The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-04-26


Whether IL is of wood or coal. the
virtues of an open fire are these: BY its
peculiar heat action il warns the air of
q room less than its walls and less than
the occupants of the room, producing a
comfortable warmth. 1t gives the most
| thorough ventilation, and il is the most
| cheerful as well as comfortable source
of heat. Its faults are its expensive
ness, and the greater trouble required
in taking care of it.
Why does an open fire give a COM
Portable heat when the heat from a sys-
tenn of pipes is often oppressive, and
sometimes sitting? Because of the
great difference between the ways in
which the fire and the hot pipes dis
pense their heat. The heat rays from
an open fire pass directly through the
air without much heating it; they heat
any solid object in their way, whether
it be the walls and furniture of the room
or the person of the sitter, but they
leave the air itself cool until this is
heated in turn by radiation from the
walls. The occupant of the room does
not have to wait for this secondary radi-
alton; he is impartially and promptly
warmed, like any other solid object in
the room, by the direct glow of the fire,
while the air around him may remain
comparatively cool. 1t does not, in
point of fact, get to be quite as warm as
the walls and furniture, while by choos-
ing a less or greater distance from the
fire, orby the use of screens, you can
adjust the heat of direct radiation ex-
actly to your personal comfort.
This is not the case with any other
system of heating. Warmed pipes, a
stove at anything short of red heat, and
hot-air register directly heat the air
itself, leaving the walls comparatively
cool. The room is full of hot air, which
you can not temper instantly to your
comfort as you can temper the radia-
tion of the open fire, while the walls re-
main cooler than the air when these
heating appliances are used, and alb
stract heat from the occupants of the
room instead of supplying heat to them,
as they do when warmed by the open
fire.
For these reasons the open fire is the
most comfortable way of heating. AS
to its virtue in producing ventilation, an
open fire g is powerful enough to draw
into the room all the air it wants, and
for this purpose will use indiscrimin-
ately all openings, whether inlets or
outlets, if necessary" If, as often hap
pens, when this is cold the house is not
tightly built, the fire may easily cause
too much ventilation, so that the feet
become chilled, and the temperature of
the room does not reach comfortable
degree of warmth. In such case a
register supplying warmed air from
furnace below is a necessary supple
ment to the open fires; a similar COM
pensation is needed in large buildings
where hot pipes are used to warm the
halls. The open fire, indeed, is often,
in our climate, luxury for single
room. rather than a sufficient means of
heating the house; but the open fire is a
great comfort. Other sources of heat
may usefully supplement it; but no
other, at whatever expense of money
and scientific contrivance, can take the
place of it. l have known more than
one builder of his own house who has
found out that its winter comfort was by
no means wholly decided by the height
of the thermometer.
The cheerfulness of the open fire re-
quires no eulogy. But the open flame,
whether of wood, soft coal or hard coal,
is costly luxury. Soft coal is with us
one of the most expensive kinds of fuel;
but it is worth remembering that one
good lump of it upon a hard-coal fire
will fill room with cheerful flame for
hours.
OF the heat furnished by an ordinary
open coal fire only about one-eighth is
utilized in room. This waste has led
inventors to contrive various means for
retaining part of the heat that escapes
directly up the chimney. The principle
is to warm an ascending current of air
in proximity to the fire, but not to an
excessive degree, and to disengage the
air near the top of the room. Galton
has devised one of the best of these
contrivances, but it is little known in
this country. In any fireplace the
forms and materials employed make a
good deal of difference with the amount
of heat saved. Brick and tiles are bet
ter than iron for the backing; the CRATE
should project certain distance into
the room, and a projecting chimney
piece absorbs and radiates a consider
able amount of heat The fashion, now
going out, of concealing the mantel-
piece with a board, suitably trimmed
and decorated, was thus thrifty as
well as pretty one, the fringes and
4 other coverings of the false mantel
piece serving to retain and distribute
the heat of the fire beneath.
The hob is an attachment that should
be found upon the CRATE of every open
fire. Any one can make good hob in
five minutes. Take piece of stout wire
one-fifth of an inch in diameter and
twenty to twenty-four inches long, bend
it into the shape of long capital u,
five or six inches broad, put the points
of this U between the two upper CRATE
bars and bend down the loop of it until
it stays level, and you will have con-
venient movable hob, and quite as good
one as can be bought for money.
The hob and kettle are very serviceable
for evaporating water, according to
the plan have recommended for Keep
ing the air moist A hob thus makes
the CRATE fire in the parlor more
healthful, while the tea-kettle simmering
upon it adds its own element of domes-
. tic comfort. Titus Manson Coa,s, ia
Harper's Weekly.
How, to Buy Meat. as
"Now, ladies, hope you will ask as