388 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. Fisher. — Rather more than five feet, I should judge. 



The Secretary. — I measured it. 



Mr. Fisher. — A weight of 200 pounds was allowed to fall upon the mass 

 a great number of times without producing any effect except making a 

 dent. The height from which the weight fell, I should think, was some 

 fifty feet. 



Mr. Reid. — Sixty feet. 



Mr. Jas. Cregan, a machinist from the Novelty Works, presented, through 

 the Secretary, a novel construction of callipers for measuring mechanical 

 work. Mr. C. had introduced it with success as a more accurate instru- 

 ment than the ordinary ones. 



Mr. Henry J. Callo, of Jersey City, read a statement of the testimony 

 relating to the explosion of a locomotive at the Long dock this week. The 

 strength was estimated equal to 240 pounds per square inch. Tliere was 

 reason to suppose that the pressure was very high, but no means existed 

 for ascertaining exactly the pressure. 



Mr. Tagliabue made an exhibition of his apparatus for testing the explo- 

 sive character of coal oil. 



Mr. Brace said the instrument was likely to be a very useful one. Oil 

 which may be heated to 120*^ or higher before flashing is safe, below that 

 point is considered dangerous. I manufactured coal oil before the rock oils 

 came into use, and on the discovery of petroleum, I removed my operations 

 to the valley of the Kanawha. An old well had been sunk in that vallej' 

 twenty years ago for salt, and a spring of oil was struck and thousands of 

 barrels ran to waste. After the present excitement in relation to peti-oleum 

 commenced, that old well was cleaned out, but the oil had ceased to flow. 

 On the other hand, eighteen years ago, in boring for salt, a reservoir of 

 gas was struck, when the drill and rods, weighing 2,400 pounds, were 

 thrown out like a ramrod from a gun, and that gas has been blowing ever 

 since. A gasometer has been ert^ctod and the gas is used for boiling the 

 salt. The salt water and gas both come from the same hole, and 800 bar- 

 rels of salt are made per day; the gas being sufficient to boil half of this 

 amount. 



!Mr. Page. — Xo fire has ever been occasioned in the country by refined 

 petroleum. We have had fires from crude petroleum, but we shall not 

 have these any more. The fires have been occasioned by the light oils, and 

 now the oil is exposed at the wells in shallow tanks until these light oils 

 are evaporated. I recently liad an order for 500 barrels of light petroleum 

 oils, and I was unable to fill the order in this city. This instrument of Mr, 

 G. Tagliabue was got up at the request of the heavy oil dealers to test 

 the presence of volatile oils, and we are satisfied that it accomplishes the 

 purpose. When the common council of Brooklyn had the matter imder 

 consideration of preparing an ordinance to obviate the great risk of keep- 

 ing these oils, I proposed to the committee to prohibit the importation into 

 the city of any oils under a specific gravity, but a few experiments showed 

 that this was no indication of comparative safet}'; for a very heavy oil 

 may have a small quantity of very volatile oil mingled with it, and its 

 specific gravity will be high, and yet the volatile oil will evaporate at tem- 

 peratures 80 low as to make the oil dangerous. The question is, at what 



