Of the Management of Fires 



the door of the porch after him, he opens the fire-place 

 door. 



As no air can get into the porch from without, its 

 door being closed, none can pass through it into the 

 fire-place, and the fire-place door may be left open 

 without the smallest inconvenience; and the person 

 who tends the fire may take up as much time as he 

 pleases in stirring it or feeding it with fresh fuel, for 

 little or no derangement of the fire or loss of heat will 

 result from these operations. The fire will continue 

 to burn nearly in the same manner as it did before the 

 fire-place door was opened ; and those immense clouds 

 of dense smoke which, to the annoyance of the whole 

 neighbourhood, are now thrown out of the chimneys of 

 all great breweries, distilleries, steam-engines, etc., as 

 often as they are fed with fresh coals, will no longer 

 make their appearance. 



When these operations are finished, and the fire- 

 place door is again closed, the door of the porch may 

 be opened, and the provision of coals kept in the porch 

 for immediate use may be again completed. 



If the flame from the fire-place should be found to 

 have any tendency to come into the porch, this may 

 be easily checked by leaving a very small hole in the 

 door of the porch for the admission of a small quantity 

 of air, just enough to prevent this accident. This small 

 hole might be furnished with a register. 



But it is not merely through the opening by which 

 the fuel is introduced that cold air furtively finds its 

 way into closed fire-places. It frequently enters in 

 much too large quantities by the ash-pit door-way, and, 

 rushing up between the bars of the grate and mixing 

 with the flame, serves to diminish instead of increasing 



