SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF COUNT KUMFOKD. XIX 



plans and public duties. His interest in the more needy classes led 

 Mm to the assiduous study of the physical wants of mankind, and 

 the best methods of relieving them ; the laws and domestic man- 

 agement of heat accordingly engaged a large share of his attention. 

 He determined the amount of heat arising from the combustion of 

 different kinds of fuel, by means of a calorimeter of his own in- 

 vention. He reconstructed the fireplace, and so improved the 

 methods of heating apartments and cooking food as to produce a 

 saving in the precious element, varying from one-half to seven- 

 eighths of the fuel previously consumed. He improved the con- 

 struction of stoves, cooking ranges, coal grates, and chimneys; 

 showed that the non-conducting power of cloth is due to the air 

 enclosed among its fibres, and first pointed out that mode of action 

 of heat called convection ; indeed he was the first clearly to dis- 

 criminate between the three modes of propagation of heat radia- 

 tion, conduction, and convection. He determined the almost per- 

 fect non-conducting properties of liquids, investigated the produc- 

 tion of light, and invented a mode of measuring it. He was the 

 first to apply steam generally to the warming of fluids and the 

 culinary art ; he experimented upon the use of gunpowder, the 

 strength of materials, and the maximum density of water, and 

 made many valuable and original observations upon an extensive 

 range of subjects. 



Prof. James D. Forbes, in his able Dissertation on the recent 

 Progress of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences, in the last 

 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, gives a full account of Eum- 

 ford's contributions to science, and remarks : 



" All Kumford's experiments were made with admirable precis- 

 ion, and recorded with elaborate fidelity, and in the plainest lan- 

 guage. Every thing with him was reduced to weight and meas- 

 ure, and no pains were spared to attain the best results. 



"Kumford's name will be ever connected with the progress of 

 science in England by two circumstances : first, by the foundation 



of a perpetual medal and prize in the gift of the council of the 

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