ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 



ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS, AUGUST 8, 1900. 



The General Monthly Meeting of the Society was held at the 

 Society's House, No. 5 Elizabeth-street North, on Wednesday 

 evening, August 8th, 1900. 



The President, Prof. Liversidge, m.a., ll.d., f.r.s., in the Chair. 



About thirty members and visitors were present. 



The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 



Messrs. T. H. Houghton and R. T. Baker were appointed 

 Scrutineers, and Mr. W. M. Hamlet deputed to preside at the 

 Ballot Box. 



The certificates of two candidates were read for the third time, 

 and of four for the first time. 



The following gentlemen were duly elected ordinary members 

 of the Society : — 



Gray, J. G., Grazier, "Kentucky," Corowa. 



Hadley, A., F.c.s., Brewer, Standard Brewery, Sydney. 



The President announced that the Third Science Lecture of the 

 Royal Society of New South Wales' series for 1900, viz., "A 

 study of the Mechanics of the Human-Frame work," by Professor 

 T. P. Anderson Stuart, m.d., ll.d., etc., Professor of Physiology, 

 University of Sydney, would be given in the Royal Society's 

 House on the 22nd instant. 



THE FOLLOWING PAPERS WERE READ : 



1. "Notes on Rack Railways," by C. O. Burge, m. inst. ce. 



The author, after adverting to the early efforts which were 

 made to make use of a rack and cog-wheel to enable excessively 

 steep railway inclines to be surmounted by an engine with its 

 load, pointed out how, f rom a line of iron plates laid along a com- 

 mon roid in order to diminish friction, the modern railway was 

 developed. It brought with it, however, the drawback of want 

 of adhesion owing to the smooth surface of the metal when the 

 weight of the load to be drawn bears an undue proportion to that 

 on the driving wheels of the engine, thus causing slipping of the 



