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Fig.4

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6 Feet 7 Inches long, 2 Feet wide, the Stone 10 Inches thick.

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Mr. URBAN,

Feb. 4.

AMONGST the utilities of the

Gentleman's Magazine, the means it affords of circulating information on inventions and improvements may be enumerated.

Amidst the lighter tracts of a daily paper, fuch explanations would feldom obtain notice, or, at beft, the notice only of a minute; and yet it will not be denied that articles of this kind may furnish amufement, and that there fhould fomewhere exift a repofitory in which fuch as are useful may be preferved.

The untractable nature of fmoke occafions a kind of annoyance, which may be ranked amongst the real difcomforts of life; the difguft, and even the terror, with which it is confidered, cannot be denied, whilft we remember that, of the two great diflurbers of domeftic felicity, our proverb gives it even the foremost rank,

A fmoky chimney and a fcolding wife. Whether the order ought to be inverted or not, I leave to be debated by thofe who have experience in both; my prefent purpofe is to fhew, that fmoke is far more ductile and manageable than it has commonly been supposed to be.

A proof of the decay of religion in our days-would it were the only oneis the complaining of coldnefs in our churches, and of the efforts hitherto to render them warm and comfortable. As a fire placed against any one fide of a large building could have but a partial effect, and as the building of chimnies in the area muft utterly confound the fymmetry of any structure,German ftoves were introduced, few of which have anfwered the intended purpose in any tolerable degree.-The improvements of the Bank of England prefented a novelty of the ftove kind. In the centre of the hall, and of each of the principal offices, an edifice of caft-iron fupplied a GENT. MAC. March, 1788.

gentle heat, and much curiofity was excited refpecting the means by which it was produced. Fire was not doubted, although no fire was vifible: and, as there was not any appearance of chimney or funnel, it was conjectured that the fmoke was confumed within the domes, with which each of these temples were feverally crowned; or, that the element was fupplied from fome material which could undergo combustion. without emitting that noxious vapour. Thefe ftoves, however, were heated by a common fire of fea-coal, from which the fmoke paffed downwards. But, though the Bank ftove was much admired for the ingenuity of the contrivance, complaints were foon made, that the warmth emitted from the furface of caft-iron was unwholefome; that the air of the room was not exchanged and purified as by a common fire; that dif orders in the lungs, in fhort, a new diforder, an iron cough, was occafioned by them; and it is probable the charge is not altogether unfounded.

THE STOVE, which the annexed plate reprefents, is free from the objections which have been urged against the former.

By referring to the plate (fig. 1), the reader will fee the form of a Itove with two open fire-places placed on two faces of a triangle-to which a third might be added where it might be neceffaryfrom each of thefe the fmoke readily paffes through an aperture in the back into a fue, which defcends perpendicularly about feven feet, then horizontally through a brick flue led over an arch, in order to leave a paffage or thoroughfare in the cellar beneath, and, from thence, afcends through a common chimney to the top of the house. The fires constantly burn well; and it is indeed curious, and to moft obfèrvers furprifing, to fee the fmoke, flame, and fparks, run downwards as readily as water, or any fluid could do. It may be neceffary to obferve, and will ferve to explain the principle of this contrivance, that, at the time the fires are lighted in tne ftoves, a handful of thavings fhould be put into the chimney through the fmall iron door (marked b); thefe being lighted, the smoke afcending from them will expel the atmospherical air from the fhaft; which having caufed a kind of vacuum therein, the air from the horizontal and defcending flues rufhes to fill the space,

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