as a Vehicle for transporting Heat. 343 



unlikely) that some certain temperature is more advan- 

 tageous in this process than any other, that temperature^ 

 when once discovered, may be preserved, with very little 

 variation, when steam is used (by placing a valve, loaded 

 with a proper weight, in the steam-tube, and obliging the 

 steam to lift that valve, in order to pass through the tube); 

 but there is no possibility of regulating, with any pre- 

 cision, the degrees of heat employed when liquids are 

 evaporated in boilers over a fire. 



I would just point out one more application of steam, 

 which, if I am not much mistaken, will turn out to be 

 very advantageous indeed in many respects ; it may be 

 employed in heating the fermented liquor from which 

 ardent spirits are distilled. 



A proposal for introducing watery vapour into a 

 liquor from which pure ardent spirits are to be distilled, 

 or forced away by heat, will, no doubt, be thought very 

 extraordinary by those who have never meditated on 

 the subject ; but when they shall have -considered it with 

 attention, they will find reason to conclude that this 

 method of distilling bids fair to be very useful. The 

 saving of expense for coppers and other costly utensils 

 and machinery would be very considerable, and the 

 danger of the flavour of the spirits being injured by the 

 burning of the liquor to the sides of the copper would 

 be entirely removed. 



Steam has already been introduced, in several great 

 manufactories in this country, into drying-houses , and em- 

 ployed with the best effects for heating and drying linen, 

 cotton, and woollen goods, after they have been washed ; 

 it has also been used in the drying-rooms of several paper- 

 manufactories. When it is used for any of these pur- 

 poses, it should be introduced into tubes of large diam- 



