brought before them on appeal and decide whether the award of premium as made by the Board, is in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted and published by said Board, and if they may find said rules have not been complied with, then to modify said award in accordance with said rules and the requirements of justice. The resolution was seconded by Mr. Gray. Mr. J. B. Burleigh moved to amend by referring the subject to the Committee on Science and the Arts. The amendment was discussed pro and con by Messrs. Burleigh, Shaw, and others. Mr. Henry Cartwright stated that the mover of the resolution was probably not correctly informed as to the official action of the Board upon the awards, and that any misunderstanding could be obviated if the President would state what had been done concerning the adjustment of disputed cases. The President then stated that he, as well as other officers of the Institute, had been the recipient of a number of complaining letters, and that these had invariably been referred to the Judges; that the Judges of many of the classes had met and reviewed their work in the light of the objections raised, and that they had in a number of instances modified their reports; that, furthermore, these modified reports would be brought up before the Board again on the Monday following. The President then read the form of circular that had been addressed to the Judges for this purpose. Mr. Sterling Bonsall and Mr. Gray then successively occupied the floor, claiming that the Managers had overstepped their authority in presuming to revise and amend the reports of the Judges; claiming from the statements of the printed rules and regulations, that the choice of the awards of merit was vested in the Judges, and that their decision should be final. Messrs. Lovegrove and Burleigh then occupied the floor in favor of the amendment to refer to the Committee on Science and the Arts. Mr. Chas. S. Close remarked that any action upon the resolution or the amendment at this time would be premature, in view of the fact that as yet the report of the Board of Managers had not been officially made public. He therefore moved the postponement of action upon the same until the next monthly meeting. In connection with the same subject, Mr. Gravenstine called atten tion to a communication which he had addressed to the Institute, and was now in possession of the Secretary. The President decided that the whole subject had been postponed by the resolution just passed. The President then announced the following committee to consider the subject of the selection of a new site and the erection of a new building for the Institute, which committee had been ordered at the stated meeting previous to this, viz.: Messrs. J. W. Nystrom, chairman; William Sellers, J. Vaughan Merrick, Enoch Lewis, and Henry G. Morris. The meeting thereupon adjourned. WILLIAM H. WAHL, Secretary. SPECIAL MEETING. HALL OF THE INSTITUTE, December 23d, 1874. The meeting was called to order at the usual hour, with Vice-President, Dr. Robt. E. Rogers, in the chair. The Secretary read the following call, in obedience to which the President had authorized the meeting, viz: Hall of the Franklin Institute, Dec. 18th, 1874. Coleman Sellers, Ex-Pres't.,-Dear Sir:-The undersigned members of the Franklin Institute, respectfully request that a Special Meeting be called for Wednesday Evening, 23d inst., to consider some proposed changes in the By-Laws, to be discussed at the next stated meeting. (Signed by twelve members and authorized by the President.) The President pro tem., declared the meeting ready to transact its business. Mr. Gray then called for the reading of the minutes of the last meeting of the Board of Managers. The President pro tem. decided that the call for the minutes of the Board is only in order at the stated meetings of the Institute. Mr. Wiegand then read from the By-Laws, Section XV, that the Board shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, which shall be open at all times to the inspection of members. Mr. Close remarked that the minutes were at all times open for inspection, but that the present meeting was only interested in the objects specified in the call. Several members then followed with an inquiry as to the object of the meeting. Mr. Robert Grimshaw in reply offered the following resolution, which was duly seconded by Mr. George Gordon, viz.: Resolved, "That a committee of two from the Board of Managers, and five from the members at large be appointed, and instructed to report an amendment to the By-Laws, clearly defining the powers of the Board of Managers." The reading of the By-Laws on the subject was called for. Messrs. Close, Grimshaw, Tatham, Purves, and Gray debated the question as to the legality of offering amendments to the By-Laws at a special meeting. Mr. Wiegand remarked his position as a signer of the call, and defined it to be a meeting to propose and discuss alterations and not to offer or effect them. Amongst other needed modifications, he mentioned as most important, a clear definition of the limits of the Board, and the reorganization of the Committee on Science and the Arts, by undoing the establishment of sections. Mr. Robert Briggs followed by reading from the By-Laws the section defining the powers of the Board, and presented his views thereon. He wished to inquire what grounds there were for desiring a disturbance of the existing relations. Mr. Grimshaw, in reply, specified a number of cases in which, in his opinion, the Board had transcended the powers vested in it by the By-Laws, and stated that the object of his resolution was to define clearly, by negative limitations, the powers of that body; but added that since there seemed to be some doubt as to whether he was strictly in order, he would withdraw the resolution. Some further discussion followed without definite action, upon which the meeting was adjourned. WILLIAM H. WAHL, Secretary. Civil and Mechanical Engineering. REMARKS ON THE EXPERIMENTS MADE WITH A SMALL NON-CONDENSING By Chief Engineer B. F. ISHERWOOD, U. S. Navy. The issue of Engineering dated October 16th, 1874, contains an article headed "Steam Jackets," in which are given the particulars of the experiments made at the factory of B. Donkin & Co., London, on a small non-condensing beam engine, with a view to ascertain the economy derived from the addition of a steam-jacket to the cylinder. The data appear to me sufficient for the determination of several important facts besides the economy of the steam-jacket; and, in the belief that conclusions wider, different, and more numerous than those drawn by the writer of the article are properly deducible from the observed quantities, I have made the necessary calculations from them in my own way, as given in the accompanying Table, and have inferred from them what seems to me the correct and complete results. Before proceeding to a discussion of these results, I will quote from the article referred to the following description of the experimental engine, and of the manner of experimenting: "The engine on which the experiment was carried out was one of "a pair of compound beam engines built in 1838, and which, at one "time, drove Messrs. Donkin's works. Having long been supplanted "in this work by a larger engine, Messrs. Donkin have retained the "old engines in their place for experimental purposes, and have modi"fied them in various ways, to enable trials to be carried out under "different conditions. In the case of the experiments of which we "are about to speak, the low-pressure piston, etc., of one engine was "disconnected and the high-pressure cylinder was fitted with suitable "double slide valves, so that the engine could be driven as an ordi"nary non-condensing engine, at different degrees of expansion. The "cylinder is 7 inches in diameter, and 2 feet 2 inches stroke, VOL. LXIX.-THIRD SERIES.-No. 1.-JANUAry, 1875. 2 "and is steam-jacketed, the cylinder being let into the jacket, and "the joint made with iron cement. The steam casing was proved to "be perfectly steam-tight, and the cylinder and piston were in good "order and free from leakage when the experiments were made. "The steam passages are cast on the cylinder, and the slide is near "the top, so that the passage leading to the bottom of the cylinder is "very long. Thus the capacity of the top passage is 60 cubic inches, "and the clearance space above the piston 21 cubic inches, making a "total clearance at the top of 81 cubic inches; while at the bottom "the capacity of the passage is 155 cubic inches, and the clearance "below the piston 34 cubic inches, making a total clearance space at "the bottom of 189 cubic inches. The top clearance spaces thus "amount to 7.4 and the bottom clearance spaces to no less than 17.2 per centum of the volume swept through by the piston, the mean "clearance being thus 12.3 per centum. "As we have said, the engine on which the experiments were made "is one of a pair, and advantage was taken of this fact to obtain a "constant resistance in the following way: The slide valve of the fel"low engine was taken out and that engine was made to draw air "into its cylinders and force it out again through two pipes, the ends "of which were furnished with cocks, so that the resistance to both "in-going and out-coming air could be regulated at pleasure. Self"acting lubricators were fitted to both cylinders, and in this way it "was rendered possible to obtain a constant resistance; in fact the "power thus absorbed was so nearly absolutely constant that a dif"ference of but 3 per centum existed between the maximum and "minimum indicator cards in any given experiment. The revolutions "made by the engine were registered by a counter, and the indicator diagrams were taken by a pair of Richards' indicators driven from "the parallel motion direct, and the springs of which had been care"fully tested before being used. "The amount of water used in each experiment was carefully ascer"tained by weighing it, special provisions being made to secure accu"racy. As the steam-jacket extended round the large cylinder (the "piston of which was, as we have said, disconnected), and as there "was a considerable length of 2 inches steam pipe between the engine "and the boiler, it was desirable to ascertain what quantity of steam was condensed in the pipe and jacket when the engine was still. "This was accordingly tried for five hours at a time on two occasions, |