ifi On the TJfe of Steam 



ufeful, it would certainly never have obtained generally; rtof 

 would it have been continued, as it has been, tor more than 

 ttyo hundred years. 



The combination of different fubftances, combuftible and 

 incombuilible, to form, artificially, various kinds of cheap 

 and pleafant fuel, particularly adapted for the different pro- 

 cefies in which the fuel is employed, is a fubje£t well worthy 

 of the attention of enterprizing and ingenious men. How 

 much excellent fuel, for inftance, might be made, with proper 

 additions and proper management, of the mountains of refufe 

 coal-dull that lie ufelefs at the mouths of coal-pits ? and how 

 much would it contribute to cleanlinef3 and elegance if the 

 ufe of improved coke, or of hard and light fire-balls, could be 

 generally introduced in our houfes and kitchens, in (lead of 

 crude, black, powdery, dirty fea-coal ! Of the great ceco- 

 nomy that would refult from fuch a change, there cannot be 

 the fmallefl doubt. 



It is a melancholy truth, but, at the fame time, a moft 

 indifputable faiSf., that, while the induftry and ingenuity of 

 millions are, employed, with unceafing activity, in inventing, 

 improving, and varying, thofe fuperfluities which wealth and 

 luxury introduce into fociety, no attention whatever is paid 

 to the improvement of thofe common neceffaries of life on 

 which the fubflftence of all, and the comforts and enjoyments 

 of the great majority of mankind, abfolutely depend. 



Much will be done for the benefit of fociety, if means can 

 be devifed to call the attention of the active and benevolent 

 to this long neglected, but moft interefting, fubjeel:. 



The Royal Inftitution feems to be Well calculated to faci- 

 litate and expedite the accomplishment of this important 

 object. Indeed, it is more than probable that this preciiely 

 is the object which was principally had in view in the foun- 

 dation and arrangement of that eftablifhment. 



VIII. On the Ufe of Steam as a Vehicle for conveying Heat 

 from one Place to another. By Count Rum ford*. 



M 



.ORE than fifty years ago, colonel William Cook, in 

 i paper prefented by him to the Royal Society, and pub- 

 lifhed in their Tranlaclions, made a propofal for warming 

 rooms by means of metallic tubes filled with ileum, and 

 communicating with a boiler fituated out of the room ; 

 which propofal was accompanied by an engraving, which 



- From chfe Journals of the Roydi Inftitution of Great Britain, vol. i. 



mowed, 



