Count Rumford's Experimental essays, political, economical, and philosophical. Essay IV. Of Chimney Fire-places, with proposals for improving them, to save fuel; to render dwelling-houses more comfortable and salubrious, and effectually to stop chimnies from smoking. The Third Edition.
Dublin: Printed by W. Porter ... and J. Archer, 1796.
Octavo (23.5 x 15 cm.), [2], 295-289, [1] pages (plates included in the pagination), ninety-four pages in all. Illustrated with fourteen engraved figures on six plates. Separate title page and wrappers. Third Edition. The final of Rumford's famous essays, the other three on the creation of poor houses and the feeding of the poor. This final essay proposes advancements in the fireplace so that they might use less fuel while radiating heat more efficiently. "Rumford applied his knowledge of heat to the improvement of fireplaces in the 1790s. He made them smaller and shallower with widely angled covings so they would radiate better. And he streamlined the throat, or in his words "rounded off the breast" so as to "remove those local hindrances which forcibly prevent the smoke from following its natural tendency to go up the chimney." In modern, pale green, paper-covered boards; original front wrapper panel bound-in. Untrimmed, with some edgewear to a few leaves, and some scuffing and creasing to final plate and facing text. Wrapper panel chipped. Still, overall, near very good. With the ownership signature, "Jonathan Chetwood, 1796" to the title page; ink initials and date, "J.C. 1796" to front wrapper panel. Scarce. [OCLC locates five copies of this essay, either alone or included with other essays in this series, and two copies of the Dublin R.E. Mercier printing of the same year (but with separate pagination].
Price: $350.00