66 COMMON SENSE 
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the house is then warmer than the outside, from several:causes. It 
may be that the walls and floor are giving off the heat they took 
‘in during warmer weather, or the birds themselves warm. up the 
air, or heat is derived from some artificial source. In any case 
the greater the difference between the outside and inside tempera- 
tures, the more rapidly will the cold air try to get in and displace. 
the warm air. Hence, the closeness with which this house was 
built, so that in winter these drafts might be stopped, while in sum- 
mer, by opening the window and the large ventilator at the other 
end, and removing the straw or leaves from under the roof, a free 
current of air would be established.. , 
In addition to the earth-heat derived from the bank in which the 
house was built, and the warmth of the fowls themselves, the heat 
required for cooking was utilized in the following manner: On 
the outside and near the front of the house was arranged a 15 
gallon boiler or kettle. It was “set” in brick with a large grate 
beneath it, and the smoke and hot gases were carried through a 
horizontal brick flue which passed across the house along the front 
wall and about six inches from it, as seen in the engraving. The 
chimney was on the opposite side of the house, as shown. ‘The 
brick setting of the boiler was enclosed .with a small wooden 
porch provided with a door, and there were openings from this 
porch into the building, so that the heat might be allowed to pass 
in when desired. ‘These openings could be tightly closed by shut- 
ters when this was thought best. In order to start the draft. 
through such a long horizontal flue, the bottom of the boiler was 
lower than the floor of the house, the whole path from the porch 
to the front of the glass house being made lower also. In this 
way no difficulty was found in getting the flue to draw, especially 
as we always commenced the fire by burning a lot of brush, which 
gave a large flame and quickly heated the air all through the flue 
and chimney. There was also a flat piece of sheet.iron which we 
used as a blower. This brought the opening into the fire-place as 
low as possible. When the fire was once started the draught was 
excellent. : 
Now, as a horse, cow and several pigs were kept on the place, 
