and of obtaining supplies of water and of warm air. 299 



loads of dry shavings ; and I set this pile on fire. The height of 

 the flame was no less than eighty seven feet perpendicular, from the 

 ground; and \he grass upon a bank, at a hundred and fifty feet from 

 tfee fire, was all scorched ; and yet the secured wooden building, 

 quite contiguous to this vast heap of fire, was not at all damaged, 

 except some parts of the outer coat of plaster-work. — This experi- 

 ment was intended to represent a wooden town on fire ; and to show 

 how effectually even a wooden building, if secured according to my 

 new method, would stop the progress of the flames on that side, 

 without any assistance from fire-engines, he. [See, for this passage, 

 p. 892-893.) 



3. His Lordship, in the last place, proceeds to mention his expe- 

 riments as to a small stair-case, in a confined place ; of which his 

 account is as follows. — " The last experiment I made that day, was 

 the attempt to burn a wooden stair-case, secured according to my 

 simple method of «nc?er-flooring ; the underside of the stair-case was 

 extra-lathed. Several very large kiln faggots were laid and kindled, 

 under the stair-case, round the stairs, and upon the steps : this wood- 

 en stair-case notwithstanding, resisted (as if it had been of fire 

 stone,) all the attempts that were made to consume it. I have since 

 made^we other still stronger fires upon this same stair-case (without 

 having repaired it; ) having moreover filled the small place in ivhich 

 the stair-case is, entirely with shavings and large faggots ; but, the 

 stair-case is however still standing, and is but little damaged.— (See 

 p. 893.) 



Passing over the details of particulars as to the methods pursued 

 by Lord Mahon, for securing his objects, with their cost, we shall 

 now proceed to the concluding paragraph of his Lordship's paper; 

 which is as follows. " I purpose giving to the world, before long, 

 a detailed account of many other experiments I have made upon 

 this subject ; and of the various advantages arising from my meth- 

 od, with several particulars relative to the different parts of each of 

 the methods above described ; and relative to their joint or separate 

 application to different kinds of building, and to the different con- 

 stituent parts of a house ; — to which 1 shall add, a full explanation 

 of the principles upon which they are founded, and the reasons for 

 their certain and surprising success. In the mean time, I have ta- 

 ken the liberty of troubling the society with this short account." 



Thus far Lord Mahon. — I have not examined, however, whether 

 his Lordship, (as promised) resumed this subject in any subsequent 



