Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 050, part 1.djvu/73

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there are earthquakes without proportionable subsidences, there the caverns and ducts under-ground remaining open and unchoaked, the same cause, which occasioned the first, has room to revive and renew its struggles, and to repeat its desolations or terrors; which is most probably the case of Lisbon. I am, Sir,

Your most affectionate

and obliged humble Servant,

Wm. Borlase.

X. Experiments on applying the Rev. Dr. Hales's Method of distilling Salt-water to the Steam-Engine. By Keane Fitzgerald, Esq; F. R. S.

Read Feb. 17.
1757.On reading Dr. Hales's account of purifying salt water, by blowing showers of air thro', it occurred to me, that something of the kind might be applied with advantage to the steam or fire-engine, by increasing the quantity of steam, and consequently diminishing the quantity of fuel otherwise necessary. As the strength of steam raised from boiling water is always in a fluctuating state, and, by the best experiments hitherto made, has never been found above ⁠1/10⁠ stronger, or weaker, than air; I was in doubt, whether steam, produced by this method,

would

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