By the Rev. George Swayne. 249 



coal heap ? But this closure, in order to be effective, must, 

 I conceive, be air-tight, or nearly so ; and therefore cannot be 

 made with due effect by means of the common iron furnace 

 doors : not even by the double doors, with registers, now, I 

 believe, pretty generally in use. Nor will iron slides (or 

 dampers as they are commonly termed) be more efficient; 

 for neither of these can be made to shut so close, but that 

 air will pass through or around them. And however well- 

 fitted we may suppose them to be, at first, they will not 

 (from the rough usage as well as the alternate expansion 

 and contraction to which they are exposed in that situation) 

 long continue so ; but will soon become loose and have vacui- 

 ties around them. And whenever there is an aperture, even, 

 if that aperture be on the top of the chimney, a stream of 

 cold air will continually descend, on one side, whilst the 

 warm is ascending on the other, till the flues and the body 

 of air contained therein become of equal temperature with the 

 super-incumbent atmosphere, Some other contrivance, then, 

 becomes necessary for this purpose, which by common ingenui- 

 ty, will, in most cases, be found of difficult accomplishment. 



Iam possessed of a small experimental stove, I may call it 

 a diminutive one, and that this epithet is not inappropriate, I 

 think you will allow when I state its dimensions to be only 

 twelve feet nine inches in length by somewhat less than ten 

 feet in width, inside measure. In the management of this 

 little stove during the last winter (the first of my possession 

 of it) yielding to the prejudices of my gardening servant, I 

 suffered him to follow the directions of his books, as well as 

 the example of his brother practitioners in the neighbourhood, 

 by making up a large fire in the furnace, just before bed time, 

 then damping it down, as it is termed, with ashes on the top, 



vol. vi. K k 



