Year: 1873

Two of the three prime necessaries of
civilized housekeeping, water and light,
are now provided in our city homes with
out carriage The third, fuel, is still sub
ject to many troublesome and expensive
landings Consider the cost of a poor
mans fire, after the coal is paid for at
the retail coal yard The retailers profit
and the cartmans pay for delivering the
coal in small lots being included in the
purchase price, we will leave them out
of the account-though the cost of dis
tributing years supply of coal through
out city like this is something enor-
nous and take up our dirty fuel from
the pavement at the consumers door.
If there is hole in the side walk through
which the coal can be pitched to its
place in the cellar, its conveyance thither
is matter of small moment; but the
chances are that there is no such conven-
ience. In this more common case, the
coal must be shoveled into pals, buckets
or baskets, and toilsomely carried to its
receiving bin, perhaps through a pre-
liminary alley way of considerable length.
This cannot be done without an expendi-
ture of time and strength, having
measurable money value, which increases
by so much the original cost of the coal.
The fire is wanted on the third, fourth or
fifth floor Some one must descend to
the cellar, shovel up the coal, and bear it
by hand up the intervening flights of
stairs, putting forth, it may be more
human effort than was required to lift
the coal from its native bed in the mine.
At the mine, coal lifts and carries coal
in our houses, the work is done by human
muscles. In the process of feeding the
fire the coal is handled again: small
matter when we think only of one buck
etful: but multiply it by the number of
bucketsful handled every day in the
city, and the product is an amount of
labor not at all to be despised. While
burning, the fire calls for constant atten-
ton; it must be watched, regulated and
renewed, each step costing still more
time and labor, the grand aggregate of
which, for all the coal consumed, is very
great. Then the ashes must be taken up,
sifted and carried away, involving yet
more cost of time and strength; and
Goals and ashes soil the hands, clothes
and furniture, which must be made clean
again by additional labor. The burden
of all this labor falls heaviest on the
poor, for by them the coal is most fre-
quently handled, but the rich are far
from exempt. Could we sum up the cost
of service employed in caring for our
household CRATES and furnaces, the ag-
eregate would swell immensely our yearly
bills for fuel.


Further, the burning of coal in small
quantities, as in cooking stoves and small
heaters, is wasteful in the extreme. The
combustion is imperfect; but fraction
of the possible heat is cooled; and much
of that is wasted in cavernous chimneys.
Then large percentage of the coal is
consumed when no heat is required,
when it is Objectionable even, to keep
the fire in readiness for the time of need.
In short, there are a thousand ways in
which the original cost of coal is aug
mented and its efficiency diminis he'd in
the common crude and unscienti6c use
of it for household purposes; ways never
suspected by those who have never used
a fuel which has none of the drawback
of coal: which burns cleanly, quickly,
perfectly and requires no carriage, name
ly, gas. 1t is more than probable
that our children will live to look back
upon old time tallow dips and the fetch
ing of water in buckets from the town
pump. Already the use of gas as fuel
especially for cooking. has been proved
to be not merely convenient but econom-
ical; in spite of the fact that the gas used
has been expensively and, for fuel, need
lessly refined, and paid for at an exorbit-
ant rate even for illuminating gas A
cruder product would answer lust as
we'll. Don't never prophesy unless you
know" is the sound advice of one of our
humorists. In the face of the caution,
however, one may safely predict that the
fuel of the future will carry itself, and
will leave no SCOT or ashes Further,
the combustion will be perfect, and un-
der perfect control; and however small
the quantity burned in any case, its full
heating power will be developed.


For several months friend of ours
has been testing the availability of gas
for these purposes. He has used a range
having two separate burners for boiling
or frying, and third burner heating at
once q roasting chamber Con the princi-
pie of Dutch oven) and an ordinary
closed oven for baking. Broiling is done
in the roasting chamber under a sheet of
flame which covers uniformly the top of
the chamber. The range has ample ca
pacity for family of six OF eight persons,