386 



GAME OF THE UNITED STATES. 



shall be carried out, cities will be supplied with 

 the cheapest domestic fuel-gas of which it is now 

 possible to conceive. The anthracite water-gas 

 is of course non-luminous, but it is easily car- 

 bureted for illuminating purposes by passing it, 

 as it is wanted in every house, through a sim- 

 ple oil carburettor. Injection of steam into 

 the Blanchard furnace produces enormous vol- 

 umes of water-gas. 



Gas-Stoves. The cost of ordinary street gas 

 to the consumer varies so much, that it is im- 

 possible to fix upon any general ratio to the 

 cost of other fuel. Its heat, however, when it 

 is well burned, surpasses that of any other fuel 

 in use, as applied to a given surface, and its 

 concentrated applicability to the purpose in 

 hand without waste by diffusion, comparative- 

 ly, or by the long processes of ignition and un- 

 necessary burning, of solid fuels, make up three 

 grand advantages, which are sufficient to coun- 

 terbalance amply the average price of city gas, 

 so far as light cookery is concerned. For con- 

 tinuous domestic use, and for laundry or heat- 

 ing purposes, gaseous fuel, as it is, can not 

 be recommended on the score of economy or 

 healthfulness. It is as great a mistake to allow 

 the casual want of a chimney to tempt one to 

 charge the atmosphere of a room with the 

 products of gas combustion as of wood or coal 

 combustion. Most of the gas-stoves sold are 

 adapted for burning illuminating gas, and the 

 adaptation has been carried to a high degree of 

 perfection. 



Vapor and Water-Gas Stoves. Stoves for burn- 

 ing oil-vapor require a light oil, which is dan- 

 gerous in ignorant and careless hands. Conse- 

 quently, the domestic or retail sale of such oil 

 is prohibited in New York and other cities, 

 and the sale of vapor-stoves is restricted to the 

 country, and they are not very popular even 

 there. For those that are able and willing to 

 exercise a reasonable degree of care, the oil- 

 vapor stove is by far the most agreeable and 

 economical means for light cookery as yet 

 available. The oil-tank is placed at a distance 

 from the stove (outside the house as easily as 

 any way), and separated from the heat by any 

 number of yards or rods of pipe obstructed 

 with wire filters that allow no passage of flame 

 or combustion. Holland's domestic water-gas 

 realizes partially the economy of exchanging 

 carbon for hydrogen, and yields a cleanly, 

 smokeless, odorless fuel, which in burning for 

 months has not soiled in the slightest degree 

 the outside of the cooking utensils or the in- 

 side surfaces of a stove fresh from the foundry. 

 "With naphtha at three dollars a barrel (three 

 cents per gallon), the cost of running a large 



cook - stove, with a " quick " oven, is three 

 fourths of a cent an hour. It makes a loud roar 

 in burning, and requires, like the oil-vapor 

 stoves, a lighter oil than most people like to use. 

 Recent improvements allow the use of heavy 

 oils, and even refuse, in steam practice with 

 this process ; but it is not likely that any heat 

 less than that of a furnace or large range would 

 be sufficient to convert the carbon of such oils 

 fully and freely into carbonic oxide with the 

 oxygen of water alone, so as to burn no hydro- 

 carbons in the fireplace, and avoid the smoke 

 and odors of their imperfect combustion. 



Oil-Stoves. The introduction of oil-stoves in- 

 to general use has been wonderfully rapid for 

 five or six years past. The maker and user of 

 oil-stoves sail between the same Scylla and Cha- 

 rybdis as they of the oil- vapor stoves, namely, 

 the dangers of the light oils and the smell and 

 smoke of the heavy. There are many good oil- 

 stoves on the market, any of which will yield a 

 quite tolerable and certainly very convenient 

 fiame for weeks or even months before it begins 

 the mysterious fits of sullenness and sootiness 

 and pungent vapors to which all oil-stoves with 

 wicks are subject in the most careful hands 

 and with the best of oils. With light oils, on 

 the other hand, the oil-stove can be run tri- 

 umphantly the year round, with a continuous 

 naphtha-smell, unless it happens to take fire 

 inwardly and make an inextinguishable con- 

 flagration, which it probably will do. Many 

 fatal disasters are reported from the use of oil- 

 stoves, although there is doubtless no need for 

 one in a hundred of them. The question of 

 safety has engaged the attention of inventors, 

 and some of the varieties have the main reser- 

 voir removed a little from the vicinity of the 

 flame, at the back of the stove. This is cer- 

 tainly of great importance. One pattern has 

 a large argand burner, and its oil entirely in a 

 double-walled tank at the back of the fire, con- 

 nected only by a quarter-inch pipe having an 

 automatic feed-valve on the principle of the 

 well-known German student-lamp. The oil in 

 this reservoir and pipe is found to be always 

 quite cold, however long and strong the stove 

 may burn. It is well known that the argand 

 burner is a valuable economist of combustion. 

 It is allowed to save about 25 per cent, in this 

 instance, which is partly offset sometimes by 

 the necessity of burning the whole twelve-inch 

 circle of wick or none. The average cost of 

 running an oil-stove of this size is about one 

 cent an hour. Where one has occasion to use 

 it for but an hour or two at a time, this cost 

 will amount practically to not more than one 

 fifth to one tenth of the cost of a coal-fire. 



G 



m GAME OF THE UNITED STATES. Except Af- profit, come under the general classification of 



rica and Asia, no country in the world con- true game. 



tains as large a variety of edible mammals and Antelopes. The antelope (Antilocapra Ameri- 



birds as the United States. Those that are cana, Ord.) inhabits the plains of the western 



hunted by dogs, pursued for either sport or portion of North America. The mountain goat 



