CHAPTER II 

 THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF HEAT 



I. THE BEGINNING OF WARMTH AND COMFORT 



78. Importance of Fire. Wood has been burned by man 

 ever since the beginning of history. It is impossible even to 

 guess at the time when it was first used as fuel by our ancestors, 

 although there undoubtedly was a time when man did not 

 know the use of fire. 



We are so accustomed to fire that we can scarcely realize how 

 much we are indebted to it for the necessities and comforts of 

 life. We forget that, if all the fires in the land should go out, 

 nearly all of the work we see being done about us would cease ; 

 that all travel would stop; that, with the coming of darkness 

 all play and pleasure, reading and work would come to an end. 

 We forget that, if we had no fires, we could have no houses to 

 live in, no school buildings to study in; that there would be 

 no street cars, no railroads, no clocks, no watches, no pocket 

 knives indeed we can hardly mention anything which we 

 enjoy today that we could then have except the fruits, the 

 grains, and the vegetables that grow from the soil. Even then, 

 we should have no tools with which to cultivate the land 

 except such as could be shaped from limbs of trees or from 

 rocks. We should soon all be savages and again live in the 

 woods, sheltered only by rude huts. Our food would be raw 

 meat and such roots, berries, and fruits as we could find. 



79. Fires 100 Years Ago. At the beginning of the 19th 

 century, wood was cheap and labor scarce, and the big 

 fireplace commonly served for both cooking and heating. 

 Hinged to the jamb of the fireplace was an iron crane filled 

 with dangling pot-hooks. It was pulled out so that pots and 

 kettles might be hung upon the hooks, and the crane was then 

 hung back over the blazing fire. Potatoes were baked in the 



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