8 



EDWARD DIVERS. 



iisnnlly niu-ardcd as fiiniacc heats. Tlu! fuel employed is wood, and 

 the Japanese are certainly clever in the use of this, in tlie old style of 

 fnrnaces, economically and effectively in firino- pots for hoilinii', 

 evaporatinu', distillini;-, or suhliming. Tlie method of hcatini;- is 

 seen in PL II, fi^'. 1. Five leni>-ths of tire -wood are ranged along the 

 hack and front w;ills on the hearth, generally raised at one end 

 b\' restinf 'on a lump of clav- In the ordinary working^ of the 

 furnace, as T saw it, the lieat from pi'evious work is sufficient to 

 kindle the fresh wood. The flame's rise up the sides and run over 

 the hottoms of rlie ])ots, IcaAing the central space in t,he cliamher free 

 from flame, 'flie air enters by the lower ])art of tlie stoke hole and 

 the ])roducts of comhustion escape, invisible, l)y its upper part, so 

 perfect is the combustion. At the time of first lig-htiiig the fire and 

 of irreg-ularities in stoking, some smoke is inia voidable, and to keep 

 the top and table free from this smoke and from aslies, a wooden back 

 is ])ut in above the table as shown in the figures. There is also a 

 wooden hood and fine above the stoke hole, to carry off any smoke ; 

 this is iKjt sliown in the figures, but is similar to those put up in 

 England and elsewhere, over the working doors of fui-naces to protect 

 the workmc^n from arsenic, aulpliur, or other noxious fumes. The 

 heating is so well effected that the pots two feet above the 1)urning' 

 logs are made siifficiently hot, barely red-hot at the l)ottom, and yet 

 the wooden frame on the outside of the furnace is not charred, and the 

 work-room is not unpleasantly wai'med. About three bundles or 40 

 lbs. of wood serve for one firing, and it is remarkable to see so little 

 fuel working so many pots. 



Of the u'orldiui. — A compost of liurnt niitsvchi with about a fourth 

 of its weight of bay salt is made u]) with bittern into lumps the size of 

 larfjfe chestnuts. The furnace being hot enough, the initsiii-lii surface of 

 the tabic! is once lor all freely wetted by a watering-])ot, [)erhaps half a 



