626 EjfecU of Fire and Water, 



flat pipes, is certainly, in the culture of grapes, highly detri- 

 mental. I do believe that, in houses of moderate size, with 

 continued careful management, almost all descriptions of garden 

 produce may be obtained in great perfection by the use of well- 

 built brick flues. On the other hand, however, I should say 

 that no system of heating can be more dangerous, if carelessly at- 

 tended to ; for, if the fire burns too fiercely, the flue is liable to get 

 so heated at the fire end as to parch, and even burn, every thing 

 near it; and, by imprudent conduct in moistening it, to raise va- 

 pour, in that state, the greatest danger is to be apprehended, as 

 well from breaking the flue as from scalding the fruit and foliage, 

 This unequal heating of the flue is one of the greatest evils of 

 the system ; not only as being dangerous, but also inefficient in 

 producing the necessary equal temperature at both ends of the 

 house. 



As regards moisture in the atmosphere of a house thus heated, 

 I tried panelled flue covers, and found that a great deal of the 

 water that I put into the panels did not evaporate in the house, 

 but was drawn by the heat into the soot, on the inner side of the 

 flue cover, and consequently went up the chimney ; and thus, not 

 only was the benefit of the vapour lost to the house, but the fire 

 would not draw so well, having to pass through a damp flue. 

 I therefore had the panels painted, and found that the same 

 quantity of water in the panels, now stopped from filtering into 

 the flue, lasted twice as long in supplying vapour to the house. 

 Before I leave this subject, I would just throw out a few hints, 

 that may be of some service to inexperienced stokers. Now, 

 there is nothing more common than to see such persons with the 

 'wrong end of thejire foremost ; that is to say, with coals, dust, 

 or scoria (clinkers), forming a bank behind the fire, that is 

 between the blaze and the flue ; and yet having the furnace door 

 red, from a blazing fire in front. Now, with a proper double 

 furnace door, having a vacuity between the plates, and a flue, or 

 other heating apparatus, anything like sufficient for the space to 

 be heated, there can be no necessity for burning the furnace 

 door in this manner. But here, lest my brethren of the fire 

 should think that I am insulting their common sense, by 

 attempting to instruct them how to make a fire ; I must be 

 allowed to confess, that I have made blazing fires for years, and 

 burnt many a furnace door off" the hinges, before I was shown 

 how to make a fire that should act with greater force upon the 

 flue, and with very little, if any, upon the furnace door. As 

 soon in the morning as the sunshine or the mildness of the 

 weather would permit us to withdraw the fires, the grates were 

 cleaned of every particle of live coal, clinker, dust, &c. ; these 

 being well soaked with water, were afterwards riddled, the 

 clinkers picked out, and the ashes and cinders placed in separate 



