1848, 
THE CULTIVATOR 
51 
HOT-ASH FURNACES AN© AIR-TIOHT STOVES. 
Editors Cultivator—I have noticed the remarks 
in the Cultivator during the past year, by Geo. Ged- 
des and others, on the advantages of Hot-Air Furna¬ 
ces. Having used one in my own house for the past 
seven or eight years, constructed in a manner precisely 
similar to those described, l ean endorse with confidence 
all, or nearly all, that has been said in their favor. 
There are, however, some defects which should be 
known. These defects are not merely attached to 
poorly constructed ones, for mine was a good one with 
a large stove and eight drums, well put together so as 
not to smoke. 
The advantages, as have been before stated, are 
chiefly, the facility with which large wood/ four feet 
long, may be used without cutting or splitting - keeping 
up only one fire for several rooms; freedom from dirt 
and ashes., from stoves and fire-places ; saving in room ; 
freedom from cold currents through door-cracks, &c.; 
and uniform temperature day and night. 
The disadvantages are, the furnace, unless in a very 
large cellar, so as to be entirely separated by partitions 
from the rest of the cellar, heats it too much, usually 
causing the speedy decay of apples, &c.; it occupies as 
much room below as it saves above .stairs; the wood 
being heavy, but few women can lift it, and hence a 
man must be at hand; the fire being away, out of sight, 
is apt to be forgotten and neglected till too low; after 
standing and absorbing moisture during summer, the 
plaster and brick^work throw off an unpleasant and 
damp smell into the rooms for seme days after the fire 
is first commenced in autumn; the cost, in no case, of 
a good furnace, can be much less than a hundred dol¬ 
lars. Not one of the least objections is the difficulty of 
regulating the heat properly in rapidly changing- 
weather, as from cold to warm, from warm to cold, or 
from calm to windy. Large sticks six inches to a foot 
in diameter will be an hour or two in getting thoroughly 
on fire; and when once on fire, continue burning half a 
day or more. In the meantime there may be a consid¬ 
erable change in the weather, in which case the rooms 
may be greatly over-heated, or become too cold to be 
comfortable. It often happens that a fire is built up 
for the night, while the -weather is calm; a fresh wind 
springing up in the night will rapidly diminish the heat 
of the rooms; or, if the weather is windy when the fire 
is made, and the wind then subsides, the heat soon be¬ 
comes oppressive. It is found to require twice as much 
wood in a high wind, at 25 degrees, as in a calm at 
zero. Wind also changes the course of the ascending 
hot air in the pipes, warming those rooms chiefly which 
lie.in a'direction from the wind, often sweeping the air 
from the windward rooms down the hot-air pipes, and 
out of the air chamber through the feeding pipe. This 
is a serious inconvenience. It may indeed be obviated 
by properly adjusting the registers, and by two or three 
cold-air feeding pipes on opposite sides of the furnace, 
to be closed or opened as the case requires; or a new fire 
may be built of small wood, if the weather suddenly 
becomes windy; or, on the other hand, if it suddenly 
becomes calm or warmer, the fire may be smothered 
with ashes, or lessened by shutting the fire draft. But 
all these require much attention; more than farmers 
generally are willing to give; and would be a grievous 
tax on a housekeeper where no man is at hand. 
Every establishment, therefore, which cannot keep 
an attentive hired man always at hand, should not be 
encumbered with a furnace. But in a large house, 
where such care can be constantly given, and where 
there are as many as five or six rooms to be constantly 
(heated, a good furnace will be found altogether the 
most convenient mode. It is also just the thing for 
large schools, where many apartments are in daily use, 
obviating the care and interruption of replenishing fires 
in the separate rooms; or for hotels, and large public 
buildings generally. 
For small houses, nearly all the advantages of the 
hot-air furnace are secured by the use of the best air¬ 
tight, self-regulating sheet iron stoves. The cost of 
two or three of these is much less than of a furnace; 
they are always at hand and easily fed; they consume 
less wood by nearly one-half, as I have amply proved 
by long experience with both; and they will maintain 
a fire as long during the night as a furnace. The very 
common objection to the furnace, that every part of 
the room is heated alike, and that every person wheth¬ 
er thinly or warmly dressed, must endure the same 
heat; or those who have been all day riding in the 
cold can have no warmer fire than others, is wholly 
obviated by the air-tight stove. So rapidly may a room 
be heated with one of these, that five minutes are 
scarcely needed in any case; while the self-regulator, 
properly adjusted, will preserve an equable tempera¬ 
ture for a long time. With an additional improvement 
—that of inserting a transparent plate of mica in the 
regulating valve, the light from the fire would be 
thrown into the room, and the advantage so much 
prized by many, of seeing the u cheerful blaze,” would 
be at least partially attained. 
With one of the larger sized air-tight stoves,(Race’s 
$14 ones,) I am enabled to heat a family room and 
three adjacent sleeping apartments, more comfortably 
than I could formerly with a furnace; for which one 
cord of good wood will last about one month of average 
winter weather; and my fruit and vegetables now keep 
well in the cellar. 
But air-tight stoves have their difficulties. These 
are two in number, namely—the sudden puffs of smoke 
or explosions; and the inconvenience of pipes choked 
with soot, or dripping with pyroligneous acid. The 
first never takes place except when the stove is closely 
shut. Impure carburetted hydrogen from the burning 
wood mixes with the air in the stove, and then taking- 
fire causes the explosion. This is usually only a puff 
of smoke, but sometimes it has been sufficiently strong 
to lift the small east iron plate which covers the hole 
in the top of the stove. The explosions may be obvi¬ 
ated by adjusting the regulator so that it shall not en¬ 
tirely close, till the wood is half consumed. The car¬ 
buretted hydrogen will not collect while a slight cur¬ 
rent of air is sweeping through the stove, and rarely 
except when the wood is in its early stages of combus¬ 
tion. The dripping of pyroligneous acid is prevented 
by reversing the joints of the pipe, those above being 
inserted into the next ones below, rendering it impossi¬ 
ble for the liquid to escape. To prevent the pipe be¬ 
coming soon choked with soot, nearly all should be per¬ 
pendicular or nearly so, so that by knocking on its 
sides, the adhering soot may fall. One of my stoves 
was at first fitted with seven feet of horizontal pipe; 
but in five weeks it was perfectly choked with soot. 
The stove was then moved, and the pipe made vertical. 
By knocking down the soot once a fortnight, no diffi¬ 
culty from this source is now experienced. Where the 
draft is considerable, the soot does not so rapidly ac¬ 
cumulate ; hence in using another stove, less perfectly 
made, no inconvenience was found either from dripping 
or soot, for some months. 
A self-regulating stove, made of Russia sheet-iron, 
w T ill last, it is believed, under ordinary circumstances, 
not less than fifteen years. X. 
