59 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Part II of Count Rumford's " Tenth Essay " is devoted to his 

 roaster and roasting generally, and occupies ninety-four pages, includ- 

 ing the special preface. This preface is curious now, as it contains the 

 following apology for delay of publication : " During several months, 

 almost the whole of my time was taken up with the business of the 

 Royal Institution ; and those who are acquainted with the objects of 

 that noble establishment will, no doubt, think that I judged wisely in 

 preferring its interest to every other concern." To those who have 

 attended the fashionable gatherings held on Friday evenings in " that 

 noble establishment" during the London season, it is almost comical 

 to read what its founder says concerning the object for which it was 

 instituted, viz., the noble purpose of diffusing the knowledge and 



FACILITATING THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF NEW AND USEFUL INVEN- 

 TIONS and improvements." The capitals are Rumford's, and he illus- 

 trates their meaning by reference to " the repository of this new estab- 

 lishment," where specimens of pots and kettles, ovens, roasters, fire- 

 places, gridirons, tea-kettles, kitchen-boilers, etc., might be inspected. 



Some years ago, when I was sufficiently imprudent to accept an 

 invitation to describe Rumford's scientific researches in one Friday 

 evening lecture, rigidly limited to fifty-seven minutes (and conse- 

 quently muddled my subject in the vain struggle to condense it), I 

 tried to find the original roaster, but failed ; all that remained of the 

 original " repository " being a few models put out of the way as though 

 they were empty wine-bottles. I am not finding fault, as the noble 

 work that has been done there by Davy, Faraday, and Tyndall must 

 have profoundly gladdened the supervising soul of Rumf ord (suppos- 

 ing that it does such spiritual supervision), in spite of his neglected 

 roaster, which I must now describe without further digression. 



Fio. 1. 



It is shown open and out of its setting in Fig. 1, and there seen as 

 a hollow cylinder of sheet-iron, which for ordinary use may be about 

 eighteen inches in diameter and twenty-four inches long, closed per- 



