1^6 Count Rumford’s Enquiry concerning the Nature of Heat , 
And, if of the total quantity of heat which passed off through 
the bottom of the conical instrument No. 6, = 9954, a quantity 
—9597 passed off through the air, in calorific rays, the remainder 
only, (9954 — 9597,) which amounts to no more than 357 parts, 
could have been communicated to the air. 
Hence it would appear, that when a hot body is cooled in 
air, - 1 - part only of the heat which it loses is acquired by the air; 
for 357 is to 9597, as 1 to 27, very nearly. But I shall refrain 
from enlarging farther on this subject at present. 
One of the objects which I had in view, in the last experi- 
ment, was, to find out whether the cooling of a hot body in air, 
is or is not sensibly accelerated, or retarded, by the greater or 
lesser distance at which the body is placed from other neigh- 
bouring solid bodies, when these neighbouring bodies are at the 
same temperature as the air ; and, as a comparison of the result 
of this experiment, with the results of the two preceding experi- 
ments, so strongly indicated that the cooling of the conical 
vessel, in the preceding experiments, had in fact been retarded 
by the vicinity of the pewter platter over which it was suspended, 
I was now induced to repeat these experiments with some 
variations. 
These investigations appeared to me to be of the more im- 
portance, as I conceived that the results of them might lead to 
a discovery of one of the causes of the warmth of clothing. 
Exper. No. 32. I now placed the pewter platters once more 
in their former stations, perpendicularly under the bottoms of 
the two conical vessels, but at the distance of 3 inches only ; 
that which was under the vessel No. 5 being at the temperature 
of the air of the room, (6 2 0 ,) while that placed under the vessel 
