390 Life of Count Rumford. 



most useful machine, the steam-engine " ; also, of 

 brewers' boilers, with improved fireplaces ; of distillers' 

 coppers, with improved condensers ; of large boilers 

 for the kitchens of hospitals ; and of ships' coppers, 

 with improved fireplaces. Models also were to illus- 

 trate and to suggest improvements in ventilating appa- 

 ratus ; in hot-houses, lime-kilns and steam-boilers for 

 preparing food for stall-fed cattle ; in the planning 

 of cottages, spinning-wheels', and looms " adapted to 

 the circumstances of the poor " ; models of newly in- 

 vented machines and implements of husbandry; models 

 of bridges of various constructions ; and, comprehen- 

 sively, " models of all such other machines and useful 

 instruments as the managers of the Institution shall 

 deem worthy of the public notice." 



In glancing the eye over this summary it seems .as if 

 we were reading backwards the history of human in- 

 genuity in thousands of cases of successful effort, and 

 in innumerable instances of baffled and disappointed, 

 though ingenious and devoted, scheming for facilitating, 

 simplifying, and economizing toil, saving resources, 

 and multiplying the comforts and conveniences of hu- 

 man life. We have in Rumford's schedule an in- 

 ventory of the contents of a national patent-office, 

 and a condensed catalogue, in prospect, of the contriv- 

 ances of skill and genius displayed in the halls of fairs, 

 bazaars, and agricultural and mechanical expositions.* 

 Each article exhibited was to be accompanied by a de- 



* In reading the inventory of the truly scientific and useful articles which Count 

 Rumford proposed to receive into his repository, it is interesting to note the progress 

 which had been made in England in such matters in less than a century and a quar- 

 ter by comparison with some of the contents of another collection. In 1681, Dr. 

 Grew, a Fellow of the Royal Society, published under its patronage, with the aid of 

 Daniel Colwall, Esq., who was at the charge of the illustrative engravings, a folio 



