace merely 

 heats the air for the blast, a very old device. That there is a saving ot 

 fuel over other hot blast furnaces amounting to fifty per cent., I do not 

 believe. If you turn carbon into carbonic acid gas you produce all of the 

 heat which the carbon and oxygen will yield. Mr. Siemens first forms car- 

 bonic oxyd, and then carries this gas off to another part of the apparatus 

 and there burns it, producing carbonic acid; but he generates no more 

 heat than he would by direct combustion to carbonic acid in the first place. 

 Can-ying about his substances through pipes and flues will not get any 

 more heat out of them. 



Mv. Fisher. — It seems to me best to get at facts in regard to what has 



