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The Prospect Shaft of the Lehigh Valley Company was first visited, under the guidance of Mr. Frederick Mercur, the engineer of the company, Superintendent Mitchell, of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, supplying a special train for the party. After inspecting the direct-acting hoisting engines, a portion of the company descended the shaft in cages, and penetrated some distance into the workings, observing the unusually complete precautions which are taken in this mine against fire-damp and fire. The Prospect Shaft has the reputation of being, with respect to generation of fire-damp, the worst in the world, generating several thousand cubic feet of light carburetted hydrogen gas per minute. It is connected with another shaft at Oakwood, and each of these has a Guibal fan-the former being 20 feet and the latter 30 feet in diameter. Inspector Williams, on a recent test, found the Prospect fan, at sixty revolutions, to be exhausting 57,000 cubic feet of air per minute, while the Oakwood fan, at thirty-five revolutions, was exhausting 73,000 feet. This aggregate of 130,000 cubic feet of air per minute was required to prevent the accumulation of fire-damp in dangerous quantities. But sudden outbursts of the gas frequently take place nevertheless, and give rise to serious fires. To suppress these, pipes are carried through the mine, supplied with water from the surface, there being little water in the mine; and Babcock fire-extinguishers are also used. One of the excursion parties on this occasion had opportunity to see how quickly, by these means, a sudden fire was extinguished. The Prospect Shaft is 600 feet deep, and the Oakwood Shaft 750 feet. The workings extend under the Susquehanna, and although there is little water in the mines there is a considerable escape of at one point through the river itself.

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The Empire Mine, of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company, was next visited, but not entered. Here Mr. Charles Parrish exhibited to the members many interesting drawings illustrating the mechanical arrangements for hoisting, handling, and shipping coal. To Mr. Parrish the Institute is also indebted for a collation, served on the train.

The exposure of coal on the surface in the open cut and tunnel of the Wanamie Colliery was next visited, after which the excursion was continued to Nanticoke and to the great "No. 7" breaker of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company, after inspecting which the party returned to Wilkes-barre.

The third and concluding session was held on Thursday evening.

The Secretary read the report of the Scrutineers of the election, which declared the following persons elected :

President.-DR T. STERRY HUNT, Boston.

Vice-Presidents.-THOMAS EGLESTON, New York; JOHN B. PEARSE, Boston; WILLIAM P. SHINN, Pittsburgh.

Managers.-E. T. Cox, Indianapolis; H. S. DRINKER, Philadelphia; A. L. HOLLEY, New York.

Treasurer.-THEODORE D. RAND, Philadelphia.
Secretary.-THOMAS M. DROWN, Easton, Pa.

The following persons, recommended by the Council for members and associates of the Institute, were unanimously elected :

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School of Mines, Columbia College, New York. Morris, Gouverneur Wm., School of Mines, Columbia College, New York. School of Mines, Columbia College, New York. New York City.

Prosser, Walter,

Rickard, R. H., .
Roney, C. Henry,
Shoenbar, John,
Stanton, John, Jr.,
Tuttle, Horace A.,

Philadelphia.
Eureka, Nevada.
New York City.
Cleveland, Ohio.

The proposed amendments to the Rules, of which notice was given at the February meeting, were next discussed.

The amendment to Rule II, proposed by Mr. Frank Firmstone, with reference to the method of election of members, was laid over till the next annual meeting. The amendment proposed by the same to Rule V, to insert three scrutineers instead of two scrutineers, was adopted. Of the amendments proposed by Prof. Prime, the first, relating to honorary members in Rule II, was laid on the table; the second, taking out reference in Rule II to members permanently residing in foreign countries, was laid on the table; the third, referring to foreign membership in Rule III, was laid on the table; the fourth, striking out the passage in Rule IV with reference to the classification of the members of the Council, was adopted; the fifth, referring to vacancies in the Council in Rule IV, was indefinitely postponed.

Mr. E. B. Coxe's proposed amendment to Rule IV, referring to the number of vice-presidents and managers, was withdrawn.

Mr. Drown's proposed amendment to Rule V, to substitute four for two weeks, was not adopted.

The amendment proposed by Prof. Frazer to Rule V, referring to the order of the names on the ballots, was inadvertently omitted. The chairman, Mr. E. C. Pechin, announced on behalf of the Council that the contract existing between the Institute and Engineering and Mining Journal had expired by limitation.

Dr. R. W. Raymond, on the part of the Engineering and Mining Journal, said the proprietors would decline to renew the arrangement for publishing the papers of the Institute, unless it was voted desirable in open meeting of the Institute. After prolonged discussion, the following resolution was adopted: That the arrangement at present existing between the Institute and the Journal be continued, revokable by either party at three months' notice.

The chairman announced that negotiations were in progress to arrange a meeting of the Institute on Lake Superior some time in

the near future. In view of these negotiations it was voted that the Council be authorized to antedate the October meeting if desirable.

General J. T. Wilder presented an invitation from the Iron, Coal, and Manufacturers' Association, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the Institute, to hold one of its future meetings there.

The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the hearty thanks of the Institute are hereby tendered to Mr. L. C. Bristow, General Paul A. Oliver, Mr. Charles Parrish, Judge Rhone, the officers of the Lehigh and Susquehanna and the Lehigh Valley Railroads, and the local committee, Messrs. Stearns, Mercur, and Wright, for the thoughtful and generous reception of the Institute in Wilkes-Barre, and for the many courtesies which have contributed so largely to the pleasure and profit of the members during the meeting.

Prof. Persifor Frazer, Jr., showed some small cards on which he had had printed in tabular form the conversion of inches into centimeters, feet into meters, yards into meters, and miles into kilometers, as a contribution to the effort being made to familiarize the public with the metric system, and to facilitate calculations. The cards were distributed to the members.

Prof. Frazer then read a paper on the Classification of Coals. Dr. R. W. Raymond exhibited a specimen of the silver-bearing sandstone of Utah.

The following papers were then read by title:

The Cost of a Blast Furnace Plant in the Cleveland District of England, by P. Barnes, of New York.

The Cost of Iron Rails at one of the leading Mills in England, by P. Barnes, of New York.

On the Southern Limit of the last Glacial Drift across New Jersey and the adjacent parts of New York and Pennsylvania, by Prof. G. H. Cook, State Geologist of New Jersey.

Hydraulic Mining in California, by A. J. Bowie, Jr., of San Francisco.

Notes on the Manufacture of Iron in Mexico, by J. P. Carson, of New York.

The Action of Small Spheres of Solids in Ascending Currents of Fluids and in Fluids at Rest, by J. C. Bartlett, of Cambridge, Mass. The Mechanical Work performed in Heating the Blast, by Prof. B. W. Frazier, of Bethlehem, Pa.

The meeting was then declared adjourned.

AMENIA, N. Y., MEETING,

October, 1877.

THE opening session was held on Tuesday evening, October 23d. Mr. J. F. Lewis, on behalf of the local committee of arrangements, made a short address of greeting to the members assembled, and then introduced Gov. A. H. Holley, of Lakeville, Conn. Gov. Holley addressed the Institute as follows:

Gentlemen, we give you cordial welcome to a mining, manufacturing, and agricultural country, of which we are not a little proud. We welcome you as an association, and as individuals. We invite you to an inspection of our resources, and to our methods of improving them. We appreciate the results of your efforts in past years, and we anticipate good from your advice and counsel in the future. You are in the vicinity of some of the oldest mining and manufacturing operations in iron in our country. It will be our pleasure to conduct you to a mine which was worked for more than a half century before our country achieved national independence, and to point out to you the spot where the products of this mine were wrought into cannon and shot during the progress of our Revolution. We can show you also a far larger area of mining country than was supposed to exist in this vicinity at that early day. There are, within a radius of thirty miles from this spot, ten mines at least that have been extensively worked, and there are as many more that have been occasionally worked, with a fair degree of success. All the mines that are wrought to any extent produce excellent qualities of iron, while many of them in various combinations produce as good material for the manufacture of steel, car wheels, axles, and many other purposes, as can be found in any country. The old Salisbury iron retains its reputation for tensile strength unsurpassed, when made entirely from the ore of the old mine.

The progress that has been made in the development of these mines since the days of the pickaxe, when the product was transported in pounds upon horseback, to those of the steam-engine, which now moves hundreds of tons per day, presents, indeed, a

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