| Description | The author describes an experiment he witnessed in the Invalides in Paris [France] in which a wooden structure was set on fire to test a new invention for extinguishing fires. The author was unable to see the invention or how it was employed, but reports that a loud sound like a gunshot was heard, and the flames were suddenly extinguished. The same experiment was repeated in an underground cellar, with the same success.
Subject: Engineering
Read to the Royal Society on 10 January 1723 |