Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/714

 690 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. manship was by one of the first carvers in wood in London. Tliree public houses, or rather gin-shops, have been lately fitted up in Lamb's Conduit Street, at an expense, for the bar alone, of upwards of ^^2000 each. We have no doubt, however, that progressive improvements will be made, even in these bars. The fireplace, for example, is a clumsy mode of heating water, in an apartment where there is but little room to spare. In every town and village where gas is laid on, not only in bars but in kitchens, the heat- ing of water, and various operations of cookery, might be readily effected without the aid of common fires in any form. A correspondent has sent us the following important communication on this subject, to which we invite the attention of all who live in locali- ties where gas can be obtained. 1445. Healing Water and cooking by Gas- " Mr. Strutt, many years ago, affirmed that coal gas, properly applied, would be the cheapest fuel for cooking. Tliis has been so fully confirmed by late trials here (Edinl)urgh), that I have no doubt that, in all cases when it can be had, it should form part of the arrangement of a working man's dwelling, to have the means of so applying it. The plan, which has succeeded here, is as follows : a case or tube of thin rolled iron is made of about two feet, or two feet and a half, long, with a soldered joint; its diiimeter may be from three inches to ten inches, according to the use it is to be put to. Over the mouth of this a piece of wire gauze, of about forty-five wires to the inch, is fixed by an iron hoop: from the sides of the tube, close to the hoop, three pieces of iron are made to project, by means of which the tube may be supported by the edges of a circular hole in a table or shelf, shown by the dotted circle n fig. 1317. When so placed, if gas be admitted at the lower extremity of the case or tube, it will mix with the common air within it ; and, the mixture being lighter than the common air, it will rise and pass through the meshes of the wire gauze. If the mixture be set fire to above the gauze, it will continue to burn there, without igniting what is below it ; and, although the flame gives scarcely any light, it gives out great heat, and quickly boils any fluid in a vessel placed on a stand two inches over it. Cases of three or four inches diameter answer well for tea-kettles, sauce or stew pans ; and one of nine or ten inches is fully sufficient for a large fish-kettle, or a round of beef, or for sending off steam to heat a bath. The consumption of gas of such a stove costs, at the prices charged here for gas, about rd- an hour. To use the gas conveniently and econo- mically in such an apparatus, each gas branch should be furnished with two stopcocks, one of which only should be accessible to the cook : by the other, the workman who fixes the apparatus should regulate tiie maximum quantity of gas which can pass when the accessible cock is fully opened. The cook will then have the power of diminishing and shutting ofl'the gas, but not of admitting an undue quantity. The point for regulating is the commencement of the appearance of yellow flame on the tip of the blue cone. If more gas be admitted after this, carbon is deposited on tiie bottoms of the cooking- vessels, from the combustion not being completed; while, if the due proportion be observed, the cooking may be performed in bright-bottomed vessels without sensibly tarnishing them. If these gas stoves be placed in the surface of a table, the sides and ends should be boxed up from the under side of the table nearly to the ground, to prevent disturbing currents of air from interfering with the regular rise of the gas mixture in the cases." Design VI. — A Hedge Alehouse of the smallest Size. 1446. The general Appearance is shown in the perspective view, fig. 1:518, and the ground plan in fig. 1319. The latter, to a scale of one inch to nineteen feet,