en) is fitted up in a very complete manner ;
its (wooden) cover is cheap, fimple, and durable,
and anfwers perfectly well for confining the heat ;
the fleam-tube (or fleam-chimney, as I have
called it) is very ufeful, as it carries off all the
fleam generated in cooking, and keeps the air
of the Kitchen dry and wholefome. To carry off
the fleam which rifes from the hot foup when it is
ferved up, there is a fleam-chimney of wood, (fur*
mflied with a valve) the opening of which is fitu-
ated at the higheft part of the Kitchen. To pre
vent the cold air from coming down by this paffagc
into the Kitchen, its damper (which is opened and
hut by a cord which goes over a pulley) is, in
winter, kept conflantly flint, except jufl when it
il
and the Economy of Fuel*
is neceflary to open it for a moment to let out the
fteam.
The only alteration I would make, were I to fit
up this boiler again, would be to leave openings
by which the flues might be cleaned occafionally,
without lifting the boiler out of its place. This
fhould be done in the lire-places of all large boilers*
This boiler, which is ufed every day, requires to
have its flues cleaned, and its bottom and fides
fcrubbed with a broom, to free them of foot, once
in fix weeks.
Over againft this boiler is a machine for drying
potatoes, which has been found to anfwer perfectly
well the end for which it was contrived. Potatoes
firft moderately boiled, and then fkinned and cut
into thin flices, and dried in this machine, may be
kept good for many years.
The eight iron boilers in the great Kitchen are
fitted up on good principles ; and the oven which
is heated by the fmoke from the fire-places of two
of thefe boilers, which oven is deflined for drying
the wood for the ufe of this Kitchen, is deferving
of attention.
The wooden covers of thefe eight boilers, and
the horizontal tubes, conftrufted of wood wound
round with canvafs and painted with oil colours,
by which the fteam is carried off, have been found
to anfwer very well the purpofes for which they
were contrived.
VOL. II. U The
146 Of the Management of Fire,
The Kitchen of the Military Academy at MUNICH.
This Kitchen in its prefent ftate is fo perfect in
all its parts, that I do not think it capable of any
confiderable improvement. The roafter, which has
been in daily ufe Jeven years, is flill in good con
dition, and bids fair to laft twenty years longer.
It is large and roomy, and has been found to be
extremely ufeful. Though the different parts of
this Kitchen are not diftributed with fo much fym-
metry as could have been wifhed, owing to local
circumllances, yet it is very complete in its various
details, and all the various proceiTes of cookery are
performed in it with little labour, and with a very
fmall expenfe indeed of Fuel. Two large boilers
and three large faucepans, which are fitted up in
a detached mafs of brick-work in a corner of the
room, (on the right hand on going into it) I can
recommend as perfect models for imitation. In
fhort,! know of nothing which I could wim to alter
in this Kitchen. To fay the truth, it has already
undergone a fufficient number of changes and
alterations.
The Kitchen in the Military Hall or Officers' Mefs-
Houfe in the Engli/h fcarden at MUNICH.
This Kitchen is much lefs perfect in its details
than that juft mentioned. It was built in the
fpring of the year 1/90, and has fmce undergone
only
and the Economy of Fuel. 147
only a few trifling alterations. It has three roaft-
ers, which are made fmall on purpofe to ferve as
models for private families ; and I have had the
pleafure to know that they have often been imi
tated.
The Kitchen in the Farm-Houfe in the Englijh
Garden.
This Kitchen is well contrived for the ufe for
which it was defigned, and I can recommend it as
a very good model for the Kitchens of Farm-
houfes, for families confifting of eighteen or twenty
perfons. One of the boilers, which is deftined for
warming water for the ufe of the Kitchen and the
ftables, is in winter heated by the fmoke of a Ger
man ftove which is fituated in an adjoining room,
that inhabited, by the Overfeer of the farm.
The great Kitchen of the Inn in the Garden.
This Kitchen, which is adjoining to the Farm-
houfe, is contrived almoft for the fole purpofe of
roafting chickens before an open fire, a kind of
food of which the Bavarians are extravagantly
fond. It has three open fire-places, conftrufted on
the principles recommended in my EiTay on Chim
ney Fire-places,fronting different fides of the Kitch
en, and all opening into the fame chimney, which
chimney is built nearly in the middle of the room.
This Kitchen was built before my roafters were
come into ufe,
The
148 Of the Management of Fire 9
The f mall Kitchen belonging to the Inn.
This Kitchen has nothing belonging to it which
deferves attention, or which I would recommend
for imitation. It was originally defigned merely
for making coffee, chocolate, &c.
A Kitchen which has lately been fitted up on my
principles, in the new Hofpital for the infirm
and helplefs Poor, which is fituated on the height
called the Gafislg^ on the fide of the river oppofite
to the town of Munich, is much more interefting,
and is a good model for imitation.
The Kitchen of the Hofpital of La Pieta at VERONA
Is peculiarly interefting, on account of its con*
venient form and the perfect fymmetry of its parts.
The mafs of brick-work in which the boilers arc
fixed occupies the middle of one fide of a large
high room, which is plaflered and white-waflied,
and neatly paved. The covers of the large boilers
are lifted up by ropes which go over pullies fixed to
the ceiling of the top of the room ; but were I to
build the Kitchen again, I fhould fubftitute wooden
covers with fteam chimnies infte.ad of them, fuch
in all refpefts as that belonging to the large round
copper boiler in the Kitchen of the Houfe of In-
duftry at Munich. When the covers are fo large
that they cannot conveniently be lifted on and off
with the hand, they fliould, in my opinion, always
be
and the Economy of Fuel. 149
be made of wood, and divided into parts, united by
hinges. When they are defigned for confining the
fteam entirely <> they fhould be made on a peculiar
conduction, which will hereafter be defcribed.
The covers for fmall boilers, and thofe for fauce-
pans, fhould always be of tin, and double,
The grates on which the fires are made under the
boilers in the Kitchen of the Hofpitai of La Pieta 9
are circular ; but they are not hollow, or difhing,
Sis that improvement did not occur to me till after
that Kitchen was finifhed. The fpiral flues under
the boilers are alfo wanting, and for the fame rea-
fon. In all other refpe&s, this Kitchen is, I believe,
quite jperfecl:.
The Kitchen of the Hofpital of La Mifericordia at
VERQNA
Is conftru&ed on tjie fame principles as that of
La Pieta. The only difference between them is
in the diftribution of the boilers. That of La Mi*
fericordia is built round two fides of the room*
In many cafes, this manner of difpofing of the
boilers will be found more convenient than any
other ; but in all cafes where this method of plac*
ing them is preferred, care muft be taken to place
the largeft boilers fartheft from the chimney, and
the fmaller ones nearer to it, and in regular fuc-
ceffion as their fizes diminifh. This is neceffary,
in order that in the mafs of brick-work in which
the boilers are fixed, there may be room behind
the
1 50 Of the Management of Fire 9
the fmaller boilers for the canals which carry off
the fmoke from the large ones into the chimney.
This circumftance was attended to in conftrucl-
kig the fmall Kitchen which I fitted up laft fpring
in the houfe of Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Prefident
of the Board of Agriculture, Whitehall, London,
This Kitchen (which was intended to ferve as a
model, and is open to the public view at all hours)
is by no means as perfect as I wifhed it to be :
Having been built during my journey to Ireland,
feveral miftakes were made by the workmen I em
ployed, who, though they have great merit in their
different lines of bufinefs, had not then had fuffi-
cient experience in conftructing Kitchens on my
principles, to be able to execute fuch a job in my
4bfence without committing fome faults. Thofe
which were moft effential I corrected ; but my flay
in England after my return from Ireland was too
fhort, and my time too much taken up with other
matters, to rebuild the Kitchen from the found
ation ; which I was very defirous of doing, and
which, with the permiffion of the Proprietor, I
ihall certainly do when I come to England again.
The greateft fault of the Kitchen is the want of
dampers to the canals by which the fmoke is car
ried off from the clofed fire-places of the boilers
and faucepans into the chimney. Thefe dampers
ihould never be omitted in any fire-place, however
fmall. They arc neceflary even in fire-places for
the f mailed faucepans, and no large boiler mould
bn any account be without one. S.ome Experi
ments
and the Economy of Fuel. i ^ !
meats I have lately made (iince my return to Ba
varia) have mewed me how very neceflary thcfc
dampers are ; and I conilder it as my duty to the
Public to lofe no time in recommending the gen
eral ufe of them. The flattering attention which
has been paid by the public to the various im
provements I have taken the liberty to propofe, not
only demands my warmeft gratitude, but lays me
under an indifpenfable obligation to exert myfelf
to the utmoft to deferve their efte'em, and to merit
the diftinguiihed marks of their confidence with
which on fo many dccafions I have been honoured.
But to return to the Kitchen in the houfe of
Sir John Sinclair (the place where the meetings of
the Board of Agriculture are held, and where of
courfe there is a great coneourfe of ingenious men
from all parts of the kingdom, of men zealous
for the progrefs of ufeful improvements.) As
the room is very fmall, it was not poflible to do
more in it than juft to lit up a few fmall boilers
and faucepans, and one middling-fized roafter,
fuch as might ferve for a fmall family ; which laft
is a machine fo very ufeful that I cannot help flat
tering myfelf that it will foon come into general
uie. The faving of Fuel which it occaiions is
almoft incredible, and the meat roafled in it is re
markably well-tafted and high-flavoured.
One of thefe roafters, on a large fcale, was put
up, under my direction, in the Kitchen of the
Foundling Hofpital in London ; and though I
could not ftay in England to fee it fmiihed, I have
had
152 Of the Management of Fire,
had the fatisfa&ion to learn, fmce my arrival at
Munich, from my friend Mr. Bernard, (who is
Treafurer to the Hofpital) that it has anfwered
even beyond his expectations. He informs me,
that when 1 1 2 Ibs. of beef are roafted in it at once,
the Expenfe for Fuel amounts to no more than
four pence fterling : and this when the coals are
reckoned at an uncommonly high price, namely
at is. 4d. the bufliel.
In the roafter belonging to the Kitchen of the
Military Acadamy at Munich, I caufed 100 Ibs.
Bavarian weight (equal to 1 2 3. 84 Ibs. Avoirdupois)
of veal, injtx large pieces, to be roafted at once, as
an Experiment ; the Fuel confumed was 33lbs. Ba
varian weight of dry pine- wood, (equal to 40* 8 6 Ibs.
Avoirdupois) which (at 4^ florins the dafter,
weighing 2967 Ibs. Bavarian weight) coft 3 creut-
zers, or about one penny fterling.
This experiment was made in the year 1792.
Happening to mention the refult of it in a large
company in London, foon after my arrival there in
the autumn of the year 1795, 1 had the mortifica
tion to perceive very plainly by the countenances
of my hearers how dangerous it is to promulgate
very extraordinary truths. I afterwards grew more
cautious, and fhould not now have ventured to
publifh this account, had not the refults of Expe
riments equally furprifing, which have been made
with the roafter in the Kitchen of the Foundling
Ho/pital, been made known to the Public.
Not
find the Economy of Fuel. *53
Not only the roafter, but the boilers alfo which
have been put up under my direction in the Kitchen
of the FOUND-LINO HOSPITAL, have been found
to anfwer very well ; and I am informed that fev-
eral other great Hofpitals are about to imitate
them. As I left London before the Kitchen of the
Foundling Hofpital was entirely finished, I do not
know whether there are dampers to the canals by
which the fmoke goes off from the fire-places of
the boilers, and from that of the roafters, to the
chimney. If there are not, I could wifh they
might ftill be added ; and I would ftrongly recom
mend it to thofe who may be engaged in conftrucr,-
ing Kitchen fire-places on my principles, never ta
omit them.
Oval graters of caft iron, in the form of a difh,
fuch as I have defcribed in the foregoing Chapters
of this Effay, were tried in the Kitchen of, the
Foundling Hofpital, but the heat was found to be
fo intenfe that they were foon melted and deftroy-
ed ; and we were obliged to have recourfe to com
mon flat grates, compofed of flrong bars of cafl
iron. Perhaps the heat generated in the combuf-
tion of pit-coal is fo intenfe, when completely con
fined, (as it ought always to be in clofed fire-places)
that it will not be poffible, where coals are ufed as
Fuel, to ufe the hollow difhing grates I have in
troduced in the public Kitchens at Munich, and
which have been defcribed and recommended in
this EfTay.
VOL. II. W Since
154 Of the Management of Fire,
Since my return to Bavaria, I have made feveral
Experiments with grates compofed of common
bricks, placed edgewife, and I find that they an-
fwer for that ufe full as well, if not better, than
iron bars. By making bricks on purpofe for this
ufe, of proper forms and dimenfions, and compofed
of the beft clay mixed with broken crucibles beaten
to a coarfe powder, 'Kitchen fire-places might be
fitted up with them, which would be both cheap
and durable, and as perfecl: in all other refpech
as any that could poflibly be made, even were the
moft coftly materials to be ufed in their con-
ftruction.
To diminiih ftill farther the expenfe attending
the conftruction of clofed Kitchen fire-places de-
figned for the ufe of poor families, the opening by
which Fuel is introduced might be clofed with a
brick, or with a flat ftone ; another brick, or
ftone, might be made to ferve at the fame time as
a regifter and a door to the afh-pit, and a third as
a damper to the chimney or canal for carrying off
the fmoke from the fire-place.
I lately had an opportunity of fitting up a
Kitchen on thefe principles, in the conftruclion of
which there was not a particle of iron ufed, or of
any other metal, except for the boiler. On the
approach of the French army under General Mo
reau in Auguft laft, the Bavarian troops being
aflembled at Munich (under my command) for the
defence of the capital, the town was fo full of fol-
diers,
and the Economy of Fuel. 1 55
diers, that feveral regiments were obliged to be
quartered in public buildings, and encamped on
the ramparts, where they had no conveniencies for
cooking. For the accommodation of a part of
them, four large oblong fquare boilers, compofed
of very thin meet coppers well tinned, were fitted
up in a mafs of brick-work in the form of a crofs ;
each boiler with its feparate fire-place, communi
cating by double canals, furnimed with dampers,
with one common chimney, which ftands in the
centre of the crofs. The dampers are thin flat
tiles ; the grates on which the Fuel is burned are
cornpofed of common bricks, placed edgewife ;
and the paffages leading to the fire-place, and to
the am -pit, are clofed by bricks which, are made
to Hide in grooves.
Under the bottom of each boiler, which is quite
flat, there are three flues in the direction of its
length ; that in the middle, which is as wide as both
the others, being occupied by the burning Fuel.
The opening by which the Fuel is introduced is at
the end of the boiler fart heft from the chimney ; and
the flame running along the middle flue to the end
of it, divides there, and returning in the two fide
flues to the hither end of the boiler, there rifes up
into two other flues, in which it pafles along the
outfide of the boiler into the chimney. The boilers
are furnifhed with wooden covers divided into two
equal parts, united by hinges. In order that the
four boilers may be tranfported with greater fa-
cility from place to place, (from one camp to an
other
*5^ Of the Management cf Fire,
other for inftance) they are not all precifely of the
fame fize, but one is fo much lefs than the other,
that they may be packed one in the other. The
largeft of them, which contains the three others,
is packed in a wooden cheft, which is made juft
large enough to receive it. In the fmalleft'may be
packed a circular tent, fufficiently large to cover
them all. In the middle of the tent there muft be
a hole through which the chimney muft pafs.
The four boilers, togethers with the tent, and all
the apparatus and uteniils neceffary for a Kitchen
on this conftruction for a regiment confifting of
jooo men, might eaiilybe tranfported from place
to place on an Irifli car drawn by a lingle horfe.
I have been the more particular in my account
of this portable Kitchen, as I think it would be
found very ufeful for troops in camp. The Right
Honourable Mr. Thomas Pelham made a trial of
one of them laft fummer for his regiment, (the
SuiTex militia) and found it to be very ufeful. The
faving of Fuel was very confiderable indeed ; and
the faving of trouble in cooking not lefs important.
The firft Experiment we made together in a fingle
boiler, fitted up for the purpofe in the open air, in
the middle of the court-yard of Lord Pelham's
houfe in London.
I ought perhaps to have referved what I have
here faid on the fubjed of thefe Military portable
Kitchens for my next Effay, where it would more
naturally have found its place ; but being per-
fuaded of the great advantages that may be de
rived
and -the Economy of Fuel. 157
rived from them, I am unwilling to lofe a moment
in recommending them to the attention of thofe
who have it in their power to bring them into ufc.
Thofe who wifh to know more about them may,
I am confident, procure every information they can
defire refpecHng them, by applying to Mr. Pel-
ham, or to any of the Officers of the SufTex mi
litia who were in camp with the regiment laft fum-
mer.
There is one more invention for the ufe of ar
mies in the field, which I wifh to recommend, and
that is a portable boiler of a light and cheap con-
ftruction, in which victuals may be cooked on a
march. There are fo many occafions when it
would be very deferable to be able to give foldiers,
haraiTed and fatigued with fevere fervice, a warm
meal, when it is impoffible to flop to light fires and
boil the pot, that I cannot help flattering myfelf
that a contrivance, by which the pot actually boiling
may be made to keep pace with the troops as they
advance, will be an acceptable prefent to every hu
mane officer and wife and prudent general. Many
a battle has undoubtedly been loft for the want of
a good comfortable meal of warm victuals to re
cruit the ftrength and raife the fpirits of troops
fainting with hunger and exceffive fatigue.
But to return from this digreffion. The form
of the two principal boilers in the Kitchen of
the FOUNDLING HOSPITAL is that of an oblong
fquare ; that form which on feveral accounts I have
reafon to think preferable to all others for large
boilers,
1 5 5 Of the Management of Fire 9
boilers, but efpecially on account of the facility of
fitting them up with fquare bricks, and of cleaning
their flues, I firft introduced in Ireland in feveral
fire-places deiigned for different ufes, which I fit
ted up as models, in Dublin, during the vifit I
made laft Ipring to that country on the invitation
of my friend Mr. Secretary Pelham,
The iirft of thefc oblong fquare boilers is that
which is fitted up in the court-yard of the Linen-
hall at Dublin, as a model for bleachers : It is 8 feet
wide, i o feet long, and 2 feet deep ; and it is fur-
niihed with a wooden cover, which {hutting down
in a groove in which there is a fmall quantity of
water, the fleam is by thefe means confined in the
boiler. This cover is moveable on its hinges,
which arc placed at the end of the boiler fartheft
from the door of the fire-place ; and it is occafion-
ally lifted up by means of a rope, which goes over
a compound pully which is fixed over the boiler
at the top or ceiling of the room.
Under this boiler there are five flues which run
in the direction of its length, and are arranged an4
conftrucled in the fame manner as the flues of the
new Brewhoufe boiler which I lately fitted up at
Munich. (See Fig. 21, Plate V.) There are no
flues round the outfide of this boiler ; but the
brick walls by which they are defended from the
cold air are double, and the fpace between them is
filled with charcoal duft.
The Fuel burns at the hither end of the middle
flue, in an oval. difli-grate ; and the flame running
along
and the Economy of Fuel.
2tlong in this flue under the middle of the boiler ta
the farther end of it, there divides, and returns in
the two adjoining flues : -It then turns to the right
and left, and going back again in the t\vo outfide
flues to the farther end of the boiler, goes out
from tinder it, there, in two canals, which Hoping
upwards conduct it to the flues ofzfecovdboi/er of
equal dimenfions with the firft, where it circulates,
and warms the water which is defigned for refilling
the firft boiler.
As thefe boilers are made of exceedingly thin
fheet copper, and thin boilers are ftronger to refift
the effects of the Fire, and confequently more
durable, than very thick ones, they both together
coft much lefs than one fmgle boiler on the com
mon conftruetion ; and Mr. DulHn, Secretary to
the Linen-board, who is a very active, intelligent:
man, and is himfelf engaged in a large concern in
the bleaching bufmefs, ihowed me a computation
founded on actual Experiments which he himfelf
made with this new boiler, by which he proved
that the faving of Fuel which will refult from the
general introduction of thefe boilers in the bleach
ing trade throughout Ireland will amount to at
leaft fifty thoufand pounds fterling a year.
In a LAUNDRY which I fitted up in the houfe
belonging to the Dublin Society, (and which is de
figned to fcrve as a model for Laundries for private
gentlemen's families) there are alfo two oblong
iquare boilers, the one heated by the Fire/and the
other by the fmoke ; and this fmoke, after having
circulated
i 60 Of //'j 1 Management of
circulated in the flues under the fecond boiler,
paffes through a long flue (conftructed like hot-
houfe flues) which goes round two fides of the dry-
ing-room, (which is adjoining to the wajhing-room )
and then palling through the wall of the drying-
room into the ironing-room, it goes off into an
open chimney. As the bottom of the fecond
boiler lies on a level with the top of the firft, the
warm water runs out of the fecond to refill the
firft, by a tube furnilhed with a brafs cock, which
greatly facilitates the filling of the principal boiler.
The wooden covers of thefe boilers, which are
double and moveable on hinges, are ihut down in
grooves in which there is water, and the fleam
being by thefe means confined, is forced to pafs off
by a wooden tube Handing on a part of the cover
which is fattened down to the boiler with hooks ?
carries the fteam upwards to the height of fcven or
eight feet, where it goes off laterally by another
(horizontal) wooden tube, through the wall into
the drying-room. As foon as this horizontal
wooden tube has paffed through the wall into the
drying-room, it ends in a copper tube, about
3 inches in diameter, which, lying nearly in a ho
rizontal pofition, conduces the fteam through the
middle of the drying-room in the direction of its
length, and through a hole in the window at the end
of the room into the open air*
The fteam in paffing through the drying-room in
a metallic tube, (which is a good conductor of
heat) gives off its heat through the fides of the
tube
and the Economy of FueL 161
tube to the air of the room, and the water which
is condenfed runs off through the tube. By floping
the tube upwards 9 irtflead of downwards, as by ao
cident it was floped, the condenfed water, which is