heat is lined with a cast-iron cylinder C, about 8ths of an inch in thickness. This cylinder of cast-iron rises nearly to the level of the top of the door, or about 11 inches above the level of the bars, but is cut away in front opposite the door, so as to admit of the coals being easily thrown in. The whole fire, then, is below the level of the open of the door, and confined entirely to the portion wholly lined with the cast-iron cylinder. As the cylinder of sheet-iron I fits easily over this cast-iron lining, a thin stratum of air is always interposed between the red-hot lining in which the coals and fire are contained, and the outer cylinder of sheet-iron which is in contact with the air of the apartment. The outer cylinder of sheet-iron thus never gets so over-heated as to burn the air; that is, it never scorches the particles of dust floating in the air, and thus no disagreeable burnt smell is ever perceptible in the apartment. From the thinness of the sheet-iron, very little fuel is required to keep it at such a temperature that it rapidly heats the room; in fact, it is only in the coldest weather that it is necessary to raise the heat so high as to cause the water in the iron saucer on its flat top to become unpleasantly warm for the finger.

In the stove which I use, the height of the cylinder of sheetiron from the moulding at the base to the moulding at the top is 22 inches. Seven inches of this space is below the door, and is close; the door occupies other 5 inches, and 8 inches of free space exists between the top of the door and the level from which the funnel for the smoke goes off, F; and the diameter of the smoke funnel is 4 inches, narrowing to 3, and it is furnished with a damper at M. The top of the stove is flat, and consists of a lid L, ten inches in diameter, with an inch and quarter moulding. On this flat top is constantly kept a plate or saucer of tinned iron full of water, the evaporation from which keeps the air of the apartment in a wholesome and respirable state.

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In order that the supply of air to the fuel may pletely under command, a sheet of iron P, is fixed across the bottom of the cast-iron base; and the ventilating apertures in front of the ash-pan A, are likewise covered over with sheetiron. Air is therefore alone admitted to the base of the fire,

by drawing out the ash-pan from an eighth of an inch to a whole inch. But as the whole comfort of a stove may be, and too often is lost, from ignorance as to how to manage it, I purpose to append a few directions, the value of which I have repeatedly tested. These directions are of course intended in the first place for the stove now described, but are available for any stove, allowance being made for its peculiarity of construction. The size of the stove ought always to be accommodated to that of the apartment which requires to be heated. The stove just described heats a room 18 feet by 15 and 133 in height, and thus containing 3645 cubic feet of air. But allowing that bookcases and cabinets take up 600 feet, there are upwards of 3000 cubic feet of air to be heated by this small stove. When the temperature is from 40° to 45° outside, this stove is used as if it were a common grate, the coal dross being burned with the door wide open and the damper allowing the air to escape the full width of the funnel. This mode of burning the fuel heats the room to from 63° to 65°; the fuel burns very slowly, and the temperature of the water on the top of the stove is about 80°. If the outside temperature ranges from 45° to 50° the door is still kept full open, but the ash-pan is shut quite close, so as to allow no air to pass through the fire, the whole supply of air to the coals comes from the open door. The coal therefore burns with extreme slowness, the water in the iron saucer on the top has a temperature of from 60° to 65°, and the air of the apartment 65°.

When the temperature ranges from 35° to 40°, as it does at the moment I am writing, with the door open, and the ash-pan drawn out half an inch, only shutting the door for about ten minutes each time fresh coal is thrown on, the temperature of the room at its remotest corner is 63°. When greater heat is required, as when the temperature is below 32°, the ash-pan is drawn open to the extent of one-eighth of an inch; the door is shut, and the damper left fully open. This often raises the temperature nearly to 70°, when the door is set open now and then whenever the heat threatens to become too great, or the damper may be turned so as to diminish draught through the exit-tube; but as it is the damper which is the fruitful cause of prejudice against stoves, and its mismanagement is the fre

quent cause of bad health among us, and of the destruction of flowers in conservatories, the rules which should direct its use merit a word of notice. Whenever stoves are used where there are children or large numbers of human beings, the access of air to the burning coal should be so managed that the damper never requires to be used at all. When a free current of air is passing through the coals, if the damper is turned so that the exit of the foul air is retarded, it gathers at the top of the stove; and unless the cavity above the open of the door be large, as in the stove just described, a great portion of the noxious carbonic and sulphurous gases escape into the apartment. It is this which is often the cause of the bad health among children where stoves are used, because the persons using them do not understand their management; and I may add, that the faulty construction of almost all stoves is such that very few indeed can permit the door to be opened without allowing a large quantity of the noxious products of combustion to mix with the air. If the damper, then, is ever used at all, it is absolutely necessary to see that a greater quantity of air is not admitted to the coals than what can with ease escape through the narrowed aperture which the damper leaves. If this is not attended to, part of the noxious products of combustion will be thrown into the apartment; and neither man nor plant can breathe such gases with impunity. When, however, all the apertures are closed through which air may be admitted to the coals, the damper may be turned to a considerable extent; but always attending to the rule, that the apertures through which the gases escape should be able to carry away the full amount of air and gases which pass from the

fire.

It was stated above, that one of the peculiarities of the stove just described was its internal casing of cast-iron, the other peculiarity is the large cavity above the fire-place in which the noxious vapours may for a while remain without escaping into the room should anything temporarily obstruct their escape through the smoke-funnel. In the stove described, this space is 12 inches in height above the upper edge of the door, and, when circumstances permit, it would be desirable even to increase the space. In all stoves not provided with a similar

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free space, a certain portion of the noxious products of combustion escape whenever the door is opened; but none escape when this point is attended to.

I cannot conclude this paper, however, without noticing one most important point relative to heating, which has been completely misunderstood; and, from being misunderstood, has been, and continues to be, the cause of the loss of hundreds of lives every winter.

It

You object to stoves because they dry the air. How is it they do this, allow me to ask? The answer is a very simple one, viz., simply by raising the temperature of the air. is from no inherent drying quality of the stove. The stove does not absorb one grain of moisture from the air; but by simply raising the temperature, it communicates a quality to the air called a greater capacity for moisture; and unless this demand for moisture is supplied in exact proportion to the degree of temperature gained, the air will become too dry for the healthy respiration of human beings and of plants. Nor is it of the smallest importance how this increased temperature is given,-whether by an iron stove, by an open fireplace, or by steam or hot-water pipes, the drying effect on the air is exactly the same, and exactly proportioned to the degree of temperature to which the air of the apartment is raised.

Now this is the reason why a saucer of metal containing water is recommended to be put on the top of the stove, and no stove or other means of heating ought ever to be admitted to any building where human beings are to meet, unless provision is made to render the air which they breathe sufficiently moist to meet the wants of the frame; and let it be constantly remembered, that the dryness of the air is not caused by the use of this or that stove, but that every means of heating produces the same effect, unless with the heat there be some means conjoined for the supply of watery vapour.

Stoves, however, have one disadvantage-they do not provide for the ventilation of the apartment in nearly so effectual a manner as open fire-places; and as ventilation is as necessary for health as heat or moisture, this must be otherwise provided for wherever stoves are used. A sliding pane in the window,

or the upper sash of the window fitted with ropes and pulleys, provides for the ventilation of the apartment more effectually than valves or openings of any kind into the chimney, which only remove the heated or vitiated air without furnishing a supply of fresh air. But it appears to me that by far the most effectual and safest mode of ventilating apartments in private dwelling-houses is to ventilate from the ceiling of the apartment-an aperture through the external wall communicating with the space between the ceiling of the room below, and the floor of the room above. This both allows of the escape of the heated and vitiated air, and of the entrance of cool and pure air; and as the air enters from above, the thorough ventilation of the room is secured. The ordinary stove valve, being fitted over the central ornament of the ceiling, permits of the regulation of the amount of ventilation according to the season, or to the number of persons in the apart

ment.

The medical value of stoves, more especially their superiority over open fire-places in the treatment of diseases of the respiratory organs, must be reserved for some future occasion, as I fear I have already trespassed too long on your patience.

The annual cost of fuel for this stove, I calculate, has been for each year about one ton and a quarter of Scotch dross at 5s. a ton, including cartage, or about 6s. 6d. per annum.

On an improved Cottage Window. By the Hon. Lord
MURRAY.*

Few thinking persons can have visited many dwellings of the poor in the northern and western parts of the country without being pained by the want of ventilation in their rooms generally, and the bed-rooms in particular. What with the size of such apartments being small, and the window too often a mere bit of glass built into the wall, the contained air is necessarily stagnant; and, under the influence of respiration, it becomes rapidly offensive, and even deleterious.

Of course this is not the first time that attention has been

* Read, and models exhibited, 22d February 1858.

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