The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-09-09 00:00:00

MEETING OF THE POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY.

The September monthly meeting of this society—the
first after the summer vacation—took place yesterday
evening week, at the Royal Institution, and was numer-
ously attended. In the absence of the President, JOHN
GRANTHAM, Esq., C.E., was called to the chair. After
the usual business relative to the election and nomination
of new members, &c.,
Mr. JAMES SCOTT WALKER read a paper on earth-
quakes and volcanoes, and the several theories entertained
of these sublime and fearful phenomena, concluding with
a description of the earthquake of Caracas, in Venezuela,
(South America,) in 1812, of which he himself was an
immediate witness, and in which 15,000 persons perished
within the short space of about 40 seconds. He strongly
inclined to the theory that these terrestrial movements
were due to the action of the internal heat and the infiltra-
tion of water, accumulating steam, combustion, and explo-
sive vapours and gases under the crust, of the earth, and
were scarcely to be accounted for by electricity alone, as
some had supposed. He was listened to with great atten-
tion, and a brief discussion ensued, tending on the whole
to corroborate the views of the lecturer, to whom a vote
of thanks was passed.
Messrs. MILNER, of Lord-street, then exhibited two of
their Patent Book-casesor Safes, which had obviously been
exposed to a very severe fire, the test of which they had
stood in a remarkable manner. One of them, the larger
of the two, had, on the 2d of June last, been in the office
of Messrs. J. and W. Walker, the extensive builders in
Birkenhead, when it was burned down, and was accompa-
nied by a highly commendatory certificate of its efficiency
from those gentlemen. The building was entirely burnt
out ; the internal combustion was very great, and did
its work of destruction before the engines could be brought
into play, owing to some defect in the hose. The books
in the safe exhibited were, to the surprise of all, found to
be uninjured, while the contents of a common iron safe
standing beside it, and exposed to the same heat, were re-
duced to tinder. The smaller box had been in the pre-
mises of Mr. Blackaller, ship-chandler, Sparling-street,
during the fire there on the 24th January, 1814, and the
result was equally gratifying.—The Chairman requested
Mr. Milner, Jun. to explain the principle of the valuable
invention.—Mr. MILNER said that the best apology he
could offer for again appearing before them, after the la-
borious investigation the society had on a former occasion
bestowed upon their invention, was the presentation of
the safes now offered to their notice, which had been ex-
posed to severe tests, and had borne out to the fullest ex-
tent in practice the theory upon which they were con-
structed. The subject, too, possessed peculiar interest at
this time from the lamentable destruction of property by
fire in many large commercial localities. He explained
the construction of the box, which was a single-chambered
one, and of the safe, which was double chambered ; and
showed a glazed section of a piece of one of the sides of
such boxes, by which the arrangement of the non-con-
ducting and evaporating principles employed, were clearly
demonstrated. This, as well as the boxes, was minutely
examined, and excited much interest. Attention was
called to the obvious strong marks of fire on the boxes.
Several of the members present, including Mr. C. S.
Smith, Dr. Collins, Mr. Arstall, &c„ who had witnessed
severe trials to which several of the inventors' boxes had
been exposed in this town some time back, bore testimony
to the extraordinary resistance they presented to even in-
tense and long-continued heat, and which, on a former
occasion, had been ably lectured upon by Mr. S. Woods,
_ _

jun., the president of the society. Mr. Salt, the secretary,
stated that he had witnessed the exposure to intense heat
of one of the safes containing books, papers, and gunpow-
der, for twelve hours ; and the papers, when taken out,
had not attained a heat of 20 degrees over the atmosphere.
—Mr. Chilton stated that he had returned by the last
packet from New York, and that precisely the same cir-
cumstances related of the fire at Messrs. Walkers had oc-
curred at that city during the late destructive fire—the
books of a mercantile house, in one of Messrs. I%lilner's
safes, being preserved whilse those in other safes
were completely destroyed.—Mr. Milner called attention
to the fact, that " the natural tendency of equalization of
temperature applies to all unchanging bodies, near each
other, more or less ; but the great law of nature, by which
water or steam cannot be heated above the boiling point,
is here made the shelter for materials which cannot burn
in boiling water or steam. So that supposing a safe, of
whatever solid materials, imbedded in fire ranging from
1000 to 3000 degrees, it will follow the temperature of the
fire; and as parchment and paper are destroyed if heated
to 300 or 400 degrees, it will be obvious they must perish
in such custody. But pervade the whole mass, safe and
contents, with the arbitrary 212 degrees of steam, provi-
ding for its prolongation beyond the period of danger,
and neutralizing its expansive tendency, and I feel per-
suaded, after labouring twenty-five years in the fire in
this matter, that in the combined operation of the princi-
ple of these safes, vapourization, regulated in nonconduc-
tion, the thickness of chambers being adapted to the class
of buildings, perfect security may be attained ; and I am
further convinced, that without the powerful aid of water
it is impossible to keep down or put out fire."
The subject was exceedingly well received, and the
Chairman suggested a vote of thanks to Messrs. Milner,
for their valuable invention, though, he had no doubt, but
that its merits, now becoming extensively known, would
lead to its appreciation, and result to their deserved bene-
fit. This was cordially responded to by the meeting.
Mr. BoueT then brought forward some curious speci-
mens of rye which had experienced a disease that had
swollen it much beyond its natural size,—after which the
members retired to the coffee-room, and enjoyed a con-
. versazione before separating.