PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 113 



177th Meeting. March 13, 1880. 



The President in the Chair. 

 Forty-five members present. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 

 The communication for the evening was by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, 



ON THE OSCILLATIONS OF LAKE BONNEVILLE. 



The paper was reserved by the author for publication. 

 Remarks upon this paper were made by Messrs. Powell and 

 DuTTON and the Society then adjourned. 



178th Meeting. March 27, 1880. 



The President in the Chair. 

 Thirty-nine members present. 

 Mr. E. B. Elliott made a communication upoi? 



THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE GOVERNMENT SINKING FUND, 



especially illustrating the difference between the ordinary form of 

 a sinking fund, and the form adopted for the reduction of the 

 public debt of the United States. 



[Abstract.] 



1. A sinking fund is a fund for the reduction or extinguish- 

 ment of a public debt. In the case of a sinking fund as ordinarily 

 established, a fixed or constant sum together with interest on a 

 fund already accumulated, or supposed to be accumulated, is the 

 annual or periodical contribution to the fund. In the case of the 

 United States, however, the sura just mentioned as fixed or con- 

 stant, is not constant, but is proportioned to the current amount 

 of the debt, an amount usually diminishing. In the case of the 

 United States sinking fund the periodical contribution to the fund 

 is required by law to be applied at once to the purchase and can- 

 celling of a portion of the out-standing indebtedness bonds ; so 

 that the debt so far as affected by the sinking fund is a constantly 

 diminishing quantity. 



The annual or periodical contribution to the United States 

 sinking fund is requii'ed by law to be one per cent, of the out- 



