24 Of the Management of Fire 



to include almost every process of cookery, but also to 

 afford opportunities of performing the same operations 

 upon very different scales, and consequently of making 

 many interesting experiments relative to the manage- 

 ment of heat and the economy of fuel. 



That I did not neglect these opportunities of pur- 

 suing with effect a subject which had long engaged 

 my attention, and to which I was much attached, will 

 readily be believed by those who know what ardour a 

 curious subject of philosophical investigation is capable 

 of inspiring in an inquisitive mind. 



As the experiments I have made, or caused to be 

 made, in the different establishments before mentioned, 

 during the six or seven years that they have existed, 

 are extremely numerous, it would take up too much 

 time to give an account of them in detail : I shall 

 therefore content myself with merely noticing the gen- 

 eral results of them, and mentioning more particularly 

 only such of them as appear to me to be most impor- 

 tant. And in regard to the peculiar construction of the 

 different kitchens above mentioned, as most of them 

 have undergone many alterations, and as no one of 

 them remains exactly in the same state in which it was 

 first constructed, I do not think it necessary to be very 

 particular in my account of them : I shall occasionally 

 mention the principles on which they were constructed, 

 and the faults I discovered in them ; but when I shall 

 come to speak of those improvements which have stood 

 the test of actual experience, and which I can recom- 

 mend as being worthy of imitation, I shall take care to 

 be very exact and particular in my descriptions. 



It will not be found very difficult, I fancy, from 

 what has been said, to form a pretty just idea of the 



