1883.] on Count Bumford, Originator of the Royal Institution. 451 



a veliicle for transporting heat ; on the means of increasing the heat 

 obtained in the combustion of fuel ; on a new steam boiler, in which 

 we have a forecast of the tubular boiler of George Stevenson. After 

 some preliminary experiments on wood and charcoal, he definitely 

 takes up the important investigation of the quantity of heat developed 

 in combustion, and in the condensation of vapours. He describes the 

 new calorimeter employed in the inquiry. It was a kind of worm, 

 through which the heated air and products of combustion were led, 

 and in which the heat was delivered up to cold water surrounding the 

 worm. 



He experimented upon white wax, spirit of wine, alcohol, sulphuric 

 ether, naphtha, charcoal, wood, and inflammable gases. Whenever 

 it was possible he aimed at quantitative results, and in the present 

 instance he " estimated the calorific power of a body by the number 

 of parts, by weight, of water, which one part, by weight, of the body 

 would, on perfect combustion, raise one degree in temperature. Thus, 

 1 lb. of charcoal, in combining with 2f lbs. of oxygen, to form car- 

 bonic acid, evolves heat sufficient to raise the temj^erature of about 

 8000 lbs. of water 1° C. Similarly, 1 lb. of hydrogen, in combining 

 with 8 lbs. of oxygen, to form water, generates an amount of heat 

 sufficient to raise 34,000 lbs. of water 1° C. The calorific powers, 

 therefore, of carbon and hydrogen are as 8 : 34. The refined re- 

 searches of Favre and Silbermann entirely confirm these determina- 

 tions of Eumford." — (Percy.) Following the experiments on com- 

 bustion, we have others made to determine the quantity of heat set 

 free by the condensation of various vapours, and the capacity of 

 various liquids for heat. We have also an elaborate inquiry into the 

 structure of wood, the specific gravity of its solid parts, the liquids 

 and elastic fluids contained in it, the quantity of charcoal to be ob- 

 tained from it, and the heat generated by the combustion of wood of 

 different kinds. 



But the main object of Eumford's life and the subject which chiefly 

 interested him was the practical management of fire, and the economy 

 of fuel. Eighty-seven pages of the second volume of his collected 

 works are devoted to this subject. The whole of the third volume is 

 devoted to it, while a large portion of the fourth and last volume 

 is occujned with kindred questions. Some of those essays are rather 

 tiresome to a reader of the present day, and Eumford had a suspicion 

 that they might ajDpear so to contemporary readers. " I believe," he 

 says, " that I am sometimes too prolix for the taste of the age ; but it 

 should be remembered that the subjects I have undertaken to inves- 

 tigate are by no means indifferent to me ; that I conceive them to be 

 intimately connected with the comforts and enjoyments of mankind ; 

 and that a habit of revolving them in my mind, and reflecting on their 

 extensive usefulness, has awakened my enthusiasm, and rendered it 

 quite impossible for me to treat them with cold indifference." 



For the most part, it is only when Eumford is self-conscious that 

 this tedium appears. He wishes to excite his reader's interest, and 



