The sun., 1905-12-17

TO escape up Cno Cuuiihey ohiy olIoi tney
had been long In contact with thin plates
of metal and ha d parted with all their avail.
able heat.
The franklin stove is the gr7at-grand.
father Of all American heating apparatus,
The principle of the down draught appears
in most parlor stoves. The hot air box,
enlarged and furnished with n door, be.
comes the oven OF the cooking range,
Most important Of all, the Philadelphia
fireplace set up in the cellar and connected
with the rooms above becomes hot air
furnace. Junk dealers and collectors Of
antiquities have claimed its body, but its
soul goes marching on.
Franklin, therefore, made the first real
stove; the first stove, that is to say, which
was anything more than an iron box with
a door at one end and smoke pipe at the
other. His was the first heating apparatus,
not built permanently into the dwelling,
which brought in cold air from outside,
warmed it in passage by the waste heat
Of the escaping smoke, and passed it on to
the apartment; and the first practical con.
trivance Of any kind with down draught,
The era which followed was one in which
ingenious persons took to inventing i'm.
proved stoves, as ten years ago they were
inventing bicycles and to-day are strug.
Cling with automobiles The change from
wood to soft coal and then, at the beginning
OF the nineteenth century, from soft coal to
hard, brought out a host Of devices which
have finally reduced themselves to the half
dozen types OF modern stove.
Among others were schemes for passing
the hot gases from the fire back and forth
under the floor and warming the room from
that. One ingenious Frenchman had a
revolving crate which, with the chimney
In the partition between two rooms, could
be turned 80 as to heat either one. Thus
the inventors fire, as he shifted from cham.
ber to study, followed him back and forth
like dog.
, Franklin himself a year or two before
the Revolution took up problem whi
he was apparently the first man to alta k,
but which has not even yet been salts
factorily solved. The trouble with all
our stoves is that the fresh coal has to be
put on top, where it blankets the fire and
distils up the chimney without burning,
instead OF underneath, as it should be.
There is now upon the market furna,s
which works on this latter principle, the
fuel being pushed in underneath the fire
by piston worked by lever. To accom-.
plish this highly desirable result there are
but two other possible devices; with both
these Franklin experimental.
While he was in France he used CRATE
for open fires Of soft COAL in which the bars
surrounded the fire above and below and
formed a sort Of basket.
The whole thing was mounted like a
searchlight, 30 that the philosopher could
turn 1t fiat side up to heat his tea; or as he
sat negotiating treaties could point it at
the cold place in his back.
Franklin's other device was still more
radical. He ran his fire continually up
side down. The fuel and the air were
supplied above, the draught was down
ward through the fire. the burning coal
was at the bottom and the flame streamed
out below. Nothing therefore could go up
the chimney unburned.
The single limitation Of the device is
well stated In the inventors own words.
the studious man who is much in
his chamber and has pleasure in managing
his own FIRE will soon find this a machine
most comfortable and delightful To
others who leave their fires to the care Of
ignorant servants do not recommend it.
They will with difficulty acquire the knowl.
edge necessary, and will make frequent
blunders that will fill your room with smoke
1t is therefore by no means fit for common
use in families"
The stove was probably the most nearly
perfect apparatus ever contrived for burn
ing any sort Of fuel, but it required
Fellow Of the Royal Society to run it,
Nevertheless, there is an idea here that
somebody should be able to work out,