Economy of Fuel. 319 



of these objects, but particularly the former, the most astonishmg dis- 

 regard of economy is often perceptible, as well in the arrangements 

 for burning, as in the manner and extent in which the heat is applied. 



So long as the original forests of our country were standing, little 

 importance was attached to this branch of economy. The burning 

 of a huge mass of cord-wood in a broad open-mouthed chimney, 

 supplied to a certain extent, the desired temperature, and involved 

 as a consequence, the production of such currents of air as effec- 

 tually prevented stagnation in the atmosphere of apartments. Hence 

 the occupants were seldom exposed to the peculiar maladies which 

 arise from a stifled air. 



Indeed, the rude and almost primitive method of heating apart- 

 ments, then in use, rendered their inmates subject to a contrast of 

 sensations, quite as striking as that paradox, which the philosopher 

 exhibits, when by the ebullition of one liquid, he causes the simulta- 

 neous congelation of another. The chilling blast which assailed one 

 part of the person, vied strangely with the scorching radiance which 

 beset the opposite. 



The present expensiveness of fuel, renders it desirable to arrange 

 our houses in some manner different from the ancient method ; so 

 as at once to limit the consumption of fuel, and to secure an ample 

 supply of wholesome air. The latter requisite is too often sacrificed 

 to the mere elevation of temperature. Not only is the composition 

 of the air allowed to be deteriorated by frequent respiration, but its 

 hygrometric state is sometimes such, as to operate most injuriously on 

 the system. Nature is, in general, careful to supply our lungs with 

 air capable of receiving from them some portion of moisture ; if this 

 portion be either too great or too small, the lungs, and eventually the 

 whole body, will suffer either from the excess or the deficiency. To 

 regulate this quantity is one part of our own duty. 



The gradual introduction of mineral fuel, especially of anthracite, 

 will probably introduce some changes in domestic arrangements, 

 which will supersede the use of those more bulky, troublesome, and 

 unsafe materials, heretofore employed in combustion. The conse- 

 quences of such changes, if judiciously made, will doubtless be the 

 diminution of expense, the saving of labor, the gaining of comfort, 

 and the economizing of space and lime. 



Those awkward projections which now encumber and deform ouv 

 apartments, under the name of chimnies, filling, in many cases, from 

 one-twentieth to one-sixteenth of the whole area of the room, and 



