n the fire of even the best stove goes up the chimney.
The electric oven, as already invented, is perhaps the nearest
approach to a really economical "cooker" that has yet been proposed;
but even before the general adoption of such an apparatus there will
be ample room for improvement in the cooking stove, first as regards
insulation, and secondly in the distribution of the fuel around the
objects to be heated. One principal cause of the waste that goes on
arises from the fact that the fire burns away from the place at which
its heat is most beneficially applied, and no means are adopted, as in
the case of the candle in a carriage lamp, for keeping it up to the
required level. Additions of fuel are made from the top with the
immediate effect of checking the heat.

A great advance in economy of fuel will take place when the household
coal intended for cooking purposes is ground up together with the
proper proportions of certain waste products of chemistry, so as to
make a "smouldering mixture" which can be kept regularly supplied to a
shallow or thin fire box by pressure applied from beneath or at the
parts farthest away from the objects to be heated. An oven, for
instance, may be surrounded by a "jacket" filled with ground
smouldering mixture having a non-conducting insulator outside and a
connection with a chimney. The heat from the fuel is thus kept in
close proximity to the objects requiring to be cooked, and
comparatively small waste results.

It is by taking advantage of their superior facilities in the same
direction that gas and inflammable oils have already made their mark
in the sphere of domestic cookery. Regarded as fuel their initial cost
may be relatively heavy; and yet, owing to their more exact method of
application, they often effect a saving in the end. Not only do they
bring the fire closer to the articles to be heated or cooked, but
they also make it easy for the fire to be turned off or on, and this
in itself is an important source of economy. Still, with the advent of
cheaper and more accessible power in every centre of population, the
cost of grinding coal and of mixing it in order to form a fuel
comparable in respect of convenience and economy with gas and oil will
be so greatly reduced that the "black diamond" will still continue to
challenge its rivals in the arena of competition presented by the
demands of domestic economy.

Light, as well as heat and air, requires to be evenly and equably