8175. STEAM, Domestic use.—
A smaller
agent, applicable to our daily concerns, is
infinitely more valuable than the greatest which
can be used only for great objects. For these
interest the few alone, the former the many.
I once had an idea that it might perhaps be
possible to economize the steam of a common
pot, kept boiling on the kitchen fire until its
accumulation should be sufficient to give a
stroke, and although the strokes might not be
rapid, there would be enough of them in the day
to raise from an adjacent well the water necessary
for daily use; to wash the linen, knead the
bread, beat the hominy, churn the butter, turn
the spit, and do all other household offices
which require only a regular mechanical motion.
The unproductive hands now necessarily
employed in these, might then increase the
produce of our fields. I proposed it to Mr.
Rumsey, one of our greatest mechanics, who
believed in its possibility, * * * but his
death disappointed this hope.—
To George Fleming. Washington ed. vi, 505.
(M.
1815)
