AN INQUIRY 



CONCERNING THE 



NATURE OF HEAT, AND THE MODE OF ITS 

 COMMUNICATION. 



HEAT is employed in such a vast variety of differ- 

 ent processes, in the affairs of life, that every 

 new discovery relative to it must necessarily be of real 

 importance to mankind ; for, by obtaining a more inti- 

 mate knowledge of its nature and mode of action, we 

 shall no doubt be enabled not only to excite it with 

 greater economy, but also to confine it with greater 

 facility, and direct its operations with more precision 

 and effect. 



Having many years ago found reason to conclude 

 that a careful observation of the phenomena which at- 

 tend the heating and cooling of bodies, or the communi- 

 cation of heat from one body to another, would afford 

 the best chance of acquiring a farther insight into the 

 nature of heat, my view, in all my researches on this 

 subject, has been principally directed to that point ; 

 and the experiments of which I am now to give an 

 account may be considered as a continuation of those 

 I have already, at different times, had the honour of 

 laying before the Royal Society, and of presenting to 

 the public in my Essays. 



In order that the attention of the Society may not be 



