AT OUR HOMES 



215 



The poet in his later years could well forget that in the 

 big living room of his boyhood days, with face burning from 

 the heat of the open fire, there was scarcely a place where 

 his feet at the same time were not chilled in the rush along 

 the floor of cold air from every doorway crack to feed the 

 chimney's draft. In memories of the "Dear home faces 

 whereupon the fitful firelight paled and shone" the hard- 

 ships incident to a winter's cold in the homes of those early 

 days were doubtless forgotten. 



FIG. 69. Birthplace of Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine. 



In time the woodlands were largely cleared for cultivation, 

 the trees it may be having been burned just to get rid of them- 

 The old-fashioned fireplace was closed. More and more 

 generally from about 1830 onward stoves began to come into 

 use as heaters and for cooking purposes. Coal as a fuel was 

 discovered in Pennsylvania about 1820. The rapid increase 

 in amounts used for industrial purposes, however, dates from 

 about 1880. 



The production and distribution of the enormous amounts 



