Stoves and Grates.
Stoves and Grates are made in a variety of forms. Their employment is obviously greatly dependent on the kind of fuel employed. In the kitchens of the old baronial residences, large logs of wood were thrown upon an immense stone or brick hearth, and there kindled. But when coals became commonly used in London and other great towns of England, about the year 1400, the use of some kind of stove or grate began to be felt, since the fuel was too valuable to be scattered on a wide-spreading hearth. From that time to the present, one continual series of improvements has taken place, having for their objects, to add to the elegance and neatness of a room, to facilitate culinary occupations, and to derive the greatest possible heat from a given quantity of fuel. It is only within a very few years that the principles regulating the last-mentioned circumstance have been at all well understood. Some parts of the metal for a grate or stove are produced by casting, others by forging, and others by rolling or pressing; and they are put together principally by rivets. For further details on this subject we refer to our seventh chapter.