A Description of a New-Invented Stove-Grate / Shewing Its Uses and Advantages Over All Others, Both in Point of Expence, and Every Purpose of a Chamber Fire

by J. Durno

And there are others which have the Flue straight upward, that goes into the Chimney, and all the Funnel closed up round the Flue of the Stove. The First Sort, in my Opinion, is the best; for there is not so much of the upright Heat lost as in this, and the Chimney cannot so readily smoke; because the Space between the false Back and the true Back obstruct, in some degree, the Passage of the Air down the Chimney. Both these sorts have a small Iron Door into the Room, which in some degree changes the Air as it flows to that Opening; part of which goes off with the Smoke, and its Place is supplied by the entering Air from Doors, Windows, and Crevices. But as there is so small a Change of Air, the Room will soon be warm, the Chimney being wholly closed up; very little Air is required to supply the small Door of the Stove, and that only can enter at the Door or Windows of the Room: Little Fuel serves, for almost all the Heat is saved. This small change of Air makes these Stoves wholesomer, or at least pleasanter, than the German Stoves, but there is little sight of the Fire; and no other Use can be made of it but to warm the Room: And if any ill Smell should happen in the Room, it is not easily carried off, by Reason of the slow change of Air at the little Iron Door; and the Room is always somewhat suffocating, especially to those who are not accustomed to it.

The German Stove is not unlike a Chest for Cloaths set upon one End, and is fixed into the Wall, with the Top turned outwards, or into another Room, which open and shut as there is occasion for making and mending the Fire: it warms a Room all over in a very little Time, with little Fuel to make a Fire; no fresh Air can enter the Room if the Door be left open, no more than it would in an open Oven, because there is not the least Discharge of Air in the Room. But there is not any Appearance of Fire to be seen in these Stoves, and they who used them were obliged to breathe the same unchanged elemental Air, mixed with that inspired by all the Company.

Fourthly, the Chimney, in the House of Lords, which was designed by way of an Improvement upon the Sieur Gauger’s Chimnies.

For First, the outward Air, from below the House, in the Passage, enters under the Iron Plate, (commonly called the Hearth-Plate) which is prepared to receive it into a re-curved Canal, and from thence passes up the back Plate of Iron, in the like Turnings and Windings, near to the Top, where it is divided, and enters into two Tubes of Copper, one placed on each side of the Funnel, of a sufficient Length to appear above the Cornish; there they are joined to other Conveyances; one of which is carried round the Throne, and ends over-against the Fire; and the other Conveyance is continued to the Window, above the Cornish, made of Tin, in form of a right-angled Triangle, and is perforated to let out the Air. There is likewise a Valve in each of these Copper Pipes or Tubes, placed at a considerable distance from the Fire, to open and shut at pleasure, by a Thumb-Latch, which being shut, imprisons the Air in its Passage upwards, until it be hot, and when opened, discharges this warmed Air near the Cieling, through those perforated Conveyances.

According to the Construction of this Fire-Place, it is next to an Impossibility to warm that House with the greatest Fire that can be made in it: For all the upright Heat is lost, occasioned by the continual Current of Air coming in at the Doors and Crevices, which forcibly drives almost all the Heat up the Chimney.

Secondly, The Streams of cold Air which enters under the Hearth and Back Plates, (where a large Stove-Grate stands) in its various Turnings and Windings, behind these Plates, and through those Tubes, is but very little warmed in its Passage above the Fire in the Conveyances to the Cieling; and it cannot receive any Heat from the Hearth-Plate, unless the Fire was made upon it, as mentioned before; for the bottom Bars of the Stove-Grate are at so great a distance from the Iron Hearth-Plate, that the Fire, with its downward Heat, cannot reach it; and not above Eight superficial Feet of the Back-Plate is warmed by the Fire, and considering the distance from the hot part, to where the warm Air is discharged into the House, nothing is clearer, than that it cannot receive any considerable degree of Heat, in its Passage through the Copper Pipes, that convey it to the Cieling; and where it is suspended, and mixes slowly and imperceptibly with the colder Air in the lower part of the House, so that little or no Warmth can be obtained by this Conveyance.

Thirdly, From hence it appears, that it would have been of much greater Use to have discharged the hot Air immediately from the hot Iron Back-Plate into the Room; its Effects in that Case would have been sensibly felt, and it would then have ascended naturally, without the help of Pipes, and warmed the circumambient Air as was intended; and likewise would have supported the Fire, without the Assistance of any Air from the Doors and Crevices.

Fifthly, Stoves, placed at the End of long Rooms, Coffee-Houses, and Tradesmen’s Shops, warm the Room in a little Time; but the Smoke and upright Heat are both conveyed thro’ one and the same Tube of Iron, jointed in several Pieces, to bring them round the Wall and Turnings of the Chimney, where they are discharged: but never fail to send out some part of the Air impregnated with Sulphur, so as to occasion a disagreeable Smell, and often, Head-achs and Lowness of Spirits to those that are not accustomed to these Stoves.

Sixthly, The French Stoves are much the same as the Dutch; and I am informed, that they have many from Holland and Germany; but they have another Sort, which is the Mode at present; it resembles an old-fashion’d low Chest of Drawers with a flat Top, and has swelling or rising Mouldings on all Sides, which represent the Drawers: It is composed of several Pieces of burnt Earth, in the manner of our Earthen Ware, and is placed upon a Frame of Iron at Bottom, and all the Parts are luted together to complete the Body: It is likewise bound about with two Iron Belts to keep all tight, and has a little Door at one End like a Dutch Stove, where the Fire is put into it; it projects into the Room some distance from the Chimney, and gives Heat from the four Sides as well as the Top; There is a Flue proceeds from the back Part, and an Iron Pipe fixed upon it, to reach the Chimney; which carries the Smoke up the Funnel, and the Chimney is closed up all round the Iron Pipe; it is on the same Principles as the Dutch Stove, and is subject to many more Inconveniences, which are not necessary to be mentioned.

Seventhly, The Pensilvanian Stove-Grate comes lastly to be considered, which is a curious Invention indeed, contrived about Twelve or Fourteen Years ago, and particularly described by Mr. Franklin of Philadelphia, in a Treatise intitled, An Account of the New-Invented Pensilvanian Fire-Places, printed at Philadelphia in 1744. I have lately examined one that was made in that Country, all of cast Iron, which I believe to be the only one in England; and at the same time I saw a perfect Model of it, which discovered the whole Work at one View.