Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, 5th ed.

by Pierre Joseph Macquer

Secondly, if the ash-hole or dome of a furnace, in which a fire is burning, be shut quite close, then there is no longer any free communication between the air and the fire: if the ash-hole be shut, the air is debarred from having free access to the fire; if the dome be stopt, the egress of the air rarefied by the fire is prevented; and consequently the fire must in either case burn very faintly and slowly, gradually die away, and at last go quite out.

Thirdly, if all the openings of the furnace be wholly closed, it is evident that the fire will be very quickly extinguished.

Fourthly, if only the lateral openings of the fire-place be shut, leaving the ash-hole and upper part of the furnace open; it is plain that the air entering by the ash-hole will necessarily be determined to go out at top, and that consequently a current of air will be formed, which will pass through the fire, and make it burn briskly and vigorously.

Fifthly, if both the ash-hole and the upper story of the furnace be of some length, and form canals either cylindric or prismatic, then the air being kept in the same direction through a longer space, the course of its stream will be both stronger and better determined, and consequently the fire will be more animated by it.

Sixthly and lastly, if the ash-hole and the upper part of the furnace, instead of being cylindric or prismatic canals, have the form of truncated cones or pyramids, standing on their bases, and so ordered that the upper opening of the ash-hole, adjoining to the fire-place, may be wider than the base of the superiour cone or pyramid, then the stream of air, being forced to pass incessantly from a larger channel through a smaller, must be considerably accelerated, and procure to the fire the greatest activity which it can receive from the make of a furnace.

The materials fittest for building furnaces are, 1. Bricks, joined together with potters clay mixed with sand and moistened with water. 2. Potters clay mingled with potsherds, moistened with water, and baked in a violent fire. 3. Iron; of which all furnaces may be made, with this precaution, that the inside be provided with a great many prominent points, as fastenings for a coat of earth, with which the internal parts of the furnace must necessarily be covered to defend it from the action of the fire.

The reverberating furnace is one of those that are most employed in Chymistry: it is proper for distillations by the retort, and should be constructed in the following manner.

First, the use of the ash-hole being, as was said, to give passage to the air and to receive the ashes, no bad consequence can attend its being made pretty high: it may have from twelve to twenty or twenty-four inches in heighth. Its aperture should be wide enough to admit billets of wood, when a great fire is to be made.

Secondly, the ash-hole must be terminated at its upper part by an iron grate, the bars of which should be very substantial, that they may resist the action of the fire: this grate is the bottom of the fire-place, and destined to support the coals. In the lateral part of the fire-place, and nearly about the same heighth with the grate, there should be a hole of such a size that it may easily admit charcoal, as well as little tongs and shovels for managing the fire. This aperture or mouth of the fire-place should be perpendicularly over the mouth of the ash-hole.