USING WOOD IN FIREPLACES TO CONSERVE COAL 



BY RAWSON W. HADDON 



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HEN the year gets round to the time ininiediately 

 before the day when 



"... baby's hand just touches heaven 

 When Daddy lights the tree." 



we begin to realize again how important the fireplace is 

 to the final completion of our happiness when we are 

 gathered for the most important holiday of all the year. 

 But for us, Christmas celebrations this year can hardlv 

 take on the lighthearted aspect that they have assumed 

 in former years, though there never has been a Christ- 

 mas for all the people of this country — unless perhaps it 

 was that dark winter of Valley Forge — in which it was 



Photo courtesy Arthur Todhuutci 



We have our share of ups and downs. 



Our cares like other folk; 

 The pocketbook is sometimes full, 



We're sometimes well nigh broke; 

 But once a year, at Christmas time, 



Our hearth is bright to see; 

 The baby's hand just touches hcavt-n 



When Daddy lights the tree 



M.\RGARET E. 



SANGSTKR 



more important for us to realize and cherish and get 

 every possible pleasant hour from our available stock of 

 home atmosphere and home thoughts. 



Nor have there been many times when it was so 

 important to inspire those at the front with the assurance 

 that we, at home, are keeping the "home fires burning" 

 to welcome and cheer them when they return. And at 

 this present time, there are good reasons why "the fires" 



should indicate an actual fact as well as a picturesque 

 phrase. 



It is announced that stringent measures are to be 

 taken by the government for the conservation of the 

 present coal supply, both mined and that which is now 

 in the ground, for use in necessary government and pub- 

 lic service establishments. 



A single instance of this is the elimination of large and 

 useless (and, from an esthetic viewpoint, most offen- 

 sively ugly) electric advertising signs, with a resultant 

 saving of hundreds of thousands of tons oi coal for use 

 in munition factories and other important industries. 



But from this extreme case of hundreds and perhaps 

 thousands of tons a day the duty of economy is distrib- 

 uted among other consumers and rests with equal import- 

 ance upon the householder, in the use of whose supply of 

 fuel it is also of the greatest importance that strictest 

 economy and judgment be exercised. 



At this point the forest is again called upon to do a 

 part in carrying out the plans of the government, and 

 one of the natural suggestions has been that fewer coal 

 fires be used and that more attention be given to the heat- 

 ing of rooms by means of wood fires in open fireplaces. 

 It is proposed that only a minimum temperature be 

 maintained throughout the house and that extra heat, 

 in living rooms for instance, as bed rooms seldom, if 

 ever, need any large amount of heat, be obtained by the 

 use of open fireplaces. Here, however, we must imme- 

 diately realize the wastefulness of open coal fires and 

 turn to wood for a satisfactory and economical fuel. 



Quite outside of what may, with only a small amount 

 of good natured exaggeration, be called the "aspect of 

 military necessity" in this suggestion, fireplace heating 

 has another and equally important point of view. 



This is concerned with the fireplace, and the spark- 



Photo by Frank Cousins. 



Mantel 



the 



Cook-Oliver House, Salem, Mass. 

 Samuel Mclntire. 



Designed in 1799 by 



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