REMARKS ON FUEL. 
187 
will pass the whole length of the house till it reach the west end, then turn to the 
back wall, pass under the door;, and into the chimney. Thus, the centre and east 
end will be heated pretty equally, and when the western extremity of the flue be 
found warm, the right damper must be opened and the left closed. The fire will 
now play into the right hand orifice of the back flue, and by a much shorter course 
of scarcely sixteen feet the smoke will pass into the exit flue, which enters the 
chimney Thus both ends of the house may be made of very equal temperature, 
and with a comparatively little expenditure of fuel. 
The builder must pay strict attention to the following rules of fire-work : — A 
brisk draught can only be procured by giving the neck of the fire-place a very con- 
siderable rise, before it enters the horizontal flues. The sloping flue should be 
so covered with earth and pavement, as to prevent any danger of a scorching heat 
before it pass into the real flues ; the whole body of fire may then be within the 
limits of the house, and no portion of its heat will be wasted in the open air. The 
dimensions of the flues may be four or five inches wide, by eight deep ; and with 
the exception of three or four feet on each side of the dampers, may be built of two 
bricks on edge capped with single nine-inch paving tiles. The two extremities near 
the entrance of the fire flue, should be built of three bricks laid flat and covered, 
first with house tiles well padded in mortar, and then over them with twelve-inch 
paving tiles. 
We have said, that one indispensable condition is a quick draught ; because 
without it there can be no possibility to heat sixty or seventy feet of flue. A 
torpid and inactive flue is a great source of waste of fuel as well as of time, but an 
active flue is always at command ; it speedily conveys heat to the extremity of the 
house, and thus secures the safety of plants which might be lost at a critical moment 
through the inactivity of the heating current ; and when the remote masonry has 
become sufficiently warm, the rapidity of combustion may be checked either by a 
damper in the chimney, or by stopping up the opening of the ash pit. Economy 
of fuel is perfectly consistent with ample and sufficient fires ; in fact, a good body of 
fuel, and a fire constantly kept in slow combustion during the severe weather, are 
to be recommended. They secure an equable temperature, and prevent the recurring 
expansion and contraction of the furnaces, which produce much injury to the brick 
and iron work. 
The wise regulation of the fire is one of greatest arts of the gardener, and they 
are the best economists who bring the furnace as speedily as possible into full action, 
and then add fuel in front of the red mass, restraining its combustion by either 
closing the ash-pit iron door, if such be allowed, or by piling bricks against the 
opening, so as nearly to exclude atmospheric air. Thus the fire may be set on two 
or three times a day ; then checked, by obstructing the draught of air during three 
or four hours. In closing up at night, the heated mass should be thrust forward 
towards the neck of the furnace ; a quantity of coal, placed upon the front plate and 
over the part of the fire next beyond that ; finally, the mouth of the furnace within 
the door banked up with moistened ashes, and the ash-pit nearly closed. 
