Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/732

 WOMAN'S HOME If gas piping is already installed, and the tenant intends to adopt gas illumination, it should be seen that provision is made for fittings at all points where a light will be required, otherwise. much expense may be incurred in modifying the piping system to suit the tenant's needs. The consideration as to height of ceilings, just mentioned in connection with oil lamps, applies also in the case of gas. The gas fittings are so entirely the tenant's affair that they need not be dealt with in connection with the choice of a house. Each tenant will exercise his taste and judgment, and consult his pocket in purchasing them. Most modern houses situated in districts served by an electric supply company are " wired." Provided the wiring system is done in accordance with tne company's requirements, the tenant need have little anxiety in the matter. The company's work- men will test the wiring before laying on the current, and if they are satisfied, the tenant may assume that all is in order. The only point which need con- cern the house-hunter is whether the lighting ." points " are conve- niently placed. Heatins: So long as public opinion favours the open grate, this simple and time-honoured, if somewhat waste- ful, device will remain the prin- cipal source of artificial heat in the house. It is not difficult to understand the popularity of the open grate. Quite apart from our sentimental affection for the cheery blaze, we all realise that there is a quality about the warmth we receive from it that is not found in that of the closed stove or hot- water radiator. The explanation is that the heat is radiated, and not convected. In other words, it warms us without unpleasantly warming the air about us. Modern ingenuity has done much to render the domestic fireplace more efficient and more economical than its prototype. The more extensive use of firebrick, by which the heat is retained and radiated back into the room, instead of passing away up the chimney, is one phase of the improve- ment in modem grates. No house can be considered well-equipped in its heating system that is not fitted with grates embodying this principle. The old so-called " register " stoves were an improvement on their predecessors, to the extent that they introduced the principle of restricting the smoke orifice, thereby increasing the velocity of the draught. In consequence, the fire burned more brightly, and the fuel was more perfectly consumed. 704 HEARTH Sectional view of a gocd type of modern barless grate arrows show the course of the smoke Yet the register grate has its defects, and cannot compare in efficiency with some of the more recent patterns of grate, of which many forms exist, all more or less depending upon the use of a wide expanse of firebrick back, and generally distinguished by a simplification of the fire receptacle. Thus we come to the barless grate, the fire being made in a shallow iron basket or in a firebrick well. The house-hunter should make himself acquainted with the best examples of modern grate construction, and see that the house he may have under consideration is provided with one or other ; at least, so far as the living-rooms are concerned. In bedrooms, where fires are rarely lighted, any simple little grate will serve, provided it has an unimpeded chim- ney opening. The bedroom grate is insisted upon in local bylaws mainly because it is a ventilating device. Hence the register grate, the door of which is liable to become closed, by design or accident, is a danger to health in small and otherwise ill-ventilated rooms. It is not often that one finds any heating system ready installed other. than the open grate. There, is, how- ever, a movement in the direction of closed stoves which burn anthracite, but as these usually are tenant's fixtures, they are not likely to be met with by the house-hunter, except as optional fixtures to be paid for by the incoming tenant. The anthracite stove has much to recommend it on the score of clean- liness and economy, and involves much less trouble in management than the open grate. The gas fire stands on the same basis, and is not usually landlord's property. It is responsible for many headaches in small rooms, and its best justification is that it is quickly lighted and as quickly put out, for which reason it has a sphere of usefulness in rooms only occasionally occupied. Hot-water systems of heating hardly come within the scope of these articles. Usually they are found in large houses only, and as they do not replace but are supplementary to the grates, they may be put to use or not, at the tenant's option. Much as the subject has been studied and discussed in connection with the hygiene of the home, the modern house rarely contains any efficient system of ventilation. The subject will be dealt with in Part 7. To be continued. The