6 
Steam Engine. 
through the bars and among the fuel. By means of a 
piece of sheet iron placed slanting over the slit within- 
side, this current of air through the slit in the door, can be 
directed so as to drive the smoke of the fresh coals, down 
uiX)n the buniing coals, and there it will be consumed. 
The three following methods, which can be well under, 
stood h orn the plates, have long been in use in England, 
and therefore can be employed for the purpose of consum- 
ing smoke as well here as there. 
In the year 1791, the steam engines on Watt’s 
construction at Manchester, consumed the smoke : the 
public complained that no method was adopted by the 
owners of other steam engines, and by the dyers in and near 
that town, to produce the same effect in their furnace- 
fires. I applied to Boulton and Watt, and obtained per- 
mission for any person to use their patent in this respect, 
whether connected with one of their engines or not. Of 
course the smoke of the furnaces was consumed gene- 
rally, on paying a moderate premium for the use of the 
invention. 
Several furnaces however were erected from time to 
time, and steam engines already put up previous to the 
improvements of Boulton and Watt, were worked with 
furnaces, which were not built on a construction neces- 
sary to consume the smoke. In the Monthly Magazine 
for 1796, the reader will find an account of six owners 
of steam engines and furnaces at Manchester, who were 
indicted at the quarter sessions for a nuisance, inasmuch 
as they did not use means to consume the smoke of their 
furnaces : they were convicted, and fined one hundred 
pounds sterling each ; and the conviction was acquiesced 
in. I have no hesitation in saying that the neglect of em- 
ploying such means, is just as much a nuisance in this 
country as in that. I now publish in a manner not to be 
mistaken, the methods of producing this effect ; one or 
