254 On the Management of Hothouse Flues. 



An objection may possibly be made to the trouble of so 

 many kindlings of the fire ( twice a day). But if there be a 

 provision made, and kept at hand, of materials proper for this 

 purpose, such as a tinder box or a phosphorus bottle, 

 matches, and some small faggots of a proper size for the fur- 

 nace, each made with a handful of dry sticks, with a few 

 shavings or dry straw bound up with them, I presume this 

 objection will be considered to have very little weight, for the 

 charred coals left in the grate at closing up, being warm as 

 well as dry, presently take fire from the application of a very 

 small quantity of ignited matter. The flue likewise being 

 warm, a quick draught ensues, and blows up the fire in an 

 instant. In stoves situated at no greater distance than 50 or 60 

 yards from the dwelling house, the furnaces may be lighted 

 (as mine constantly is) by a shovelfull of live coals taken from 

 the bottom of the kitchen grate without either wood or straw. 



Very serious injury is frequently occasioned in stoves and 

 hothouses, by the flues getting over heated, from the wind 

 unexpectedly rising high in the night, and accelerating the 

 draught of the furnace when no one is at hand to regulate it; or 

 from the soot taking fire, when the flues have been neglected 

 to be cleaned in time. Under the above system, all accidents 

 of this kind are effectually prevented from happening in the 

 night. And should the soot take fire at any time by day it 

 may be presently extinguished by first taking the fire from the 

 furnace grate, and then excluding the air as above described, 

 I remain, &c. 



George Swayne. 



Dyrham, January 14, 1825. 



