PREFACE. HAVING been requested by the publisher of the well-known series of rudimentary treatises to adopt a similar plan on the subject of "The Combustion of Coal, Chemically and Practically Considered," and entirely approving of the same, the following paper will supply the necessary information on what involves not only the great manufacturing interests of the kingdom, but that of steam navigation and locomotion on our railways: in a word, all that has reference to the use of our native coal, and obtaining from it the largest measure of available heat. The great practical value of the plan of rudimentary treatises is now so generally recognised as to require no comment, and in no instance is it more likely to be available than in embodying all that has hitherto been said on the construction of furnaces and boilers of all descriptions. Through the instrumentality of rudimentary treatises, much useful information is brought directly within reach of the great industrial population |