Notices inspecting New Books. 301 



ing surface to the room. (2) The most suitable materials must be 

 used for the construction of the grate. The back and sides should 

 be made of fire-bricks, fire-lumps, or fire-stones, not on any account 

 of cast iron. For ordinary use, Welsh are better than Stourbridge 

 fire-bricks ; for though they do not stand intense heat, they are less 

 liable to be broken by a blow of a poker. (3) The best form of 

 fire-bars must be used ; our author, however, does not make it plain 

 which form is the best, straight bars having one advantage, curved 

 bars another. He tells us that for a room 10 feet each way (con- 

 taining, therefore, 1000 cubic feet) 12-inch bars are long enough ; 

 and there should be two additional inches for every additional thousand 

 feet of cubic contents. (4) The fire should be kept in a basket of 

 fire-brick, and the supply of air from below should be checked. (5) 

 The escape of the warm air of the room into the chimney should be 

 checked. This is to be done by improving the form of the chimney, 

 and by placing in the chimney a door that can be opened or shut by 

 hand, instead of the ordinary register-valve, which in practice is rarely 

 used. By these means no more air is allowed to pass up the chim- 

 ney than is needed for carrying off the smoke. (6) Air for combus- 

 tion should be supplied from a source near the fireplace instead of 

 from the doors and windows. This may be done by bringing an 

 air-channel under the floor from the outside wall to the hearthstone, 

 the mouth of the channel being capable of being closed by a sliding 

 valve. By this means the fire is fed by cold air from without 

 instead of by the warm air of the room. It may be added that the 

 author urges that windows should be double glazed, and that the 

 heat which escapes by the chimneys should be utilized. 



Any one engaged in building a house or refitting a house with 

 stoves, will find the book well worth looking into, both for the many 

 useful hints which it contains, and for the diagrams with which it 

 is illustrated. In this view the book is the more to be relied on, as 

 we believe that Mr. Edwards is practically engaged in stove-making, 

 and, we may add, he has clearly paid great attention to the princi- 

 ples of his art. He states in his preface that " the matter of the " 

 volume "has been due to his own investigations ;" but we suppose 

 he would allow that mai - of his suggestions have been made by 

 others as well as by himself. 



Regarded from a literary point of view, the book contains several 

 passages which are somewhat curious specimens of style and senti- 

 ment. That on p. 16 is too long to quote, where the author pays 

 his tribute to the memory of the bellows, the warming pan, the fold- 

 ing screen, and the eight-day clock. Another, on p. 35, which 

 describes the extinction of hobs, runs as follows : — " Housewives 

 regretted the departure of the hob, but became reconciled to the 

 brass footman or hanging trivet. The time-honoured hob, however, 

 struggled to hold its own. It came out ornamental and put lower 

 down, and was cleverly recessed in corners ; but nothing could save 

 its gradual departure, and it is now becoming rapidly unknown." 



