Fumifugiiim ; by John Evelyn, 1 66 1 . 361 



amounting, according to their joint evidence, to from 30 to 38 

 j^r cent. Upon this subject, however, we greatly apprehend 

 that such evidence is open to unavoidable fallacy. When any 

 thing new is going on in a manufactory, the heads of the cori- 

 cern are generally themselves on the alert, and more than ordi- 

 nary care and attention are bestowed upon all its details ; we 

 are pretty well convinced, and it is indeed obvious, that in any 

 great establishment a monstrous saving of all materials, but of 

 coals more especially, would be effected by the personal super- 

 intendence of the master, and of scientific persons well versed 

 in the minutice of the concern ; yet we are willing to allow, that 

 one o-reat merit of Mr. Brunton's contrivance consists in its 

 being almost independent of the stokers and labourers ; there is 

 none of that eternal pitching of coals into the furnace which 

 goes on with such lavish waste in all ordinary engme fires ; 

 " the grand principle in this machine," says Mr. Smith, " is, 

 that it makes all stokers alike good, and they always use the 

 same quantity of coals when doing the same work." This is, 

 indeed, a great point carried. We think it but justice to Mr. 

 Brunton to add, that private information derived from various 

 quarters, confirms, to a coi^siderable extent, the extracts we 

 have made from the Minutes of Evidence ; we are inclined to 

 consider the saving of fuel quite as important as the consump- 

 tion of smoke, and in that respect his pretensions seem indispu- 

 table ; there is also much original ingenuity in his contrivance; 

 indeed, wc are not aware that a rotatory grate was ever before 

 either devised or constructed. 



Another very effectual, and in some respects, preferable 

 method of consuming smoke, is the invention of Messrs. Parkes, 

 of Warwick. These gentlemen, who are the proprietors of an 

 extensive worsted manufactory, were greatly annoyed by the 

 smoke of their engine-boilers, especially in their bleaching and 

 drying ground ; they have now so far effected its consumption 

 that, for about twelve hours of the day, the smoke is nearly 

 invisible, and there is no soot ; moreover, these desirable objects 

 are accompanied, they say, by a considerable saving in the 

 article of coals. 



In the plan adopted by Messrs. Parkes the boilers remain 

 in statu quo ; tlic fire-place is somewhat altered in shape and 

 dimensions, but the principal agent, as far as regards the de- 

 struction of the smoke, is a current of air which is admitted just 

 beyond the end of the fire-place, by means of an aperture which 

 may be increased or closed at pleasure, and which they call an 

 air-valve. A small fire is first made to burn bnghtlv at the 

 back of the grate ; coals are then filled in towards the front, 

 in which direction the fire gradually spreads ; their smoke ne- 

 cessarily passes over tlie clear fire, where it becomes suffici- 

 ently heated to constitute flame, as soon as it meets with the 



