328 iiEPORT~1869. 



the gi-eat adyantage of oft'ering means for the investment of sayings in the mode 

 most consonant with their habits, and in ahnost the only way within their reach, 

 it seems liighly expedient, even regardless of other economic considerations of a 

 conllicting character, that facilities should he alforded for the purchase of lots of 

 land of reasonable size, capable of being cultivated by the proprietors themselves, 

 that any laud now held by corporate or public bodies should be appropriated for 

 that purpose, and that in each estate, divided into large holdings, a limited num- 

 ber of small holdings, varying in extent from 30 to 100 acres, should be set aside, 

 to ser\-e as stepping-stones for the labourer to rise to the position of a farmer. 



15. That it is important that the agricultural statistics published by the Board 

 of Trade should be extended, so as to show the number and extent of land-pro- 

 prietors, the number and acreage of farm-holdings, tlie wages of agricultural la- 

 boiu'ers, and, as far as can be ascertained, the produce of the soil. 



0)1 certain Economical Iinprovements in ohtaining Motive Poiver. 

 By Richard Eaton. 



Referring to the fact that work and heat are now generally admitted to be con- 

 vertible terms, and showing that tlie steam-engine in its most improved state is 

 not able to develope into useful work much more than one-tenth of the mechanical 

 power due to the combustion of coal, the paper brought out the fact that whilst 

 2218 heat-units would be the cost of obtaining 150 cubic feet of air at 60 lbs. pres- 

 sure, to produce the same volume of steam at this pressure would require 29,350 

 heat-imits. The improvements forming the subject of the paper were invented and 

 patented by INlr. George Warsop, of Nottingham, with the assistance of the author 

 of the paper. 



Cold air is taken in by an air-pump which is worked by an ordinary steam-engine, 

 and the air is forced on, in its compressed state, through an air-pipe, past such 

 parts of the flues and funnel as contain waste heat or gases, such waste heat being 

 thus taken up by the air, which finally passes, at a temperature of about 600° Fahr., 

 by a self-acting- clack valve into the boiling water at the base of the boiler. 

 Within the boiler the air is distributed, and rises through the water. The cohesion 

 of the water is diminished by the presence of the air, and ebullition takes place 

 more easily. 



Carefully conducted experiments on the plan adopted by the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, and made by one of the consulting Engineers of the Society, 

 proved that 47 per cent, more work was obtained out of a given quantity of fuel by 

 this system than by steam only. Other advantages also were referred to ; and an 

 announcement was made that the fullest possible investigations would be instituted 

 and reported. It is to be hoped that the residts will be brought before the notice 

 of the British Association at the Meeting next year. 



