U8 



for instance, is said to have furnished the 

 first idea of a plough. The lifting of the 

 tea-kettle's lid, by the power of steam, 

 and the scorching of the incautious hand 

 by its heat*, had undoubtedly happened 

 thousands, nay millions of times, before 

 any valuable hint was taken from either. 

 Miry roads too have certainly been com- 

 mon, ever since the infancy of society, and 

 yet it required the penetrating genius of 

 a Brindley, to turn the hint to advantage. 

 From them he discovered, that earth and 

 ivater, intimately mixed, when sufficient- 

 ly dried, became impenetrable by the 

 latter. Hence the business of what is call- 

 ed puddling, in the construction of ca- 

 nals ; earth being every where substituted 

 for clay. 



The use intended to be made of the 

 foregoing observations is, to remind the 



* An ingenious Brewer, in this neighbourhood, has 

 lately applied this property to the cleansing of Foul 

 Barrels, with the most complete success. 



