CHIMNEYS. 23 
rent fides; and the effect of winds on chimneys, com- 
manded or otherwife, might be fhown by letting the en- 
tering air blow upon them through an opened window of 
the leCturer’s chamber, where it would be conftant while 
he kept a good fire in his chimney. By the help of fuch 
le€tures our fumifts would become better inftrufted. At 
prefent they have generally but one remedy, which per- 
haps they have known effectual in fome one cafe of f{moky 
chimneys, and they apply that indifcriminately to all the 
other cafes, without fuccefs,—but. not without expence to 
their employers. 
With all the fcience, however, that a man fhall fuppofe 
himfelf potfeffed of in this article, he may fometimes meet 
with cafes that fhall puzzle him. I once lodged in a houfe 
at London, which, in a little room, had a fingle chimney 
and funnel. The opening was very {mall, yet it did not 
keep in the {moke, and all attempts to have a fire in this 
room were fruitlefs. I could not imagine the reafon, till 
at length obferving that the chamber over it, which had 
no fire-place in it, was always filled with fmoke when a 
fire was kindled below, and that the fmoke came through 
the cracks and crevices of the wainfcot ; I had the wainfcot 
taken down, and difcovered that the funnel which went up 
behind it, had a crack many feet in length, and wide 
enough to admit. my arm, a breach very dangerous with 
regard to fire, and occafioned probably by an apparent ir- 
regular fettling of one fide of the houfe. The air enter- 
ing this breach freely, deftroyed the drawing force of the 
funnel. The remedy would have been, filling up the 
breach or rather rebuilding the funnel ;. But the landlord’ 
rather chofe to ftop up the chimney. 
Another puzzling cafe I met with at a friend’s country 
houfe near London. His beft room had a chimney in 
which, he told me, he never could. have a fire, for all the 
{moke came out into the room. I flattered myfelf I could 
eafily find the caufe, and prefcribe the cure. I hada fire 
made 
