His seven-guest pipe was now in use. The wood, which was all cut to the same length, and channelled out to admit the free passage of the air, was then duly placed in the stove, and set on fire; but the heat not passing very readily through all the sinuosities of the pipe, he ordered his head cook to screw on his exhauster. The man, in less than ten minutes, unscrewed a plate at the farther end, and fixed on an air-pump, made for the purpose, on which the door of the stove suddenly slammed to. Our host saw the accident, and hurrying to open the stove, fell over a heap of channelled logs, and cut a gash in his forehead. The cook ran to help him up; and after he was on his legs, and his forehead wiped, the stove was opened, when the fire, which had been deprived of its aliment, was entirely extinguished. I thought he was hardly sorry for the accident, as it afforded him an occasion of showing how ingeniously he kindled a fire. He had an electric machine brought to him, by means of which he set fire to a few grains of gunpowder; this lighted some tinder, which again ignited spirits, whose blaze reached the lower extremity of his lamp. Taking the precaution of keeping the stove open this time, the air was again exhausted at the farther end of the pipe, and in a little time the flame was seen to ascend even to the air-pump, and to scorch the parts made of wood; whereupon I saw a glow of triumph on his face, which amply compensated him for his wound and vexation. There was a grand machine for roasting, that carried the fire round the meat, the juices of which, he said, by a rotary motion, would be thrown to the surface, and either evaporate or be deteriorated. Here was also his digestor, for making soup of rams' horns, which he assured me contained a good deal of nourishment, and the only difficulty was in extracting it. He next showed us his smoke-retractor, which received the smoke near the top of the chimney, and brought it down to be burnt over again, by which he computed that he saved five cords and a half of wood in a year. The fire which dressed his victuals, pumped up, by means of a steam engine, water for the kitchen turned one or more spits, as well as two or three mills for grinding pepper, salt, &c.; and then, by a spindle through the wall, worked a churn in the dairy, and cleaned the knives: the forks, indeed, were still cleaned by hand; but he said he did not despair of effecting this operation in time, by machinery. I mentioned to him our contrivance of silver forks, to lessen this labour; but he coldly remarked, that he imagined science was in its infancy with us.