V.
THE CONSTRUCTION AND
CARE OF STOVES, FURNACES, AND CHIMNEYS.
IF all American housekeepers could be taught how to select and
manage the most economical and convenient apparatus for cooking and for
warming a house, many millions now wasted by ignorance and neglect would
be saved. Every woman should be taught the scientific principles in
regard to heat, and then their application to practical purposes, for
her own benefit, and also to enable her to train her children and
servants in this important duty of home life on which health and comfort
so much depend.
The laws that regulate the generation, diffusion, and preservation
of heat as yet are a sealed mystery to thousands of young women who
imagine they are completing a suitable education in courses of
instruction from which most that is practical in future domestic life is
wholly excluded. We therefore give a brief outline of some of the
leading scientific principles which every housekeeper should understand
and employ, in order to perform successfully one of her most important
duties.
Concerning the essential nature of heat, and its intimate relations
with the other great natural forces, light, electricity, etc., we shall
not attempt to treat, but shall, for practical purposes, assume it to be
a separate and independent force.
Heat or caloric, then, has certain powers or principles. Let us
consider them:
First, we find Conduction,
by which heat passes from one particle to another next to it; as when
one end of a poker is warmed by placing the other end in the fire. The
bodies which allow this power free course are called conductors, and
those which do not are named non-conductors. Metals are good conductors;
feathers, wool, and furs are poor conductors; and water, air, and gases
are non-conductors.
Another principle of heat is
Convection, by which water, air, and gases are warmed. This is,
literally, the process of conveying
heat from one portion of a fluid body to another by currents resulting
from changes of temperature. It is secured by bringing one portion of a
liquid or gas into contact with a heated surface, whereby it becomes
lighter and expanded in volume. In consequence, the cooler and heavier
particles above pressing downward, the lighter ones rise upward, when
the former, being heated, rise in their turn, and give place to others
again descending from above. Thus a constant motion of currents and
interchange of particles is produced until, as in a vessel of water, the
whole body comes to an equal temperature. Air is
 heated in the same way.
In case of a hot stove, the air that touches it is heated, becomes
lighter, and rises, giving place to cooler and heavier particles, which,
when heated, also ascend. It is owing to this process that the air of a
room is warmest at the top and coolest at the bottom.
It is owing to this principle, also, that water and air can not be
heated by fire from above. For the particles of these bodies, being
non-conductors, do not impart heat to each other; and when the warmest
are at the top, they can not take the place of cooler and heavier ones
below.
Another principle of heat (which it shares with light) is
Radiation, by which all things
send out heat to surrounding cooler bodies. Some bodies will absorb
radiated heat, others will reflect it, and others allow it to pass
through them without either absorbing or reflecting Thus, black
and rough substances absorb heat, (or light,) colored and smooth
articles reflect it, while air allows it to pass through without either
absorbing or reflecting. It is owing to this, that rough and black
vessels boil water sooner than smooth and light-colored ones.
Another principle is Reflection,
by which heat radiated to a surface is turned back from it when not
absorbed or allowed to pass through; just as a ball rebounds from a
wall; just as sound is thrown back from a hill, making echo; just as
rays of light are reflected from a mirror. And, as with light, the rays
of heat are always reflected from a surface in an angle exactly
corresponding to the direction in which it strikes that surface. Thus,
if heated air comes to an object perpendicularly--that is, at right
angles, it will be reflected back in the same line. If it strikes
obliquely, it is reflected obliquely, at an angle with the surface
precisely the same as the angle with which it first struck. And, of
course, if it moves toward the surface and comes upon it in a line
having so small an angle with it as to be almost parallel with it, the
heated air is spread wide and diffused through a larger space than when
the angles are greater and the width of reflection less.
The simplest mode of warming a house and cooking food
is by radiated heat from fires; but this is the most wasteful method, as
respects time, labor, and expense. The most convenient, economical, and
labor-saving mode of employing heat is by convection, as applied in
stoves and furnaces. But for want of proper care and scientific
knowledge this method has proved very destructive to health. When
warming and cooking were done by open fires, houses were well supplied
with pure air, as is rarely the case in rooms heated by stoves. For such
is the prevailing ignorance on this subject that, as long as stoves save
labor and warm the air, the great majority of people, especially among
the poor, will use them in ways that involve debilitated constitutions
and frequent disease.
The most common modes of cooking, where open fires are relinquished,
are by the range and the cooking-stove. The range is inferior to the
stove in these respects: it is less economical, demanding much more
fuel; it endangers the dress of the cook while standing near for various
operations; it requires more stooping than the stove while cooking; it
will not keep a fire all night, as do the best stoves; it will not burn
wood and coal equally well; and lastly, if it warms the kitchen
sufficiently in winter, it is too warm for summer. Some prefer it
because the fumes of cooking can be carried off; but stoves properly
arranged accomplish this equally well.
After extensive inquiry and many personal experiments, the author
has found a cooking-stove constructed on true scientific principles,
which unites convenience, comfort, and economy in a remarkable manner.
Of this stove, drawings and descriptions will now be given, as the best
mode of illustrating the practical applications of these principles to
the art of cooking, and to show how much American women have suffered
and how much they have been imposed upon for want of proper knowledge in
this branch of their profession. And every woman can understand what
follows with much less effort than young girls at high-schools
give to the first problems of Geometry--for which they will never have
any practical use, while attention to this problem of home affairs will
cultivate the intellect quite as much as the abstract reasonings of
Algebra and Geometry.
[Illustration: A diagram of the interior of a cooking-stove, with
labels for the various parts and arrows indicating the circulation of
air through the stove.]
Fig. 34 represents a portion of the interior of this cooking-stove.
First, notice the fire-box, which has corrugated (literally, wrinkled)
sides, by which space is economized, so that as much heating surface is
secured as if they were one third larger; as the heat radiates from
every part of the undulating surface, which is one third greater in
superficial extent than if it were plane. The shape of the fire-box also
secures more heat by having oblique sides--which radiate more
effectively into the oven beneath than if they were perpendicular, as
illustrated below--while also it is sunk into the oven, so as to radiate
from three instead of from two sides, as in most other stoves, the
front of whose fire-boxes with their grates are built so as to be the
front of the stove itself.
 The oven is the space under and around the back and front sides of
the fire-box. The oven-bottom is not introduced in the diagram, but it
is a horizontal plate between the fire-box and what is represented as
the "flue-plate," which separates the oven from the bottom of the stove.
The top of the oven is the horizontal corrugated plate passing from the
rear edge of the fire-box to the back flues. These are three in
number--the back centre-flue, which is closed to the heat and smoke
coming over the oven from the fire-box by a damper--and the two back
corner-flues. Down these two corner-flues passes the current of hot air
and smoke, having first drawn across the corrugated oven-top. The arrows
show its descent through these flues, from which it obliquely strikes
and passes over the flue-plate, then under it, and then out through the
centre back-flue, which is open at the bottom, up into the smoke-pipe.
The flue-plate is placed obliquely, to accumulate
 heat by forcing
and compression; for the back space where the smoke enters from the
corner-flues is largest, and decreases toward the front, so that the hot
current is compressed in a narrow space, between the oven-bottom and the
flue-plate at the place where the bent arrows are seen. Here again it
enters a wider space, under the flue-plate, and proceeds to another
narrow one, between the flue-plate and the bottom of the stove, and thus
is compressed and retained longer than if not impeded by these various
contrivances. The heat and smoke also strike the plate obliquely, and
thus, by reflection from its surface, impart more heat than if the
passage was a horizontal one.
The external radiation is regulated by the use of non-conducting
plaster applied to the flue-plate and to the sides of the corner-flues,
so that the heat is prevented from radiating in any direction except
toward the oven. The doors, sides, and bottom of the stove are lined
with tin casings, which hold a stratum of air, also a non-conductor.
These are so arranged as to be removed whenever the weather becomes
cold, so that the heat may then radiate into the kitchen. The outer
edges of the oven are also similarly protected from loss of heat by tin
casings and air-spaces, and the oven-doors opening at the front of the
store are provided with the same economical savers of heat. High tin
covers placed on the top prevent the heat from radiating above the
stove. These are exceedingly useful, as the space under them is well
heated and arranged for baking, for heating irons, and many other
incidental necessities. Cake and pies can be baked on the top, while the
oven is used for bread or for meats. When all the casings and covers are
on, almost all the heat is confined within the stove, and whenever heat
for the room is wanted, opening the front oven-doors turns it out into
the kitchen.
Another contrivance is that of ventilating-holes in the front doors,
through which fresh air is brought into the oven. This secures several
purposes: it carries off the fumes of cooking meats, and prevents the
mixing of flavors when different articles are cooked in the oven; it
drives the heat that accumulates between the fire-box and front doors
down around the oven, and equalizes its heat, so that articles need not
be moved while baking; and lastly, as the air passes through the holes
of the fire-box, it causes the burning of gases in the smoke, and thus
increases heat. When wood or bituminous coal is used, perforated metal
linings are put in the fire-box, and the result is the burning of smoke
and gases that otherwise would pass into the chimney. This is a great
discovery in the economy of fuel, which can be applied in many ways.
Heretofore, most cooking-stoves have had dumping-grates,
which are inconvenient from the dust produced, are uneconomical in the
use of fuel, and disadvantageous from too many or too loose joints. But
recently this stove has been provided with a dumping-grate which also
will sift ashes, and can be cleaned without dust and the other
objectionable features of dumping-grates. A further account of this
stove, and the mode of purchasing and using it, will be given at the
close of the book.
Those who are taught to manage the stove properly keep the fire
going all night, and equally well with wood or coal, thus saving the
expense of kindling and the trouble of starting a new fire. When the
fuel is of good quality, all that is needed in the morning is to draw
the back-damper, shake the grate, and add more fuel.
Another remarkable feature of this stove is the extension-top, on
which is placed a water reservoir, constantly heated by the smoke as it
passes from the stove, through one or two uniting passages, to the
smoke-pipe. Under this is placed a closet for warming and keeping hot
the dishes, vegetables, meats, etc., while preparing for dinner. It is
also very useful in drying fruit; and when large baking is required, a
small appended pot for charcoal turns it into a fine large oven, that
bakes as nicely as a brick oven.
Another useful appendage is a common tin oven, in which roasting can
be done in front of the stove, the oven-doors being removed for the
purpose. The roast will be done as perfectly as by an open fire.
This stove is furnished with pipes for heating water, like the
water-back of ranges, and these can be taken or left out at pleasure. So
also the top covers, the baking-stool and pot, and the summer-back,
bottom, and side-casings can be used or omitted as preferred.
Fig. 37 exhibits the stove completed, with all its appendages, as
they might be employed in cooking for a large number.
Its capacity, convenience, and economy as a stove may
be estimated by the following fact: With proper management of dampers,
one ordinary-sized coal-hod of anthracite coal will, for twenty-four
hours, keep the stove running, keep seventeen gallons of water hot at
all hours, bake pies
[Illustration: A large stove that includes a roaster, range, hot
water reservoir, and baking compartment, among other amenities. The
various features of the stove are labeled in the illustration.]
and puddings in the warm closet, heat flat-irons under the back cover,
boil tea-kettle and one pot under the front cover, bake bread in the
oven, and cook a turkey in the tin roaster in front. The author has
numerous friends, who, after trying the best ranges, have dismissed them
for this stove, and in two or three years cleared the whole expense by
the saving of fuel.
The remarkable durability of this stove is another economic feature.
For in addition to its fine castings and
nice-fitting workmanship, all the parts liable to burn out are so
protected by linings, and other contrivances easily renewed, that the
stove itself may pass from one generation to another, as do ordinary
chimneys. The writer has visited in families where this stove had been
in constant use for eighteen and twenty years, and was still as good as
new. In most other families the stoves are broken, burnt-out, or thrown
aside for improved patterns every four, five, or six years, and
sometimes, to the knowledge of the writer, still oftener.
Another excellent point is that, although it is so complicated in
its various contrivances as to demand intelligent management in order to
secure all its advantages, it also can be used satisfactorily even when
the mistress and maid are equally careless and ignorant of its
distinctive merits. To such it offers all the advantages of ordinary
good stoves, and is extensively used by those who take no pains to
understand and apply its peculiar advantages.
But the writer has managed the stove herself in all the details of
cooking, and is confident that any housekeeper of common sense, who is
instructed properly, and who also aims to have her kitchen affairs
managed with strict economy, can easily train any servant who is willing
to learn, so as to gain the full advantages offered. And even without
any instructions at all, except the printed directions sent with the
stove, an intelligent woman can, by due attention, though not without,
both manage it, and teach her children and servants to do likewise. And
whenever this stove has failed to give the highest satisfaction, it has
been, either because the housekeeper was not apprized of its
peculiarities, or because she did not give sufficient attention to the
matter, or was not able or willing to superintend and direct its
management.
The consequence has been that, in families where this stove has been
understood and managed aright, it has saved nearly one half of the fuel
that would be used in ordinary
stoves, constructed with the usual disregard of scientific and economic
laws. And it is because we know this particular stove to be convenient,
reliable, and economically efficient beyond ordinary experience, in the
important housekeeping element of kitchen labor, that we devote to it so
much space and pains to describe its advantageous points.
CHIMNEYS.
One of the most serious evils in domestic life is often found in
chimneys that will not properly draw the smoke of a fire or stove.
Although chimneys have been building for a thousand years, the artisans
of the present day seem strangely ignorant of the true method of
constructing them so as always to carry smoke upward instead of
downward. It is rarely the case that a large house is built in which
there is not some flue or chimney which "will not draw." One of the
reasons why the stove described as excelling all others is sometimes
cast aside for a poorer one is, that it requires a properly constructed
chimney, and multitudes of women do not know how to secure it. The
writer in early life shed many a bitter tear, drawn forth by smoke from
an ill-constructed kitchen-chimney, and thousands all over the land can
report the same experience.
The following are some of the causes and the remedies for this evil.
The most common cause of poor chimney draughts is too large an
opening for the fireplace, either too wide or too high in front, or
having too large a throat for the smoke. In a lower story, the fireplace
should not be larger than thirty inches wide, twenty-five inches high,
and fifteen deep. In the story above, it should be eighteen inches
square and fifteen inches deep.
Another cause is too short a flue, and the remedy is to lengthen it.
As a general rule, the longer the flue the stronger the draught. But in
calculating the length of a
flue, reference must be had to side-flues, if any open into it. Where
this is the case, the length of the main flue is to be considered as
extending only from the bottom to the point where the upper flue joins
it, and where the lower will receive air from the upper flue. If a smoky
flue can not be increased in length, either by closing an upper flue or
lengthening the chimney, the fireplace must be contracted so that all
the air near the fire will be heated and thus pressed upward.
If a flue has more than one opening, in some cases it is impossible
to secure a good draught. Sometimes it will work well and sometimes it
will not. The only safe rule is to have a separate flue to each fire.
Another cause of poor draughts is too tight a room, so that the cold
air from without can not enter to press the warm air up the chimney. The
remedy is to admit a small current of air from without.
Another cause is two chimneys in one room, or in rooms opening
together, in which the draught in one is much stronger than in the
other. In this case, the stronger draught will draw away from the
weaker. The remedy is, for each room to have a proper supply of outside
air; or, in a single room, to stop one of the chimneys.
Another cause is the too close vicinity of a hill or buildings
higher than the top of the chimney, and the remedy for this is to raise
the chimney.
Another cause is the descent, into unused fireplaces, of smoke from
other chimneys near. The remedy is to close the throat of the unused
chimney.
Another cause is a door opening toward the fireplace, on the same
side of the room, so that its draught passes along the wall and makes a
current that draws out the smoke. The remedy is to change the hanging of
the door so as to open another way.
Another cause is strong winds. The remedy is a turn-cap on top of
the chimney.
Another cause is the roughness of the inside of a chimney, or
projections which impede the passage of the smoke. Every chimney should
be built of equal dimensions from bottom to top, with no projections
into it, with as few bends as possible, and with the surface of the
inside as smooth as possible.
Another cause of poor draughts is openings into the chimney of
chambers for stove-pipes. The remedy is to close them, or insert
stove-pipes that are in use.
Another cause is the falling out of brick in some part of the
chimney so that outer air is admitted. The remedy is to close the
opening.
The draught of a stove may be affected by most of these causes. It
also demands that the fireplace have a tight fire-board, or that the
throat be carefully filled. For neglecting this, many a good stove has
been thrown aside and a poor one taken in its place.
If all young women had committed to memory these causes of evil and
their remedies, many a badly-built chimney might have been cured, and
many smoke-drawn tears, sighs, ill-tempers, and irritating words
avoided.
But there are dangers in this direction which demand special
attention. Where one flue has two stoves or fireplaces, in rooms one
above the other, in certain states of the atmosphere, the lower room,
being the warmer, the colder air and carbonic acid in the room above
will pass down into the lower room through the opening for the stove or
the fireplace.
This occurred not long since in a boarding-school, when the gas in a
room above flowed into a lower one, and suffocated several to death.
This room had no mode of ventilation, and several persons slept in it,
and were thus stifled. Professor Brewer states a similar case in the
family of a relative. An anthracite stove was used in the upper room;
and on one still, close night, the gas from this stove descended through
the flue and the opening into a room below,
and stifled two persons to insensibility, though, by proper efforts,
their lives were saved. Many such cases have occurred where rooms have
been thus filled with poisonous gases, and servants and children
destroyed, or their constitutions injured, simply because housekeepers
are not properly instructed in this important branch of their
profession.
FURNACES.
There is no improved mechanism in the economy of domestic life
requiring more intelligent management than furnaces. Let us then
consider some of the principles involved.
The earth is heated by radiation from the sun. The air is not warmed
by the passage of the sun's heat through it, but by convection from the
earth, in the same way that it is warmed by the surfaces of stoves. The
lower stratum of air is warmed by the earth and by objects which have
been warmed by radiated heat from the sun. The particles of air thus
heated expand, become lighter, and rise, being replaced by the descent
of the cooler and heavier particles from above, which, on being warmed
also rise, and give place to others. Owing to this process, the air is
warmest nearest the earth, and grows cooler as height increases.
The air has a strong attraction for water, and always holds a
certain quantity as invisible vapor. The warmer the air, the more
moisture it demands, and it will draw it from all objects within reach.
The air holds water according to its temperature. Thus, at fifty-two
degrees, Fahrenheit's thermometer, it holds half the moisture it can
sustain; but at thirty-six degrees, it will hold only one eighty-sixth
part. The earth and all plants and trees are constantly sending out
moisture; and when the air has received all it can hold, without
depositing it as dew, it is said to be
saturated, and the point of temperature at which
dew begins to form, by condensation, upon the surface of the earth and
its vegetation, is called the
dew-point. When air, at a given temperature, has only forty per
cent of the moisture it requires for saturation, it is said to be dry.
In a hot summer day, the air will hold far more moisture than in cool
days. In summer, out-door air rarely holds less than half its volume of
water. In 1838, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New-Haven, Connecticut,
at seventy degrees, Fahrenheit, the air held eighty per cent of
moisture.
In New-Orleans, the air often retains ninety per cent of the
moisture it is capable of holding; and in cool days at the North, in
foggy weather, the air is sometimes wholly saturated.
When air holds all the moisture it can, without depositing dew, its
moisture is called 100. When it holds three fourths of this, it is said
to be at seventy-five per cent. When it holds only one half, it is at
fifty per cent. When it holds only one fourth, it is at twenty-five per
cent, etc.
Sanitary observers teach that the proper amount of moisture in the
air ranges from forty to seventy per cent of saturation.
Now, furnaces, which are of course used only in winter, receive
outside air at a low temperature, holding little moisture; and heating
it greatly increases its demand for moisture. This it sucks up, like a
sponge, from the walls and furniture of a house. If it is taken into the
human lungs, it draws much of its required moisture from the body, often
causing dryness of lips and throat, and painfully affecting the lungs.
Prof. Brewer, of the Scientific School of New-Haven, who has
experimented extensively on this subject, states that, while forty per
cent of moisture is needed in air to make it healthful, most stoves and
furnaces do not, by any contrivances, supply one half of this, or not
twenty per cent. He says most furnace-heated air is
dryer than is ever breathed in the hottest deserts of Sahara.
Thus, for want of proper instruction, most American housekeepers not
only poison their families with carbonic acid and starve them for want
of oxygen, but also diminish health and comfort for want of a due supply
of moisture in the air. And often when a remedy is sought, by
evaporating water in the furnace, it is without knowing that the amount
evaporated depends, not on the quantity of water in the vessel, but on
the extent of evaporating surface exposed to the air. A quart of water
in a wide shallow pan will give more moisture than two gallons with a
small surface exposed to heat.
There is also no little wise economy in expense attained by keeping
a proper supply of moisture in the air. For it is found that the body
radiates its heat less in moist than in dry air, so that a person feels
as warm at a lower temperature when the air has a proper supply of
moisture, as in a much higher temperature of dry air. Of course, less
fuel is needed to warm a house when water is evaporated in stove and
furnace-heated rooms. It is said by those who have experimented, that
the saving in fuel is twenty per cent when the air is duly supplied with
moisture.
There is a very ingenious instrument, called the hygrodeik, which
indicates the exact amount of moisture in the air. It consists of two
thermometers side by side, one of which has its bulb surrounded by
floss-silk wrapping, which is kept constantly wet by communication with
a cup of water near it. The water around the bulb evaporates just in
proportion to the heat of the air around it. The changing of water to
vapor draws heat from the nearest object, and this being the bulb of the
thermometer, the mercury is cooled and sinks. Then the difference
between the two thermometers shows the amount of moisture in the air by
a pointer on a dial-plate constructed by simple mechanism for this
purpose.
There is one very important matter in regard to the use of furnaces,
which is thus stated by Professor Brewer:
"I think it is a well-established fact that carbonic oxide will pass
through iron. It is always formed in great abundance in any
anthracite fire, but especially
in anthracite stoves and furnaces. Moreover, furnaces
always leak, more or less; how
much they leak depending on the care and skill with which they are
managed. Carbonic oxide is much more poisonous than carbonic acid.
Doubtless some carbonic oxide finds its way into all furnace-heated
houses, especially where anthracite is used; the amount varying with the
kind of furnace and its management. As to how much escapes into a room,
and its specific effect upon the health of its occupants, we have no
accurate data, no analysis to show the quantity, and no observati ns to
show the relation between the quantity inhaled and the health of those
exposed; all is mere conjecture upon this point; but the inference is
very strong that it has a very injurious effect, producing headaches,
weariness, and other similar symptoms.
"Recent pamphlets lay the blame of all the bad effects of anthracite
furnaces and stoves to the carbonic oxide mingled in the air. I think
these pamphlets have a bad influence.
Excessive dryness also has bad effects. So also the excessive
heat in the evenings and coolness in the mornings has a share in these
evils. But how much in addition is owing to carbonic oxide, we can not
know, until we know something of the actual amount of this gas in rooms,
and as yet we know absolutely nothing definite. In fact, it will be a
difficult thing to prove."
There are other difficulties connected with furnaces which should be
considered. It is necessary to perfect health that an equal circulation
of the blood be preserved. The greatest impediment to this is keeping
the head warmer than the feet. This is especially to be avoided in a
nation where the brain is by constant activity drawing the blood from
the
extremities. And nowhere is this more important than in schools,
churches, colleges, lecture and recitation-rooms, where the brain is
called into active exercise. And yet, furnace-heated rooms always keep
the feet in the coldest air, on cool floors, while the head is in the
warmest air.
Another difficulty is the fact that all bodies tend to radiate their
heat to each other, till an equal temperature exists. Thus, the human
body is constantly radiating its heat to the walls, floors, and cooler
bodies around. At the same time, a thermometer is affected in the same
way, radiating its heat to cooler bodies around, so that it always marks
a lower degree of heat than actually exists in the warm air around it.
Owing to these facts, the injected air of a furnace is always warmer
than is good for the lungs, and much warmer than is ever needed in rooms
warmed by radiation from fires or heated surfaces. The cooler the air we
inspire, the more oxygen is received, the faster the blood circulates,
and the greater is the vigor imparted to brain, nerves, and muscles.
Scientific men have been contriving various modes of meeting these
difficulties, and at the close of this volume some results will be given
to aid a woman in selecting and managing the most healthful and
economical furnace, or in providing some better method of warming a
house. Some account will also be given of the danger involved in
gas-stoves, and some other recent inventions for cooking and heating.
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