given on a late Trial, 927 



cured from it, and that a portion of charcoal is always th« 

 result of the operation. It having been asserted that the fire 

 might have been occasioned by the melting of the lead pipe in 

 the oil vessel, Mr. Donkin gave it in evidence, that he had 

 heated oil to more than 600° in a close vessel that had a leaden 

 pipe inserted in it, similar to that in the vessel at the sugar- 

 house ; and that when he inflamed the vapour issuing from the 

 end of it, it continued burning for half an hour, and the pipe 

 was not hurt. Here I am desirous of remarking, that since 

 the trial, I heated a quantity of train oil in a Papin's digester 

 to a temperature exceeding 700°; and having inflamed the 

 vapour which issued from the orifice of a piece of half-inch 

 leaden pipe, fixed in the cover of the digester, and which rose 

 only nine inches above it, the vapour continued to bum with an 

 intense flame for a very considerable time, without the lead 

 being melted, or the pipe sustaining any injury, although the 

 vessel stood the whole time in the midst of a vehement fire 

 which was continually urged by the blast of a powerful bellows. 



Mr. Samuel Parkes was next called, and examined by 

 Mr. Solicitor-general. 



As I shall have occasion to give my opinion of the several cir- 

 cumstances of the case in various parts of this paper, I shall 

 render the account of my own evidence as short as possible. 



In answer to a variety of questions put to me by the counsel, 

 I stated that I had examined the model * of the new apparatus 

 with great care, and had no hesitation in saying that I consi- 

 dered its employment in refining sugar to be attended with less 

 danger than the process of boiling over a naked fire ; that I 

 was in court when Mr. Wilson gave his evidence, and that I 

 agreed with him in every thing he said, except as to the f tem- 



• This model, which was prepared soon after the fire, by the order of 

 Messrs. Severn, King, and Co., was proved on the trial to be an exact re- 

 presentation of the whole apparatus as it existed at the time of the ac- 

 cident. 



t Mr. Wilson and myself were both mistaken as to the temperature at 

 which an inf ammable gas is gi?en out by heated whale oil. The expe- 



