Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/307

 FIXTURES FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 283 521 In every country there are day stones to be found, so free from sand or lime as not readily to fuse ; or clay so free from other substances as in like manner to resist the action of intense heat ; and of one or other of these the backs and sides of all open fire- places ought to be formed, where the object is to get the greatest quantity of heat from the smallest quantity of fuel, with the least quantity of labour. When the cottager can aflbrd to purchase a range having an oven on one side and a boiler on the other, the kind which we consider the most suitable is that first made by Mr. Eckstein of London, fig. 521, in which the boiler occupies one side and the back, from ato b; and the oven is on the other side, c ; the fire comes in close contact with both oven and boiler, and heats them sufficiently with- out the aid of a flue underthe former. This range, on a small scale, may be purchased in London, by retail, for five guineas; the size here shown costs eight guineas. The oven, in this and other iron kitchen ranges, would be much improved by being lined with fire stone or fire brick; the heat would be thereby moderated, rendered more uniform, and retained longer. For roasting meat, there might be a grated false bottom, with a valve in the lower part of the door of the oven, and another in the back part of its cover, by which a current of air might be admitted at pleasure to brown the meat. There is a very small cast-iron range made occasionally, in which a stove for heating irons, and for other purposes, is substituted for a boiler, and which costs only three guineas- 593. A Design for a Collage Kitchen Grate, of great ingenuity, and capable of supply- ing all the heat required, not only for cooking, but for washing, warming, and every other domestic purpose, has been sent us by our scientific and gifted correspondent, Mr. Mallet, juu., of Dublin, who informs us that he has tried it, and found it to answer m every particular. Fig. 522 is a vertical section of this grate in the plane of the breast of the chimney ; and fig. 523 is a plan, or horizontal section, of the same, taken a little above the bottom grate. The sides and back of the fireplace are fonncd by tli«