270 On the Construction of Kitchen 



When good reasons can be assigned for the advan- 

 tages which result from any common practice, this not 

 only tends to satisfy the mind, and make people care- 

 ful, cheerful, and attentive in the prosecution of their 

 business, but it has also a very salutary influence, by 

 preventing those perpetual variations and idle attempts 

 at improvement, undirected by science, which are the 

 consequence of the inconstancy, curiosity, and restless- 

 ness of man. 



Discoveries are always accidental ; and the great use 

 of science is by investigating the nature of the effects 

 produced by any process or contrivance, and of the 

 causes by which they are brought about, to explain 

 the operation and determine the precise value of every 

 new invention. This fixes as it were the latitude and 

 longitude of each discovery, and enables us to place 

 it in that part of the map of human knowledge which 

 it ought to occupy. It likewise enables us to use it in 

 taking bearings and distances, and in shaping our course 

 when we go in search of new discoveries. But I am 

 again straying very far from my humble subject. 



In constructing closed fire-places for roasters, boilers, 

 ovens, etc., for kitchens, I have found it to be a good 

 general rule to make the distance between the fire-place 

 door and the hither end of the bars of the grate just 

 equal to the width of the fire-place, measured just above 

 the bars. In fire-places of a moderate size, where double 

 doors are used, it will suffice if the distance from the 

 hinder side of the inner door to the hither end of the 

 bars be made equal to the width of a brick, or 4 \ inches ; 

 but, if the door be not double, it is necessary that the 

 length of the passage from the door into the place 

 occupied by the burning fuel should be at least 6 or 

 7 inches. 



