Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/740

 716 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. iiitendud to contain a store of charcoal for immediate use. The body of the mass within the iron front is composed of common brickwork, and paved, or covered at top with paving tiles, cut so as to fill the exact space. The stoves are made of cast iron, about four inches deep, and from six to twelve inches square, with bottom gratings also of cast iron. The second part, extending from h to c, is a boiling-stove, with an oven attached, heated by the same fire. It is considered one of the most useful and convenient apparatus that have yet been invented, and one which, Mr. Jeakes says, no kitchen should be without. There is no branch of cookery, he adds, that cannot be effected by it, except roasting, which, he is of opinion, ought always to be done before an open fire. From the peculiar construction of this hearth, fuel of any kind may be burnt in it, without the least smoke or effluvia. From b to c is an iron front, with an opening at / for receiving a store of fuel, of which the most suitable kind is coke mixed with a little coal ; h is a square iron oven with doal)le doors, and movable grated shelves, in which may be baked either meat or pastry ; (yf is a sliding door by which the ashes are removed that fall from the broiling- stove. The top of the stove is made of tast iron, about one inch and a quarter thick, with three movable plates fitting into each other, and forming a close cover over the fire. The jian or stove on which the fire is placed, is in the form of fig. 1360, and is made of cast iron, with a loose bottom grate, which may be renewed when isfiO required, without taking down any part of the framework. This stove is fixed immediately under the movable plates, or ovens, shown as if in one piece under the gridiron, k. When stewing or boiling is to be performed instead of broiling, one or more of these plates is to be removed, according to the size of the boiler or stewpan ; and the whole may be taken away when the open fire is required for the gridiron. The flue from this fire is so arranged, that the siuoke and flame pass under the top plate, Z, and over and down the sides of the oven in the direction of the dotted arrows, and enter the chimney at m. In this chimney a damper must be fixed, in the most convenient situation, to regulate the draught. The iron plate / is fitted with a pair of movable standards, d d, by means of which, a gridiron made for the purpose is suspended immediately over the fire, and may be adjusted to any height, from the standards being furnished with a number of holes for the purpose of receiving the prolonged ends of the side styles of the gridiron. When it is desired to broil over the fire, it is usual to remove the two inner covers or plates, and to shut the sliding door, g. When the plate I is required to be heated throughout, the sliding door, g, must also be closed. Judging of this plan by the principles and models laid down by Count Rumford, we should say that it errs in having so large a surface of cast iron for the radiation of heat into the kitchen ; and, also, in having the fireplaces square, instead of circular, and formed for burning charcoal, instead of having flues for burning coke or coal. These may be called sins of commission ; those of omission are, the want of deep round furnaces, by which small boilers may be let into the brickwork, in the manner shown in the plan of the Munich kitchen, § 1493, fig. 1356; the want of a reflector over the gridiron ; and the want of a means of ventilating the oven, so as to render it a substitute fiir an open fiiefor roasting meat. The reflector, or dome, for the gridiron, may be made in the form of a cone, of either iron or copper ; and its use is to prevent the meat, while broiling, from cooling above, while it is being cooked below. The ready answer of all ironmongers to such objections is, that brickwork is soon loosened and deranged by servants, and that economy of fuel in the kitchen is seldom an object with great families. As to a smoke-jack, the London ironmongers, so far from agreeing with Count Rumford that it is a source of the greatest waste of fuel, affirm tlvit it creates a draught in the chimney ; which is about as correct as if it were asserted that a boat carried down a stream were the cause of that stream ; or a windmill the cause of wind. After all, this is only the operation of cause and effect; and the adjustment of means to ends ; for, if there is not a demand for a maximum of effect with a minimum of expense, what use would there be in producing it? It is sufficient for every tradesman to accom- modate himself to his customers. Such is the language which we are obliged to hold, in a country where it requires the utmost exertions of health, intelligence, and industry, to exist. 1502. T/ie Cooking- Hearths of Confectioners in London are among the most economical which we have examined. In these there is one vertical flue, into which all the hori- zontal flues from the difl^erent furnaces are conducted. These furnaces are circular, and they are sunk, like those of Count Rumford, in a hearth of brickwork ; each furnace consisting of a cast-iron pot, in shape exactly like a common flower-pot, with a grated bottom, and covers of three different sizes. 'I'he i)ot and the bottom are cast in one piece ; and the sides are, in general, nearly one inch in thickness. Within a sliort distance of the top, in some instances two inches, in others four, according to the dei)th of the saucepan which is to be inserted in them, are two lateral openings, about three