Observations on smoky chimneys, their causes and cure; with considerations on fuel and stoves / Illustrated with proper figures. By Benjamin Franklin, LL.D.

  • Benjamin Franklin
Date:
1793
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on smoky chimneys, their causes and cure; with considerations on fuel and stoves / Illustrated with proper figures. By Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vapours arifing from putrid marfhes and ftag- nant pools, in which many infc(3;s die, and cor- rupt the wa]ter. Thefe places only, in my opinion (which however I fubmit to yours), afford unwholefome air; and that it is not the mere water contained in damp air, but the vo- latile particles of corrupted animal matter mix- ed with that water, which renders fuch air per- nicious to thofe who breathe it. And I imagine it a caufe of the fame kind that renders the air in clofe rooms, where the perfpirable matter is breathed over and over again by a number of affembled people, fo hurtful to health. After being in fuch a lituation, many find themfelves affedted by that febricula^ which the Englifh alone call a cald^ and, perhaps from the name, imagine that they caught the malady by goifig out of the room,, when it was in fadf by being -in it. You begin to think that I wander from my fubjedt, and go out of my depth. So I re- turn again to my: chimneys. We have of'late many lecturers in experi- mental philofophy. I have wifhed that fome of them would ftudy this branch of that fcience, and give experiments in it as a part of their ledtures. The addition to their prefent ap- paratus need not be very expenfive. A number of little reprefentations of rooms, compofed each of five panes of fafh glafs, framed in wood at the corners,' with proportionable doors, and moveable glafs chimneys, wdth openings of dif- ferent