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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



VENTILATING STOVES. 



The season has again come whicli 

 drives people into their houses to pass 

 a large portion of their time in closed 

 apartments where they can keep warm. 

 But the house so tight as to exclude 

 the cold excludes also the air, so that 

 good warmth is apt to involve bad 

 breathing. There will be renewed 

 complaints of deficient ventilation, and 

 plenty of grounds for them. And as 

 people suffer they will exclaim against 

 the backwardness of the art of venti- 

 lating, and wonder that science does 

 not bring forward some satisfactory 

 system of furnishing fresh air and plen- 

 ty of it to those who are shut up in 

 houses during the cold season. Yet 

 the inventors and constructors are 

 ahead of the people, and ah-eady fur- 

 nish many excellent devices which are 

 not appreciated or used. It is perfect- 

 ly well known, not only that fresh air 

 ought to be furnished to inhabited apart- 

 ments, but how much should be fur- 

 nished in given conditions, and how it 

 may be effectually introduced. The 

 problem was in fact practically solved 

 more than a hundred years ago with 

 the invention of the Polignac fireplace, 

 which not only warmed the room where 

 it was set up, but provided for ventila- 

 tion by bringing in a stream of air from 

 without through suitable ducts, warm- 

 ing it and then throwing it into the 

 apartment. Various modifications of 

 this contrivance have appeared in the 

 shape of ventilating grates which fur- 

 nish warm fresh air to occupied rooms. 

 But grates are constantly put into 

 bouses now which have no more refer- 

 ence to ventilating arrangements tban 

 as if nothing of the kind had ever been 

 thought of. Steam and hot-water ap- 

 paratus, and furnaces to warm large 

 quantities of air for distribution through 

 buildings, have come into extensive use, 

 by which heat and adequate ventilation 

 are well secured ; but, after all, these 

 engines are employed by but a small 



part of the population. A large pro- 

 portion of the inhabitants of towns, 

 and the great majority of country peo- 

 ple, use stoves for warmth ' in cold 

 weather. But here, again, we see the 

 same neglect in providing fresh air to 

 breathe that is observable in the current 

 use of grates. Stoves are economical 

 and efficient means of warming, and 

 their use for this purpose must long 

 continue. But they are generally non- 

 ventilating, and give us the worst ef- 

 fects of bad air. They draw off from 

 apartments only the air required for 

 combustion, and which is replaced by 

 more air from without to be used for 

 the same purpose. Then there is com- 

 plaint again, and with abundant rea- 

 son, of bad ventilation. It seems to be 

 forgotten that there are such things 

 as ventilating stoves. But they have 

 long been in use. The Franklin stove 

 as originally constructed had a provi- 

 sion for ventilation. Euttan's "Air 

 Warmer" is a double box-stove, which 

 heats by radiation, and also by air 

 which is brought from without, warmed 

 by passing between the inner and outer 

 plates, and delivered into the apart- 

 ment. The inventor, however, was so 

 intent upon a " system of ventilation " 

 which implied the adaptation of. the 

 house to it, that he failed to make his 

 stoves readily available for ordinary 

 use. 



The best contrivance we have seen 

 of this kind is the ventilating stove or 

 fireplace known as the "Fire on the 

 Hearth." This combines the advan- 

 tages of a stove within the room to 

 warm by radiation, a grate giving an 

 open fire, which is prized by many, and 

 a passage or chamber open below and 

 above through which warm air ascends 

 into the room. An opening in the floor 

 with a duct leading to the outside of 

 the house brings in a supply of fresh 

 air which is passed through the stove, 

 warmed, and streams into the apart- 

 ment. We have tried this stove, and 

 found it satisfactory, both as a heater 



