139 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
But notwithstanding the chimney is so 
venerable an institution, it has been employed 
with a very imperfect appreciation of physi¬ 
cal laws upon which it depends. Probably, 
says the writer from whom we quote, even 
at the present day, few of those who erect 
chimneys would be able to explain the con¬ 
ditions of their successful action ; while the 
learned chimney-doctor often fails in his 
diagnosis, and rashly prescribes for a mala¬ 
dy from which the patient may be free, 
while neglecting that which would be evi¬ 
dent to the eye of the man of science. 
It is often supposed either that smoke as¬ 
cends the chimney because it is lighter than 
the surrounding air, or that some mysterious 
power exists in the chimney by which the 
smoke is drawn up and discharged. That 
smoke is not lighter than air, the following 
experiment, devised by Dr. Franklin, will 
show. If a pipe of tobacco be lighted, the 
stem plunged to the bottom of a decanter 
half full of cold water, and the bowl covered 
with a piece of linen so that it may be blown 
through without burning the lips, the smoke 
will descend the stem of the pipe and bubble 
up through the liquid, and thus becoming 
cooled it will not rise out of the decanter, 
but will spread over the surface of the water. 
This shows that smoke is in reality heavier 
than air. 
But the murky cloud, which consists of 
carbon, hydrogen, carbonic acid, carbonic 
oxide, vapor of water and other products, is 
mixed with a large proportion of the air 
which enters the fire. It is this invincible 
column of heated air that by its expansive 
force carries with it the visible and less 
heated smoke, until it emerges from the top 
of the chimney, where it encounters the 
cold of the external atmosphere, loses its 
ascentive power, and unless some kindly 
breeze convey it speedily away, hangs like 
a cloud over the crowded city, or falls in 
minute particles of carbon, begrimming 
everything below. 
Air, then, being essential to the draught of 
chimneys, the quantity needed and the best 
mode of supplying it is an important inquiry 
in connection with the subject. Dr. Frank¬ 
lin's method of ascertaining in a rough way 
how much air is required to be admitted per 
minute, was to set the door ajar until the 
fire burnt properly, and gradually close it 
again until the smoke began to appear ; he 
then opened it a little wider, and if the 
width of the crevice w r as half an inch in a 
door of 8 feet high, the room would need an 
aperture equal to 48 square inches, ora hole 
6 inches by 8. Six inches square would 
probably be sufficient for the wants of most 
chimneys. 
But where to form this aperture is a diffi¬ 
cult question. If made in the door, it ad¬ 
mits a cold current to the back and feet of 
persons sitting near the fire, and also inter¬ 
feres with the privacy of the room ; if made 
in the window, it brings down a cataract of 
untempered air upon the head. The plan 
invented by Gauzier, a Frenchmen, who, a 
century and a half ago, described it in a 
work entitled “La Mecanique du Feu,” ap¬ 
pears to have great merit, and is now very 
generally used in this country for the pur¬ 
pose of supplying hot air furnaces. He 
opened a hole in the hearth, communicating 
with a channel which passed under the floor, 
and finally through an aperture in the wall 
of the house reached the outside atmo¬ 
sphere. 
The principal remedy for smoky chimneys 
being to keep up an ample supply of air, and 
no special provision being made by the 
house-builder for the purpose, the air finds 
its way through the cracks of windows and 
doors, or by the more easy passage of 
another chimney-shaft. In this way chim¬ 
neys may often overpower each other. A 
fire in a front or back drawing-room may 
burn very well by itself, but if an attempt 
be made to light both fires, the rooms are 
filled with smoke. The stronger burning 
fire draws upon the shaft of the weaker for 
a supply of air, and of course brings the 
smoke down with it. If the two rooms be 
separated by a wall, the same effect may be 
produced, for they still communicate atmo¬ 
spherically by the joints of the doors. 
It is even possible, when the windows fit 
tightly, for a large kitchen fire to overpower 
all the other chimneys of the house. It was 
an old notion that chimneys ought not to be 
crooked, whereas a slight bend towards the 
top is beneficial, for this prevents the sudden 
descent of wind or rain. Nor is the form of 
chimney material; it may be tapering, or of 
equal bore ; pyramidal or square ; it is only 
necessary that it be constructed so as to 
offer no considerable resistance to the as¬ 
cending current, for otherwise the hot air 
will be delayed in its ascent, and have time 
to cool. 
A high chimney always makes the best 
draught, and hence well-built factories in¬ 
variably have such chimneys. Dwelling 
houses do not require such enormously high 
chimneys, but they must be high enough not 
to be overtopped by contiguous buildings, 
else the wind, striking against the superin¬ 
cumbent wall, will be precipitated down the 
chimney, filling the room below with smoke 
or gas. 
Much of what is here said about smoky 
chimneys applies also to ventilation. The 
combustion of a fire, or of gas, lights, as 
well as our own breathing, vitiates the air, so 
that every apartment ought to have an outlet 
for carrying off the corbonized and delete¬ 
rious atmosphere. A hole, opening into the 
chimney, just below the ceiling, is the best 
method of meeting this difficulty. Rooms, 
heated by properly constructed furnaces, 
which admit fresh air raised to a tempera¬ 
ture of sixty-five degrees, and supplied with 
such an opening, are the healthiest that can 
be had, unless it is apartments warmed by 
grates, and fitted with such a ventilator, the 
grates and room being fed with cold air in 
such a way as to prevent draughts on the 
person .—Baltimore American. 
Chloroforming Weevils. —One of the 
editors of the Washington Union was pres¬ 
ent at the Patent Office a few days since, 
while experiments were made to destroy 
weevil in wheat by the use of chloroform* 
In two or three minutes, after a few drops 
of chloroform had been administered, the 
insects naturally enough began to exhibit un- 
mistakeable symptoms of uneasiness, which 
proved to be the certain precursors of a quiet, 
respectable death. It was the opinion of the 
experimenter that these destructive insects 
might be effectually exterminated through 
the agency of chloroform, and large quanti¬ 
ties of fine wheat saved every year.— Scien¬ 
tific American. 
Aluminium. —The Emperor of the French 
has conferred the cross of officer of the 
Legionof Honor onM. Sainte-Claire Deville, 
and that of simple member on M. Yohler, 
for their discovery of the new metal, allu- 
minium. This metal, it will be recollected, 
is extracted from clay, and its properties are 
described to be, “ the lightness of glass, the 
whiteness and brilliancy of silver, the un¬ 
changeableness of gold, the tenacity of iron, 
the fusibility of copper, and the ductility of 
the precious metals.” The means of ex¬ 
tracting and working the metal have been 
made public, but thus far they are rather too 
expensive to enable the metal to be brought 
into use as a substitute for copper and tin. 
Specimens of the aluminium are to figure 
in the approaching Exhibition of Paris. 
Corn.—The Cut and Wire Worms. —The 
white grub or cut worm has been very des¬ 
tructive in my cornfield, and also the wire 
worm. Year before last they came so thick 
that I could pick a handful from the furrow 
in going four rods. So, soon, after planting, 
and before the corn was up, I put on every 
hill about a gill of ashes, lime and salt, mixed 
together. The compost was in proportion a 
bushel of ashes, a peck of lime, and four 
quarts of salt. My corn came up looking 
fine, and at the first hoeing scarcely a hill 
was touched by the 'grub. They worked a 
little after, but did not destroy ten hills to 
the acre. If any are likely to be troubled 
the coming spring, I would advise them to 
try this.—D. L., in Rural New-Yorker. 
How to Turn a White Dahlia Blue.—1 
have been told, but never have tried the ex¬ 
periment, by a celebrated cultivator of dah¬ 
lias in Belgium, that he will be able, in the 
course of a year or two, to produce a blue 
dahlia, by keeping constantly watered the 
root of a white one with a solution of sul¬ 
phate of iron. The sulphate of iron turns 
hydrangeas blue, and why not other white 
flowers as well I Of course the solution 
must be very weak when used.— Gardeners' 
Chronicle. 
The American Women. —The following is 
a forcible analysis of the difference between 
the French, English, Italian and American 
women, and will bear a close examination 
and repeated readings : 
“ The English woman is respectable and 
proud ; the French gay and agreeable ; the 
Italian woman is ardent and passionate ; the 
American woman sincere and affectionate. 
With an English woman love is a principle ; 
with a French woman it is a caprice ; with 
an Italian it is a passion ; with an American 
it is a sentiment. A man is married to an 
English lady ; united to a French woman ; 
cohabits with an Italian ; and is wedded to 
an American. An English woman is anx¬ 
ious to secure a lord ; a French woman a 
companion ; an Italian a lover ; an Ameri¬ 
can a husband. The Englishman respects 
his lady ; the Frenchman esteems his com¬ 
panion ; the Italian adores his mistress ; the 
American loves his wife. At night the Eng¬ 
lishman returns to his establishment; the 
Italian to his retreat; the American to his 
home. When an Englishman is sick his lady 
visits-him ; when a Frenchman is sick his 
companion pities him ; when an Italian is 
sick his mistress sighs over him ; when an 
American is sick his wife nurses him. When 
an Englishman dies his lady is bereaved ; 
when an Italian dies his mistress laments ; 
when an American dies his wife mourns. 
An English woman instructs’her offspring; 
a French woman teaches her progeny ; an 
Italian rears her young ; an American edu¬ 
cates her child.” 
The British Character.— “There are two 
kinds of boasting,” said Sam, “ active and 
passive. The former belongs exclusively to 
my countrymen, and the latter to the British. 
A Yankee openly asserts and loudly pro¬ 
claims his superiority. John Bull feels and 
looks it. He don’t give utterance to his 
conviction. He takes it for granted all the 
world knows and admits it, and he is so 
thoroughly persuaded of it himself, that, to 
use his own favorite phrase, he don’t care a 
fig if folks don’t admit it. His vanity, there¬ 
fore has a sublimity in it. fie thinks, as 
the Italians say, “ that when nature formed 
him, she broke the mold.” There never 
was, never can, and never will be, another 
like him. His boastin’ therefore, is passive. 
He shows it and acts it; but he don’t pro¬ 
claim it. He condescends and is gracious, 
patronizes and talks down to you.”— Sam 
Slick's Nature and Human Nature. 
