26 



ON A NEW SMOKE-CONSUMING AND FUEL-SAVING FIKE PLACE. 



[1854. 



of gas in a room or Louse, of wliieh occurrence there have been 

 sonic destructive instances, cannot happen where there is the 

 ventilating chimney-valve, for cold coal gas entering a chimney- 

 flue produces a more powerful draught than hot air does. 



; ro 



10. The improved chimney draught in attic or upper rooms 

 ■will make these more valuable, and will increase the comfort 

 of low houses and cottages. 



11. It would, moreover, be convenient occasionally to carry 

 the flue of a close stove, or bath, or the ventilating tube from 

 lamps in staircases, into any acting chimney. 



12. This torch-fire (as some have called it, because it burns 

 from above downwards, like a torch or candle) is remarkably 

 adapted also for the purpose of the kitchen 



13. The change of any existing grate of an old fashion into 



this is easy and inexpensive, and by having a piston-plate with 

 holes it can be used as a common grate. 



14. Any kind of coal or coke may be used in this gi-ate, even 

 the small culm or coal-dust, which is very cheap. In a common 

 grate, coke or Welsh stone coal would be objectionable, because 

 containing chiefly heavy carbonic acid instead of the steam and 

 carburetted hydrogen of bituminous coal, and the gas, which is 

 poisonous, might spread in the room, but by the strong draught 

 of the hood this could not hapjien. 



I might extend this list, but I need not. 



Before concluding, I may direct attention to the remarkable 

 fact, only of late well understood, that of the only four great 

 necessaries of life, or things which Providence has left to man 

 in various parts of the earth to procure for himself, namely, fit 

 . air, temperature, aliment, and work alternating with rest, — the 

 skilful management of a domestic fire goes far to secure the two 

 first-named, viz., fit air and warmth ; but these are the last 

 which men come to understand well, Ijecause they are invisible 

 and impalpable, and, therefore, to be perceived only by the eye 

 of the mind after much cultivation. 



The diagram represents a common fire-place, with mantel, 

 r s, or chimney-piece, two jambs, and a common grate with two 

 bars and bottom, to which four parts the essentials of the new 

 fire-place are added, e / g h is a, box or receptacle of iron to 

 contain the charge of coal for the day with its open mouth 

 placed where the bottom bars of the grate had been. It may 

 stand on feet on the hearth, or may be fixed to the grate. — 

 Besides its fixed bottom, </ Ji it has also a moveable bottom, s.s, 

 like a piston, on which the coal.immediately rests, and is lifted 

 as wanted, or let down as the piston moves ; a piston-rod passes 

 through the fixed bottom, steadied by a g-uide-hole in the stirrup 

 or bar, ij, below. The piston-rod has notches or openings in 

 it to receive the points of the poker, jj o, which acting as a 

 lever, having its fulcrum in the foot of the box or otherwise, 

 lifts the piston. A catch or pall, k, falls into the notches as 

 the piston rises, to prevent its return until desired. In the 

 centre of the bottom front is a door which is opened at will to 

 admit a little air if wanted, or for removing small coal or ashes 

 which fall past the piston. Where the grate is set low, a small 

 opening is made in the hearth to allow the end of the piston to 

 descend. 



a h y is a hood or cover for the fire, like an inverted funnel 

 opened in front, placed over the fire to contract the open space 

 there, and to receive the true smoke of the fire and convey it 

 little diluted into the chimney-flue at y. f is a valve or damper, 

 placed in the narrow part of the stalk of the hood to give com- 

 plete control of the current of air passing through. There is 

 an index externally, showing clearly always the position of the 

 valve. 1/ V marks the direction of the chimney-flue in the wall, 

 having generally to bend to one side to avoid the fii-e-plaee in the 

 room above, v is the ventilating chimney-valve, admitting air 

 from near the top of the room to the flue, balanced nearly on 

 its centre of gravity, so that the least pressure from without 

 opens it inwards, but any pressure from within, as of smoke, 

 closes it. There is a wire descending from the valve, with a 

 screw or loop-peg, for partially or wholly closing it. There is 

 a channel underneath the hearth by which fresh air directly 

 from the atmosphere, enters the room, to be warmed under 

 the fender or near the fire, and then to spread in the room. 

 It has a controlling valve. 



