100 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 4. 



other countiy has to contend with. The ores, 

 too, are of much more refractory nature, and 

 the laws of the deposits very different from 

 those that govern the veins and beds of the 

 eastern continent. 



The novelty and the difflcultj' have attracted 

 to this field of research a number of Americans 

 of liberal education fitted in the schools at home 

 and abroad. The magnitude of the obstacles 

 and the difticultj' of the problems encountered 

 in the field have only served to stimulate their 

 mental enei'gies, and have drawn hither a goodly 

 number of foreign scientific and practical men, 

 who have sought in this untried field an oppor- 

 tunity' to win greater laurels than was offered 

 by the better-known regions of Europe. All 

 these causes have brought together a bodj' of 

 men of a degree of keenness of intellect, ver- 

 satilitj^ of powers, and acquired skill in over- 

 coming difficult}', which is rarelj' found in any 

 association at home or abroad. 



To the meetings they bring the freshest 

 thought on the newest problems ; and those 

 of kindred pursuits have the means of inform- 

 ing thomseh'cs as to the progi'css in their sev- 

 eral departments. 



Besides the February meeting, which has 

 always been held in some eastern citj', one or 

 two expeditions are taken each j-ear to mining 

 regions, where methods and processes are care- 

 fully examined and criticised. This close con- 

 tact of the laboratory' and the office with the 

 field results in a union of theoretical and prac- 

 tical science which cannot fail to effect a great 

 development in the metallurgical art. 



The Boston meeting, which has just closed, 

 was attended by about seventy-five members. 

 Twentj-eight papers were presented, of which 

 thirteen were read and discussed. Abstracts 

 of these appear in the following pages. Some 

 idea of the range of thought at one of these 

 meetings maj' be gained from the following 

 classification of the papers : In metallurgical 

 subjects, ten papers were offered ; in mining 

 and ore-dressing, six ; in geologj', five ; in 

 analj'tical chemistrj', three ; in characters of 

 iron and steel, two ; and two unclassified. 



Besides the five sessions for the reading of 



papers, there were three excursions to works 

 of engineering interest. The first was to the 

 pumping-station of the new sewerage sj'stem 

 at Old-Harbor Point. The chief objects of 

 interest were the two great pumping-engines, 

 each with two plungers, four feet in diameter, 

 and nine feet stroke. One of the engines was 

 started for the benefit of the visitors, and 

 thej' were informed that it was pumping about 

 thirtj'-seven million gallons per daj'. One of 

 these pumps would be able to pump the Charles 

 River dry if its outlet to the sea were stopped 

 by a dam. The sewage is here lifted forty- 

 three feet in order to gain column enough to 

 carry it out to Moon Island. On the waj' 

 home the partj' visited the Norway iron-works, 

 and inspected the new petroleum furnaces, 

 which are said to replace one ton of coal with 

 two barrels of crude petroleum ; and also the 

 Billings cold-drawn shafting apparatus. Later 

 the Carson trenching apparatus was inspected, 

 whereby a sewer ma}' be constructed through 

 the crowded streets without stopping the 

 travel. 



The second excursion was to see the cele- 

 brated' testing- machine at the Watertown arse- 

 nal. No European nation has a testing- 

 machine of equal capacit}- and precision of 

 measurement ; a piece of steel tested was a 

 fiat bar of the manufacture of the Norwaj' iron- 

 works, of twelve-hundredths carbon. Its 

 length was 80 inches; width, 5.85 inches; 

 thickness, one inch. Under tension it stretched 

 eighteen inches, and broke when a force of 288,- 

 300 pounds had been applied, which is 49,282 

 pounds to the square inch. In the afternoon 

 several of the buildings of Harvard university 

 were visited, including the Museum of compara- 

 tive zoology, the Peabody museum of Ameri- 

 can archeology, the gymnasium, and the chemi- 

 cal laboratory' and museum of minerals in 

 Boylston Hall. A lunch was served in Me- 

 morial Hall. 



The third excursion, was made to Lowell; 

 and the part}' visited a cotton-mill and print- 

 works, besides a carpet- and a hosiery-mill, all 

 of which proved of great interest to the mem- 

 bers living out of New England. 



