340 Of the Use of Steam 



of the drum. These tubes all point to the same centre, 

 namely, to the centre of the drum. 



To each of these short horizontal tubes there is fixed 

 one end of a steam-tube composed of three pieces, fixed 

 to each other, and movable, by means of joints, which 

 are all steam-tight. 



The end of this compound flexible steam-tube is 

 united to the end of the short tube which projects from 

 the side of the drum, by means of a steam-joint, in 

 such a manner that the steam-tube attached to the 

 drum, and communicating with it, may either be folded 

 up in joints or lengths just under the ceiling, or it 

 may be made to hang down from the end of the short 

 tube to which it is attached. The lower joint, or 

 rather division, of this flexible steam-tube, which reaches 

 nearly to the top of the table, is furnished with a brass 

 cock, by which it is occasionally closed, or, rather, by 

 which it is always kept closed when it is not in actual 

 use. 



I might perhaps spare myself the trouble of describ- 

 ing the manner in which this culinary steam-apparatus 

 is used, as the imagination of the reader will most prob- 

 ably have run before me. I shall, however, just men- 

 tion a very striking and pleasing manner of making the 

 experiment, in which the action of this machinery will 

 be exhibited to great advantage. 



If the cold water which is to be heated and made 

 to boil by the steam is put into a large glass bowl or 

 jar, on plunging the lower end of one of the flexible 

 steam-tubes into the water, and then opening the steam- 

 cock, the agitation into which the water in the glass 

 vessel will be thrown will be visible through the glass ; 

 and the passage of the steam, in its elastic form, upwards 



