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Page 14
Into the grate put shavings or paper, or the fat pine known as lightwood.
If the latter be used, paper is unnecessary. Lay on some small sticks of
wood, _crossing them_ so that there may be a draught through them; add
then one or two sticks of hard wood, and set the shavings or paper on
fire, seeing that every draught is open. As soon as the wood is well on
fire, cover with about six inches of coal, the smaller, or nut-coal, being
always best for stove use. When the coal is burning brightly, shut up all
the dampers save the slide in front of the grate, and you will have a fire
which will last, without poking or touching in any way, four hours. Even
if a little more heat is needed for ovens, and you open the draughts, this
rule still holds good.
Never, for any reason, allow the coal to come above the edge of the
fire-box or lining. If you do, ashes and cinders will fall into the
oven-flues, and they will soon be choked up, and require cleaning. Another
reason also lies in the fact that the stove-covers resting on red-hot
coals soon burn out, and must be renewed; whereas, by carefully avoiding
such chance, a stove may be used many years without crack or failure of
any sort.
If fresh heat is required for baking or any purpose after the first four
hours, let the fire burn low, then take off the covers, and with the poker
_from the bottom_ rake out all the ashes thoroughly. Then put in two or
three sticks of wood, fill as before with fresh coal, and the fire is good
for another four hours or more. If only a light fire be required after
dinner for getting tea, rake only slightly; then, fill with _cinders_, and
close all the dampers. Half an hour before using the stove, open them, and
the fire will rekindle enough for any ordinary purpose. As there is great
difference in the "drawing" of chimneys, the exact time required for
making a fire can not be given.
In using wood, the same principles apply; but of course the fire must be
fed much oftener. Grate-fires, as well as those in the ordinary stove, are
to be made in much the same way. In a grate, a blower is fastened on until
the coal is burning well; but, if the fire is undisturbed after its
renewal, it should burn from six to eight hours without further attention.
Then rake out the ashes, add coal, put on the blower a few minutes, and
then proceed as before. If an exceedingly slow fire is desired, cover the
top with cinders, or with ashes moistened with water. In making a grate or
stove fire, keep a coarse cloth to lay before it, that ashes may not spoil
the carpet; and wipe about the fire-place with a damp, coarse cloth. In
putting on coal in a sick-room, where noise would disturb the patient, it
is a good plan to put it in small paper bags or in pieces of newspaper, in
which it can be laid on silently. A short table of degrees of heat in
various forms of fuel is given below; the degree required for baking, &c,
finding place when we come to general operations in cooking.
DEGREES OF HEAT FROM FUEL.
Willow charcoal 600� _Fah._
Ordinary charcoal 700� _Fah._
Hard wood 800� to 900� _Fah._
Coal 1000� _Fah._
_Lights_ are next in order. Gas hardly requires mention, as the care of it
is limited to seeing that it is not turned too high, the flame in such
case not only vitiating the air of the room with double speed, but leaving
a film of smoke upon every thing in it. Kerosene is the oil most largely
used for lamps; and the light from either a student-lamp, or the lamp to
which a "student-burner" has been applied, is the purest and steadiest now
in use. A few simple rules for the care of lamps will prevent, not only
danger of explosion, but much breakage of chimneys, smoking, &c.
1. Let the wick always touch the bottom of the lamp, and see that the top
is trimmed square and even across, with a pair of scissors kept for the
purpose.
2. Remember that a lamp, if burned with only a little oil in it, generates
a gas which is liable at any moment to explode. Fill lamps to within half
an inch of the top. If filled brimming full, the outside of the lamp will
be constantly covered with the oil, even when unlighted; while as soon as
lighted, heat expanding it, it will run over, and grease every thing near
it.
3. In lighting a lamp, turn the wick up gradually, that the chimney may
heat slowly: otherwise the glass expands too rapidly, and will crack.
4. Keep the wick turned high enough to burn freely. Many persons turn down
the wick to save oil, but the room is quickly poisoned by the evil smell
from the gas thus formed. If necessary, as in a sick-room, to have little
light, put the lamp in the hall or another room, rather than to turn it
down.
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