Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/309

 FIXTURES FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 285' 594. Cottage Cooking-S(oves are not common in Britain, but they are much used iu those truly economical countries, Holland and the Netherlands ; and might, in many districts, prove of great advantage to the British cottager. We shall give a description of the stove in use in the cottages about Bruges, as furnished us by Mr. G. H. Cottam, who adds that these stoves will be manufactured, in future, at the establishment of Messrs. Cottam and Hallen, Winsley Street, London. Fig. 528 is a vertical section, showing the furuace or fireplace, a; the flue, e ; and oven, o. Fig. 529 is another vertical section, taken at right angles with the former ; and fig. 530 is a perspective view, show- 529 ing the external appearance of the whole. Near the top of the furnace there is a square opening, fig. 528, h, to admit the hot air and smoke produced by the consumption of the fuel, to enter into the flue, f, in v hich it circulates round the stove, between the plates joand q, before it escapes up the chimney, e. The oven, o, is heated from the furnace, a; which furnace, being closed at top, becomes red-hot, or nearly so, and produces sufficient heat for roasting, or any other culinary purpose. The size of the fireplace can be increased at pleasure by taking off the grate, g, and putting in a smaller grate to rest on the projections, i; or a still smaller one on the shoulders, at the bottom of the opening at k. The cinders and dust from the fuel fall into the box, h ; which pulls out, in order to remove them, without producing the slightest degree of dust or dirt. Thus, while bread is baking in one oven, and meat roasting in the other, boiling or stewing may be carried on by saucepans set upon the cover, or in holes cut in it, having lids with handles, r, which lift off. One of these lids, n, is directly over the fireplace, and the two others, I and m, open into the smoke-flue. Irons may also be heated on this plate. These stoves will consume the most inferior description of fuel, and will produce an intense heat, from what would scarcely burn at all in a common open fireplace, where the fire is, as it were, drowned with air on all sides, instead of being, as it is in the Bruges stove, surrounded on all sides by heat, and the air supplied in one stream from below, through a valve in the front of the drawer for receiving the ashes. Most of our readers will agree with us in thinking that this stove, when it becomes generally known, will form a treasure to the British cottager, as it will not only serve to cook his meat, &c., but will throw out more heat for the purpose of warming his room, than any open fire- place whatever. The construction of this stove, in a scientific point of view, is admirable ; and all that is necessary, in putting it up, is to set it on the floor, a few feet from the chimney (if one should be already built), and to conduct the smoke funnel of the former into the flue of the latter, immediately under the ceiling of the apartment, or, if the cottage contains two floors, it might be carried through to the roof, in order to heat the bed-rooms. When this stove is used as a substitute for a kitchen range, the open fire- place, or the throat of the flue over it, should be closed up, in order to prevent the escape of the heated air of the room. The fireplace, indeed, might be turned into a cupboard. We hope to hear of orders being given for hundreds of Cottam's Bruges stove ; because they would not only serve instead of all other kitchen fires for common cottages, but would prove a useful auxiliai7 to the kitchen in most houses. It would be easy to make an improvement on this stove, so as to circulate hot water from it all over a house, for the purpose of heating it ; thus rendering open fireplaces totally unnecessary, and doing away, in ordinary-sized dwellings, with all the chimney-flues and chimney tops, except one. 595. Warming-Stoves are of endless variety. Those manufactured in Britain are generally of iron; and for the consumption of pit coal they are erroneous in one im- portant particular, viz. that of not being surrounded by fire brick or fire stone, to serve as