458 Life of Count Rumford. 



learning in America, I may devote this chapter to a 

 sketch of some of his miscellaneous labors as described 

 in his Essays. 



After much time and study, through one whole series 

 of experiments, given to the subject of the best con- 

 struction of kitchen fireplaces and utensils, the Count 

 instituted a second course of experiments, with a view 

 to contrive closed fireplaces to serve instead of fixed 

 fireplaces for cooking on a small scale. These he knew 

 would be extremely useful to the families of the poor, 

 who cook in the rooms where they live ; while even the 

 opulent would be glad to have them in their houses. 

 He had in view another object of great importance, 

 namely, the making of "sauce-pans and other kitchen 

 utensils constructed of porcelain and of earthenware, 

 instead of those now in common use, which are mostly 

 of copper, by which the deleterious effects of that 

 poisonous metal may be avoided." 



He had himself set up a large kitchen in the Veteri- 

 nary College in his English Garden at Munich, in the 

 construction of which not a particle of any kind of 

 metal was employed, earthenware being the substitute. 

 And he caused to be prepared for his own house such 

 utensils " made of white porcelain, very thin, free from 

 all sharp edges, and covered on the outside with thin 

 sheet-iron, to prevent, the effects of a too sudden appli- 

 cation of heat." 



In his Essay upon the Propagation of Heat in 

 Fluids, the Count starts with the admirable caution, - 

 the consequences of the neglect of which he had had to 

 lament in many of his earlier researches, that "there 

 is nothing more dangerous in philosophical investiga- 

 tions than to take anything for granted, however un- 



