and the Economy of Fuel. 147 



this oven was to prevent the great loss of heat which is 

 occasioned in large ovens, by keeping the mouth of the 

 oven open for so considerable a length of time as is 

 necessary for putting in and drawing out the bread. As 

 one of these small ovens contains only five large loaves, 

 or cakes, it may be charged, or the bread when baked 

 may be drawn, in a moment; and during this time the 

 other five ovens are kept closed, and consequently are 

 not losing heat; one of them is heating, while the other 

 four are filled with bread in different stages of the 

 process of baking. 



When I constructed this oven, though I had no doubt 

 of its being perfectly well calculated for the use for which 

 it was principally designed, baking oaten cakes, which 

 are commonly baked on heated iron plates, yet I was 

 by no means sure it would answer for baking common 

 bread in large thick loaves. I had not made the exper- 

 iment. And though I could not conceive that any thing 

 more could be necessary in the process of baking than 

 heat, and here I was absolutely master of every degree 

 of it that could possibly be wanted, and could even reg- 

 ulate the succession of different degrees of it at pleasure, 

 I thought it probable that some particular manage- 

 ment might be required in baking bread in these metallic 

 ovens, a knowledge of which could only be acquired by 

 experience. 



What served to strengthen these suspicions was a 

 discovery which had accidentally been made by the 

 cook of the Military Academy. In the course of his 

 experiments, he found that my roaster is admirably 

 well calculated for baking pies, puddings, and pastry of 

 all kinds: provided, however, that the fire be man- 

 aged in a certain way ; for when the fire is managed 



