4 Of the Management of Fire 



and convenience which man by his ingenuity procures 

 for himself is obtained by its assistance ; and he is not 

 more distinguished from the brute creation by the use 

 of speech, than by his power over that wonderful 

 agent. 



Having long been accustomed to consider the 

 management of heat as a matter of the highest im- 

 portance to mankind, a habit of attending carefully 

 to every circumstance relative to this interesting sub- 

 ject that occasionally came under my observation soon 

 led me to discover how much this science has been 

 neglected, and how much room there is for very essen- 

 tial improvements in almost all those various opera- 

 tions in which heat is employed for the purposes of 

 human life. 



The great waste of fuel in all countries must be 

 apparent to the most cursory observer; and the uses 

 to which fire is employed are so very extensive, and the 

 expense for fuel makes so considerable an article in the 

 list of necessaries, that the importance of the subject 

 cannot be denied. 



And with regard to the economy of fuel, it has this 

 in particular to recommend it, that whatever is saved 

 by an individual is at the same time a positive saving 

 to the whole community ; for the less demand there is 

 for any article in the market, the lower will be its price ; 

 and as all the subjects of useful industry all the arts 

 and manufactures, without exception depend directly 

 or indirectly on operations in which fire is necessary, 

 it is of much importance to a manufacturing and com- 

 mercial country to keep the price of fuel as low as 

 possible; and even in countries where there are no 

 manufactures, and where the inhabitants subsist entirely 



