The Chemistry of Cookery

coal at a ruinous cost. Although no mention is made by Rumford of such destruction of the blowpipes, he was evidently conscious of the costliness of his original roaster, as he describes another which may be economically substituted for it. This has an air chamber formed by bringing down the body of the oven so as to enclose the space occupied by the blowpipes shown in Fig. 1, and placing the dripping-pan on a false bottom joined to the front face of the roaster just below the door, but not extending quite to the back. An adjustable register door opens at the front into this air chamber, and when this is opened the air passes along from front to back under the false bottom, and rises behind to an outlet pipe like that shown at _v_, Fig. 1. In thus passing along the hot bottom of the oven the air is heated, but not so greatly as by the blowpipes, which being surrounded by the flame on all sides, are heated above as well as below, and the air in passing through them is much more exposed to heat than in passing through the air-chamber. To increase the heat transmitted in the latter, Rumford proposes that ‘a certain quantity of iron wire, in loose coils, or of iron turnings, be put into the air chamber.’ This modification he called a ‘roasting-oven,’ to distinguish it from the first described, the ‘roaster.’ He states that the roasting-oven is not quite so effective as the roaster, but from its greater cheapness may be largely used. This anticipation has been realised. The modern ‘kitchener,’ which in so many forms is gradually and steadily supplanting the ancient open range, is an apparatus in which roasting in the open air before a fire is superseded by roasting in a closed chamber or roasting-oven. Having made three removals within the last twelve years, each preceded by a tedious amount of house-hunting, I have seen a great many kitchens of newly-built houses, and find that about 90 per cent. of these have closed kitcheners, and only about 10