CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



manufacture.' He accordingly suggests that 'it 

 seems practicable, in a great measure, to supersede 

 domestic fires, and to lay on heat (heated air), 

 or the means of generating heat (low-priced 

 gaseous fuel), to our houses pretty much as we 

 now lay on gas.' The abatement of the smoke- 

 nuisance, and systematic and thorough ventilation, 

 ought to be effected on a similar joint-plan, ' by 

 connecting the chimneys of all the houses with 

 underground culverts, provided at intervals with 

 high shafts, in which, if necessary, the draught 

 upwards might be increased by furnaces.' 



Even though such painstaking plans of econo- 

 mising heat might not pay at the present cost of 

 fuel in this country, it is pleasing to think that 

 there is such a resource in reserve. It is not with 

 all countries as with us ; and even our stores of 

 coal are not inexhaustible. It is an unworthy, 

 and, in the real sense of the word, an inhuman 

 maxim, that bids us ' let posterity look to itself.' 

 If the absorbing passion for present gain will not 

 let us begin practising economy now, we may at 

 least seek to devise and perfect plans to be in 

 readiness when the necessity comes. It is not 

 uncommon to hear the argument, that before the 

 coals are done, something else will be discovered 

 as a substitute. We are at a loss to imagine what 

 the something is to be, unless it be the ingenuity 

 to make the fuel that is now wasted in a year, last 

 ten ; and this we believe to be quite possible. 



PREVENTION OF SMOKE. 



The smoke arising from the furnaces employed 

 at factories has been long felt as a great nuisance, 

 polluting, as it does, the pure air of heaven, and 

 begriming every exposed object within the range 

 of its influence. In London the smoke-nuisance 

 is now punishable by fine ; and in Scotland there 

 is a similar law, applicable to the whole country. 

 Experience has demonstrated that it is not im- 

 practicable, with skilful construction of furnaces, 

 and careful management of fuel, to reduce the evil 

 to such small proportions as to be scarcely worthy 

 of notice ; but, excepting in those towns where 

 the law has been rigorously asserted, the nuisance 

 continues to be a disgrace to the sanitary con- 

 dition of our towns, and to our national character 

 for cleanliness. The first conditions for smoke- 

 consumption are such an arrangement of the 

 furnace as to insure a supply of atmospheric air 

 sufficient for complete combustion, and a judicious 

 disposal of the fuel itself, in order that the vapor- 

 ised carbon may be brought in contact with the 

 air in a sufficiently hot condition. The first of 

 these depends upon the construction of the fur- 

 nace, the latter upon the care and skill of the fire- 

 man. The fireman who properly attends his fire 

 keeps it pretty equally distributed as an even bed 

 of burning coal over the fire-bars, and when a 

 fresh supply of fuel is required, instead of throw- 

 ing it in as far as possible over the burning sur- 

 face, he piles it up near the furnace-door, as in 

 fig. 7, which represents a common furnace, A the 

 fire, B the door, and C the ashpit. The pile of 

 coal, D, being acted upon by the heat, soon gives 

 out its volatile products, and these passing over 

 the intensely hot surface of the partially consumed 

 fuel, are raised to the temperature necessary for 

 combining with the oxygen of the air mixed with 

 them. Thus with careful firing even an ordinary 



490 



furnace will produce comparatively little smoke. 

 This effect, however, may be heightened by special 

 contrivances in the construction of the furnace. 

 Mr Wye Williams, of Liverpool, has pointed out 



Fig. 7. 



great improvements in the construction of fur- 

 naces, the chief principle of which is to bring the 

 atmospheric air into contact with the fuel in a 

 heated state, and to make the fire itself heat the 

 air which is coming to supply it. This arrange- 

 ment will be best understood by the drawing, fig. 

 8, which represents one of Mr Williams's furnaces 

 under a boiler, h. The fire is fed, as usual, through 



Fig. 8. 



the door at d ; it slopes downward to the bridge 

 g, which rises much above the fire-bars, so that the 

 flames have to pass over it. The bridge consists 

 of two parts, the solid masonry or brickwork, g t 

 and the chambered portion behind it, c, called the 

 distributer. . Into this a tube, b, opens, through 

 which a supply of atmospheric air enters, and be- 

 coming heated, passes through a number of plates 

 with slits, or with perforations, as shewn in ff t into 

 the mixing-chamber,/; here the heated air enters 

 into combustion with the carbon in the smoke- 

 laden flame, deprives it of that element, and greatly 

 increases the heat by its combustion. Good as 

 this contrivance is in theory, it does not seem to 

 have come into general use except in modified 

 forms. 



Of plans depending upon the slow and regular 

 admission of the fresh fuel by means of machinery, 

 it will be sufficient to notice that of Jukes. His 

 grate-bars are endless chains passing over rollers, 

 and moved forward about an inch per minute, 

 The coal employed is common siftings or screen- 

 ings, which is heaped on the bars outside the 

 furnace-door, which slides upwards. The door is 

 left a little open, and by passing under it, the 

 small coal is spread uniformly over the bars. The 



