TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 231 



total of 98 or 99 millions of tons of coal which in 1869 were retained for home use, 

 18§ millions of tons, about one fifth of that quantity, were consumed for domestic 

 purposes (about 10 millions being exported). 



We all of us know so intimately the way in which coals are bm-nt for domestic 

 purposes that I fear it will seem an idle waste of time to describe it. Neverthe- 

 less I really must occupy a few moments in so doing. We put a grate imme- 

 diately below and within a chimney, and as this chimney is formed of brickwork, 

 by no possibility can more than the most minute amount of heat be communicated 

 I'rom the chimney to the room. On this grate we make an open fire : fire cannot 

 bm-n without air, and we provide no means whatever for the air to come into the 

 fire ; this is a provision that not one architect or builder in a thousand dreams of 

 making. The consequence is that the unhappy fire has, as it were, to struggle for 

 existence. In a well-built house especially it has to struggle ; for the doors and 

 windows shut tightly. The result is that the fire is always smoking, or is on the 

 verge of smoking. We breathe the noxious gases and we spoil our fiu-niture and 

 pictures ; nevertheless, happily for us, the firo does succeed in getting supplies of 

 air which, even although insufficient for the wants of the chimney draught, do 

 renew the air of the room. If to satisfy the demands of the chimney and to stop 

 its smoking a window is left a little open or a door is set ajar, we complain of 

 draughts, and we complain of the uuhomely look caused by sitting in a room with 

 an open door ; so'that tliere we are, with an asphixiated fire, our smoky rooms, and 

 our draughty rooms. Moreover, the fire being immediately below the chimney, 

 the main part of the conducted heat inevitably goes up it and is wasted, leaving 

 the room to be warmed principally, if not entirely, by the radiated heat ; and we do 

 iind suffer aU this in order that we may see the fire and be able to poke it. For 

 myself I must confess that if there was no cure for the evils I have described other 

 than the close stoves of the Continent, with the invisible fire and with the want of 

 circulation of air in the room, I would rather put up with the whole of our present 

 domestic discomforts, and even with the loss of heat, than resort to the stove as a 

 remedy. But there are modes by which freedom from smoke, freedom from 

 draught, efficient ventilation, and utilization of the heat^may all be combined with 

 the presence of the visible pokable fire. Some members of this Association may 

 recollect the paper that was read before it at the Norwich Meeting in 18G8 by 

 Captain Douglas Galton, in which he so clearly described his admii-ably simple 

 invention of fire-grate. This consisted in putting a flue to the upper part of the 

 fire-grate, which flue passed through a brick chamber formed in the ordinary 

 chimney, which chamber was supplied with air from the exterior of the room by a 

 proper channel, and then the air, after being heated in contact with the flue in the 

 chamber, escaped into the room by openings near the ceiling, so that the room was 

 supplied -svith a copious volume of warm fresh air, which did away with all ten- 

 dency to draughts from the doors and windows, and, moreover, furnished an amplo 

 supply for the purposes of ventilation and combustion. These fire-places, I regret 

 to say, have been but little used in England, from a cause 1 shall have to advert to 

 hereafter — a cause which, as I believe, stands in the way of the adoption of improve- 

 ment generally. The merits of these fire-places were at once f.jknowledged by the 

 French, who made the most careful and scientific investigation of their working ; 

 and they found that with such fire-places three times the effect was obtained from 

 a given weight of coal that could be got with those of the ordinary construction. 

 No doubt there are many other plans by which the same end as that attained by 

 Captain Galton may be arrived at ; and yet we go on year after year building new 

 houses, making no improvement, exposing ourselves to all the annoyances, and, 

 worst of all, wasting the precious fuel. Assume that we were to set ourselves 

 vigorously to work to cure this state of things, can it be doubted that in ten years' 

 time we might halve the consumption per household, and do that not only without 

 inflicting any discomfort or depriving the householder of any gratification, but vath 

 an absolute addition to warmth and an increase of cleanliness, a benefit to health 

 and a saving of expense ? Moreover it must be remembered that with the imper- 

 fect combustion of domestic fires, large volumes of smoke are poured into the air. 

 We know how much freer from smoke town atmosphere is in summer time 

 ■than it is ia winter time, and this simply on account of the smaller quantitj^ of coal 



