Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 257 



operations that take place in the culinary process in 

 question, it appeare4 to me that there could not possibly 

 be any thing more necessary to the roasting of meat 

 than heat in certain degrees of intensity, accompanied 

 by certain degrees of dryness ; and I thought if matters 

 could be so arranged, by means of simple mechanical 

 contrivances, that the cook should be enabled not only 

 to regulate the degrees of heat at pleasure, but also to 

 combine any given degree of heat with any degree of 

 moisture or of dryness required, this would unques- 

 tionably put it in his power to perform every process 

 of roasting in the highest possible perfection. 



The means I used for attaining these ends will 

 appear by the following description of the machinery 

 I caused to be constructed for that purpose. 



The most essential part of this machinery, which I 

 shall call the body of the roaster (see Fig. 14), is a 



Fig. 14. 



hollow cylinder of sheet iron (which, for a roaster of a 

 moderate size, maybe made about 18 inches in diameter 

 and 24 inches long), closed at one end, and set in a 

 horizontal position in a mass of brick-work, in such a 

 manner that the flame of a small fire, which is made in 



