Open Ffree.—There is, from long custom, so great a desire among all ranks inEngland to see the fire that warms their apartments, that the most con venient, cleanest, and cheapest methods of heating them, are sacrificed to this single circumstance. Accordingly, persons who attempt the improvement of stoves are compelled to endeavour to combine what appears to be irrecon cilable, namely, the appearance of a bright open fire, with an economy of fuel, regularity of temperature, and without producing a draught through the apart ment. Of the various contrivances in which the attainment of these proper ties have been attempted, there are but few worthy of notice.
O. Pmre Stove.—This stove may, at pleasure, be made either an open fire-place, or a close stove, heating the room by the radiation of the heat from its front wall; and when thus acting as a close stove, it serves as a ven tilator of the apartments with which it is connected. The fire-place is of the ordinary dimensions. Folding doors are made to close the fronts of the ash pit, and to fall back against the hobs ; other folding doors are made to close the front of the grate, and to fall back against the sides. The top of the fire grate was also provided with a floor, which formed a back when open, but when shut down horizontally, left only asmall cavity, and produced a strong draught It was supplied with air by tunnels underneath the hobs. Although the utility of this stove was satisfactorily proved in Gloucester gaol, and other places, its clumsy inelegant appearance prevented an extensive adoption. Mr. Marriott has, however, so modified it as to remove the above-mentioned objection, and has recently brought it before the public in the following form. The shadowed compartments a %nd b are recesses just of sufficient depth to admit of the doors e e and ff, when folded back, to lie flush with the other parts of the front of the stove, as is the case with those marked e and d. We have thus arranged them in the drawing merely to render the matter quite clear to the eye, not that such positions of the doors are peculiarly eligible, (nevertheless cases may be ima gined wherein they would be so, such as screening particular objects from the influence of the fire, or increasing the combustion of a particular part of the fuel, by altering the direction of the cur rent of air.) In lighting a fire, or in replenishing one that is low, the combustion is greatly excited by shutting the four upper doors, which act as a "blower." On the contrary, when a fire burns too rapidly, or is not much wanted, the four lower doors may be shut, which will damp it immediately, yet allow a great portion of the heat to radiate into the room. On retiring to bed, or wishing to leave the room in perfect
security from fire, all the doors may be closed, when the fire will infallibly go out for want of draught. To keep in the fire, and yet leave the room in safety, or to prevent the radiation of much heat and light in a room (often desirable, in the chamber of the sick), the doors may be placed thus For such chimneys as occasionally return their smoke, or in which the draught is feeble, these stoves will, we doubt not, be also found very convenient and advantageous.
Pycroft's Patent Fire Stave.—Mr. Pycroft, of Roneaten, near Burton-upon Trent, took out a patent for improvements in fire-places, in 1881, the principle of which consists in connecting with the fire stove a chamber for hot air, to be admitted at pleasure either into the apartment where the fire is situated, or into one adjoining thereto. The hot-air chamber extends from below, up behind, and on each side, and over the top, under the mantel. The air passes into the chamber by a series of registers situated below the fire, and when heated, into the chamber by a series of registers situated over the fire.
11 it is intended, for the sake of ventilation, to receive the air to be heated from the external atmosphere, instead of from the room where the fire is situ ated, the registers below the fire must be closed, and a communication opened between the external air and the lower part of the chamber ; and when it is intended to throw heated air into an adjoining apartment above the fire, the registers are to be closed, and a communication opened between the upper part of the chamber and the apartment to be heated. For the purpose of exciting a draught at pleasure, and of preventing any smoke issuing into the room, a hood or blower is hinged to the upper part of the grate, which may be brought out towards the front or top bar of the fire. Behind this is another hood or blower, which is raised or lowered by a knob passing through the first; this inner hood is provided with angular side-flaps, which, when the blower is brought down and projected forwards, inclose the side of the fire. This stove has likewise a flap valve at the back, acted upon by a handle in front, by which the flue or throat into the chimney may be regulated in its dimensions, and the draught increased, diminished, or entirely stopped at pleasure.