Various Modes of warming Houses.—The Fire of the American Indian and the Kafir.—The Oil-lamp of the Esquimaux.—The open Fireplace and Chimney Stoves.—The laminated Stove and its Powers.—Gills of the Lobster, Crab, and various Fishes.—Mode in which the Gills act.—Why Fishes lie with their Heads against the Stream.—Drowning a Fish.—The Ring and Staple, and their various Uses.—Head-bones of the Fishing-frog or Angler-fish.—The Fan and its Modifications.—Japanese and Chinese Fans.—The Feather Fan.—The Palm-leaf.—Indian Fans.—The Hive Bee and its Wings.—Fans of the Essequibo and South Sea Islanders.—The Fan Fire-guard.—Antennæ of the Cockchafer.—Burial.—Various Modes of disposing of the Dead.—Ordinary Habits of dying Animals.—Dead Insects.—The Funeral-ant and its wonderful Habits.
Artificial Warmth.
PASSING from the direct to the indirect comforts of a household, we will take Artificial Warmth.
The savage, as a matter of necessity, makes a fire in the middle of his hut, and lets the smoke have its own way. Sometimes, as is the case with the North American Indians, the top of the conical hut is open, and the whole edifice is a single chimney of large dimensions, something like the “chimney-corner” of past days, which only survives in such places as the New Forest.
Then there are the various Kafir tribes of Southern Africa. They have no aperture in their huts except the tiny doorway, which can only be entered on hands and knees. But they must have their fire. No argument can persuade them that they had better make their fire and cook their food outside the hut. So the wood-smoke fills the hut, coats it with a lining of soot, and gets out as it can through the sticks and withes of which the simple edifice is built.
As a contrast, we have the oil-lamp of Esquimaux-land, where there is no provision for ventilation, where the snow-houses are tightly closed and crammed with inhabitants, and where no one seems to need fresh air.
The next step in civilisation is to construct a tube for the purpose of carrying off the smoke, such as we know by the name of chimney or flue, and to place the fire within it. We English people have an ingrained love for the open fireplace, and though it really is an expensive arrangement, it is worth the cost. Granting that it carries much of the heat into the chimney instead of throwing it into the room, it has at least the advantage of acting as a ventilator, of ejecting air which has been rendered poisonous by respiration, and drawing a fresh supply from the outer atmosphere.
In some parts of the world, especially in Germany and the United States, the place of the open fire is taken by closed stoves, without any ventilation whatever, much to the discomfiture of ordinary Englishmen. Still, there are buildings, such as public halls and places of worship, in which open fireplaces are wholly impracticable, and where it is, therefore, necessary to make use of the stove.
It need hardly be said that in such cases the chief object is to procure the greatest amount of heat with the least expenditure of fuel, and that object seems to be best attained by the Laminated Stove shown on the right hand of the illustration.
