14 
If two similar metal vessels are taken, and one is filled with 
water, which is allowed by the action of an ordinary fire to boil 
in the common way, we know what then takes place ; but if 
we allow the other to become red-hot before we fill it with 
water, and when full maintain it at a red heat, the water 
will never boil. The former vessel will soon be emptied by the 
evaporation of the water in ebullition, but that water in the 
red-hot vessel forming itself into a spheroid, rolls about, it 
never gains a higher temperature than 150° or 160°, and it 
evaporates but slowly. Again, at the temperature of red-hot 
iron chemical affinity is suspended, and if we project into an 
iron crucible thus heated, any bodies having the most powerful 
affinity for each other, they will not enter into combination, 
but remain separate spheroids rolling around each other. The 
investigations of Boutigny in this path have proved that the 
repulsive power of heat at elevated temperatures is so great 
that the naked hand may be plunged into melted iron without 
injury, and that the wondrous feats of the magians and the 
tricks of the conjuror can be performed with impunity by the 
philosopher. No less than three patents have been taken out 
in England for generating steam with great rapidity. In one 
water was dropped into red-hot tubes, in another it was thrown 
upon red-hot plates of iron, and in another heated mercury was 
employed. It was thought that the water would he flashed into 
steam, and an immense power obtained, but in every instance 
failure followed the experiment. The investigations of Bou- 
tigny show the cause of failure, and prove the importance of 
experiment at every step we make in our endeavours to em- 
ploy the great powers of Nature to do us service. Recently in 
France attempts have been made to employ water in this 
spheroidal state to work a marine engine. It being thought 
that as the vapour which escapes from the spheroidal water 
is of the high temperature of the surface upon which it is formed, 
that it would, from its extreme tension, furnish an enormous 
amount of power. The experiment has not been, even in this 
case, successful hitherto. 
Mr. Woolfe, to whom the Cornish steam engine is indebted 
for many improvements, once tried an experiment in the 
