A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



eluding such directly practical applications as rough 

 surfaces versus smooth surfaces for stoves, the best 

 color for clothing in summer and in winter, and the 

 like. He promulgated his ideas far and wide, and dem- 

 onstrated all over Europe the extreme wastefulness 

 of current methods of using fuel. To a certain extent 

 his ideas were adopted everywhere, yet on the whole 

 the public proved singularly apathetic; and, especially 

 in America, an astounding wastefulness in the use of 

 fuel is the general custom now as it was a century ago. 

 A French cook will prepare an entire dinner with a 

 splinter of wood, a handful of charcoal, and a half- 

 shovelful of coke, while the same fuel would barely 

 suffice to kindle the fire in an American cook -stove. 

 Even more wonderful is the German stove, with its 

 great bulk of brick and mortar and its glazed tile sur- 

 face, in which, by keeping the heat in the room instead 

 of sending it up the chimney, a few bits of compressed 

 coal do the work of a hodful. 



It is one merit of the low-temperature work, I repeat, 

 to have called attention to the possibilities of heat in- 

 sulation in application to " the useful purposes of life." 

 If Professor Dewar's vacuum vessel can reduce the heat- 

 transmitting capacity of a vessel by almost ninety-seven 

 per cent., why should not the same principle, in modi- 

 fied form, be applied to various household appliances 

 to ice-boxes, for example, and to cooking utensils, even 

 to ovens and cook-stoves? Even in the construction 

 of the walls of houses the principles of heat insulation 

 might advantageously be given far more attention than 

 is usual at present ; and no doubt will be so soon as the 

 European sense of economy shall be brought home to 



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