In the last century, an American, Benjamin Thompson, made Count Rumford by the Elector of Bavaria for distinguished military and scientific services, gave much time and thought to the study of heat and experiments in cooking, being the inventor of the present style of coal fireplaces and grates, cooking ranges, etc. He was the first person on record, with any pretensions to learning and philosophy, who ever studied the dressing of meat for food as a science. The result was the invention of a boiler for cooking by steam. Within a short time another boiler has been perfected involving the same principles, but containing various improvements over the steamer of the last century, which has been named “Rumford’s Boiler” in compliment to the original inventor. We have been trying it. Our cook was positive she could never use _that thing_. It was troublesome, took up too much room on the stove, etc. Bless the girl! That is one of the excellences of _that thing_. Little else in the way of utensils is needed on the top of the stove, beside one of these boilers. We stipulated that she should use it two weeks, and if found troublesome, it should share the fate of many other inventions, and no more be said about it. But long before the two weeks expired it had won Mary’s heart entirely, and now she would sooner part with anything else from her kitchen than the “Rumford Boiler.” One peculiarity of this most excellent boiler is, that unlike all others we have ever seen, neither _steam_ nor _water_ comes in actual contact with the article to be cooked. Two inches of water is put into the bottom of the boiler. Then a large receiver, into which meat, fowl, or fish is put to be cooked, is fitted on tight over the boiling water, and shut off from all possibility of being touched by steam or water by a close-fitting cover. Above this two other pans, or boilers, for vegetables, custards, etc., can be fitted with tight cover also; and the whole boiler, which is about as large but higher than an ordinary wash-boiler, is also closely covered. Very little fuel will keep the water boiling hot when once it has reached that point, as no heat can escape by evaporation. It is not generally understood, or at least it is not borne in mind with sufficient care, that “after water is _just boiling_, all the fuel which is needed to make it boil _violently_ is just so much wasted, without in the smallest degree expediting or shortening the process of cooking. It is by the _heat_, its _intensity_ and the time of its duration, not by the _boiling_ or _bubbling_ up of the water, that the food is cooked.”