" THE ENGLISHMAN'S FIRESIDE." 217 



not only can pass through red-hot iron with singular facil- 

 ity, but actually does so whenever there is atmospheric air 

 on one side and carbonic oxide on the other. 



For the benefit of my non-chemical readers. I may explain 

 that when any of our ordinary fuel is burned there are two 

 products of carbon combustion, one the result of complete 

 combustion, the other of semi-combustion carbonic acid 

 and carbonic oxide the former, though suffocating when 

 breathed alone or in large proportion, is not otherwise poi- 

 sonous, and has no disagreeable odor; it is in fact rather 

 agreeable in small quantities, being the material of cham- 

 pagne bubbles and of those of other effervescing drinks. 

 Carbonic oxide, the product of semi-combustion, is quite 

 different. Breathed only in small quantities, it acts as a 

 direct poison, producing peculiarly oppressive headaches. 

 Besides this, it has a disagreeable odor. It thus resembles 

 many other products of imperfect combustion, such as those 

 which are familiar to everbody who has ever blown out a 

 tallow candle, and left the red wick to its own devices. 



On this account alone any kind of iron stove capable of 

 becoming red-hot should be utterly condemned. If Eng- 

 lishmen did their traveling in North Europe in the winter, 

 their self-conceit respecting the comfort of English houses 

 would be cruelly lacerated, and none such would perpetrate 

 the absurdity of applying the name of " German stove" to 

 the iron fire-pots that are sold as stoves by English iron- 

 mongers. 



As the Germans use so great a variety of stoves, it is 

 scarcely correct to apply the title of German to any kind of 

 stove, unless we limit ourselves to North Germany. There, 

 and in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Russia, the con- 

 struction of stoves becomes a specialty. The Russian 

 stove is perhaps the most instructive to us, as it affords the 

 greatest contrast to our barbarous device of a hole in the 

 wall into which fuel is shoveled, and allowed to expend 

 nine-tenths of its energies in heating the clouds, while only 

 the residual ten per cent does anything towards warming 

 the room. With the thermometer outside below zero, a 

 house in Moscow or St. Petersburg is kept incomparably 

 more warm and comfortable, and is letter ventilated (though, 



