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the cup-pipe to within seven-eighths of an inch of the top; into this cup the water-arm of the atomizing tubes is placed; the other arm of the tube is connected with the air-pipe, and supplied with compressed air as a motor to atomize the water, from an air-pump. I use an atomizing tube similar to those your wives and daughters use for perfumery.

One compression air-pump may supply every room in your mill, but each room must have its separate water-tank, unless it is on the same level. You may dampen to any desired extent, 70 or 80 per cent or more, provided you give pressure enough, and have spray-tubes enough. I recommend 70 per cent relative humidity for every room in your mills, and think you would be great gainers to keep it there.

I use in my apparatus only fresh pure air from out of doors, and clean filtered water.

I will now show you how this apparatus operates. [Turns the crank, and exhibits the operation of the machine.]

There is a small air-pump in here, and a small water-pump here. One of these sprays throws from three to four gallons of water a day. In one mill I put one hundred sprays, and in another one hundred and ninety-two sprays. They are located along the room, eight, ten, or fifteen feet apart as required. One spray answers for about eight thirty-six-inch looms, or four hundred feet of floor space.

The PRESIDENT. I suppose, in accordance with ordinary custom, the gentleman will allow himself to be questioned, if any of the members desire to ask questions. He has made his explanations so full, and exhibited the invention so clearly, that perhaps every one will be satisfied. But, if any one has a question to ask, there is now opportunity.

Mr. THOMPSON. I would like to ask the gentleman whether the atmosphere outside, of the same temperature, always contains the same amount of water.

Mr. GARLAND. No, not at all.

Mr. THOMPSON. You did not explain that matter, I believe; and I rather gathered the impression that the air of a given temperature always contains the same amount of moisture.

Mr. GARLAND. No, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. Then you cannot control the out-door air; and you claim more for this invention because by it you can make the humidity regular. Then you say you never got a

definite answer from anybody as to what kind of atmosphere he had in his mill. I suppose a good many of the members. would say that they could not exactly tell about the atmosphere. Now in regard to the cloth going down the trough that you mentioned; did you notice that the electricity made a good deal of trouble in respect to other matters in the same room?

Mr. GARLAND. It blows your beard and your hair out straight; after this apparatus was introduced, they would lie down.

Mr. THOMPSON. Was it the air that held up these folds of cloth, or was it the electricity?

Mr. GARLAND. They claimed that it was the electricity.

Mг. THOMPSON. Do you think it was the electricity which held that cloth up before the invention was put into the mill, or was it the air? The cloth becoming wetter would hold the air more, the same as in the case of the sail of a vessel, and hence the cloth would become more puffy.

Mr. GARLAND. Electricity, not air: that did not seem to be the effect there. It seemed to lie down well after the invention was put in.

Mr. THOMPSON. Did anybody have to push the cloth down after the invention was applied?

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Mr. THOMPSON. Then you rather think that it facilitated that operation?

Mr. GARLAND. It seemed to; yes, sir.

Mr. ATKINSON. This apparatus attracted my attention, and I invited Mr. Garland to put it into our office. It seemed to me to be a perfectly good thing, and I was very glad to show it. I want to call the attention of those who have to deal with these questions of humidity and dryness, to the possible application of some of these figures to the other problem of "drying." The dry-houses and drying apparatus of the factories are to us underwriters the most dangerous points; and it appears by this statement that Mr. Garland has made, that the atmosphere at 90° has twice as much avidity for moisture as the atmosphere at 60° to 70°. Now, then, gentlemen, in a great many places where you have to deal with drying you can lay in ice a great deal cheaper than you can lay in coal; and it has occurred to me that it was incumbent upon some of you

to find out how to carry your outer atmosphere in summer through a big ice-chamber, in order to thoroughly dry the air and reduce the moisture in it, before you carry it into your dryhouses or into your slashers; and that if you can devise such a method you will find that ice is a better dryer and a cheaper one than so much expenditure on coal, and that you will be able to keep your temperature down, so as not to bake your yarn and make it brittle and tender.

I would like to state at this point, that I am desired by the Curator of the Art Museum to invite members of the Associa tion to visit that institution at any time during their stay in this city. By giving their names at the door they will be admitted. The large central room is devoted to textiles; and perhaps some of the articles that you will inspect this afternoon will be placed there for exhibition.

The PRESIDENT. The next subject for consideration is a report from Mr. Atkinson upon the results of recent trials of hose, with a view to determining the best kinds for use; and he will also present a statement of the information desired for the United States census of 1880, relating to cotton manufac

ture.

Mr. ATKINSON. I will report in print upon the subject of hose. There has not been time to complete the trial since the notice was given. The delay has occurred because some gentlemen, experts in antiseptic work, have some new methods of providing against mildew, that required a little time for experiments to be made. I think the report may be somewhat important when it comes, and I will report in print. In respect to the census, I will defer that until afternoon, in order to give way for the other work of the meeting. I will have several other subjects to bring in in the afternoon, but will give way

now.

Mr. WEBBER. I wish, if I may be permitted to do so, to call upon Mr. Atkinson for a paper which he has prepared, before the close of this meeting, as to the extent of the manufacture and the use of hand-made fabrics of cotton.

Mr. ATKINSON. I want to call your attention to what Mr. Waite (who, I am happy to say, is a graduate of the Institute of Technology) has accomplished. At the last meeting, Mr. Ordway stated to you the difficulties with regard to every existing machine, without exception, that had been made for the

purpose of testing the comparative anti-frictional properties of oil, and you will notice that he condemned every one. We have since (not knowing, at the time we ordered it, of Mr. Waite's success) had made an expensive machine, on Mr. Ordway's design, which is now set up in the room where the looms are, and not yet tried. I want you to observe this, that, in adding to the mechanism the column of water, Mr. Waite has avoided all the previous difficulties. By this device absolute conditions of temperature in the operating parts of the machine are secured; and I understand him that in different atmospheres, and under different conditions, such as caused a great variation in all our trials with the other machines, he has obtained true comparisons. He gets results within one per cent whenever he tries. Therefore the science of lubrication has made a great step by this invention. He also brings before you the fact that the mineral oils are the best lubricants, and in every point confirms the deductions that have been made in Mr. Ordway's investigation. In respect to another point, it seems to me that Mr. Waite has made a very important step, and that is, that an extreme polish of bearing surfaces is a positive injury. He has stated to me, what he omitted to state here, that by carrying the polish of bearing surfaces beyond a certain given point, which appeared to be the true one, he has met seven times the resistance; i.e., using the same oil of the same temperature, and other things being equal, the carrying of the polish to an extremely fine degree has made the resistance seven times as great as on the comparatively rough surface. That is an extraordinary demonstration — if it is proved.

In this connection I desire to call your attention to another matter, the staining quality of oil is a very important matter, one of the utmost consequence to you all, especially as the tendency is now towards the mineral oils. In the course of our investigation of oils, as we have named before, the acid test was applied to various animal oils; the nitro-sulphuric acid test was applied to animal oils to detect adulteration. The application of the same acid to mineral oils detected a variation in the quantity of a certain brown tarry gum. It appeared that there were different kinds of mineral oils, some made by the distillation of petroleum, and others alleged to be made by filtration without distillation. I give you the

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