102 
threatening appearance, and the officials of the Marine depart- 
ment ordered all the vessels in the roadstead to put to sea ; 
but Mr. Pogson, guided by the principles which had served 
him so well on the 25th November, concluded that a cyclone 
was passing far to the south, but would not approach suffi- 
ciently near to cause a severe gale at Madras, and he there- 
fore ventured to send the message, “ No need, the storm 
will not come here,” and the result fully justified the confi- 
dence he had placed in his conclusions, as the storm passed 
without the wind at Madras attaining a dangerous force, and 
unusual precautions proved therefore to be unnecessary. 
A paper was read entitled “ Notes on the Origin of several 
Mechanical Inventions, and their subsequent application to 
different purposes.” Part III. By J. C. Dyer, Esq., V.P. 
On Nail Making by Machinery. 
About the beginning of this century the great consumption 
of nails in America, in wood buildings, and the high rate 
of skilled labour, had led to many attempts to make nails 
by a more summary process than that of the hammer and 
anvil, used for making those imported from England. Those 
called “ cut nails,” were made by cutting angular slips from 
iron plates by the common shears, and the heads were made 
by a separate process of the die and hammer, worked by 
hand ; and to unite these two operations in one machine was 
the object sought. For this purpose a machine was invented 
and patented by Mr. J. Odiorne, and another machine by 
Mr. Jacob Perkins, about the year 1806. These two patents, 
though for the same object, differed so far in construction 
