542 Of Chimney Fireplaces. 



mending, in the strongest manner, a careful attention to 

 the management of fires in open chimneys ; for not only 

 the quantity of heat produced in the combustion of 

 fuel depends much on the manner in which the fire is 

 managed, but even of the heat actually generated a 

 very small part only will be saved, or usefully em- 

 ployed, when the fire is made in a careless and slovenly 

 manner. 



In lighting a coal fire, more wood should be employed 

 than is commonly used, and fewer coals ; and as soon 

 as the fire burns bright, and the coals are well lighted, 

 and not before, more coals should be added to increase 

 the fire to its proper size.* 



The enormous waste of fuel in London may be esti- 

 mated by the vast dark cloud which continually hangs 

 over this great metropolis, and frequently overshadows 



* Kindling-balls, composed of equal parts of coal, charcoal, and clay, the two 

 former reduced to a fine powder, well mixed and kneaded together with the clay 

 moistened with water, and then formed into balls of the size of hens' eggs, and 

 thoroughly dried, might be used with great advantage instead of wood for kindling 

 fires. These kindling-balls may be made so inflammable as to take fire in an instant, 

 and with the smallest spark, by dipping them in a strong solution of nitre and then 

 drying them again; and they would neither be expensive nor liable to be spoiled by 

 long keeping. Perhaps a quantity of pure charcoal, reduced to a very fine powder 

 and mixed with the solution of nitre in which they are dipped, would render them 

 still more inflammable. 



I have often wondered that no attempts should have been made to improve the 

 fires which are made in the open chimneys of elegant apartments, by preparing the 

 fuel ; for nothing surely was ever more dirty, inelegant, and disgusting than a com- 

 mon coal fire. 



Fire-balls, of the size of goose-eggs, composed of coal and charcoal in powder, 

 mixed up with a due proportion of wet clay, and well dried, would make a much 

 more cleanly, and in all respects a pleasanter, fire than can be made with crude coals ; 

 and I believe would not be more expensive fuel. In Flanders and in several parts of 

 Germany, and particularly in the Duchies of Juliers and Bergen, where coals are used 

 as fuel, the coals are always prepared before they are used, by pounding them to a 

 powder, and mixing them up with an equal weight of clay, and a sufficient quantity 

 of water to form the whole into a mass which is kneaded together and formed into 

 cakes 5 which cakes are afterwards well dried and kept in a dry place for use. And 



