1 38 Of the Management of Fire 



than the execution of the plan here proposed for ren- 

 dering them unnecessary. 



The areas before the fire-place door of the large 

 boilers in the kitchen of the Foundling Hospital are 

 occasionally closed by trap-doors. As often as this is 

 done there must be a number of small holes bored in 

 the door to permit the air necessary for feeding the fire 

 to descend into the ash-pit ; and when the bottom of 

 the passage leading into the fire-place happens to lie 

 above the level of the upper surface of this trap-door, 

 the part of the door immediately under this opening 

 should, to prevent accidents from live coals which may 

 occasionally fall out of the fire-place, be covered with a 

 thin plate of sheet iron. 



When large boilers are fitted up in situations where 

 it is not possible to sink an area in front of the fire- 

 place, the mass of brick-work in which the boiler is set 

 must be raised, and steps must be made to approach it. 

 When this is done, the upper step should be made very 

 wide (at least 2 feet), in order that there may be room 

 to stand and work in the boiler ; and, for still greater 

 convenience, the steps should be continued round three 

 sides of the boiler, when the boiler stands in a detached 

 mass of brick-work. The bottom of the door of the 

 fire-place should, if possible, be above the upper flat 

 surface of the upper step ; and, to preserve the symmetry 

 of the whole, the ash-pit door may be in the front of the 

 upper step, and the passage into the ash-pit (which will 

 be long of course) may descend in a gentle slope. In 

 this manner the kitchen of the Hospital of La Picta at 

 Verona was constructed. 



No inconvenience whatever attends the increase of 

 the length of the passage into the ash-pit, except it be 



