1755. Defcription of the Figures for HOT-BEDS.

Fig.2.

another valve 1, covered with little flips E
of lead, of fuch a weight as to enable
it to refift any force of the fteam lefs
than that which would make the head
Ay off; for in cafe the fire fhould become
too violent by the inadvertency of fervants,
or if by any accident the pipes, hereafter
to be defcribed, which convey the water
under the hot-beds, fhould happen to be
ftopt up, this valve begins immediately
to open and admit of an evaporation,
by which the force of the team thus
put into too violent a motion is broke, fo
that it can neither make the head fly
off, nor fplit the alembick.

If all alembicks made use of in diftilling fpirits had fuch valves, the head would never fly off by too violent a fire, and thofe G conflagrations would be prevented, which are but too often the confequence of fuch accidents.

From the bead there defcends a leaden pipe, r, r, r, which may be carried either

20
moistened earth from falling into and
Shutting up the little holes juft mentioned.

Conftruction of the APPARATUS, &c.

The three pipes which are laid along the hot-bed terminate at laft in the pipe Jaid across, reprefented by Fig. 3. from the middle of which comes a small pipe

, whofe extremity comes out at the further end of the hot-bed, and is ftopt

Jan

by a wooden fpigot and faucet f, which ferves to empty the pipes of that vapour and water with which they are continually filling, From hence we may conceive, that the pipes muft not be laid level, but ought to incline a little towards the spigot. This

Fig.1

Fig. 3.

1755.

Useful REMARKS on thefe INVENTIONS

The fpigot and faucet likewife ferves, by letting more or less of the water pass through, to regulate the degree of heat, and to augment or diminish it, as directed by the botanick thermometer.

The tower T, whofe profile is reprefented by Fig. 2, has this advantage, that having been once filled with wood or char- A coal, it may for 24 hours or longer, according to its height, communicate to the alembick, a continual and equal heat for the lid L, being well calked or luted, the fire has no air, and confequently none of the wood or charcoal can burn, but that which immediately touches the grate H. Moreover, we may befides re gulate the fire as we will, by means of the openings at h and a, or extinguish it quite by shutting them both up.

B

21

an ordinary glass hot-bed. The filling up of the hot-beds commonly ufed, cannot be done without a deal of trouble, and a great quantity of dung and straw. Befides, no one is ignorant, that tho' the heat given to the bed by the dung, may be great enough, yet nevertheless it does not always laft as long as you defire it fhould, or as may be neceffarily required, and that it is impoffible to prolong it, when once it begins to expire.

Such as incline to have the fatisfaction of producing thofe exotick trees whofe feed is enclofed in a very hard nut-shell, may make use of this my invention with undoubted fuccefs. By means of this in

vention it is, that you may give them that equal heat, and that copious moisture, which they require. Philip Miller, that ingenious English gardener, has made a proof of it.

REMARK S.

Although in this furnace it may be more convenient to make ufe of charcoal, yet if any one inclines to ufc wood, I fall obferve, that the billets must all be fet I had not found out the most conveniupright, and the tower fitted as full as poffible with them, by fetting one row Cent mafonry for the alembick, until after my return to Sweden; and I have caused above another from bottom to top. Afto be fet up in the fame manner two caulter this, put on and calk or lute the drons in my brewery, where for brewing Lid: Then light the fire by means of fhavthe beer of two tons of malt, I have not ings put under the grate, and it will neoccafion for above eight or ten billets. ver go out whilft there is any wood in the tower.

In order to know whether the earth has received that degree of heat which you have a mind to give it, you are to place a D thermometer upon the hot-bed, and cover it with a glass frame; and if found neceffary, you may augment or diminish the force of the fire in the manner I have defcribed.

These are the things that render this contrivance more eligible than any other fort of hot-hed, viz.

1. By means of this you obtain not on-, ly heat, but alfo a fubtle vapour, which very much advances the growth of the plants.

2. This requires but very little care.

3. You may preferve the heat of the beds as long as you will, and give them what degree of heat you think proper.

E

4. You have no occafion to water the F hot-bed, and confequently are not obliged to open the glass frame in winter; for the vapours of the water which exhale through the little holes of the ftone pipes, penetrating through the bark, moif-, tens the earth, infinuates itself into the, roots of the plants, and advances their growth as much as paffible, without giv-G ing them that bad taste they acquire in dung hot-beds.

As to the expence which the keeping of fuch a hot-bed requires, I can affure you that it will not much exceed that of

Confidering then the high price of wood and charcoal, which daily increases, it would be aftonishing if brewers and diftillers fhould not take advantage of this method for faving nine tenths of the wood they ufually confume.

The diftillers will befides draw from it this advantage, that the head of the alembick will never fly off, let the perfon who manages the fire be never so negligent.

This invention will likewife be of great ufe in green-houfes, where, to make the cocao-tree, and other fuch trees, bear fruit, there must be kept during the winter, or for fix whole months, a warm and moist air like that which then prevails in the Caribbee iflands, at Surinam, and in Egypt.

We know that at Cairo in Egypt, the eggs are not fit on by hens, but are hatched by thousands in ovens built on purpose, the conducting of which is intrufted to perfons brought up in that business from their childhood. If any one among us was refolved to do the fame, I doubt if he could find any contrivance more proper for the purpose than this of mine; for, as by its means we may keep as conftant and equal a heat as we will, it would be eafy by putting the bubble of a thermometer amongit the eggs whilst the hen is fitting on them, to find out what de-, gree of heat is neceffary for hatching them.

22

Caufes of the Increafe of SELF-MURDER,

them. In this cafe the hot-beds must not be filled with earth, but with a fine fand, and eggs of all forts may therein be hatched at any feason we please to put them into it. We may at once perceive that this method is much more natural than that of Egypt, as the heat of an oven does not by far come fo near, as the heat of my hot beds, to the nature of thofe vapours which perfpire from the body of the hen, whilt he is fitting upon her eggs.

The CONNOISSEUR, Jan. 9. THE laft feffions deprived us of the

A

only furviving member of a fociety, which (during its fhort existence) was equal both in principles and practice to B

the Mohocks and Hell-Fire-Club of tremendous memory. This fociety was compofed of a few broken gamefters and defperate young rakes, who threw the fmall remains of their bankrupt fortunes into one common stock, and thence affumed the name of the Laft Guinea Club. A fhort life and a merry one was their favourite maxim; and they determined, when their finances fhould be quite exhausted, to die as they had lived, like gentlemen. Some of their members had the good luck to get a reprieve by a good run at cards, and others by fnapping up á rich heiress or a dowager; while the reft, who were not cut off in the natural way by duels or the gallows, very refolutely made their quietus with laudanum or the piftol. The laft that remained of this fociety had very calmly prepared for his own execution; he had cocked his piftol, deliberately placed the muzzle of it to his temple, and was just going to pull the trigger, when he bethought himfelf that he could employ it to better purpole upon Hounflow-Heath. This brave man, however, had but a very short refpite, and was obliged to fuffer the ignominy of going out of the world in the vulgar way by a halter.

Jan.

that a gamefter of quality, who looks upon it as a tofs up whether there is ano ther world, takes his chance, and difpatches himself, when the odds are agaiaft him in this.

But however free the gentlemen of White's may be from any imputation of this kind, it must be confeffed that fuicide begins to prevail fo generally, that it is the most gallant exploit, by which our modern heroes chufe to fighalize themfelves; and in this, indeed, they behave with uncommon prowefs. From the days of Plato down to thefe, a fuicide has always been compared to a foldier on guard deferting his poft; but I fhould rather confider a fet of thefe defperate men, who rush on certain death, as a body of troops fent out on the forlorn hope. They meet every face of death, however horrible, with the utmost refolution: Some blow their brains out with a piftol; fome expire, like Socrates, by poifons; fome fall, like Cato, on the point of their own' cfwords; and others, who have lived like Nero, affect to die like Seneca, and bleed to death. The moft exalted geniuffes I ever remember to have heard of, were a party of reduced gamefters, who bravely refolved to pledge each other in a bowl of laudanum. I was alfo lately informed of a gentleman, who went among his usual companions at the gaming-table the day. before he made away with himself, and coolly questioned them, which they thought the eafieft and genteeleft method of going out of the world: For there is as much difference between a mean perfon and a man of quality in their manner of destroying themfelves, as in their manner of living. The poor fneaking wretch, ftarving in a garret, tucks himself up in his lift garters; a fecond, croft in love, drowns himself, like a blind puppy, in Rofamond's-pond; and a third cuts his throat with his own razor. But the man of fashion almost always dies by a pittol; and even the cobler of any fpirit goes off by a dofe or two extraordinary of gin.

D

F

The enemies of play will perhaps confider thofe gentlemen, who boldly take their whole fortunes at the gaming table, in the fame view with thefe defperadoes; and they may even go fo far as to regard the polite and honourable affembly at White's as a kind of Laft Guinea Club. Nothing, they will fay, is fo fluctuating as the property of a gamester, who (when Juck runs against him) throws away whole acres at every caft of the dice, and whofe houfes are as unsure a poffeffion, as if G they were built with cards. Many, indeed, have been reduced to their laft guinca at this genteel gaming-houfe: But the most inveterate enemies to White's

uft allow, that it is but now and then,

4

But this falfe fpirit of courage, however noble it may appear to the defperate and abandoned, in reality amounts to no. more than the refolution of the highwayman, who shoots himself with his own piftol, when he finds it impoffible to avoid being taken. All poffible means therefore thould be devifed to extirpate such abfurd bravery, and to make pear every way horrible, odious, contemptible and ridiculous. From reading the publick prints a foreigner might be naturally led to imagine, that we are the moft lunatick people in the whole world. Almost every day informs us, that the

ap

coros

Further Thoughts on SELF MURDER.