[ 6 93 1 
boiling, Lead in Fufion, or may be let down fo 
low as not to exceed the Heat of Sunfhine, and then 
be raifed again, and that without letting; out the 
Fire, or moving the Veflels, may feem aimoftimpra&i- 
cable s but by an Improvement of the Furnace the 
antient Chemifts call’d their Athanor, 1 hope to 
fucceed in it, which may be the Subjed of another 
Paper. 
The Rev. Stephen Hales D.D. that moft worthy 
Member of the Royal Society , to whom the World 
is greatly indebted for many accurate Experiments, 
and ufeful Difcoveries, upon hearing the Minutes of 
my Paper deliver’d in to the Royal Society , on May 
8. 1735. read upon the Thurfday following, defired 
me to lend him the Original for feme Days, telling 
me he had feme Thoughts of making, a Thermo- 
fcope with a Rod of Lead. After a few Days he re- 
turned me my Paper, with the following obliging 
Letter, and kind Remarks. 
SIR , 
I HAVE read over your Thermometrical Trail with 
Satisfaction, and believe it wiil be of good Ufe. 
The Want of afeertaining the Degrees of Heat and 
Cold is a great and important 'Dejideratnm in Ex- 
perimental Piiilofophv. , 
What I intended to do was only this, viz. to get a 
leaden Wire, of fuch a Size and Strength as to bear its 
own Weight, to have it as long as the longeft 
Gun-barrel 1 could procure, and to have it fuftain a 
Lever as you have done , then to pour boiling Wa- 
ter into the Barrel, for a long time, till the Lever 
rifes 
