aw 
Fuel for Steam Boilers. 133 
cumnavigators in 1805, exposed to a winter even longer and more 
severe than is commonly felt at Archangel. In America, the same 
marked difference is observed between the climate of Nootka and 
Hudson’s Bay ; and even in so small a scale of Nature as that af- 
forded by our island, the frosts are generally less severe in Lancashire 
than in the East Riding of Yorkshire. If then the southern districts 
of European Russia are exposed to a winter more severe than those 
of France or Germany, they may boast in their turn of more genial 
climate than the banks of the Ural and the Amur ; while all are sub- 
ject toa dispensation of nature which extends too far, and acts too 
uniformly to be ascribed to any local or temporary causes.”—Life 
of Bishop Heber, Vol. I. p- 532—535. 
Arr. XVL—Fuel for Steam Boilers —Eniror. 
THE vast consumption of wood in our steam-boats, and in some 
of our manufactories, must, in a few years, make serious inroads 
Upon our forests, which (while the applications of steam will be con- 
stantly extending with our increasing population,) will, year by year, 
be wasted in a rapidly increasing proportion. In the maritime parts 
of the country, and especially in the eastern and middle States, this 
effect is already conspicuous in relation to the pine groves and for- 
ests, and especially those of the pitch pine. This fuel is decidedly 
Preferred, because the resinous matter, with which it abounds, cre- 
ates an abundant flame, that readily rolls along, in unceasing vol- 
"mes, and thus applies the heat to the whole extent of the metal with 
Whose surface the water is in contact. 
Th steam boilers, there must not only be a sufficient heat in the 
state of the furnace, but the heat must be applied wherever the 
steam is to be generated. The fuel that affords the greatest abun- 
dance of inflammable gas is therefore the best. Flame is produced 
combustion of inflammable matter, in the state of gas or va~ 
Por; a burning substance which affords no volatile matter, cannot 
Produce flame ; thus iron gives bright sparks, but (if pure) no flame. 
Cod, in all its varieties, turf and bituminous coal, during their de- 
“omposition in the act of burning, emit vast quantities of inflammable 
88s and vapor, and therefore burn with abundant flame ; but pure 
Plumbago (black lead) affords little or no flame, and anthracite much 
less than the other varieties of fuel that have been named. 
