13 
FIRES WITHOUT SMOKE. 
An article has appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, and been copied into the 
Farmer's Journal, and elsewhere, which calls the public attention to what it styles, 
the smoke nuisance : from it we collect that an attempt has again beep made, 
which promises to effect the desired object of making a fire consume its own smoke. 
We propose to offer a few pertinent remarks on this subject, but cannot refrain 
from previously extracting the few following lines, which refer to the philosophy 
of combustion. 
" The perfect combustion of any inflammable substance depends upon two 
circumstances — the presence of a sufficient quantity of pure air to afford oxygen, 
and a degree of heat sufficiently high and steady, to bring about the perfect union 
of all the inflammable particles with oxygen." 
In volume ii. of this magazine, p. 244, there is a paper on hot-houses, ta 
which we beg to refer : the wood-cuts will exhibit the action of the smoke, and 
the profile of a furnace constructed originally by Mr. Witty, which had been 
announced with high promises. We know that such furnaces are extremely 
expensive in the first instance, have all but failed to obviate the nuisance of smoke, 
and have given little comparative or efficient heat to the flues. Now, were it 
possible to decompose coal in the common furnaces, and to bring the gases it yields 
into contact with burning and bright fuel, the hydro-carbonous matters would be 
ignited, and the action of the flues rendered extremely strong. In the gas-works 
the volatile products of coal are carried off by the process of distillation : a great 
quantity of water and of liquid tar are produced, and the gaseous fluids, after 
being purified by lime, are converted into that highly inflammable air that supplies 
our streets and houses with a splendour of light which they who recollect what 
the lighting of by-gone years was, can alone duly appreciate. 
As is the illuminating^ such also is the heating power of this wondrous agent. 
This fact we now desire to impress upon the mind of every one who contemplates 
improvements of heating forcing-houses without smoke ; but shall not say more on 
the subject till w^e have paid some little attention to the improvement of ordinary 
fire-places. 
The open furnace can never be made to furnish the same products as the close 
retorts of the gas works ; but the more closely the action of that furnace can be 
made to approach that of the retort, the more efficient will its products become. 
At page 186 of the fourth volimie, we recommended a form of grating which 
certainly might be rendered a great improvement. The direct object in heating 
a flue is to render that black smoke which lines the brickwork with soot, a 
