Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 357 



constructed on the same principles, that very possibly 

 may answer quite as well as these, and cost less. The 

 steam-tube, for instance, for small saucepans, may with 

 safety be omitted, and the steam be left to make its way 

 between the rim of the cover and the saucepan ; and, 

 should it be thought an improvement, the upper part 

 of the cover, instead of being a cone, may be a segment 

 of a sphere. 



The following figure is the section of the cover of a 

 saucepan now in general use in this country. It is 



made of a circular piece of sheet copper, and its handle, 

 which is of iron, is fastened to it by rivets ; and it is 

 tinned on the under side. Its form is such that it 

 fits without a rim into the saucepan to which it 

 belongs. 



This cover might be greatly improved, and perhaps 

 rendered as well adapted for confining heat as any 

 metal cover whatever, merely by covering it above with 

 a thin circular plate of tinned iron or of copper, either 

 quite flat or jconv.ex, like that represented by this 

 figure : 



Fig. 34- 



It can hardly be necessary for me to observe that this 

 thin circular plate must be well soldered to the cover 

 all round its circumference, in order to confine the air 

 that is intercepted between the upper surface of the 

 cover and the lower surface of this plate. 



