as a Vehicle for transporting Heat. 341 



through the water into the air, after the water has become 

 boiling hot and not before, will be an instructive, as well 

 as an amusing experiment. 



Those of the flexible steam-tubes which are not in 

 actual use are kept so folded up (in order to their being 

 out of the way) that their two upper divisions, lying 

 by the side of each other in a horizontal position, are 

 just under the ceiling of the room ; while their lower 

 divisions hang vertically downwards, pointing towards 

 the table. 



In order that the kitchen may not be filled with steam 

 when any of the boilers on the side of the room are 

 used, their covers are all furnished with steam-tubes, 

 which, communicating by a particular contrivance with 

 a horizontal steam-tube which lies immediately over 

 these boilers just under the ceiling, and which, by pass- 

 ing through the wall of the building, opens into the 

 external air, all the waste steam from these boilers is 

 carried out of the kitchen. 



Before I conclude this Essay, I shall add a few obser- 

 vations concerning an application of steam which has 

 not yet, to my knowledge, been made, but which there 

 is much reason to think would turn out to be of very 

 great importance indeed in many cases. This is the em- 

 ploying of it for communicating degrees of heat above 

 that of boiling water. 



I was led to meditate on this subject by an account I 

 received, not long ago, of some very surprising effects 

 which were produced in bleaching, by using the steam 

 of a very strong solution of potash for boiling the linen, 

 instead of water ; as I was confident that no part of the 

 alkali could possibly be evaporated in this process, I 

 could not account in any other way for the effects pro- 



