i873«] Limits of oar Coal Supply, 345 



superstition of this form of fire-worship. Tell one of the 

 idolators that his household god is wasteful and extra- 

 vagant, that five-sixths of the heat from his coal goes up 

 the chimney, and he replies, " I don't care if it does ; I can 

 afford to pay for it. I like to see the fire, and have the 

 right to waste what is my own." Tell him that healthful 

 ventilation is impossible while the lower part of a room 

 opens widely into a heated shaft, that forces currents of 

 cold air through door and window leakages, which unite to 

 form a perpetual chilblain stratum on the floor, and leaves 

 all above the mantel-piece comparatively stagnant. Tell 

 him that no such things as " draughts " should exist in a 

 properly warmed and ventilated house, and that even with a 

 thermometer at zero outside, every part of a well ordered 

 apartment should be equally habitable, instead of merely a 

 semi-circle about the hearth of the fire-worshipper ; and he 

 shuts his ears, locks up his understanding, because his 

 grandfather and grandmother believed that the open- 

 mouthed chimney was the one and only true English means 

 of ventilation. 



But suppose we were to say, " You love a cheerful blaze, 

 can afford to pay for it, and therefore care not how much 

 coal you waste in obtaining it. We also love a cheerful 

 blaze, but have a great aversion to coal-smoke and tarry 

 vapours ; and we find that we can make a beautiful fire, 

 quite inoffensive even in the middle of the room, provided 

 we feed it with stale quartern loaves. We know that such 

 fuel is expensive, but can afford to pay for it, and choose to 

 do so." Would he not be shocked at the sight of the 

 blazing loaves, if this extravagance were carried out? 



This popular inconsistency of disregarding the waste of a 

 valuable and necessary commodity, of which the supply is 

 limited and absolutely unrenewable, while we have such 

 proper horror of wilfully wasting another similar commodity 

 which can be annually replaced as long as man remains in 

 living contact with the earth, will gradually pass away when 

 rational attention is directed to the subject. If the recent 

 very mild suggestion of a coal-famine does something 

 towards placing coal on a similar pedestal of popular 

 veneration to that which is held by the " staff of life," the 

 million a week that it has cost the coal consumer will have 

 been profitably invested. 



Many who were formerly deaf to the exhortations of fuel 

 economists are now beginning to listen. "Forty shillings 

 per ton " has acted like an incantation upon the spirit of 

 Count Rumford. After an oblivion of more than 80 years, 



