Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 279 



fastidious criticisms from doing all I can do to succeed 

 in what I have undertaken. Were I to treat my subject 

 superficially, my writings would be of no use to any- 

 body, and my labour would be lost ; but, by investigating 

 it thoroughly, I may perhaps engage others to pay that 

 attention to it which, from its importance to society, 

 it certainly deserves. If improvements in articles of 

 elegant luxury, which not one person in ten thousand 

 is rich enough to purchase, are considered as matters 

 of public concern, how much more interesting to a 

 benevolent mind must those improvements be which 

 contribute to the comfort and convenience of every 

 class of society, rich and poor. 



But the subject now under consideration is very far 

 from being uninteresting, even if we consider it merely 

 as it is connected with science, without any immediate 

 view to its utility ; for in it are involved several of the 

 most abstruse questions relative to the doctrine of heat. 



Many have objected to the roaster, on the supposition 

 that meat cooked in it must necessarily partake more 

 of the nature of baked meat than of roasted meat. The 

 general appearance of the machinery is certainly calcu- 

 lated to give rise to that idea, and when it is known that 

 all kinds of baking may be performed in great perfection 

 in the roaster, that circumstance no doubt tended very 

 much to confirm the suspicion ; but, when we examine 

 the matter attentively, I think we shall find that this 

 objection is not well founded. 



When any thing is baked in an oven (on the common 

 construction), the heat is gradually diminishing during 

 the whole time the process is going on. In the roaster, 

 the heat is regulated at pleasure, and can be suddenly 

 increased towards the end of the process ; by which 



