156 LECTURES. 



of matter, and in perfecting and economizing the ap})aratus by which 

 it could be rendered available for the practical purposes of daily life. 

 The intimate connexion that had been proved to exist between heat, 

 light, electricity, magnetism^ and chemical action, had opened up new 

 sources of investigation ; but much remained to be done ; for we were 

 as yet scarcely beyond the mere threshold of discovery. In one and the 

 same experiment an acid might be employed in conjunction with 

 water to disintegrate and separate one by one the primitive molecules 

 of a mass of metal, developing heat by the chemical changes thus in- 

 duced, discharging electricity, which could be conveyed through a 

 proper conductor, producing liglit on making or breaking contact 

 with the wires employed to manifest the electrical action, and impart- 

 ing magnetic power to iron and other materials. 



We were no longer restricted to the ordinary fire-place, and though 

 nothing could rival its agreeable cheerfulness and general utility, 

 steam and hot water apparatus had given facilities that were unknown 

 in former days. 



The common fire radiated in the room in which it was placed in 

 the same nmnner as the sun shone upon the earth, and would prob- 

 ably always continue the favorite in ordinary apartments. It liad a 

 peculiar charm in the ever-varying features of its luminousness that 

 no other invention had equalled. The grand desiderata in respect to 

 it were the right adjustment of its position in respect to altitude 

 above the floor, which should not exceed from six to ten inches ; the 

 introduction of no more iron than was absolutely necessary for sup- 

 porting the fuel below and in front ; the size of the chimney, which 

 Avas generally, till lately, four or more times larger than was requisite 

 or desirable, wasting a great amount of air, and ventilating at a 

 wrong level, unless special provision was made to counteract this de- 

 fect. Many experiments were then described that had been made in 

 reference to fire-places and flues, and. one illustration minutely ex- 

 plained, where a flue nine inches square, and about twenty feet high, 

 had worked'four ordinary fire-places. These were afterwards closed 

 above and in front, so as to be converted into furnaces, and, when in 

 full operation with the same flue, each was found capable of melting 

 iron with facility and rapidity. A register or valve was preferred 

 near the top of the smoke flue, or, at least, at a considerable elevation 

 above the fire. A special experimental illustration was then given of 

 a circular fire-place, three feet in diameter, the red-hot fuel being 

 visible and accessible all around it, and the products of combustion, 

 accompanied by a blue flame, descending in the form of a circular 

 wreath in the centre of the fire, and traversing the floor below, Avhich 

 was well warmed before they escaped into the chimney. 



In England, though the open fire was usually accompanied by the 

 l^rod notion of smoke from the bituminous coal in common use, consid- 

 erable progress had been made in the introduction of smokeless fuel 

 during the last twenty years. In many buildings, soft coke or an- 

 thracite was employed, and Dr. Arnott had recommended a fire-place 

 in which the fuel was kindled at the top in the same manner as a 

 candle, all the smoke being consumed when the proper coal was em- 



