"When this stove is to be used, it must first be carried into the kitchen and placed in the chimney near the fire. There burning wood must be laid and left upon its grate till the barrel C is warm, and the smoke no longer rises at A, but descends towards C. Then it is to be carried into the room which it is to warm. When once the barrel C is warm, fresh wood may be thrown into the vessel A as often as one pleases, the flame descends and without smoke, which is so consumed that only a vapour passes out at D.
"As this vapour is unwholesome, and affects the head, one may be freed from it, by fixing in the wall of the room an inverted funnel, such as people use to hang over lamps, through which their smoke goes out as through a chimney. This funnel carries out all the vapour cleverly, so that one finds no inconvenience from it, even though the opening D be placed a span below the mouth of the said funnel G. The neck of the funnel is better when made gradually bending, than if turned in a right angle.
"The cause of the draft downwards in the stove is the pressure of the outward air, which, falling into the vessel A in a column of twelve inches diameter, finds only a resisting passage at the grate B, of five inches, and one at D, of two inches, which are much too weak to drive it back again; besides, A stands much higher than B, and so the pressure on it is greater and more forcible, and beats down the frame to that part where it finds the least resistance. Carrying the machine first to the kitchen fire for preparation, is on this account, that in the beginning the fire and smoke naturally ascend, till the air in the close barrel C is made thinner by the warmth. When that vessel is heated, the air in it is rarefied, and then all the smoke and fire descends under it.
"The wood should be thoroughly dry, and cut into pieces five or six inches long, to fit it for being thrown into the funnel A." Thus far the German book.
It appears to me, by Mr. Leutmann's explanation of the operation of this machine, that he did not understand the principles of it, whence I conclude he was not the inventor of it; and by the description of it, wherein the opening at A is made so large, and the pipe E, D, so short, I am persuaded he never made nor saw the experiment, for the first ought to be much smaller and the last much higher, or it hardly will succeed. The carrying it in the kitchen, too, every time the fire should happen to be out, must be so troublesome, that it is not likely ever to have been in practice, and probably has never been shown but as a philosophical experiment. The funnel for conveying the vapour out of the room would besides have been uncertain in its operation, as a wind blowing against its mouth would drive the vapour back.
The stove I am about to describe was also formed on the idea given by the French experiment, and completely carried into execution before I had any knowledge of the German invention; which I wonder should remain so many years in a country, where men are so ingenious in the management of fire, without receiving long since the improvements I have given it.
Description of the Parts.
A, the bottom plate which lies flat upon the hearth, with its partitions, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ([Plate X.] Figure 2.) that are cast with it, and a groove Z Z, in which are to slide, the bottom edges of the small plates Y, Y, figure 12; which plates meeting at X close the front.
B 1, figure 3, is the cover plate showing its under side, with the grooves 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to receive the top edges of the partitions that are fixed to the bottom plate. It shows also the grate W W, the bars of which are cast in the plate, and a groove V V, which comes right over the groove Z Z, figure 2, receiving the upper edges of the small sliding plates Y Y, figure 12.
B 2, figure 4, shows the upper side of the same plate, with a square impression or groove for receiving the bottom mouldings T T T T of the three-sided box C, figure 5, which is cast in one piece.