The sun., 1905-12-17
THE STOVES FRANKLIN MADE.
ONE THE ANCESTOR OF MODERN
HEATING APPARATUS.

A Phase OF FrankIln's Greatness Not Gen
orally Known-Sew Principles or Heat
ing Discovered by Hin,-H!s Theory Of
the Perfect Fire Still Where He Left II
Housekeepers in the American colonies
during the half century before the Revolu-
ton we're confronted by problem quite as
serious as any which the obstinacy OF kings
and parliaments imposed upon their men
folks-a general scarcity Of fuel.
The time had long gone by when one could
cut unlimited quantities of wood in his own
back yard, while the least fortunate towns
had no adequate supply within one hundred
miles. Seven months Of winter and No rail-
roads made fuel, as one householder ex-
pressed it in 1745, "a very considerable arti-
Gle in the expense of families Life must
indeed have been one perpetual coal strike.
Evidently, under these conditions, the
older style Of f1replaces, which opened shoul-
der high and took in four-foot stick, had
become impossible. The wonder is that
they were ever tolerated at all. They took
more wood than a paper mill and more
draught than blast furnace, go that, as
our colonial householder continues, the
door can seldom be shut; and the cold air SO
nips the backs and heels Of those that sit
before the fire that they have no comfort
till either screens or settles are provided to
keep it off,
By 174O it had become the fashion 30 to
brick up the old fireplaces as to reduce them
nearly to the modern type
For some reason or other the American
colonists, like the Englshman Of to-day,
had an invincible prejudice against the
closed alright stove such as was in gen.
eral use in Europe On the other hand they
we're unable to adopt the open CRATE soft
coal fire of the mother country. because
though coal had been discovered long be-
fore. and the Virginia fields had been worked
as early as 1850, the distance of the deposits
from tidewater and the lack Of roads made
the price of coal higher than it has ever been
since. In short our forebears of the middle
of the century warmed themselves as we'll
as they could at open wood fires, and for the
rest went cold.
Such, therefore, was the state OF Affairs
when Benjamin Franklin took up the prob
lem. People still call him Franklin the
PHILOSOPHER, for the sake OF the ALTERATION,
but he was little Of philosopher in the
modern sense. On the contrary, he was an
especially hard headed, practical man who
understood equally we'll nature and human
nature and in the scanty leisure OF life
devoted to the service Of the State made
himself one Of the first men OF science OF
his age
He knew all that anybody knew in his day
about heat, combustion and the theory OF
chimney draught; in fact, some Of his own
discoveries had been in this very field.
He knew his countrymen also, and he knew
it to be equally impossible to persuade them
to ADOPT at once closed stoves or to satisfy
their demand for comfort with open fire.
places. He devised, therefore, not 30 much
n new form OF stove as a new system OF
heating.
The so-cailed Franklin stove Of COM
meroe, which some Of us are constrained to
Use instead Of flreplaces because our houses
happened to get Themselves built between
the two fireplace eras, is 30 far as the name
goes an utter fraud. It has no more to
do with Benjamin Franklin than with
Napoleon Bopaparte.
Franklin's stove, the Philadelphia fire.
place, as he called 1.-THE old philosopher
eeem to like ALTERATION as well as the rest
OF us-emboded at least two absolutely
though the original Franklin stove Is as
extinct as the ichthyosaurus one or both
these principles still appear In almost
every modern piece OF heating apparatus.
America to-day in convenient and efficient
stoves and furnaces altogether outclaases
all other countries Of the world. She does
so largely because other inventors have
developed Franklin's ideas. That famous
epigram about the lightning from heaven
and the sceptres from tyrants might Justly
have included also some allusion to zero
weather.
The Philadelphia fireplace a stove without
a stovepipe, stood everywhere clear Of the
wall and connected with the chimney only
through its bottom, 1t had no legs, but
rested fiat on the hearth a portion Of which
had to be removed to make fues, while a
brick wall behind it closed the opening of
the original fireplace.
The smoke of the fire, therefore, instea d
Of passing directly into the chimney went
along the top Of the stove, then down again
and under the floor. This down draueht
was one unique feature.
The other was that between the two pas
sages, at the back OF the flre, was the air
box, into which fresh air entered from
beneath the hearth through a ytpe OPEN
ing out of doors. This air after beconine q
warmed passed into the room through
holes near the top Of the stove.
There was also a movable front which
served as a blower; or, the back damper
being shut. converted the fireplace into a
closed stove. In whichever way 1t was
used 1t allowed the gases from the FIRE