U2 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 8, l«t3. 



how to heat the lattt-r. Tliis condition is essential, as 

 some intelligence is deniandtd in regulating the tempera- 

 ture of an oven, while any Imrliarian can carry out the 

 modern modification of the ordinary device of the savage, 

 who skewers a bit of meat, and holds this near enough to 

 a tire to make it frizzle. 



Having settled this question to my own satisfaction more 

 than twenty years ago, 1 now amuse myself occasionally V)y 

 experimenting upon others, and continually find that the 

 most uncompromising theoretical haters of baked meat 

 practically prefer it to orthodox roasted meat, provided 

 always that they eat it in ignorance. 



Part II. of Count Rumford's "Tenth Essay" is devoted 

 to his roaster and roasting generally, and occupies 94 pages, 

 including the special preface. This preface is curious now, 

 as it contains the following apology for delay of publica- 

 tion : — " During several months, almost the whole of my 



fifty-seven minutes (and consequently muddled my sub- 

 ject in the vain struggh; to condense it), I tried to find the 

 original roaster, but failed ; all that remained of the original 

 " repository " being a few models put out of the way as 

 though they were empty wine-bottles. I am not finding 

 fault, as the noble work that has been done there Vjy Davy, 

 Faraday, and Tyndall must have profoundly gladdened the 

 supervising soul of Rumford (supposing that it does such 

 spiritual supervision), in spite of his neglected roast€T, 

 which I must now describe without further digression. 



It is shown open and out of its setting in Fig. 1, and 

 there seen as a hollow cylinder of sheet-iron, which for 

 ordinary use may be about IS inches in diameter, and iM 

 inches long, closed permanently at one end, and by a hinged 

 double door of sheet-iron (dd) at the other. The doubling 

 of the door is for the purpose of retaining the heat by 

 means of an intervening lining of ill-conducting material 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



time was taken up with the business of the Royal Institu- 

 tion ; and those who are acquainted with the objects of 

 that noble establishment will, no doubt, think that I 

 judged wisely in preferring its interest to every other 

 concern." To those who have attended the fashionable 

 gatherings held on Friday evenings in " that noble estab- 

 lishment" during the London season, it is almost comical 

 to read what its founder says concerning the object for which 

 it was instituted, viz., the noble purpose of Diffusing the 



KSOWLEDGE AND FACILITATING THE GENERAL INTRODDCTION 

 OF SEW AND USEFUL INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMF.NTS." The 



capitals are Rumford's, and he illustrates their meaning by 

 reference to " the repository of this new establishment," 

 where specimens of pots and kettles, ovens, roasters, fire- 

 places, gridirons, tea-kettles, kitchen-boilers, &.C., might be 

 inspected. 



Some years ago, when I was sufficiently imprudent to 

 accept an invitation to describe Rumford's scientific 

 researches in one Friday evening lecture, rigidly limited to 



Fig. 4. 



Or a single door of sheet-iron, with a panel of wood outside, 

 may be used. The whole to be set horizontally in brick- 

 work, as shown in Fig. 4, the door front being flush with 

 the front of the brickwork. The flame of the small fire 

 below plays freely all round it by filling the enveloping flue- 

 space indicated by the dotted lines on Fig. 4. Inside the- 

 cylinder is a shelf to support the dripping-pan (d) Fig. 1, 

 which is separately shown in Figs. 2 and .'5. 



This dripping-pan is an important element of the 

 apparatus. Fig. 3 shows it in cross section, made ap 

 of two tin-plate dishes, one above the other, arranged to 

 leave a space (w) between. This space contains water, 

 half to three-quarters of an inch in depth. Abo\e is a 

 gridiron, shown in plan. Fig. 2, on which the meat rests ;, 

 the bars of this are shown in section in Fig. 3. The object 

 of this arrangement is to prevent the fat which drips from 

 the meat from being over heated and filling the roaster 

 with the fumes of "burnt," /.<:., partially decomposed, fat 

 and gravy, to the tainting influence of which Rumford 



