INTRODUCTION. 



charged; the rest is conveyed by flues on each side the ship to the 

 cabins of the commander and other officers. The velocity of the warm 

 air current through an aperture two feet square is about five or six 

 feet per second." This stove was intended by the inventor to con- 

 sume only five pecks, or a bushel and a quarter of coals, by a constant 

 fire throughout the twenty-four hours ; but even this quantity was 

 found more than sufficient, except during the most severe part of the 

 second winter. The galley-fire was turned with its face aft, which 

 served to impart much more warmth, as well as a more cheerful 

 appearance, to the lower deck. This plan had not been before adopted 

 because it was understood that the fire would not draw so well ; but 

 the reverse of this was, on trial, found to be the case. 



I must not here omit to notice a simple, ingenious, and effectual 

 contrivance, now first adopted, for melting snow for our consumption 

 as water, during the winter months, without any additional expense of 

 fuel. The smoke issuing from the galley-fire, and indeed its heat 

 generally, does little or no service beyond the ordinary purposes of 

 cooking to which it is applied. It occurred to Messrs. Lambe and 

 Nicholson to occupy a portion of the aperture through which the 

 smoke ascends, by a metallic vessel or tank of considerable capacity, 

 allowing the smoke to pass freely up on each side of it, and thus to 

 communicate a constant heat to the vessel. In the top of the tank is 

 a large circular hole for supplying it with snow from the upper deck, 

 and in the lower part is inserted a cock for drawing off the water. 

 This apparatus, which was so little in the way that it could not even 

 be seen, produced without any increase of fuel, and with the tempera- 

 ture of the external atmosphere nearly at zero, sixty-five gallons of 



^ v. 



pure water from morning till night ; a quantity, of course, more than 



