REGULARITY OF HEAT AND ECONOMY OF FUEL. 
445 
ARTICLE V. 
ON THE REGULARITY OF HEAT AND ECONOMY OF FUEL, 
Effected by Witty’s Patent Gas Furnace. 
BY MR. I. CHANTER, CIIEYNE WALK. CHELSEA. 
In your Magazine, page 315, of the present volume, there is an at¬ 
tempted description of Mr. Witty’s Patent Gas Furnace, but your 
correspondent, Mr. Win. Grev, quite mistakes the subject, and his 
description is not by any means calculated to gratify your subscriber 
in Sussex, E. Ebury. In the first place, there is no such thing as 
smoke evaporating from the fire, nor does it stagnate. This is an 
erroneous description of the power of this much celebrated furnace, 
and surely Mr. Grey can never have witnessed the furnace properly 
in action, or the one alluded to must have been erected contrary to 
Mr. Witty’s principle. The gas furnace is now getting into general 
use, not only for horticultural purposes, but in its endless application 
to the arts and manufactures, from the metropolis to the most distant 
parts of the united kingdom, above 500 have been erected since Jan¬ 
uary 1832, and considerable numbers are now being erected. I will 
give you a description, borne out by twenty of the most eminent 
horticulturists in the kingdom, who have them in use. “ The gas 
furnace is a combination of great chemical and mechanical knowledge, 
and was invented by Mr. Witty, the civil engineer. In the first 
place, there is a carbonizing plate or shelf constructed, on which the 
coal is submitted to two processes, viz. carbonization and combustion. 
Over the carbonizing plate is formed an arch of fire tile, or Stour¬ 
bridge brick; the arch radiates sufficient heat to produce a powerful 
effect upon the coal, which instantly gives out plentiful streams of 
carburretted hydrogen gas. The gas being thus formed at a high 
temperature, is immediately inflamed by a due proportion of atmos¬ 
pheric air rushing through the heated coke at the bottom of the fur¬ 
nace, which, meeting the gas, produces a brilliant and lasting fire, 
and from its purity of flame prevents soot from lodging in the flues, 
if common attention be given at the first lighting; and it can be 
kept in for months together without relighting, if required. It 
appears that Mr. Grey laboured under an error, arising from the 
mismanagement of the furnace to which he alludes, since nothing can 
possibly work better, or produce so great and beneficial an effect as 
the Gas Furnace, if erected and worked according to Mr Witty’s di¬ 
rections, whether applied to flues or hot water boilers. In proof of 
which, I beg to refer you lo a list of testimonials, in a book now sent 
