46 



ECONOMY IN FUEL. 



to 30 minutes (according to the weather), and then to 

 add a little fine coal. When this is fairly lighted 

 the grate is well raked out to clear away the ashes. 

 This must not be done until the first coal is lighted, be- 

 cause by this time the old coal is so nearly burned out 

 that it is easily put out if disturbed. As soon as the 

 fresh coal is burning briskly more fine coal is added 

 and then all the sifted coal that has accumulated during 

 the day is put on the fire, covering it over quite dark. 

 In a moment blue flames appear and in from 15 to 

 30 minutes, according to the weather, all the coal will 

 be a glowing mass of yellow fire. If it is red or w'hite, 

 the draft has been on too long. A little experience will 

 show how long to leave the full draft, but the fire should 

 never be allowed to reach the white hot stage. Such a 

 fire will last from ten to thirty-six hours with a slow 

 draft in quiet weather and be sufficiently alive to start a 

 fresh fire at the end of that time. The average time is, 

 however, about ten hours. The treatment of the fire 

 next morning is very simple. Give full draft till the fire 

 burns up brightly ; add a little fine coal. When alight, 

 rake out ashes and add large coal. When this is started 

 fill up with small coal. About once in ten days the fire 

 should be allowed to go out in order to give the furnace 

 a complete cleaning out. The writer's experience has 

 been confined to hard coal. Soft coal burns faster than 

 anthracite, and while it differs in this respect, the actual 

 work of stoking bituminous coals is just as much of an 

 art, and requires the same skill, judgment and observa- 

 tion in governing the fire according to the conditions of 

 the sky and the direction and force of the wind. 



GAS AS FUEL. 



Within the past fifteen years the people of this 

 country have been given a great object lesson in the 

 economy of fuel. The discovery of natural gas has led 

 tens of thousands of people to consider in their own 

 homes the only really scientific method of economizing 

 fuel. Coal we have had for about a hundred years, and 

 in all that time we have known that gas is also a fuel. 

 We knew all along that gas could be used in cook stoves 

 and in steam and hot-water boilers and in hot-air fur- 

 naces, and yet it is only since the discovery of natural 

 gas that we have as a people wakened to a full sense of 

 the value of gas fuels. Even now, while the matter is 

 well understood (see The American Garden for October, 

 page 346), it is diflScult to realize that gas is better than 

 coal. Natural gas is only found m a limited district. 

 It is wholly uncertain how long it will last, but if the 

 gas territory should grow smaller and smaller, year by 

 year, even if it should wholly fail, its benefits will be last- 

 ing. Coal must and probably always will be our great 

 fuel. Natural gas has taught us how to use it. Coal may 

 be used directly in our furnaces or indirectly, as when it 

 is turned into a gas and then burned as a fuel. There 

 can be no question that the indirect method is the best 

 and the time may come when it will be largely used. 



To ascertain if gas can be used to heat hot-air, hot- 

 water and steam boilers for dwellings and greenhouses. 



The American Garden wrote to all the leading makers 

 of furnaces and boilers in the country and received 

 fourteen letters in reply from the best manufacturers in 

 the business. Of these, ten report that their furnaces 

 and boilers are already used with natural gas. Two 

 report that they have not sold any furnaces or boilers 

 for use with natural gas, but are sure that fuel can be 

 used in their apparatus. Two others report that their 

 apparatus is not adapted to natural gas. Natural gas, 

 as far as its actual use as fuel is concerned, does not 

 differ from artificial gas. In fact, some of these makers 

 report that street gas is used in their systems. In ad- 

 dition to these letters from the makers, letters were re- 

 ceived from florists and others reporting the successful 

 use of natural gas in heating greenhouses both by steam 

 and hot water. 



In England small greenhouse heating apparatuses 

 burning street gas, have been used in a limited way for 

 some time. Gas fuels, both natural and artificial, are 

 used in cook stoves in all our cities and not less than ten 

 thousand families use gas stoves to-day in this country 

 for all their cooking. Hotels and restaurants use gas 

 largely, and the great Brunswick Hotel, New York, has 

 recently entirely removed its coal ranges and has put in 

 gas ranges for all the cooking of that elegant and fashion- 

 able hotel. The writer's own house depends wholly 

 on gas for cooking, bread-making and for all the hot 

 water used in the laundry and bath room. 



The cost of gas may be a trifle more than coal, 

 but the real cost per gallon of hot water in the bath or 

 wash tubs and per pound of bread baked is less, be- 

 cause no wages are paid for lugging coal from the cel- 

 lar and carrying out ashes to the yard. There is no 

 dust, no smoke, no delayed breakfast, no coal burning 

 for hours after the cooking is done. Breakfast is served 

 inside of twenty minutes after the kitchen is opened in 

 the morning and the kitchen is clean, sweet and free 

 from dust and heat. It is cold on winter mornings, 

 but a register from the furnace soon warms the room 

 and one burner in the sto\'e keeps it warm all day. 



The price of gas has been $2, and the average cost 

 has been $8.65 per month. For this we had the entire 

 cooking, including bread-making for three people and 

 occasional company, all the hot water for the bath room 

 and all the hot water for the laundry, and for warming 

 the room on cold da3's ; also light for two gas lamps 

 burning four hours every night. The price is very 

 high and in many places it would be less and the cost 

 less. A good range with water-back would consume 

 not less than one ton of coal a month, or $6 for the coal 

 and 50 cents for kindling, and then there would be the 

 cost of the two gas lamps. Besides this there would 

 have been the cost of service in handling the coal and 

 wood and removing ashes. If these things have not to 

 be done, clearly the wages paid for service are gained 

 by using the ser\'ice in other directions. The subject is 

 a large one and next month it is proposed to consider 

 gas furnaces and stoves more in detail. 



Charles Barnard. 



