406 On the Construction of Kitchen 



cases from the use of portable kitchen fire-places in 

 this country. Convinced of the utility of this method 

 of cooking, I have taken considerable pains to inves- 

 tigate the subject experimentally, and to ascertain the 

 best forms for the furnaces and utensils necessary in 

 the practice of it. 



Portable furnaces for cooking are of two distinct 

 kinds: the one has a fire-place door for introducing 

 the fuel, the other has none ; and either of these may 

 or may not be furnished with a tube for carrying off 

 the smoke into the air or into a neighbouring chimney. 



When a portable kitchen furnace is constructed with- 

 out a fire-place door, as often as fuel is to be introduced 

 it will be necessary to remove the boiler, in order to 

 perform that operation. When the boiler is small, that 

 may easily be done ; and when the furnace stands out of 

 doors, or on the hearth within the draught of a chimney, 

 or when the fuel used produces little or no smoke, it 

 may be done without any considerable inconvenience. 

 But, if the boiler be large, it cannot be removed without 

 difficulty ; and when the furnace is placed within doors, 

 and the fuel used produces smoke or other noxious 

 vapours, the removing of the boiler, though it were but 

 for a moment, would be attended with very disagreeable 

 consequences. 



Small portable furnaces without fire-place doors may 

 be used within doors, provided they be heated with char- 

 coal ; but it will in that case always be advisable to fur- 

 nish them with small tubes of sheet iron for carrying off 

 the unwholesome vapour of the charcoal into the chim- 

 ney. Without such tubes to carry off the smoke, they 

 would not, it is true, be more disagreeable or more 

 detrimental to health than the stoves now generally 



