NEW STOVE 69 
firft that the fmall grate contained in it might be clogged 
by cynders, and the paflage of the flame fometimes ob- 
ftructed, I ordered a little door near the grate, by means 
of which I might on occafion clear it. Though after the 
ftove was made, and before I tried it, I began to think 
this precaution fuperfluous, from an imagination, that the 
flame being contracted in the narrow part where the grate 
was placed, would be more powerful in confuming what 
it fhould there meet with, and that any cynders between 
or near the bars would be prefently deftroyed and the paf- 
faze opened. After the ftove was fixed and in aétion, I 
had a pleafure now and then in opening that door a little, 
to fee through the crevice how the flame defcended among 
the red coals, and obferving once a fingle coal lodged on 
the bars in the middle of the focus, a fancy took me to 
obferve by my watch in how fhort a time it would be con-= 
fumed. I looked at it long without perceiving it to be at 
all diminifhed, which furprifed me greatly. At length it 
occurred to me, that I and many others had feen the fame 
thing thoufands of times, in the confervation of the red 
coal formed in the {nuff of a burning candle, which while 
envelloped in flame, and thereby prevented from the con- 
tact of pafling air, is long continued and augments inftead 
of diminifhing, fo that we are often obliged to remove it 
by the {nuffers, or bend it out of the flame into the air, 
where it confumes prefently to afhes. J then fuppofed 
that to confume a body by fire, paffing air was neceflary 
to receive and carry off the feparated particles of the body; 
and that the air pafling in the flame of my ftove, and in 
the flame of a candle, being already faturated with fuch 
particles, could not receive more, and therefore left the 
coal undiminifhed as long as the outward air was prevent- 
ed from coming to it by the furrounding flame, which 
kept it in a fituation fomewhat like that of charcoal in a 
well luted crucible, which, though long kept in a ftrong 
fire, comes out unconfumed. 
An 
