" THE ENGLISHMAN'S FIRESIDE." '219 



There is no scorching in one little red- hot hole, or cor- 

 ner, or box, and freezing in the other parts of the room. 

 There are no draughts, as the chimney is quite closed as 

 soon as the heat reservoir is supplied. If one of these 

 heat reservoirs is placed in the hall, where it may form a 

 noble ornament and can easily communicate with an under- 

 ground flue, it warms every part of the house, and enables 

 the Russian to enjoy a luxurious temperate climate indoors 

 in spite of arctic winter outside. 



In a house thus warmed and free from draughts or blasts 

 of cold air, ventilation becomes the simplest of problems. 

 Nothing more is required than to provide an inlet and out- 

 let in suitable places, and of suitable dimensions, when the 

 difference between the specific gravity of the cold air with- 

 out and warm air within does all the rest. Nothing is easier 

 to arrange than to cause all the entering air to be warmed 

 on its way by the hall stove, and to regulate the supply 

 which each apartment shall receive from this general or 

 main stream by adjusting its own upper outlet. In our 

 English houses, with open chimneys, all such systematic, 

 scientific ventilation is impossible, on account of the domi- 

 nating, interfering, useless, and comfort-destroying cur- 

 rents produced by these wasteful air-shafts. 



I should add that the Kussian porcelain reservoirs may 

 be constructed for a heat supply of a few hours or for a 

 whole day, and I need say nothing further in refutation of 

 the common British prejudice which confounds so ad- 

 mirable and truly scientific a contrivance with the iron 

 fire-pot above referred to. 



There is another kind of stove, which, for the sake of 

 distinction, I may call Scandinavian, -as it is commonly used 

 in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, besides some parts of 

 North Germany. This is -a tall, hollow iron pillar, of rect- 

 angular section, varying from three to six feet in width, 

 and rising half-way to the ceiling of the room, and some- 

 times higher. A fire is lighted at the lower part, and the 

 products of combustion, in their way upwards, meet with 

 horizontal iron plates, which deflect them first to the Tight, 

 then to the left, and thus compel them to make a long ser- 

 pentine journey before they reach the chimney. By this 



