Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 269 



ovens condemned, disgraced, and totally neglected, 

 merely from an accident of this kind. And yet how 

 easy would it have been to have corrected this fault ! 

 If the door of the fire-place is found to become too hot, 

 send for the bricklayer, and let him put the fire-place 

 farther backward. 



There should always be a passage or throat, of a 

 certain length, between the mouth or door of a closed 

 fire-place and the fire-place properly so called, or the 

 cavity occupied by the burning fuel. Where fire-places 

 are of large dimensions, it is very useful (as indeed it 

 is customary) to keep this throat constantly filled and 

 choked up with coal. This coal, which, as there is no 

 supply of air in the passage, does not burn, serves to 

 defend the fire-place door from the heat of the fire. It 

 serves another useful purpose : it gets well warmed, and 

 even heated very hot, before it is pushed forward into 

 the fire-place, which disposes it to take fire instan- 

 taneously, and without cooling the fire-place and de- 

 pressing the fire when it is introduced. If any part of 

 it takes fire while it occupies the throat or passage of 

 the fire-place, it is that part only which is in immediate 

 contact with the burning fuel, and what is so burned 

 is consumed under the most advantageous circum- 

 stances ; for the thick vapour which rises from this coal, 

 as it grows very hot, and which under other less 

 favourable circumstances would not fail to go off in 

 smoke, takes fire in passing over the burning fuel, and 

 burns with a clear bright flame. I have had frequent 

 opportunities of verifying this interesting fact ; and I 

 mention it now, in order, if possible, to fix the attention 

 of those who have the management of large fires, to an 

 object which perhaps is of greater importance than they 

 are aware of. 



