[ 264 J 
IX. Defcription of fome Improvements invented by Mr. James — 
Burns, of Glafgow, applicable to Fire-Grates, Stoves, 
&$c. by which Rooms and Halls of every Defcription may 
be heated more fpeedily and effectually, and with a Jmaller 
Wafte of Fuel, than by the Methods now in Uje*. . 
Tu E principal merit of Mr. Burns’s improvemenits, and 
it is not a trivial one, confifts in his contriving to maintain 
the combuflion of the fuel in open ftoves or grates, without 
employing for that purpofe the air of the room in which they 
are placed. The heat liberated and thrown out into the- 
apartment is thus prevented from being unneceflarily wafted 
and hurried up the chimney, as is unavoidably the cafe in 
the ufual method, where the combuftion is maintained by 
air from the apartment, the wafte of which is fupplied by 
exterior cold air that comes pouring in at the bottom of the 
doors and the fides of the windows, thereby undoing a great 
part of the effect produced by the fire. 
To prevent this wafte, the air that maintains the fire in 
Mr. Burns’s grates, or in others to which his improvements 
are applied, fhould be brought through a tube from the out- 
fide of the houfe ¢, or be made to pafs from the outfide of 
the houfe, between two of the joifts, where the floors and 
ceilings are found enough to allow this, fo as to be brought 
to the bottom bars of the grate, without having any commu- ~ 
nication with the interior air of the room, while at the fame 
time the grates, and parts conneéted with them, fhould be 
fo conftru@ted, that, when the fire is not wifhed to be fup- 
plied with cold air from the outfide of the houfe, the paffage 
may be fhut, more or lefs perfe€tly, by means of a valve, & — 
fmall door, a cock, or any fimilar contrivance. When con-— 
venience does not admit of the air-tube being carried to the 
* Mr. Burns has lately obtained a patent for thefe improvements. 
+ Tire fame principle had been already fuccefsfuily applied to clofe fur- 
naces: Mr. Howard’s, of which we gave an account in our faft Number, 
furnifhes an example. But its application to common open. fires is a new 
idea, and will probably produce an entire revolution in the conftruétion of | 
grates for cqammen uit. 
outiide — 
