1830-1 
On the Rumford Grate . 
163 
IX. — Description of the Rum ford Grate . 
To the Editor of Gleanings in Science. 
Sir, 
Although fires are not much required in this country, yet it is by no means 
uncommon up here, where we have the weather colder than you have in Bengal. 
As I often hear complaints of the misery attending this luxury, in the shape of 
smoke, allow me to offer the following account of a fire place, called a Rumford, 
which appears to be deserving the consideration of those who wish for relief, or 
about to build, and especially to those who retire to the hills, where fires are 
almost constantly used. 
The plan is by no means new ; yet, as your work proposes to be a republication 
of interesting matter, it may not be foreign to your purpose. 
A.B. Circular grate 9 or 
f-'ee/ to iu,-A J.0 inches in diameter. 
C.D. 18 inches. 
E. The ash pit extending 
below the grate. 
F. F.F F. The Nob. 
G. The chimney in front 
of the grate, being an open- 
ing of 6 inches by 2 into 
the flue of the usual size ; 
the whole heat is thrown 
out, and strongly propels 
the smoke and flame H.H. 
With great force up through 
the small aperture into the 
flue. 
A small quantity of fuel 
is required (much cannot be 
used) , giving a greater heat 
in the room than a large 
common fire. 
When no fire is required 
the small aperture is easily 
stopped up, preventing any 
unpleasant smell from the 
chimney, as is often experi- 
enced in commonfire places. 
The circular grate is mere- 
ly a round hole in the wall, with three or four grates going along the bottom, to 
allow the ashes to fall into the ash-pit. 
Any common fire place can easily be put on this plan by building up the place 
usually allotted for the grate quite up to the front of the chimney-piece at I, leaving 
the small aperture in front, the circular hole, and ash-pit : this masonry should 
be 8 or 9 inches behind the line of wall of the house. 
While I am on this subject I may as well mention a complaint often made by 
indigo manufacturers, of not being able in wet weather to heat their boilers, which 
is owing to the circumstance of the native attendant heaping a quantity of wet 
plant (the fuel used) on the fire, and, as a matter of course, either puts it out, or 
produces more smoke than heat ; if attention had been paid to the manner the 
natives heat their sugar boilers in wet weather, the remedy (a very simple one) 
might have suggested itself, — viz. by adding small quantities at a time: it would be 
easy to give an order to this effect, but to insure its being obeyed, let the aperture 
into the tire be made small, a foot in diameter, or even less. The native attending 
the fire will make objections to the plan, as feeding the fire will require his con- 
stant care : it will scarcely be possible for him, however, to put it out, as the small 
quantity of fuel he can put in, dries instantly, and flames before he can smother it 
with more. 
Obsecro tuum est ? vetus credideram. 
Upper Dooal , January , 1830. Z, 
