INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



funnel of a bellows which is attached to its outer end. 

 By the addition of metal plates this arrangement be- 

 comes serviceable also for cooking. 



It is curious to find that the principle of the hot- 

 air furnace was discovered prior to the seemingly simple 

 device of the chimney. In the time of Seneca, Roman 

 baths were equipped with underground stoves from 

 which hot air was conducted by means of pipes around 

 the walls of the building. These pipes opened into 

 the rooms by apertures similar to registers, except 

 that they were so designed as to be ornamental. They 

 were usually carved in the form of animals' heads. 



The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum have 

 thrown more light on the private houses of antiquity 

 than it was possible to receive from literature. Till 

 recently it was believed that the use of glass for windows 

 was of modern origin, but the discovery of a sheet of 

 plate glass at Herculaneum gives us one more glimpse 

 of the finished civilization which existed before the 

 Christian era. 



The origin and early history of glass manufacture 

 is obscure, but we do know that the first glass factory 

 known to history was at Tyre. Glass was known at 

 Rome in the time of Tiberius, when an artist was 

 alleged to have discovered the secret of making it 

 flexible. For this miracle he was condemned to death. 

 Glass was used for ornaments and for household uten- 

 sils in the barbarous island of Britain before Caesar and 

 his legions entered it, but it was not employed for win- 

 dows till after the Norman Conquest, and then only in 

 dwellings of great elegance. During the reign of 



