332 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



THE AIR OF STOVE-HEATED ROOMS. 



WHATEVER opinions may be formed of the merits of the 

 exhibits at South Kensington, one result is unquestionable 

 the exhibition itself has done much in directing public 

 attention to the very important subject of economizing fuel 

 and the diminution of smoke. We sorely need some les- 

 sons. Our national progress in this direction has been sim- 

 ply contemptible, so far as domestic fireplaces are con- 

 cerned. 



To prove this we need only turn back to the essays of 

 Benjamin Thompson, Count of Rumford, published in 

 London just eighty years ago, and find therein nearly all 

 that the Smoke Abatement Exhibition ought to teach us, 

 both in theory and practice lessons which all our progress 

 since 1802, plus the best exhibits at South Kensington, we 

 have yet to learn. 



This small progress in domestic heating is the more re- 

 markable when contrasted with the great strides we have 

 made in the construction and working of engineering and 

 metallurgical furnaces, the most important of which is dis- 

 played in the Siemens regenerative furnace. A climax to 

 this contrast is afforded by a speech made by Dr. Siemens 

 himself, in which he defends our domestic barbarisms with 

 all the conservative inconvincibility of a born and bred 

 Englishman, in spite of his German nationality. 



The speech to which I refer is reported in the " Journal 

 of the Society of Arts," December 9, 1881, and contains 

 some curious fallacies, probably due to its extemporaneous 

 character; but as they have been quoted and adopted not 

 only in political and literary journals, but also by a maga- 

 zine of such high scientific standing as Nature (see edi- 

 torial article January 5, 1882, p. 219), they are likely to 

 mislead many. ' 



Having already, in my " History of Modern Invention, 

 etc.," and in other places, expressed my great respect for 

 Dr. Siemens and his benefactions to British industry, the 

 spirit in which the following plain-spoken criticism is made 



