Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/315

 FIXTURES FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 291 be taken out to admit of sweeping the chimney; or the flue may be completely closed by it. " When the chimney top is properly contracted," Mr. Tredgold observes, "a register at the throat is not wanted, and it is always desirable to do with as little machinery about a fire as possible." He says that he makes the contraction at the top in order to reduce the opposition which the wind, and even the resistance of the air, make to the ascending smoke ; also to prevent the chimney from being cooled by double currents of air (which is often the case in wide chimneys), and to diminish the loss of heat which would be required to sustain a current of smoke in a large flue. If the con- traction were made only at the throat, the force of ascent would be diminished at the first ettbrt ; it would be like contracting the aperture of a pipe which supplies a jet ; besides, if a larger opening were left at the top than what is absolutely necessary, the rain, cold air, &c., would" descend, and interrupt the smoke. The degree of contraction at the throat of the flue IIr. Tredgold makes the same as that at the top of the chimney. He avoids all abrupt changes in either the form or direction of the flues; he prefers the circular form for them ; and in 1816 proposed, in the Xcw Montldy Magazine, to build them of earthen pipes. 603. The Jmerican Stove is adapted for a cottage in a country where wood is the fuel, where it is abundant, and where no great nicety of construction has yet entered into cottage dwellings; but it can never be recommended as so economical in the first cost, or so neat andcleanly in use, as a fireplace with the back and sides of non-conducting earthy material. It is formed entirely of cast iron, and has a large projecting cast-iron hearth, with a rim to it, serving as a fender ; it has also sides serving as jambs, and a hood or shelf of cast iron. The fuel is burned on three or four iron bai's, resting on dog-irons. 604. Many other Stoves suitabk for Cottages might be described and figured ; but we have deemed it more likely to be useful, to confine ourselves to two or three which we are perfectly certain are excellent, and which are fit for first-rate houses no less than for cottages. The fire-brick stove, fig. 533, is to be found in the libraries and business rooms of some of the largest mansions in London ; for example, in Portland Place and St. James's Square. 605. The Consumption of the Smoke in open Fireplaces has long been a desideratum ; and though it never can be accomplished effectually, it may in a great degree, by the use of a stove invented by Cutler, in which, instead of throwing coals on the top of the fire, in the usual way, they are supplied from beneath, by hoisting up a grated box, into which as many coals are put in the morning as it is supposed will be burned during the day. The invention is rather too complicated for common cottages ; but, if a little trouble were not objected to, at least the grosser portion might be consumed by the following arrangement : — Supposing the bottom grate of the fuel chamber, as in fig. 533, to be within six inches of the hearth, all that is necessary is to char the coal by keeping it a day directly under the grate (with a good fire burning above), before it is used. The space below might be divided vertically into two chambers, and each sunk so deep into the heartJi as to contain as many coals as would be used in a day. The bottoms of these chambers should have an ash-box fitted into them, into which the ashes and dross would fall when the coals were being lifted with a shovel to be put on the fire. Every morning one chamber would be found empty, or nearly so ; and the ash-grate, being taken out, and its contents thrown in the dustliole, might be replaced, and the chamber again filled with coals. The coals might also be charred by having the jambs hollow, and the hobs to lift up ; or by leaving a hollow in the back directly behind the' fuel chamber, with a cast-iron door : but though these two modes would be much more cleanly than the other, they would not, like it, have the advantage of burning whatever was evaporated from the coals. It would be impossible for a quantity of raw coal to remain a whole day directly under a good fire, without being in a great measure deprived of the watery particles and grosser carbonaceous matters which are the principal ingredients in smoke; and equally impossible for this vapour to escape without passing through the ignited mass of fuel over it. We do not present this as either a perfect or an elegant mode of burning smoke in open fireplaces, but as one which may be universally adopted; and which, whether it succeeds in effectually con- suming the smoke or not, is sure to do good, since the drier and hotter fuel is, before it is put on the fire, the better it will burn. 606. Designs for more elegant Grates and Stoves will be found among our fixtures for ornamental cottages and villas ; and we shall treat more at length on the principles of warming and ventilating, in the Third Part of this work. 607. Sinks, or fixed shallow troughs, are usually placed in back-kitchens, sculleries, and wash-houses, for setting dishes and other articles upon which are to be washed ; and for receiving and conveying away dirty water. They are generally fonned of stone, fig. 544, but are sometimes also made of cast iron ; and Mr. Mallet of Dublin, who H U