NOTE ON THE USE OF STEAM HEAT. 



SEVERAL individuals with whom I have not the 

 honour of being personally acquainted have applied 

 to me within a short time for information with regard 

 to the history of the use of the vapour of boiling water 

 as a vehicle for conveying heat in the distillation of 

 brandies, — a process which I have recommended in 

 my Fifteenth Essay, published at London in the month 

 of May, 1802, and deposited the same month in the 

 library of the Institute. Judging, from the extreme 

 eagerness which they have manifested to obtain this 

 information, and to have it in writing, that it is a ques- 

 tion of establishing certain facts which are held to be 

 important, I have thought it proper to give the Class 

 information in this matter. 



It is not so much to claim the advantage of having 

 been the first to propose a useful process, and to teach 

 the means of assuring its success, as to avoid being 

 drawn into any sort of discussion in the matter, that I 

 have decided to address myself to the Class on this 

 occasion instead of furnishing the information in ques- 

 tion to an individual. Foreseeing, moreover, that the 

 Class might be called upon to give an opinion in this 

 matter, I take the liberty of submitting to it a transla- 

 tion of certain paragraphs from my Fifteenth Essay. 



Here follow extracts from the Fifteenth Essay. See Vol. II., page 

 324, and following. 



[This note is translated from the French original, which exists in 

 the proces verbal oi the French Institute.] 



