But not all the investigation of these principles has been dictated by considerations of curiosity and entertainment.

As long ago as 1829, for instance, an English newspaper printed the following: Proof against Fire--On Tuesday week an experiment was made in presence of a Committee of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, by M.Aldini, for the purpose of showing that he can secure the body against the action of flames so as to enable firemen to carry on their operations with safety.

His experiment is stated to have given satisfaction.

The pompiers were clothed in asbestos, over which was a network of iron.
Some of them, it was stated, who wore double gloves of amianthus, held a red-hot bar during four minutes.
Sir David Brewster, in his Letters on Natural Magic, page 305, gives a more detailed account of Aldini, from which the natural deduction is that the Chevalier was a showman with an intellect fully up to the demands of his art.

Sir David says: In our own times the art of defending the hands and face, and indeed the whole body, from the action of heated iron and intense fire, has been applied to the nobler purpose of saving human life, and rescuing property from the flames.